In the early 1970s, this plaque was attached to NASA space probes Pioneer 10 and 11 as an exercise in communication with extraterrestrial beings. Note the two faces and the astronomical diagram. Compare with the Cydonia Complex message described in this book:

13. Sermon on a Hill

The discovery related in this book confirms christian faith in the Bible and attacks evolutionary theory. Yet the purpose of this book is to help those who call themselves strangers and even enemies to christianity -- including evolutionists, agnostics, and even atheists. The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 2:4 that God " . . . wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."

Our real battle is against demons. Ephesians 6:12 says, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Nonetheless, God believes in personal responsibility. According to Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Though we deny it, we know better than to continue our rebellion of God through the pretense of 'scientific disbelief.'

And God will judge, death is no escape, and his judgement will be everlasting, as Daniel 12:2 says of the end of the present age: "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt."

God has offered us salvation from eternal judgement and admission into eternal life, through the atoning gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible is God's message to you as to how you might come to know him and share in his eternal salvation.

Yes, this seems strange to us. In the world's perspective, the material world is everything because it is seen, and Heaven is nothing because it is not yet seen. But God's perspective is different. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 says:

So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

There is no point in striving for material things in themselves, for even our physical bodies will be lost. If we do strive while we live in physical reality, it is for the spiritual values of eternity. " . . . No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him," says 1 Corinthians 2:9.

Eternal joy awaits! Why do we shun it for the empty pleasures of the moment?

And yes, there is a Hell for those who reject God's offer. Hebrews 10:26-27 warns: "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."

The typical human response is: "How can a loving God cast people into Hell for all eternity? Since I can't believe in that, I refuse to believe in God." That would be fine if the existence and character of God were an individual and subjective preference. But God universally and objectively exists. That's the point of this book.

The message has always been clear. Now it's unavoidable. Though Martian monuments were only fuzzy photographs for so long, in the future they will become central to the question of the meaning of our existence. This is in keeping with the warning of Jesus, in Luke 21:25: "There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars." And then, with all warnings having been given, there will come the end of the world.

The prophet Jonah warned the city of Nineveh to repent or be destroyed. They repented, and God withheld his judgement and punishment for a time. Can our age delay ultimate judgement? Perhaps, if we heed the message.

There is only one chapter in the Bible where the name of Mars appears: Acts 17. It is actually part of a Greek word, 'Areopagus,' which is a compound of the Greek words 'Ares' (Mars) and 'Pagus' (Hill). Thus Areopagus literally means, 'Mars Hill.'

Acts 17 tells of the apostle Paul touring the Roman Empire during the first century AD. While working as a missionary for the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul is persecuted in a certain Greek city and flees for refuge to the more tolerant Greek city of Athens. He has not come to preach or plant a church, but only to await the arrival of his friends, so that he can move on to another missionary destination. But Acts 17:16-17 tells us:

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

This attracts the attention of the pagan and agnostic philosophers, as told in verse 18:

A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

Epicureans and Stoics represent two secular belief systems, one emphasizing pleasure in life, the other rationality. The same people, under different names, are around today.

Continuing in verse 19:

Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?"

The Areopagus -- 'Mars Hill' -- is an actual hill located in the city of Athens. In earliest times, the supreme legislative council of the city-state met at the Areopagus. The council came to be called by the same name. By Paul's day, the council had lost much of its civil authority, but was still influential in the religious matters of the city.

Paul was driven to Athens against his will. He sees idols, and preaches spontaneously. Philosophers passing by just happen to hear him, and take him to the Areopagus. The sole purpose is the speech Paul is about to make.

The Areopagians recognize the strangeness of the situation in verses 20-21:

". . . You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

To the Athenians, the Bible was as strange as we might find the Martians. For Paul, this was the first and only time in his career in which he preached to persons having little or no familiarity whatsoever with God's word. He would have to refer to philosophical truth instead to make the case of God's existence. Paul was preaching before a secular audience.

Paul begins his sermon in verses 22-23:

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

Cydonia is millions of miles away, yet somehow the words apply. The Martians too appealed to gods, and in so doing the true God became unknown to them. Paul's words are so universal that they apply even to Martians.

