The Close Encounters of Jesus

No other individual, out of the many in the biblical narrative, had more individual close encounters than Jesus. From before his conception, to the ascension after his resurrection, the life of Jesus was associated with angels and flying craft, not to mention many other paranormal events. Even though the period covered by the Gospels is only 3 years, the scores of miracles and encounters recorded are only a small part of the actual volume of anomalous occurrences. The verification of that fact is given by an eyewitness, the Apostle John:

• "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen." (John 21:25). This is just one more reason for mourning the act of destroying many hundreds of biblical books by the early church leaders. Presented here, is a brief chronology of the encounters of Jesus and his obvious close association with flying craft.

Lights in the Sky

Many of the descriptions of sightings and encounters in the Bible include the phenomenon of extremely bright lights. In an ancient world, the only truly "bright" lights were celestial bodies, lightning, or gleams from shiny surfaces. We see the same bright lights described in close encounters in the Bible being described as "stars" or illumination, "above the brightness of the sun", or "the glory of the Lord" shining all around. We will start with the least known of all biblical close encounters.

The Most Ignored Close Encounter - The Transfiguration

The incident commonly called the Transfiguration is an account of a close encounter Jesus and three apostles had with a bright hovering craft and two "men" from that craft. Transfiguration refers to the change of the appearance of Jesus that the apostles witnessed as he was having this encounter. The question almost never asked is, what caused this change?

If one examines the entire incident, a rather familiar scenario develops. Here are the main points of this encounter:

• Jesus is up on a mountain just before his crucifixion, late at night, with three of his apostles.

• "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart," (Matthew 17:1)

• Jesus actually told them that they would have an encounter in the very near future. "And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." (Mark 9:1)

• There was a bright cloud overhead and a voice was broadcast from the object. "While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." (Matthew 17:4)

• Jesus was "transfigured" and turned a radiant white. "And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them." (Mark 9:3) A "fuller" is a person that bleached cloth in that era.

• "And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering." (Luke 9:29) The word "glistering" is translated from the Greek word exastrapto, pronounced ex-as-trap'-to, meaning; to lighten forth, i.e. (figuratively) to be radiant (of very white garments):

The orthodox belief about this change in appearance is that Jesus' appearance was miraculously transformed, although the pulpit never says how, or why, this "miraculous" change occurred. Completely ignored is the "bright cloud" above them, which probably was the direct source for that change, which is directly attributed to lights. The encounter described below experienced by the wise men, was guided by a bright object, and the nearby shepherds were bathed in a bright light. A simple coincidence, or a typical effect from a light beam, which the glowing object above them projected to the ground? A beam that, perhaps, transported the two "men", who were seen with Jesus, to and from the ground?