Daniel Seabaugh

In my experience, there’s an increasing interest, even among Christians, about the subjects of aliens and flat earth. I’ve given some thought to these topics and believe it’s best to approach them through the lens of theological triage.

I first heard the term in Gavin Ortlund’s helpful book, Finding the Right Hills to Die On. In those pages, Ortlund explains that triage is a system of prioritization. It’s often used in medical contexts to determine what needs immediate attention and what can wait. In a similar way, theological triage is a system of prioritizing theological convictions from those of utmost importance to those of least importance.

Ortlund provides four basic categories to prioritize doctrine. He ranks them from first-rank to fourth-rank doctrines. First-rank doctrines would be those such as the deity of Christ, justification by grace through faith alone, or the physical resurrection of Jesus. These are hills worth dying on. These are the types of doctrines that, if your church disagreed with them, would be worth breaking fellowship over. 

Second-rank doctrines include women in leadership, infant baptism, and charismatic gifts of the Spirit. It’s easy to shift these doctrines into the first-rank category, at least in our practice, but doing so can be detrimental to unity, which Jesus prayed for in John 17. Such doctrines are important and require wisdom and balance. They’re the most challenging to navigate because, among other things, they carry the most emotional weight. 

Third-rank doctrines, according to Ortlund, are issues such as the creation days of Genesis 1 and the nature of the millennium. Christians shouldn’t divide over these or any tertiary doctrine. 

Fourth-rank doctrines would include issues like whether or not churches should use electronic instruments in their praise and worship. Ortlund believes fourth-rank doctrines are unimportant to gospel witness and ministry collaboration. These hills are never worth dying on.

Triage in Action

Now, how do we utilize theological triage with issues like flat earth and aliens, which usually aren’t considered theological in nature but do, in fact, make claims about God and his world, even if indirectly?

The way I have done so is by asking the question: If it turned out that aliens exist and Earth was flat after all, what would change about the character, promises, or mission of God? It’s an important question because, according to the Christian tradition, at the center of creation is a good God who creates good things for his glory and the good of all people. God is the point. So in answer to our question, I don’t think anything would change. God would still be good. We would still need his grace. Therefore, these issues, at best, are third-rank in nature. That is, they’re interesting to talk about, and I enjoy doing so, but they’re not very important, at least not in the grand scheme of salvation.

Is it possible that God created a plant or an animal on some undiscovered planet that exists solely for the purpose of glorifying him? That seems reasonable to me. Humans may never discover it, but that doesn’t mean God couldn’t have created it. My guess is that we’ll be making discoveries about God and his creation long into eternity without ever arriving at complete knowledge. We have limitations. We always will. God is the only being with complete knowledge, and there are many things he didn’t intend for us to know.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God…”

—Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV)

I do think that life on other planets is a possibility. After all, we serve a creative God who set in motion a universe that’s expanding at a mind-boggling pace. I’d be more shocked to discover that life doesn’t exist in outer space than that it does. Yet, all that to say, this isn’t a hill I’m willing to die on, and I’m perfectly happy saying I could be wrong.

I’ve also heard the theory that aliens are demonic beings distracting us from God’s purposes on the earth. I’m not so sure, but I suppose it’s another possibility.

As far as a flat earth is concerned, I haven’t heard a compelling enough argument to think it’s a real possibility (that’s not to suggest there’s not one). Even if I were convinced, again, what would change about God’s character, promises, mission in the world, or our need for a savior? Nothing.

Therefore, I’m sticking to my position that aliens and flat earth are interesting conversations but have no real impact on ultimate reality, that is, God’s inherent goodness, our inherent sinfulness, and our desperate need for the person and work of Jesus. Aliens and flat earth are third-rank issues at best.