What is a Close Encounter?

For edification, here are the categories of close encounters as presented, with some humor, at the 19th Rocky Mountain UFO Conference:

1. When you see a flying saucer (disc, cigar, spheroid, what have you), that's an encounter (close or far) of the first kind.

2. When you encounter any type of 3-D physical tracings, or remnants, of something apparently not of this world, or this dimension - such as when someone has etched a sketch in your crops or when your cow is mutilated or when you find a piece of chrome off a flying saucer - that's an encounter of the second kind.

3. And then when you encounter not only a saucer, or a ship, but you also see the entities who are driving said ship, and they maybe wave at you, and you wave back, that's an encounter of the third kind.

4. And if you get invited aboard, or taken aboard, and have experiences therein, that's an encounter of the fourth kind.

5. And finally, let's say you haven't seen a space craft, or its tracings, nor have you seen the occupants of such a craft, nor have you been aboard, but you would like to, and you're not afraid, and you have learned something about what it takes to initiate contact, so you try it - try to initiate contact - and out of the blue, so to speak, contact does indeed happen, (of any of the previously mentioned first to fourth kinds) this is an encounter of the fifth kind.

What is a Biblical Close Encounter?

The exact number of close encounters in the Bible is not easy to calculate. By the standard definitions of close encounters, the Bible records hundreds of contacts with strange flying vehicles, beings, and advanced technology that mirror those described in historical and modern close encounters. Every time God appears in, or uses a cloud, pillar, throne, chariot, or otherwise described device, angels appear to men, God speaks from the sky, or anomalous action from these vehicles is described; it is an encounter.