THEY: A NEW INVESTIGATIVE SERIES BY TOM HORN

THOMAS HORN -- JOURNAL ENTRY XX/XX/XX

"Secretly, I had reached back into the past, contacting people I would trust with this information and who were uniquely qualified to explain if something truly was breaking through from the spirit world. The implications were all so deeply disturbing. I could guard their identity for the time being, referring to some of them lightly, as 'God's Ghostbusters' to conceal their deeper identities and our mutual challenge until the time was right."

WHAT SECRETS LIE WITHIN THE HOLY SEE?

In January of last year, the Royal Society, the National Academy of Science of the UK, and the Commonwealth hosted representatives from NASA, the European Space Agency, and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, during its 350th anniversary celebration. The event offered some dizzying intellects in the featured discussion, “The Detection of Extraterrestrial Life and the Consequences for Science and Society.” Lord Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society and Astronomer Royal, announced that aliens may be “staring us in the face” in a form humans are unable to recognize. Other speakers used words like “overwhelming evidence” and “unprecedented proof” to signify how close we may be to making discovery of intelligent alien life. Some, like Simon Conway Morris, professor of evolutionary paleobiology at Cambridge University, worried that contact with these unknowns might not be a good thing. “Extra-terrestrials might not only resemble us but have our foibles, such as greed, violence, and a tendency to exploit others’ resources,” he said. “And while aliens could come in peace they are quite as likely to be searching for somewhere to live, and to help themselves to water, minerals and fuel.”[i] While other scientists, astronomers, and physicists agreed with Morris’ concerns (most notably, renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking), some speakers at the gathering of intellectuals were more optimistic, imagining ETs someday appearing as man’s saviors or, at a minimum, benevolent space brothers. When Father José Gabriel Funes in a long interview with the L’Osservatore Romano newspaper weighed in on the question, “Are we alone in the Universe?” he said there is a certain possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos, and that such a notion “doesn’t contradict our faith.” He then added: “How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere? Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ‘sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation.”[ii] Such statements by Funes were the latest in a string of recent comments by Vatican astronomers confirming the belief that discovery may be made in the near future of alien life, including intelligent life, and that this encounter would not unhinge the doctrine of Christ.

In 2005, another Vatican astronomer, Guy Consolmagno tackled this subject in a fifty-page booklet, Intelligent Life in the Universe?: Catholic Belief and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life, in which he similarly concluded that chances are better than not that mankind is facing a future discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence. Before that, Monsignor Corrado Balducci made even bigger news when he said ETs were actually already interacting with Earth and that some of the Vatican’s leaders were aware of it.

Still, perhaps most intriguing was maverick Catholic theologian Father Malachi Martin who, before his suspicious death in 1999, hinted at something like imminent extraterrestrial contact more than once. While on Coast to Coast AM radio in 1997, Art Bell asked Martin why the Vatican was heavily invested in the study of deep space at Mt Graham Observatory in southeastern Arizona. As a retired professor of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Martin was uniquely qualified to hold, in secret, information pertaining to the Vatican’s Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) project at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO). Martin’s answer ignited a firestorm of interest among Christian and secular UFOlogists when he said, “Because the mentality…amongst those who [are] at the…highest levels of Vatican administration and geopolitics, know…what’s going on in space, and what’s approaching us, could be of great import in the next five years, ten years” (emphasis added). Those cryptic words “what’s approaching us, could be of great import” was followed in subsequent interviews with discussion of a mysterious “sign in the sky” that Malachi believed was approaching from the north. People familiar with Malachi believe he may have been referring to a near-future arrival of alien intelligence. Yet, if ET life is something Vatican officials have privately considered for some time, why speak of it so openly now, in what some perceive as a careful, doctrinal unveiling over the last few years? Is this a deliberate effort by church officials to “warm-up” the laity to ET disclosure? Are official church publications on the subject an attempt to soften the blow before disclosure arrives, in order to help the faithful retain their orthodoxy in light of unprecedented forthcoming knowledge?

