Last night's debate, a great show, but it didn't really settle anything.
Outbreaks of pestilence around the world report and a huge increase in the demand for exorcists.
This is Skywatch TV for Tuesday, September 27th, 2016.
I'm Derek Gilbert.
Let's get up.
NASA's big reveal yesterday, Jupiter's moon Europa may be spewing water into the atmosphere.
That's right, the big reveal was that Europa is doing a cosmic spit take.
This was spotted by the Hubble telescope in the image you see what scientists believe
are plumes of water vapor at the seven o'clock position in the image.
This is a composite, superimposing data from the Hubble and from the Galileo and Europa
or Voyager missions, rather.
Now, why is this important?
Astrobiologists who at the moment are scientists in search of something to actually study say
it's because water is an essential component for life as we know it.
Of course, we realize that.
But remember that having the component does not necessarily mean the presence of life or
that life will ever develop on Europa.
In the same way that the presence of auto parts in a junkyard does not mean that those
parts will assemble themselves into a car.
This doesn't affect our status on Earth as God's imagers.
We are created in His image not because we look like Him, but because we are His moral
agents on Earth.
And the presence of life on Europa or Titan or Mars or a comet changes that one bit.
In other news, billionaire Elon Musk will reportedly trump NASA's announcement today.
He'll have his own announcement as his company SpaceX is set to announce plans to build
a city on Mars.
He's hosting an event today called Making Humans and Interplanetary Species.
Musk has been showing off images of a new rocket booster called the Raptor, which will
power his interplanetary transport system.
Musk also believes that the future of humanity, besides being scattered among the stars, is
merging our biology with technology, supercomputers, becoming an AI human symbiote, possibly through
the use of something called a neural lace, which is a proposal to develop a mesh that
would fit inside your head on top of your brain and connect it directly to Wi-Fi or
some other type of communication system.
As I said before, radical upgrades in human abilities without a similar radical upgrade
in our moral abilities, in other words, a regenerate heart thanks to the intervention
of God and His Christ, means basically hell on earth, sinful, fallen humans with superpowers,
not a place I want to be.
It's a nice thought.
I appreciate the desire of transhumanists like Mr. Musk, but it is misplaced.
And if the technology were there to accomplish the goal, which I still doubt.
But the transhumanists are determined to try.
A scientist in Sweden has started trying to edit the DNA in healthy human embryos.
His name is Fredrik Lanner, a developmental biologist, believed to be the first researcher
known to do this.
The keywords in that sentence are believed and known because it's probable that this
kind of work is going on out of sight.
It's not yet past the ick factor.
We're always started down this slippery slope when we started with embryonic stem cell research,
but yet in the back of our minds, we know this is wrong.
And so collectively as a society, we have not yet reached the point where we believe
it's okay to begin editing the DNA of healthy human embryos.
So Lanner's work, he says, is an attempt to learn more about how genes regulate early
development of embryos and would possibly lead to new ways to treat infertility and
miscarriages.
Again, noble goals, he also says he wants to learn more about embryonic stem cells so
they can be used to treat disease, which thus far has been unsuccessful because embryonic
stem cells are intended for embryos, which go through explosive growth during the nine
months that they're in the womb.
However, this in a human or human adult is a bad thing.
That type of explosive cellular growth is what we call cancer, which is why there have
been exactly no zero treatments developed from embryonic stem cells to date.
And of course, that's besides the fact that in order to harvest embryonic stem cells,
you have to create and then destroy human embryos.
In my view, this is the first step down a slippery slope toward seeing childbirth, viewing
it morally, has nothing more than a high tech builder bear workshop.
Want your child to be tall, blonde, athletic, pay your fee, donate your eggs, come back
in a few weeks and we'll have your child built to order.
We heard all of these promises about embryonic stem cells 10 years ago here in the state
of Missouri when voters were persuaded by a massive television ad campaign featuring
Hollywood stars, including Michael J. Fox, who filmed his commercial while he was off
his medication for his Parkinson's disease, persuaded voters to enshrine embryonic stem
cell research in the state constitution.
