California pastors suggests Pentagon UFO evidence could be ‘demonic counterfeits’ instead of aliens

Harvest Christian Fellowship in California has started releasing statements expressing skepticism about the Pentagon’s recent release of UFO files.

How the public ended up inundated with more than 160 declassified files and videos collected over decades by the US government is complicated. Unlike the California pastors, most people assumed the Trump administration simply needed a trivial controversy dominating the news cycle instead of continued discussion around the Jeffrey Epstein saga, the Iran war, or even the skyrocketing prices of goods.

It also helped that much of the renewed interest began after Barack Obama said during a podcast appearance that it was his personal belief that alien life likely exists because of the sheer vastness of the known universe. The Pentagon later released material involving unidentified phenomena on the moon’s surface, claims that Apollo program astronauts witnessed “strange sightings,” and other allegations aligning with long-standing conspiracy theories.

To be fair, much of what surrounded Jeffrey Epstein and his social circle was also once dismissed as conspiracy theory until emails and court documents became public. That reality alone makes some people less eager to outright dismiss alien claims. Still, the fact that many pressing political and economic issues remain unresolved while the administration shifts attention toward mysterious sightings from the moon in the 1970s strikes some observers as suspicious — or at the very least, politically convenient.

Jeremiah J. Johnston of the Christian Thinkers Society, however, offered a very different interpretation. The existence of extraterrestrial life has long been viewed by some religious thinkers as an existential challenge to organized religion because such beings are not explicitly accounted for in many religious texts.

Johnston wrote in a blog post, “When a pastor asks me, ‘Do I believe there is intelligent life beyond Earth?’ my answer is: of course. The Bible has told us so for millennia. The heavens are teeming with intelligent beings. We call them angels. We call them principalities. We call them powers. Scripture names them. Jesus spoke of them. Paul wrote letters about them.”

Johnston went on to argue that what many people identify as UFOs could actually be human activity — or even angelic and demonic activity. Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship also weighed in, writing on X, “I looked at the images. I wasn’t convinced. Nothing I saw made me say, ‘That’s it. We’re not alone.’”

Laurie also posed a question to the public, asking why people automatically assume unidentified flying objects are extraterrestrial instead of extra-dimensional. The two pastors pointed to Biblical scripture describing prophets ascending into heaven, along with passages in which angels descended to Earth to deliver God’s messages to both believers and non-believers.

Still, some observers argue that the broader point may be getting lost. Critics believe the administration’s intention was precisely to provoke endless public debate over whether aliens exist or not. At that point, some skeptics argue, it would hardly be surprising if another file dump emerged attempting to validate angels or demons next.

For many people, these subjects ultimately remain matters of personal belief rather than issues that tangibly affect everyday life. Whether religious or extraterrestrial, such ideas have historically served more as moral or philosophical frameworks than concrete political realities.

And if religious leaders genuinely want to challenge the administration’s framing of recent activities, some believe Pope Leo XIV is already showing them how.