Writing for Newsweek on Thursday, May 15, 2008, in the article “The Vatican and Little Green Men,” Sharon Begley noted that “[this] might be part of a push to demonstrate the Vatican’s embrace of science… Interestingly, the Vatican has plans to host a conference in Rome next spring to mark the 150th anniversary of the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin’s seminal work on the theory of evolution. Conference organizers say it will look beyond entrenched ideological positions—including misconstrued creationism. The Vatican says it wants to reconsider the problem of evolution ‘with a broader perspective’ and says an ‘appropriate consideration is needed more than ever before.’”[iii]

The “appropriate consideration” Begley mentioned may have been something alluded to by Guy Consolmagno three years earlier in an interview with the Sunday Herald. That article pointed out how Consolmagno’s job included reconciling “the wildest reaches of science fiction with the flint-eyed dogma of the Holy See” and that his latest mental meander was about “the Jesus Seed,” described as “a brain-warping theory which speculates that, perhaps, every planet that harbours intelligent, self-aware life may also have had a Christ walk across its methane seas, just as Jesus did here on Earth in Galilee. The salvation of the Betelguesians may have happened simultaneously with the salvation of the Earthlings.”[iv] This sounds like a sanctified version of panspermia—the idea that life on earth was “seeded” by something a long time ago such as an asteroid impact—but in this case, “the seed” was divinely appointed and reconciled to Christ.

The curious connection between the Vatican’s spokespersons and the question of extraterrestrials and salvation was further hinted in the May, 2008 L’Osservatore Romano interview with Father Funes, titled, “The Extraterrestrial is My Brother.” In Google and blog translations of the Italian feature, Funes responds to the question of whether extraterrestrials would need to be redeemed, which he believes should not be assumed. “God was made man in Jesus to save us,” he says. “If other intelligent beings exist, it is not said that they would have need of redemption. They could remain in full friendship with their Creator.”[v]

By “full friendship” Funes reflected how some Vatican theologians accept the possibility that an extraterrestrial species may exist that is morally superior to men—closer to God than we fallen humans are—and that, as a consequence, they may come here to evangelize us. Father Guy Consolmagno took up this same line of reasoning when he wrote in his book, Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist:

So the question of whether or not one should evangelize is really a moot point. Any alien we find will learn and change from contact with us, just as we will learn and change from contact with them. It’s inevitable. And they’ll be evangelizing us, too. [vi]

THE RABBIT HOLE GOES DEEPER . . .

In a paper for the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science, Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti of the Pontifical University in Rome (where the Vatican's deepest theology is discoursed) explains just how mankind could actually be evangelized during contact with “spiritual aliens,” as every believer in God would, he argues, greet an extraterrestrial civilization as an extraordinary experience and would be inclined to respect the alien and to recognize the common origin of our different species as originating from the same Creator. According to Giuseppe, this contact by non-terrestrial intelligence would then offer new possibilities “of better understanding the relationship between God and the whole of creation.”[vii] Giuseppe states this would not immediately oblige the Christian “to renounce his own faith in God simply on the basis of the reception of new, unexpected information of a religious character from extraterrestrial civilizations,”[viii] but that such a renunciation could come soon after as the new “religious content” originating from outside the earth is confirmed as reasonable and credible. “Once the trustworthiness of the information has been verified” the believer would have to “reconcile such new information with the truth that he or she already knows and believes on the basis of the revelation of the One and Triune God, conducting a re-reading [of the Gospel] inclusive of the new data…”[ix] How this “more complete” ET Gospel might deemphasize or significantly modify our understanding of salvation through Jesus Christ is unknown, but former Vatican Observatory vice director, Christopher Corbally, in his article “What if There Were Other Inhabited Worlds” concludes that Jesus simply might not remain the only Word of salvation: “I would try to explore the alien by letting ‘it’ be what it is, without rushing for a classification category, not even presuming two genders,” Corbally said, before dropping this bombshell:

While Christ is the First and the Last Word (the Alpha and the Omega) spoken to humanity, he is not necessarily the only word spoke to the universe…. For, the Word spoken to us does not seem to exclude an equivalent ‘Word’ spoken to aliens. They, too, could have had their ‘Logos-event’. Whatever that event might have been, it does not have to be a repeated death-and-resurrection, if we allow God more imagination than some religious thinkers seem to have had. For God, as omnipotent, is not restricted to one form of language, the human. [x]

That high-ranking spokespersons for the Vatican have in recent years increasingly offered such language acknowledging the likelihood of extraterrestrial intelligence and the dramatic role ET’s introduction to human civilization could play in regard to altering established creeds about anthropology, philosophy, religion, and redemption could be beyond consequential in the near-future.