It was a close vote.
In California, voters there voted to create a state agency specifically to finance with
taxpayer dollars embryonic stem cell research.
Again, 10 years on, the only promising treatments to come out of stem cell research have been
developed with adult stem cells, not embryonic stem cells.
Again, this is a move toward 21st century eugenics, self-directed evolution, eliminating
the weak to create a new, better, and dare I say, master race.
Taking things a step farther, the transhumanist candidate for president says we should just
ditch our bodies altogether and digitize our minds, replace all these worn out biological
parts.
The Zoltan Ishtvan, nice man, I've interviewed him a couple times, writes in a new essay
that death is caused by failing cells.
Cells age, they die, and thus we as the organism eventually age and die.
Problem for Ishtvan is that he doesn't believe there is life after the biological part of
us quits working, and in this sadly he is incorrect.
His proposed solution then, which is common among transhumanists, is to replace these
biological parts with machine parts, bionics, and electronics, and he also sees this as potential
common ground between transhumanists and vegans, because if we don't need animal protein in
order to remain healthy, vibrant, and alive, we won't eat meat anymore.
And look, there are days when my back is acting up or my shoulder or hip begins to ache for
no apparent reason.
The idea of replacing with bionics seems like a better idea, but that is not how we are
designed.
And as research grows, and there is research being done that is finding this out, that
there is a part of us, you call it the soul or the spirit, that cannot be digitized and
stored on flash memory.
We Christians need to use this information to counter this argument, this lie, this new
religion being put forward by the transhumanists.
Most pastors are so overwhelmed with the demands of their job, they've not even heard
the word transhumanism, and make no mistake about it.
This idea that our immortality depends on technology is a 21st century religion.
And the transhumanist even recognized this.
I believe this is why Dr. Ray Kurzweil titled one of his most popular books, The Rise of
the Age of Spiritual Machines.
I'll say it again, make no mistake about it, this is a new religion.
Now around the world, a number of disease outbreaks to tell you about, H1N1 influenza
has hit a southern province in Vietnam.
In 2009, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic because this particular strain
of H1N1 had not been seen in humans before.
In Africa, there's an outbreak of rift valley fever, first diagnosed in the country of Niger.
It's spread to communities now bordering on the countries of Mali, which is to the west
of Niger and Algeria to the north.
Rift valley fever is spread through contact with infected blood from domesticated animals
or through mosquito bites.
So far, 23 people have died, 60 more are infected, and a large number of livestock animals have
died from the virus, especially cattle, sheep, and camels.
On Friday, on Cy Friday, we told you about the outbreak of hand, foot, and mouth disease
here in the US.
This is something podiatrists only usually see in newborns and infants, but this time
it's being spread among teenagers.
So far, cases reported in Florida, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois, and
New Jersey is probably elsewhere as well.
High schools in a number of states have had to cancel Friday night football games because
of the disease.
Florida State University and University of Colorado at Boulder also reporting cases
of hand, foot, and mouth.
There's no treatment for it.
It just has to run its course, some painful blisters for about a week before it goes
away, but it's easily communicable.
And in Florida, mayors in Miami-Dade County say that they were told by state officials
to keep quiet about reports of the Zika virus in their communities.
The Florida Department of Health denies the report, said a decision to keep the information
quiet was made by Miami-Dade County.
The Miami Herald reported last Friday that a county attorney, said the state agency,
Health Department, had told them to keep things a secret.
And on Sunday, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Jimenez issued a statement repeating that the agency
had ordered the county to keep secret the locations of traps that had caught mosquitoes
testing positive for the Zika virus.
Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine backed up Mayor Jimenez, saying that the state health
department ordered the information blackout to protect the privacy of residents in areas
with Zika positive mosquitoes.
As of last week, the state of Florida reported a total of 105 local Zika infections caused
by mosquitoes.