Paul continues in verses 24-25:

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else."

Consider his choice of words. Paul speaks of temples built by hands, then of God not being served by human hands. We know from Cydonia that the Nephilim, not quite human, built temples with their hands -- thus all hands, not just human hands, must be included in Paul's statement. We know from Sumerian mythology that it was a Nephilim idea that human hands are to serve the 'gods' -- thus human hands, not all hands, must be specified in the next sentence. Paul has again spoken in such a way that his words have universal application.

'Life and breath and everything else?' Another interesting choice of words, considering Mars lost its breathable atmosphere when it turned from the true God!

Paul continues in verse 26:

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them, and the exact places where they should live.

This again is directly applicable to the Nephilim, for their entire story is one of beings leaving 'the exact places where they should live.' The Nephilim were born because angels left their place to have sexual relations with human women. The Nephilim were exiled to Mars because God had set the Earth as the abode of the human race. The Nephilim civilization of Mars was destroyed when they sought to usurp the Earth from humanity, in violation of God's determination.

Paul continues in verse 27:

"God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us."

The universality of Paul's message also applies to us. We've reached out to Mars, but knowledge of God is all around us and even resides in our own hearts.

Verses 28-29:

"'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone -- an image made by man's design and skill.

Even the Nephilim thought themselves children of the 'Sons of God.'

They worshiped their moons, which were made of stone.

The 'image' -- surface appearance -- of the moons indicate that they may have been moved by the design and skill of the ancestors of the Cydonian Martians. The Martians may have indeed created their own gods.

Who is this sermon for? Humans at Mars Hill? Or Martians at a hill on Mars?

The answer is, both. God has made it so that these words ring with universal truth. Paul spoke with God's inspiration; if Paul wasn't thinking of Mars and the Nephilim just then, perhaps God was.

Verse 30:

"In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent."

Did the Martians repent? The condition of their world says no. In verse 31, Paul warns of a similar worldwide judgement awaiting us:

"For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

Paul's reference of the resurrection of the dead sets the Areopagus council in an uproar. Some rejected the message. Others accepted. Only two converts are named in Acts 17: a man named Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, and a woman named Damaris.

Is there significance to these names?

Dionysius comes from Dionysus, who in Greek mythology is the son of a god and a human woman. In origin, his name symbolizes the Nephilim. On the other hand, Damaris is a name with no mythological connotation. In origin, her name symbolizes humanity.

These are the only two names mentioned -- one for the Nephilim, one for the human race -- signifying that Paul's message does apply to both races.

Strange that a speech spoken twenty centuries ago should hint at something we are only now beginning to uncover. Strange -- unless, that is, the words have a supernatural origin.

Bible scholars recognize that when Paul says in verse 28, "For in him we live and move and have our being," he is quoting from the poet Epimenides -- a native of the island of Crete. On Crete there is an ancient city, whose name the astronomer Schiaperelli appropriated when he created his map of Martian surface features in the nineteenth century. The name of that city is Cydonia.

So, many centuries before Schiaperelli connected Cydonia with Mars and many centuries before we knew there was anything unusual about Cydonia, Paul stood on Mars Hill and quoted a poet from the land of Cydonia. Of all the poets to quote just then, and of all the places a poet could come from . . . .

Indeed, in him we move.

Will we get there someday?

Not long ago, beings on another world built a temple to honor their gods. Their gods were merely large stones, and could neither hear nor act on their prayers. Their world has perished, or nearly so.

Today, the human race worships a very large stone god indeed -- the entire universe. We worship it as our only father, and we obey only its commandments, and we believe that it contains all eternity. Yet it neither hears nor acts on our prayers. What will be our planetary fate?

The true God calls us to put aside this foolishness of this world, and strive for another, greater world. He has placed the truth in our hearts, written us testimony, and even sent us his Son.

And on Mars is a sign for our age, the first of many he has promised as the final warning before the closing of this age.

The fate of one race might now be sealed, and the fate of our own race has been foretold. But what will be your personal fate?