CLAIM: Ezekiel’s vision is a visceral description of a supernatural experience. But what was the substance of the vision? Space aliens?
RESPONSE: While the History Channel might interpret this passage in this way (!), this is surely not the case. In Ezekiel 10, we read that these beings are not aliens, but angels. Ezekiel believes that they are cherubim, which were a type of angelic being.
Part of Ezekiel’s vision was seeing a theophany (1:28). In Greek, theos means “God,” and phaneroo means “revealing” or “appearing.” Thus a theophany is an appearing or vision of God.
Moreover, Ezekiel 2:3 tells us that this being (i.e. God) sent him to the nation of Israel. Why would extraterrestrials send Ezekiel to preach to the nation of Israel? Of course, aliens are not anywhere involved in this vision. This was a wildly animated picture of God’s presence in the midst of the angelic order (see other examples in Revelation 4 and Isaiah 6).