COMING UP IN ENTRY #2 -- WHAT THE EVANGELISTS OF ET KNOW THAT YOU DON'T

* This series is based on research led by Thomas Horn and a team of investigators whose report will be published this September under the working title God's Ghostbusters.

All endnotes will be included in the final published report

Plan To Attend The First Annual Future Congress On Emerging Threats And Challenges

Experts say, "it's the one to be at in 2011!"

What Is Future Congress?

It is with great excitement that we cordially invite you to join us for the First Annual Future Congress on Emerging Threats and Challenges. It will be held July 22-24, 2011, at the Radisson Hotel in Branson, Missouri and includes 3-days of feature presentations and workshops by some of the world’s foremost authorities on a wide range of increasingly demanding topics.

The Future Congress was conceived as a result of numerous veteran leaders within ministry, finance, geopolitics, and sociology, witnessing a growing chorus of questions from people just like you concerning the short and long-term aspects of the future of society. From banking and finance to conspiracy, from new technology to the supernatural, from prepping to prophecy, people are concerned about how to adapt and thrive in the days ahead. At “Future Congress,” leading national and international experts, scholars, and researchers will share their specialized knowledge about what you can expect in the coming days, and, more importantly, what you can do to face the future with confidence.

Featured speakers include Chuck Missler, Randall Price, G. Edward Griffin, Gary Stearman, David Hitt, Jim Fletcher, Terry James, Noah Hutchings, Chris Pinto, Doc Marquis, Derek and Sharon Gilbert, Mike Bennett, Tom and Nita Horn, Rob Skiba, Ray Gano and many more. The event will be opened by the Mayor of Branson and will feature 10 main presentations, numerous workshops offering practical advice on a variety of subjects, and a special women’s luncheon during the three-day convention. In addition to major presentations and workshops, live audience participation during radio interviews with speakers will be conducted with opportunity to meet some of your favorite researchers, broadcasters, and authors. Film premiers will be shown in the film room, and the cost of your registration will be more than offset by over $200.00 in discount tickets for Branson attractions, a free VIP Coupon Book for local shopping, and select gifts in every registration packet.

Did you know that Branson, Missouri, is the #1 tour bus destination in the United States as well as being the “Live Music Show Capital of America” with over 100+ family friendly live shows, 50+ performance theatres, 250+ restaurants, 300+ retail shops, and much more? Well it is! So check out the excellent rates the Radisson Hotel is offering Future Congress attendees on the registration page and plan to stay an extra day or two with the kids!

This is the event to be at in 2011, but registration is limited to approximately 600 attendees, so don’t wait too long to sign up for this first ever “Future Congress.”

Learn more at http://futurecongress.com/

We look forward to seeing you there!

PART 26: Forbidden Gates: How Genetics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Synthetic Biology, Nanotechnology, and Human Enhancement Herald the Dawn of Techno-Dimensional Spiritual Warfare

AVAILABLE NOW! Forbidden Gates: How Genetics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Synthetic Biology, Nanotechnology, and Human Enhancement Herald the Dawn of Techno-Dimensional Spiritual Warfare






THOSE “OTHER” SIGNS OF THE DAYS OF NOAH

"As laboratories incubate new blends of man and machine.... The path of progress cuts through the four-way intersection of the moral, medical, religious and political—and whichever way you turn, you are likely to run over someone’s deeply held beliefs. Venter’s bombshell [the creation of the synthetic life “Synthia”] revived the oldest of ethical debates, over whether scientists were playing God or proving he does not exist because someone re-enacted Genesis in suburban Maryland." —Nancy Gibbs, Time magazine

"If Christians are to help shape contemporary culture—particularly in a setting in which I fear the posthuman message will prove attractive, if not seductive—then they must offer an alternative and compelling vision; a counter theological discourse so to speak." —Brent Waters, Director of the Jerre L. and Mary Joy Stead Center for Ethics and Values

Earlier in this series, we pointed out how the English theologian George Hawkins Pember, in his 1876 masterpiece, Earth’s Earliest Ages, studied the book of Matthew—where Jesus in answering His disciples concerning the signs of His coming and of the end of the world said it would be “as the days of Noah were”—and concluded from it that the most fearful sign of the end times would be the reappearance upon earth “of beings from the Principality of the Air, and their unlawful intercourse with the human race.”

