Secrets of the Universe

'Some speculate that alien intelligence might beam vast streams of coded information, a virtual encyclopedia galactica, with insights into the origin of the universe or immortality'— so said a newspaper article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, November 5, 1993.

This article was in response to the call for those involved in the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project to obtain private funding for the search throughout the universe for what they believe must be millions of civilizations which have evolved.¹

The quote above summarizes the SETI project as man's crying out for some intelligence to tell him where he came from and how to find immortality.

But an infinite intelligence has already 'streamed' in information, a virtual 'encyclopedia galactica', about where we came from, who we are, what is wrong with us, and insights into immortality—and it's not coded! It's been translated into nearly every language in the world. It's in written form, revealed from the infinite intelligence who made everything. It's the Holy Bible!

Man knows there is a higher intelligence—he realizes there is something more. This is because the knowledge that there is an infinite God is written on man's heart and is obvious from all around us. 'Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse' (Romans 1:19-20).

Carl Sagan, from Cornell university, stated in his book The Cosmic Connection (p. 224): 'At this very moment the messages from another civilization may be wafting across space, driven by unimaginably advanced devices, there for us to detect them—if only we knew how. ... Or perhaps the messages are already here, present in some everyday experience that we have not made the right mental effort to recognize. The power of such an advanced civilization is very great. Their messages may lie in quite familiar circumstances. ... The message from the stars may be here already. But where?'

Carl Sagan seems prepared to accept there must be a much higher intelligence than man. He seems prepared to accept that this intelligence will communicate with man. He even seems prepared to accept that the 'messages' may already be here. But he also admits he may not have 'made the right mental effort to recognize' the messages. He is right about that. As Romans 1:21 states, 'Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.'

Message Here Already

The infinite all-knowing God has communicated to man through His prophets, His Son, and through His written Word. Carl Sagan was right when he wrote, 'The message from the stars may be here already.' It is!

God's written Word states in Psalm 19: 'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.' Paul says in Romans 10:18, 'But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world.'

Man is crying out for purpose and meaning. But he is not listening. In fact, he doesn't want to listen. As we read in Ephesians 4:18, 'Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.' Or as Paul states in 2 Corinthians 4:4, 'In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.' In 2 Peter 3:5, the Apostle tells us that man is 'willingly ignorant' of (or deliberately rejects) the truth about creation.

The Bible tells us that man will accept a lie rather than admit to the truth that God created all things, that man is a sinner and must bow down and accept his Creator as Lord of his life. But instead of doing this, man has 'changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things' (Romans 1:23).

And what better way to show how man has done this, than to look at what he did on August 20 and September 5, 1977? On these dates two spacecraft called Voyager were launched. On each was a gold-coated copper phonograph record as a message to possible extraterrestrial civilizations man hoped to contact.

These messages included pictures of the 'evolution of man' from molecules, through fish, reptiles, ape-like creatures, to humans. They also presented the 'evolution of man' in sound—a series of sounds in an evolutionary progression: music of the spheres, volcanoes, earthquakes, mud pots, wind, rain, crickets, frogs, birds, hyenas, elephants, chimpanzees, wild dogs, footsteps, heartbeats and laughter. There was also the sound of fire and speech, of stone tools, a tame dog, morse code, ships, a train, the F-111 aircraft, and so on.

They also had greetings from representatives of nations around the world. These messages brought greetings from Earth, calls for help, offers of friendship, promises that man is thinking about them (the extraterrestrial intelligence), calling these supposed beings out there 'great ones', pleas for peace, etc.

'Greetings from us Whales Too'

And just to make sure they were communicating, they included a greeting from some whales! In the book, Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record, by Carl Sagan and others, we read about the 'whale greeting' (p. 151):

' ... We listened to it [the whale greeting] many times and always with a feeling of irony that our imagined extraterrestrials of a billion years hence might grasp a message from fellow earthlings that had been incomprehensible to us.' ['Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools' (Romans 1:22).]

But again, man is not listening. This great (infinite) intelligence sent His prophets, and man stoned them. God sent His Son, and man nailed Him to a cross. God gave us His Word, and man has burned it and its preachers at the stake. Man cries out on one hand for there to be something more, but then shakes his fist at God. Why? Because man really wants to make his own god—he doesn't want the God of the Bible. He doesn't want to acknowledge that he is in rebellion against his Creator.

United Nations delegate Wallace R.T. Macaulay of Nigeria said in his message on Voyager, 'To extraterrestrial intelligent beings: We are supposed to inhabit this planet alone but we know this is not quite so. In Africa, we want to believe that we have you and you are all-knowing, and perhaps possess high intelligence and therefore can help us solve the many problems of our world here.'

Why don't they listen! 'My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth' (Psalm 121:2).

The then President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, in his message to the 'extraterrestrials' said, 'We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization. ... We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations.'

Well, the real news is that there is coming a time when there will be a world without sorrow, a time of eternal peace, a future Edenic state, but only for those who have obeyed Romans 10:13, 'For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

But for those who continue to worship the creature instead of the Creator, 'But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death' (Revelation 21:8).

Each of us has a choice.

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Reference

1. Ken Ham, 'Any Little Green Men Out There?', Creation magazine Vol.15 No.1, December 1992-February 1993, pp. 14-16.