Did Jesus Already Defeat the UFO Deception?

162 newly released Pentagon files on UFOs and UAPs hit the internet, and the reaction machine goes into overdrive. Pastors post hot takes, comment sections fill with “Great Deception” theories, and suddenly a press secretary’s alien emoji becomes fuel for spiritual panic. We slow the whole thing down and ask a sharper question: what if the biggest threat is not what is flying in the sky, but what is capturing the Church’s attention? 

We walk straight into the Christian obsession with darkness, demonology, and fear-based spiritual warfare teaching. I talk candidly about the fruit I’ve seen when believers live on a steady diet of demon naming, territorial mapping, and deliverance content: more urgency, more anxiety, and less joy. Then we rebuild the foundation with Scripture, especially Colossians 2:15, where Paul describes Jesus disarming the powers, making a public spectacle of them, and triumphing through the cross. That is not an “almost finished” gospel. That is victory. 

To ground it historically, we pull voices from the early church, including Justin Martyr and Origen, to show a posture of composure rather than fascination. We also work through Matthew 12 and the strongman already bound, plus the crucial distinction between a roaring lion and a ruling lion. From there, the conversation turns toward what to chase instead: bridal identity, single-hearted devotion, and a lived revelation of being desired and loved by Christ, the kind of love that starves fear and breaks distraction. 

If you’ve felt pulled toward darkness content or end-times panic, let this be a reset for your mind and heart. Subscribe, share this with a friend who is spiralling in fear, and leave a review so more people can find a gospel anchored in the finished work of Christ.

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Transcript

Welcome Back And Studio Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, welcome in. I'm so glad that you're here. This is the Mark Casto program and our very first episode since moving back to Covington, Georgia. Guys, I'm so excited to be here. It's been a crazy journey. We can talk about it over on Instagram. Uh, I'll share with you the updates about all the craziness that it's taken for us to get here. But the studio set up, and as you guys can tell, I've got some new things. My good buddy JK Scott hung his jersey. He and I uh just been good friends now for a few years, and just so thankful for him and his family. A lot of the reason why we're able to do what we're able to do as far as long past studios and the equipment that we need to make this uh what it is, is because of the Scott family. So I wanted to hang his jersey and thank him. Then we've got a signball here by our team, the Chargers, and you know, doing it up today just to honor um those relationships. But we're in the studio. You can see we've got some lighting, and uh right across from me is where we're gonna host the family table podcast. So we're getting the studio set up. It's amazing. But I want to jump into this, guys.

Pentagon UFO Files Spark Reactions

SPEAKER_00 1:16

I want to start today with something that's been all over the internet this week. And if you missed it, I'm gonna catch you up. So on May 8th, just a couple weeks ago, the Pentagon officially released 162 classified government files about UFOs, unidentified aerial phenomenon, UAPs, whatever you want to call them. They built a whole website for it. They named it Pursue, which stands for Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP encounters. So the defense secretary, Pete Hedges, okay, said, and I'm paraphrasing that these files have been hidden behind classification for too long, and it's time the American people see it for themselves. And they called it a rolling disclosure process, meaning there's more coming. And then this is the part that I cannot make up. The White House press secretary was asked about it by a reporter, and she answered with an alien emoji. I want you to imagine what happened next on Christian social media. Pastors are making reaction videos, people are posting about the Great Deception, somebody's got a thread going about the Nephilim, somebody else is connecting it to the book of Enoch. There are 17 new YouTube videos titled Are Aliens Actually Demons that all came out in the last two weeks. And look, I'm not here to mock any of that. I understand the impulse. I really do. When something strange happens in the natural world, we want a spiritual framework for it. That's not wrong. That's actually a healthy instinct. But here's the thing that I keep coming back to. Here's the thing that I cannot shake. Every single one of those videos, every single one of those threads, every one of those reactionary posts, they're all doing the same thing. They are pointing people toward a fascination with the darkness. And I want to spend the next few moments here with you making a case, a biblical case, a historical case, an early church case, that there is a better obsession, that there is something so much more worth your attention. And that impulse to chase after what's dark and scary and mysterious is actually a cis, a symptom of something. Okay. It's not spiritual depth, it's spiritual hunger that hasn't been fed properly. So let's get into it.

