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What if you went hunting in the woods and found a Louisiana girl who had just been dropped off by a UFO? Then you tried to help her out while reconnecting with your past, and dropped into that crazy world of conspiracies and possible preparation for the end-times? Will Satan, or perhaps his human agents, use extraterrestrial myths to warm us up for a tribulation? Darby Kern, writer and producer of The Jake Muller Adventures: Unidentified, and many other audio dramas, joins us to explore this challenging world from a biblical worldview.

Concession stand

• We’ll touch on end-times beliefs, but not focus on all the particulars!
• Please leave your “this is the real Mark of the Beast” theories at the door.
• Christians of good faith believe Jesus is coming back. That’s important!
• Christians of good faith can debate end-times beliefs. They’re secondary!
• See our continuing miniseries Armies of the Aliens for more on that theme.

Introducing Darby Kern

1. How did you discover biblical faith and fantastic imagination?
2. What led you to write for audio drama, including The Jake Muller Adventures: Unidentified?
3. How might Satan use alien conspiracies to bring in a final Tribulation period?

Darby Kern also adapted the 48-volume YA books for the 72-episode Left Behind: The Kids audio drama series from GapDigital studios.

Where we draw the little up-arrows on our end-times charts:

• Darby takes the premillennial and pre-tribulation view (very similar to the Left Behind series view).
• Stephen likes this view but feels mostly agnostic, preferring to focus on resurrection and New Earth.
• Zack is nominally premillennial yet post-tribulation, which he concedes is emotionally “the worst view.”
• We all agree Jesus will return physically and with power as Scripture promises, and the sooner the better.

Zack’s breakdown about alien theories in the end times:

1. Satan is behind UFOs and will use that to explain away the Rapture. It’s the powerful deception (2 Thessalonians 2:7–12).
2. UFOs are scout ships for the demonic locust and/or horsemen mothership (Revelation 9).
3. UFOs are supernatural beings that will lead people astray in other ways, feeding into all the end-times deceptions. UFO sightings are ordinary demonic activity, the regular activity of them “roaming about the earth.” The deceptions will happen through the mythologies being built up around them, or the supernatural power they will extend to people. But the sightings themselves are somewhat accidental, which explains why they are so elusive. They don’t engage with our military, and fly away if they’re noticed. They may even be under some kind of restriction.
4. UFOs are other biological beings that God created elsewhere that will have no more impact on human history than anything else. They don’t show up in Revelation because they are no more consequential than Columbus. (This feeds into the “Zookeeper” hypothesis.)

Com station

• This discussion ran rightfully long, so we’ll save feedback for our next episode.