Well, last night was the big show, the first presidential debate between Republican Donald
Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Macbeth said it best, a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Now, I'm not saying either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton are the idiots, I'm referring to
the media that basically spins this event 150 years ago when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen
Douglas debated in my home state of Illinois.
They would take an entire afternoon and yeah, things would get heated, but they would actually
display some oratorical skill.
Nowadays debates are decided by who gets the most catchy one-liners because of sound bites
needed by the 24-hour cable news cycle.
Frankly with this system of choosing leaders, we get what we deserve, let's just pray that
the Lord influences whoever it is who winds up in the White House next January.
I will say this, I just about choked when Hillary started lecturing America about cybersecurity
after using an unsecured private email server in contravention of the law to handle classified
documents while she was Secretary of State.
Now comes the word that President Obama might not have been exactly truthful when he said
he had no idea that Mrs. Clinton was using her own private email server.
According to documents released last Friday by the FBI, it appears the president sent
Mrs. Clinton email at least once using a pseudonym, false name, apparently because he knew her
server was illegal and possibly not secure.
Speaking of Washington, the monument there, Washington Monument closed indefinitely, it's
got elevator troubles.
The National Park Service doesn't know exactly what's wrong with it, but they want to modernize
the system.
They say it'll take nine months from the date work begins, but no start date has yet been
set.
One of the points Mr. Trump made last night was the rising tide of violence in our cities
over the last couple of years, especially in my hometown of Chicago, where so far this
year 3,228 people have been shot.
502 have died, and my old neighborhood, one of the most dangerous in the city now, one
of two where more than 50 people have been shot so far this year, well, things went
to a whole new level of gruesome in Chicago last week.
A severed head and other body parts found in a garbage bag floating in the McKinley Park
Lagoon on the south side Friday morning, Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson
said the head was identified as male, probably African American, and it's the second time
in two years that body parts have been found in a Chicago Park District Lagoon.
In Mexico, string of violence, kidnappings and murders, specifically against Roman Catholic
priests, a missing priest found shot dead off the side of a highway in western Mexico
Friday, days after he was kidnapped from his home in the state of Veracruz.
Reverend Jose Alfredo Lopez Guillen was found Saturday night after being abducted last Monday.
The same day, authorities in Veracruz found the bodies of two more priests who had been
taken from their parish home the previous day.
That makes 31 priests killed in Mexico in the last 10 years.
Now last May, we talked about a remarkable right performed by Roman Catholic officials
in Mexico, a so-called great exorcism at the Cathedral of San Luis Potosi.
It was to exercise demons from the entire country.
The ritual was performed by Cardinal Juan Sandoval Ingués, the Archbishop Emeritus
of Guadalajara, also participating Archbishop Jesus Carlos Cabrera of San Luis Potosi and
Spanish demonologist and exorcist Father Jose Antonio Fortea.
The violence rising against the priesthood in Mexico, it's possible that they were actually
onto something and perhaps maybe provoked something.
And apparently the demand for exorcists here in the United States is on the rise as well.
Now, we Protestants call them deliverance ministers, but the purpose is the same, even
if the names and the methods are different.
The Telegraph in the UK just published an interview with two of the busiest Roman Catholic exorcists
in the U.S., Father Gary Thomas, the official exorcist for the Diocese of San Jose, California,
and Father Vincent Lampert of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
They told the Telegraph that the increase in drug and pornography addiction, the failure
of the mental health system, and a rise in the popularity of pagan activities such as
the use of the Ouija board to summon the dead are contributing to a huge increase in
the demand for exorcists in America.
I would suggest that the popularity of other pagan activities, activities that we Christians
might not even recognize as pagan are contributing to this trend of demonic influence, things
such, well, things that are finding their way into evangelical churches such as contemplative
prayer and yoga, and other spiritual practices being taught to our children such as mindfulness
meditation, which is being used to calm hyperactive children at the grade school level.
It's an effective alternative to suspensions and punishments.
Look, it's a spiritual discipline that opens them to the spirit realm.