The Cost Of Demon Fascination

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Okay. I want to start by just being honest with you about something. When I was writing my book, Liar, Exposing Myths in Spiritual Warfare, I wrote that book and released it back in 2017. I spent a lot of time sitting with an uncomfortable question. Okay. And the question was this why is the American church so fascinated with darkness and demons and demonic activity? And I don't mean that in a judgy way. I mean it in a diagnostic way, okay? Like a doctor who looks at a symptom and asks, What is this telling me? What's going on underneath this? Because we have to be honest about what's happening. We have entire conferences, weekend gatherings, ticketed events, hundreds of thousands of people dedicated to teaching Christians how to identify and fight demonic spirits. Guys, we have best-selling books that name new spirits that nobody in church history has ever heard of. And we have deliverance ministries that have made entire industries out of spiritual warfare content. And some of this, and let me be careful here, some of this comes from a sincere desire to help people get free. I don't doubt that for a second. I've met these people, I've I've seen their ministries, people who genuinely love Jesus and genuinely want to see people delivered. I'm not questioning their hearts in that, but I am questioning the theology and I'm questioning the fruit. Because here's the uncomfortable truth, okay? Most of the people that I've encountered who are deeply embedded in spiritual warfare culture, the demon naming, the territorial mapping, the deliverance sessions, most of them are not walking in increasing freedom. They are walking in increasing fear and urgency. They they know more about the spirit of Jezebel than they know about Jesus. They know more about the Leviathan spirit than they know about the love of the Father. They've spent so many hours studying the kingdom of darkness that the kingdom of light has almost become secondary to these people. And I have to ask, is that the abundant life that Jesus was talking about? Guys, I wrote in my book Liar years ago, and I'll read you this um line directly here, okay, because I want you to hear it. And I wrote this: I said, in the absence of true apostolic preaching of the gospel of the kingdom, we have allowed our ears to be tickled by those infatuated with revelation on the kingdom of darkness. Now, that's a strong statement. I know it is, but I believe it's true. There's even a uh Catholic exorcist, his name's Father Ripper, okay, who has been all over Christian media recently in connection with the UFO conversation. And he said something that actually stopped me in my tracks because even from the Catholic tradition, he identified the same problem that I'm pointing to. He said, Demons rarely do a frontal assault, okay? They create diversions so that people look the other way. Can you hear that? A man whose entire ministry is confronting demonic activity said the primary strategy of the enemy is distraction, diversion, getting your eyes off of something important and onto something else. So let me ask you this, and I'm genuinely asking, okay? I'm wrestling with this alongside you, okay? What if the explosion of spiritual warfare content, the UFO obsession and the demon hunting and the darkness fascination? What if that is the diversion? What if the enemy's best move right now isn't a frontal assault on the church? What if it's getting the church so fixated on studying him that they forget to be ravished by the presence and the love of God? Now, I'm not trying to be provocative for the sake of being provocative. What I'm doing is I'm trying to point to something because there is a better obsession, and I want to show it to you in the text.

