Flying Saucers and the Return of Christ

Dorothy Martin, clairvoyant extraordinaire, believed that alien beings from the planet Clarion were communicating with her. They warned her of a global flood that would destroy Earth on December 21, 1954 and offered to save her and her disciples by sending a flying saucer to ferry them away before the disaster.
         
On December 17, these aliens, the “Guardians,” instructed Dorothy and her followers to remove all metal from their bodies as the metal would prevent them from being levitated upward into the rescue ship.
         
Thus, on December 20, Dorothy and her “Seekers,” wearing special robes and with suitcases in hand, gathered at her home in suburban Chicago. Midnight came and went. Nothing happened. Some of the Seekers were anxious and confused. Some left. Others stayed and prayed for deliverance.
         
At 4:45 am Dorothy received an interstellar message that the group had been saved because of their faith; and—because of their faith—the world itself had been saved. The spaceship would finally arrive on December 24, precisely at 6:00 pm.
         
Again, the Seekers came to Dorothy’s house and sang Christmas carols while gazing upwards at the heavens. The appointed time came and went. Police were called as an unruly mob of jeering spectators heckled the Seekers, some of whom went home, disillusioned, their faith broken. But many of the Seekers refused to doubt. Dorothy’s messages would continue, and her faithful followers would continue to believe.
         
Unbeknownst to these rapturists, the Seekers had been infiltrated by research assistants of Dr. Leon Festinger, social psychologist at the University of Michigan.  Festinger was studying cognitive dissonance, which occurs when a strongly-held belief suddenly conflicts with reality. Based on his investigation into the Seekers, Festinger concluded that when a conflict between reality and belief occurs—under certain conditions—the believers react by reaffirming their ideas. Such was the case after the Christmas carol incident detailed above.
         
And cognitive dissonance was surely a phenomenon for early Christians, who believed that “…people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.” (NIV, Mark 13:26-27) The apostle Paul was a firm believer in the Second Coming. In the earliest part of the New Testament (Thessalonians 4:16, ESV) he writes, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise….”
         
Of course, Jesus never descended from the Heavens, but Christians continued to believe in the Apocalypse, simply postponing its realization to the future. In this, they were exactly like Dorothy Martin’s Seekers. In fact, many present-day evangelical Christians continue to believe that Christ will shortly return to Earth.
         
There is, however, another way to rationalize all this—a way which I myself have adopted. One can see the Second Coming and the Kingdom of God as already an established fact. In this metaphorical concept, the Kingdom of God is already present in the hearts of the faithful. When we act with loving kindness, we are showing the fruits of that spiritual Kingdom.
         
And yet, many Christians who believe in a metaphorical Kingdom (me included), continue to long for a non-metaphorical Second Coming. They say to themselves with the Apostle John, “Come, Lord Jesus.” (NIV, Rev 22:20)
         
~ Richard Russell
The sources for this article include Wikipedia and a Hidden Brain podcast, When You Need It to be True