We have built on this concept as well, suggesting that parallels between human-modifying technology and what the ancient Watchers did in creating Nephilim may be no coincidence at all; that a dark conspiracy could be unfolding by way of GRIN sciences and transhumanist philosophy that specifically allows the fulfillment of the prophecy “as it was in the days of Noah.”

But if indeed Satan has initiated an extraordinary conspiracy to revive species-altering supernaturalism as existed in Noah’s day, and assuming there is a gap between that sign and when God removes His own from this planet, the church as the body of Christ and God’s representation on earth could play a unique role as the instrument through which the Almighty, on behalf of His creation, will engage this evil. True believers are the salt of the earth and the only social influence identified in Scripture as the power against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. This, friends, unveils good news, because while Nephilim were on earth during (and after) the antediluvian age, this was not the only “sign” related to ancient days. There were other signs too, as illustrated in the Bible, having to do with God’s covenant people and their unequaled ability through faith to turn back Nephilim plans. “As it was in the days of Noah” points to this fact as well.

Consider how King Saul in 1063 BC stared across his tent into the eyes of the unproven and youngest son of Jesse. By chance, the teenager named David had come on a mission for his father to deliver food and gather information regarding the welfare of his brothers. On his arrival, Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, stood up at his camp across the Valley of Elah and once again challenged the armies of Israel to send a warrior out against him. Two times per day for the past forty days the fearsome giant had terrified Saul’s army, crying over the steep basin to the ranks of Israel:

“Why set the battle in array? Am I not a Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man from among yourselves and let him come down to me.” Goliath challenged. “If he is able to fight with me and to kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants. I defy the ranks of Israel; give me a man that we may decide the outcome of this conflict in a single fight!”

On seeing and hearing this spectacle, David learned how Saul was promising a rich reward to any man who could defeat the nine-foot-tall menace. David’s response was one of dismay at the lack of Israel’s faith. “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” he asked among the soldiers (1 Samuel 17:26). When Saul heard of it, he sent for the lad. But now, standing here in front of him, unable to fill his armor, the ruddy kid didn’t look like much of a killer. Then David told him about slaying a lion and later a bear in defense of his father’s sheep, and Saul relented.

With nothing but a staff, a sling, and five smooth stones, David emerged on the battlefield and ran toward Goliath. When the chiseled Philistine saw the fair-skinned youth approaching, he looked around, scoffed, then thundered, “Am I a dog, that you send a boy at me with a stick!?” Cursing in the name of his gods, he sneered, “Come on then, and I will give your flesh as supper to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.”

But David shocked everybody with his retort. “You come at me with a sword and a shield, but I am coming in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied,” he cried. “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand; and I will smite you, and take your head off, and your carcass is the one the birds of the air and the beasts of the field will dine on!” With that, David rushed forward, let the stone go from his sling, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Why is this story important to this book? Because Goliath was a Nephilim, and was defeated by a young servant of God. If the arrival of these beings or the spirit of their sins is the preeminent sign of the end times, David defeating one is germane as well. This, too, is an important prophetic symbol.

From a youth to an old man, consider another example. Four hundred twenty-seven years before David slew Goliath, the people of Israel were camped along the southern border of Canaan, the “Promised Land” God had said He would give them. Twelve spies—one from each tribe of Israel—went in to survey the land and found walled cities inhabited by giant Nephilim offspring. Psalm 78:41 records what happened at this discovery. “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” In other words, like Saul’s army later did, the children of Israel trembled at the sight of the sons of Anak, the giants of Nephilim descent. “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants,” they uttered in hopeless despair before adding, “and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:32–33). Only two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, believed in the promises of God. They encouraged the people not to be afraid, to trust in the Lord who would give them victory over the Nephilim. But that generation disagreed, wanted to have Joshua and Caleb stoned, cursed God, and died in the wilderness never having received their inheritance in Canaan. Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, waited for God’s further orders, which came in 1451 bc: “Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.... There shall not any man be able to stand before thee” (Joshua 1:2–3, 5). Joshua and Caleb trusted God as usual, and this time, at the age of eighty-five, no less, Caleb drove out the sons of Anak that had so terrified the unbelieving spies.