Colossians 2:15 And Total Triumph

SPEAKER_00 8:19

So if you actually open your Bibles to the book of Colossians, okay, and this is a passage that I like to go to all the time. If you've listened to me teach, you've heard me quote this many, many times, okay? Colossians 2.15, and I'll read it to you here. It says, Colossians 2.15, that Jesus canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all, our sins, our stained soul, he deleted it all, and they cannot be retrieved. Everything we once were in Adam has been placed on his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation. Verse 15. Then Jesus made a public spectacle over all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner, they were his. Guys, Paul said, God, through Christ, disarmed the powers and authorities, and he made a public spectacle over them through the cross. Now, I want to sit in just three words here. Okay, three words. You ready? Disarmed, okay, it's actually four words, but disarmed, public spectacle, that would be the second term, and triumph. Okay. Let's start with disarmed. Okay. This is military language. In the ancient world, when you disarmed a soldier, you stripped his weapons, you took his sho his sword, you took his shield, you took his armor. He's still in the room. He might still be talking, he might even still be loud, but he cannot harm you because his weapons are gone. Paul is saying at the cross, Jesus disarmed every power, every authority, every principality, every demonic entity in the unseen realm. He stripped them and he took their weapons. Now, I want you to sit with that for a second because if the enemy has been disarmed, if the weapons are gone, then what exactly should we be trying to warn believers? See, I understand the preaching um and and and casting out demons with people who don't know Christ. But for people who are in Christ, this theology that we've created on spiritual warfare is only an indictment on the church saying that we do not understand the finished work of Christ. All this demonology talk among church in the church is nothing more than the almost finished work of Christ. It's a lack of understanding. So what exactly are we afraid of? Why are we acting like we're about to be overran? Okay. Now, let's jump to the second term, which is public spectacle. Now, this one is incredible to me because in the Roman world, when a general won a military victory, he would return to Rome and they would throw what was called a triumph, a triumphal procession. Okay. So the general would ride through the streets, and behind him in chains, would be the defeated enemy. Okay. So the leaders of an opposing army, they're stripped of their armor, they're paraded in humiliation through the streets of Rome. And everyone watching knew this person, this enemy is beaten. The war is over. We won. And that's the exact image that Paul uses when he describes what Jesus did to the whole demonic realm, making a public spectacle of the powers and authorities of darkness. He paraded them around in defeat. He didn't just quietly defeat them in some spiritual transaction that nobody witnessed. He humiliated them publicly. Now, friend, this is not a picture of a war that's still in doubt. This is an absolute victory parade. And then we come to the third term, which is triumph. Okay the the the Greek word there, it it's it's it's the word for that triumphal procession. Okay, so Jesus triumphed over them through the cross, not despite the cross, but through it. The very thing that looked like his greatest defeat was actually the moment of Christ's total victory. See, the cross looked like Rome winning, it looked like darkness winning, it looked like the story was over, and then three days later Jesus walked out of the tomb and the whole calculation changed forever. So here's where I want to land in Colossians 2:15. Okay. If Jesus disarmed the powers, if he made a public spectacle over them, if he triumphed, then the question the church needs to answer is not how do we fight these powers? The question is, why are we still acting like they haven't been defeated? So I want to bring in a voice from the early church here because I am just so sick of listening to the new school demon hunter voices because they have developed a theology and a spirituality that seems like it has fruit. But honestly, guys, it is demonic fascination. It's a misunderstanding of the gospel. It preaches an almost finished work of Christ. It's an insult to the blood of Jesus, it's an insult to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Okay. So I want to go back to early church thinking on this because I think when we see how the first Christians understood this, it actually helps us see how far we've drifted today.

Early Church Calm About Demons

SPEAKER_00 14:35

So I love to bring in Justin Martyr. Okay. Justin the Martyr. He was born around 100 AD, writing just a few decades after the apostles, and he writes in his letter, the first apology, a letter to the Roman emperor himself, and he acknowledges that demonic forces are real. Okay. He doesn't dismiss them. He doesn't pretend that they don't exist. But here's what struck me, okay? His posture toward them is complete composure. Okay. He writes that Christians have nothing to fear from demons because these forces operate entirely under the authority of Christ. They are subject to Christ. They cannot ultimately harm one who is in Christ. Now, Justin Martyr wasn't running warfare conferences. He wasn't writing books about the 12 levels of demonic hierarchy. He was he was writing to the Emperor of Rome, which is the most powerful man on the earth in that day, and saying, We serve a king who's already defeated every power in heaven and earth, so we're not afraid. See, friend, that is the posture of the early church. They were not fascinated with darkness, they had no fear of the darkness, they were fearless because they understood Colossians 2.15 and they understood what it was saying. And so they didn't see the war as something that was escalating. They saw it as the war is already won, and they just enforced the victory of the

