I am not a theologian, so when I talk about Biblical interpretation, keep that in mind. In the past, I have touched on the subject of the rapture, where God literally calls up His Believers to Him sometime during the End of Days. In this teaching, Believers will disappear from this world in the blink of an eye. It is a comforting notion (for Believers), and God did save Noah before He destroyed all human life on this world, and He did save Lot and his family before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
I am still not 100% sold on this idea, but there is one thing that makes me think that at some point during the End of Days, God will indeed take us away from this world — its all this talk about alien life. The media splashes headlines that there are billions of planets in the universe — though we have never ‘seen’ one yet (they are detected through indirect means). Octopuses are now supposedly of alien origin, and someone at NASA asserts that we will find alien life in the not so distant future (like he doesn’t have an axe to grind here). This is all relevant to our discussion on the rapture, because if/when it does happen, those who still remain in this world will be calling out for answers. In this scenario, the mass media will lay blame for the missing Believers on aliens and a mass alien abduction. Taking this argument further, when Beast uses his power and influence to gather the world’s armies to Armageddon, might he not further claim that aliens will be coming to attack the Earth, and so the major armies of the world must assemble to fight them? Of course, this is probably my imagination taking things a bit too far, but it would be an argument consistent with explaining the rapture away with the notion of a mass alien abduction.
All said and done, we will all find out soon enough how this plays out, for I believe that the seals are being opened, and things will ‘get real’ much quicker than can be imagined.