The fact that God’s people could prevail over the spirit of the Nephilim in these ways is an ageless reality. It suggests that believers today not only could survive, but could triumph, over the inhuman threat represented by GRIN technology and the transhumanist agenda. This will occur as believers recall specific Bible knowledge and engage in dynamic activity, what we title those other two signs of the days of Noah.

THE “SECOND SIGN” OF THE DAYS OF NOAH: PREACHING RIGHTEOUSNESS

While it could certainly be possible to get discouraged by focusing on the Nephilim and the prediction of their return at the end of time, a wonderful portion of Scripture from the same days of Noah adds, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Think about what a marvelous revelation this is: that at the darkest time in earth’s history, when the sins of the Watchers had spread like a cancer across continents, infecting all of humanity both genetically and philosophically, “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). At a time when all flesh was tainted by transhuman genes and every imagination of men’s thoughts were only evil continually (Genesis 6:5), one man had not forgotten where to glory, one man walked with God, one man found grace.

Today, as we move into the uncharted waters of a resurrected technological and human-transforming era, the keys to victory for believers will be the same as they were for David, Joshua, Caleb, and Noah—knowing where to glory, what to keep one’s focus on, where to place one’s faith, and whose champion we can be.

On this point, it is clear that Noah did not buy into the transhuman lies of his day. While the immortals known as Watchers were promising advanced technology to the world in exchange for use of human DNA (Book of Enoch, chapter 8), it must have been obvious to Noah how reminiscent this was of the serpent in the Garden who made similar promises of godlike abilities for those who partook forbidden fruit. Noah assumed leadership instead, independently maintaining his faith and focus in God, not willing to compromise his flesh or that of his family for any temporal therapeutic benefit (lie). Furthermore, Noah did not sit idly by keeping these opinions to himself. In 2 Peter 2:5, we learn he became a “preacher of righteousness” (Greek kerux: a herald or “one who announces”). This was true in his use of technology as an “illustrative sermon” while building the Ark (contrasted to the misuse of technology by Watchers), but some scholars believe it was more than this, that he preached audibly, facing the transhuman movement of his day with boldness, publically warning of the dangers of grievous sins related to genetic manipulation incited by invisible agents.

In the letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul states the responsibility of the Church in this regard for today, concluding this was by divine intention. “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 3:10). Imagine that. It is our duty as believers to follow Noah’s example and make known the manifold wisdom of God until even the angelic powers are aware of it. Was this behind what Brent Waters, whom we quote at the top of this chapter, had in mind when he said, “If Christians are to help shape contemporary culture—particularly in a setting in which I fear the posthuman message will prove attractive, if not seductive—then they must offer an alternative and compelling vision; a counter theological discourse so to speak”?

While “a counter theological discourse” reflective of the everlasting gospel of human redemption through the person of Jesus Christ will be antithetical to the salvation plan of transhumanism, it must address the difficult philosophical and ethical questions raised by modern technology and the portentous move by governments and powers to use biological sciences to remanufacture mankind. The message needs to be relevant and must appeal to the questions and style of a generation raised during the Digital Revolution, an age of personal computing and information-sharing technology that for many of us represents a shift away from the Industrial Revolution’s outdated methods of communicating. The need to parse information is changing so rapidly that we expect to hit the knee of the techno-info curve sometime around the year 2012, followed by Singularity and critical mass. As a result, the authors of this book have teamed with a group of ministries and intellectuals and are currently organizing a new national conference, the Future Congress on Emerging Threats and Challenges, the first of which is to be held the third week of July 2011 in Branson, Missouri. More information on this event—and why you should be there—will be posted before the end of 2010 at http://www.forbiddengate.com/, including how the conference will address, among other things, the need for an international statement on human enhancement and a Christian manifesto on GRIN technology and human dignity.

In the next entry, we will outline some of those issues from the new book Forbidden Gates.

AVAILABLE NOW! Forbidden Gates: How Genetics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Synthetic Biology, Nanotechnology, and Human Enhancement Herald the Dawn of Techno-Dimensional Spiritual Warfare