Strongman Bound And Roaring Lion

SPEAKER_00 16:14

cross. Now, I want to take you to one more passage, and this would be in the book of Matthew, okay, Matthew chapter 12. And we're going to look at verse 28. Okay. So this is what Jesus said. Okay. On the other hand, if I drive out demons by the power of the Spirit of God, then the end of Satan's kingdom has come. Did you hear that? The context matters here, okay? So let me give you the context of the verse I just read to you. Okay. The Pharisees have just accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, okay, which is the ruler of demons. Okay. They're saying the only way you can do that is if you're working for the enemy. And Jesus responds with this brilliant argument, and then he says something that I think most of the church has has glossed over. Okay. He says, But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Now let me ask you something. What tense is that sentence has come? It's past tense, present, perfect. It has arrived, it is already here. Jesus is not saying the kingdom is coming someday. He's not saying that the kingdom will arrive when enough people pray hard enough or when a sufficient number of demons are cast out. He is saying, in this moment, in my ministry, before even the cross, the blood, the resurrection, the kingdom of God has come upon you. And then he gives the illustration. And he says, How can anyone enter into a strongman's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strongman? Then he can plunder his whole house. So Jesus is describing himself, okay? He's the one entering the strongman's house, and the strongman, who is Satan, Diablos, has already been tied up. That binding is what makes the plundering possible, okay? That binding is why demons flee at the name of Jesus. That binding is why the kingdom advances. Now, here's the thing that I want to make sure that you don't miss. Okay. The binding of the strong man is not a future event that we're waiting for. Jesus, I know some of you think that the devil's just loose and doing whatever he he wants to do. Jesus was describing what was already happening in his ministry. And now that was before the cross. Now at the cross, Colossians 2.15, it was finalized, completed, and done. So I know some of you are doing the mental gymnastics right now and you're thinking, okay, but what about 1 Peter 5.8? Okay. Well, Peter says the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Now listen, if he's bound, if he's defeated, why does Peter say that? And this is this is where I want to give you what might be the most important distinction in his whole teeth in this whole teaching. Okay. There is a massive difference between between a roaring lion and a ruling lion. Okay. A cage lion roars. In fact, a cage lion might roar louder than a free one because it's frustrated. It's been stripped of its dominion. It can't do what it once could do. And so it roars, it makes noise, it tries to project power. It no longer actually possesses. See, friend, Satan, the Diablos, is not ruling. He's been stripped of his dominion over those who are in Christ. His weapons have been taken. He has been publicly humiliated at the cross, and he is a caged enemy who is very loud. But, friend, you don't run from a caged lion. You walk past him into your inheritance. Now, I want to be honest with you again. I'm not saying spiritual opposition isn't real. I'm not saying you will never feel the weight of an enemy's attack. Okay. Paul still talks about the armor of God. He still talks about standing firm. So I believe that spiritual warfare is real, but it happens in the mind. Okay. And the armor of God is maybe we'll talk about that in another episode. But here's the difference in the way that I think. Okay. When Paul talks about the armor of God, let me let's just go into it. Okay. Ephesians 6. What is the armor designed to do? Well, it's designed to help you stand, to hold your position. It's defensive armor for someone who's already standing in victory, not offensive armor for someone trying to win a war that's still in doubt. The war is not in doubt. The outcome is settled. The question is just whether you will stand in what Jesus has already accomplished, or whether whether you will live in, let me say it this way. The question is just whether you will stand in what Jesus has already accomplished, or whether you will live in fear of a prisoner who roars very loudly from his cage. See, go back to another early church father, Origin, okay. Writing in the 200s, okay, he taught that the incarnation itself, the moment that God became flesh in Jesus, was the decisive cosmic event that changed everything. That from that moment, everything in the unseen realm was permanently subordinated to Christ's authority. The idea that demonic power is escalating, that Satan's releasing new spirits, that the darkness is getting stronger, was not something the early church believed at all. And they lived in a crazier time than you and I do. Guys, they were, if anybody had the ability to claim real spiritual warfare, it was the early church. They were under like Roman emperors like Nero, where they were literally being martyred daily. So if anybody had the right to go, man, we're under intense spiritual warfare, it was that generation, not what we're doing today, where you know we're fighting internet battles. But people have made up this garbage. Satan's releasing new spirits. Some people have even created the garbage teaching, and it goes all the way back to Derek Prince. And I respect Derek Prince, but he missed it on this about Christians having demons. That is the most ridiculous teaching that I've heard. Um, I love a lot of his teaching, but that one is just dumb. Okay. But people have these ideas. There's new spirits being released, darkness is getting stronger. Okay, the early church didn't believe that at all. They had just watched Jesus rise from the dead. They had seen what he did to the powers at the cross, and the idea of escalation would have seemed absurd to them. And I think it should be a little more absurd to us as well.

