Does the Bible preclude the existence of life elsewhere in the universe?
MOHLER: The answer is no; that’s speculative. What it does make very clear is that the entire cosmos was created for the drama of redemption, as Calvin said. The cosmos is a theater of God’s redemption, of what would take place in here in order to save sinful humanity.
We have no reason to believe there is any other story out there. There is nothing in Scripture that says there can’t be some form of life somewhere. But what we are told is that the cosmos was created in order that on this planet Jesus Christ, in space and time and history, would come to save sinful humanity.
GODFREY: In fact, we know there’s extraterrestrial life. There are angels. Don’t they count? Why do people never talk about the angels?
SPROUL: The New Testament word for angel, angelos, appears more frequently than the word for sin and the word for love. So there is no excuse for not talking about angels.
Lightly edited for readability, this is a transcript of W. Robert Godfrey’s, R.C. Sproul’s, and Albert Mohler’s answers given at our 2016 National Conference. To ask Ligonier a biblical or theological question, email ask@ligonier.org or message us on Facebook or Twitter.
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W. Robert Godfrey
Dr. W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California. He is the featured teacher for many Ligonier teaching series, including the six-part series A Survey of Church History. He is author of many books, including God’s Pattern for Creation, Reformation Sketches, and An Unexpected Journey.