Bridal Identity That Starves Fear

SPEAKER_00 23:50

So here's where I want to land for today, okay, because I've spent most of this time telling you what not to chase. I want to spend these last few moments together telling you what to chase instead. Okay. In my book Liar, one of the chapters that I'm most proud of is the one on bridal identification, okay, because I believe it contains really the answer, not just an intellectual correction to bad warfare theology, it's an actual antidote, okay? The thing that fills the space that the darkness obsession has been trying to fill. So if we go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and I'll just paraphrase this for you. But if we go over here to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul writing to the church in in Corinth, and this is what he says. He says, You need to know that God's passion is burning inside me for you because, like a loving father, I have pledged your hand in marriage to Christ, your true bridegroom. I've also promised that I would present his fiancee to him as a pure virgin bride. But now I'm afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's clever lies, your thoughts may be corrupted, and you may lose your single-hearted devotion and pure love for Christ. For you seem to gladly tolerate anyone who comes to you preaching a pseudo-Jesus, not the Jesus we have preached. You have accepted a spirit and a gospel that is false rather than the spirit and gospel you once embraced. How tolerant you have become of these impostors. Friend, Paul saying, You are betrothed, you are legally engaged to the king. So in the ancient world, and and Paul's readers would have understood this like very well, betrothal wasn't like our modern engagement. It was a legal ceremony, it was binding. You were already considered married. The only thing that was remaining was the consummation. Okay. So the day, which the day when the groom would come and bring his bride into his house. Okay. So what Paul is saying is if you've been born again, you are legally married to Christ right now, not someday, right now. You are desired, you are chosen, you are beautiful to him. Song of Solomon, chapter one, verse nine, my dearest one, let me tell you how I see you, the bridegroom king says. You are so thrilling to me. Friend, this is how Jesus looks at you and I. And I want to ask you something. When you know that, when that becomes more than a theological concept and it becomes something you actually feel, something that you walk in, something you return to when your mind gets loud. Do you know what happens to that obsession with darkness? It withers and withers until there's no obsession at all. Because here's what I've come to believe the reason why people chase demons and UFOs and dark revelations is because they're actually hungry. There is a genuine spiritual appetite in them that has not been satisfied. And in the absence of a deep encounter with the love of God, in the absence of a real revelation of who they are in Christ, they feed that hunger on whatever's available. And friend, can I tell you something? Darkness is always looking for our attention. So darkness is always available. It's loud, it's dramatic, it feels important and urgent, but it doesn't satisfy. It never satisfies. In fact, the more you feed it, the hungrier you get. And that's why the people most obsessed with spiritual warfare are often the most fearful. They they lack intimacy with Christ. The food isn't working. Guys, this is a line that has stayed with me for years. Um, and and a man that um yeah, a man, I heard a man say this years ago. He said that the revelation of bridal identity will stand against the arguments in your mind that you're worthless, you're nothing, you're forgotten, you're neglected, you're unimportant. Friend, that's the voice that drives people into darkness fascination. Okay. You're nothing, you're forgotten, you're neglected, you're unimportant. That quiet voice that says you're not enough, that God's forgotten you, that the powers of darkness have more authority over your life than the finished work of Christ. Friend, bridal identity destroys that voice, not by fighting it directly, not by rebuking it, not by naming and claiming territory over it, but by flooding the room or your mind with something so much better that the darkness simply cannot compete. Friend, here's what I'm trying to say to you today. Stop chasing demons, put your eyes on the Christ, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Friend, what I just said, stop chasing demons, get your focus on Jesus. Friend, that's not a bumper sticker. That is the most radical, most countercultural, most kingdom thing I know to say right now. In a world and a church saturated with darkness content, with fear, with spiritual warfare obsession, the most subversive thing you and I can do is become obsessed with the bridegroom king. Friend, the Pentagon UFO files don't change anything. Declassified government documents don't alter what happened at Calvary. The world can release every classified file and every piece of footage, even eyewitness accounts, and Colossians 2, 15 will still be true. He disarmed them, he made a public spectacle over them, he triumphed. So the question that I want to leave with you today, and I'm genuinely asking, not telling, not lecturing, the question is this what are you obsessed with? What gets more of your attention? The darkness or the light? The enemy's activity or the king's beauty? The UFO files or the face of Jesus? Because wherever your attention goes, that's where your life flows. And I just want to make sure, I want to make sure for myself and I want to make sure for you that we are giving our attention to the one who is worth it. Friend, there is a fascination that is available to you that is so superior, so much more alive, so much more satisfying, so much more real than anything the darkness can that than anything that darkness can offer. And his name is Jesus, and he is still enough. Now, before I pray for you, I want to mention a couple of things.

Book Links Partners And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Okay. First, everything that we're talking about in this is actually found in my book. You can see it right here, okay? Liar exposing myths and spiritual warfare. Okay. I wrote it because I kept watching people I love, sincere, hungry, God-loving people get tangled up in bad theology about the enemy, and it was still in their joy and their freedom. Guys, the link to get the book, it's on Amazon, is in the description below. If this teaching did something in you today, the book will do more. So you got to grab it. Okay. Grab the book. I know it'll be a great blessing to you. Okay. Secondly, I want to tell I want to encourage you to become a partner. Guys, if you want to be a part of a community of people who are building their lives on the finished work of Christ, come join us in the Shepherd's Tent partner community. It's our online family. When you become a partner at marcasteau.co backslash donate, you're not just supporting this ministry, you're getting access to a community of people who are wrestling through all of this together. So the link for that is in the description as well. Go check that out. I would love for you to become a partner with our ministry. Also, guys, I want to talk to you about Longpath Creator Academy. Friend, if you're a creator, someone who feels called to build something for the kingdom, and you're trying to figure out how to do that well, I want you to come check out Long Path Creator Academy. The link is in the description. We are helping build kingdom creators who know who they are, know what they're called to do, and build from rest instead of fear. Now, let me pray over you guys. God, I just thank you. Father, I thank you. I thank you that the war is won. I thank you that Jesus went to the cross and disarmed every power, every authority, every principality that has ever whispered fear into the hearts of your people. I thank you that you made a public spectacle over them, that you triumphed and you declared it is finished. God, I pray for everybody watching right now, wherever they are, where whatever they're carrying, whatever fears have been loud in their minds, I pray for a shift today, a genuine Holy Spirit-initiated shift of attention off of the darkness, off of the noise, off of the latest strange thing in the news, and onto you, Spirit of the living God. Father, let them be ravished, let them be undone by how good you are, how faithful you are, how completely loved they are by you. Let the revelation of their identity as the bride of Christ become so real, so alive in them that the voice of the enemy simply has no place left to work with. Father, we just thank you for this today. I thank you for this ability to go live. I thank you for this ability to create content. I pray it changes and transforms lives. We love you, Jesus. And I pray all of this in the name of Jesus, which is above every name. Amen.