Don't be surprised when something invites itself in.
And with Halloween coming up in just over a month, something to bear in mind.
We're surrounded by this stuff and we as Christians of all people should be cognizant
that what we do in the physical realm has impact in the spiritual realm.
We talked a lot about transhumanism today, remind you that the award-winning documentary
in human, the next and final phase of man is here, is available for you in a number of
ways.
Of course, you can order through the Skywatch TV store and get the DVDs for your own.
You can also watch in full high def at Amazon Prime.
If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, in fact, you can watch at no cost.
If you don't subscribe to Amazon Prime, you can also see it for $2.99.
It's a seven-day rental, and it's $2.99 per half.
The movie's three hours long, so it had to be broken into two parts.
But still, $6 for seven-day rental to watch it in full HD.
You can buy the movie and own it as part of your Amazon Prime subscription films forever,
$9.99 a piece, again, available at Amazon Prime, and if you want the discs for your
collection, you can get those through the Skywatch TV store, skywatchtvstore.com.
We've also made a number of the best Skywatch TV episodes available through Amazon Prime.
You'll find those again at amazon.com.
Just do a search for Skywatch TV in the video section.
And this week on Skywatch TV, as we continue toward the end of National Preparedness Month,
a program for National Preparedness Month featuring Steve Quayle and Tom Horn talking
about the biblical justification for being prepared, why it's not demonstrating fear,
but wisdom.
You'll see that program tonight on the Victory Television Network in Arkansas and around
Memphis, 6.30 p.m. there.
In Sandusky, Ohio, Kalamazoo, Michigan at 6.30 and 7.00 p.m. Central Time, and then coast
to coast on the Christian Television Network tonight at 8.30 p.m. on Direct TV Channel
376, Dish Network Channel 267, and the Glory Star Satellite Channel 117.
Tomorrow, coast to coast on the Cornerstone Network at 2.30 p.m. Central Time, and World
Harvest Television at 6.00 p.m. Central Time, that is Direct TV Channel 367.
On Thursday, WLLA TV in Kalamazoo has it again, and then on Saturday, again, on the Victory
Television Network at 3.30 p.m. Saturday afternoon, WCLF TV in Tampa has it at 6.30 p.m. Central
Time.
For a complete list of dates and times, you can see the program or Skywatch TV, log on
to skywatchtv.com, and then click the link in the top menu bar that says Channels.
And this program is available on demand along with our archive, all Skywatch TV programs
going back for the last year and a half, available at the Skywatch TV channel on Roku, along
with our Skywatch TV web exclusives, interviews that couldn't fit into the network television
schedule, these daily news updates, and our weekly programs like Into the Multiverse with
Josh Peck and Cy Friday, all of those available at skywatchtv.com, the Skywatch TV channel
on Roku, and the Skywatch TV channel on YouTube.
And of course, we prepare an audio version for you as well, the Skywatch TV podcast.
You'll find that information and how to download it posted at skywatchtv.com, click the link
in the top menu bar that says podcast.
Our gift for your support during the month of September, National Preparedness Month,
a women's safety kit to be prepared for, hopefully, a confrontation you never have to experience.
Pepper spray, a personal alarm, a whistle, a handbag, and an important book, survive
the unthinkable, a total guide to women's self-protection.
We'll send that to you for your donation of $25 or more.
All supplies last for information and a donate, log on to skywatchtv.com slash donate.
Wherever you find us online, your mouse finger can help us out just by clicking like, share,
clicking subscribe down here if you're watching on YouTube, and you'll find my things online
at DerekPGilbert.com, that is the web hub for all things Derek, or DerekPGilbert anyway.
The interview this week with Richard Burke, an archeologist, or at least one who studies
archeology, but used it to create a very realistic world for his series of novels called Raising
Up Pharaoh.
We discuss how archeology informs the biblical narrative, not contradicts it.
I think you'll find that very interesting.
You'll find the link to that at my website, DerekPGilbert.com.
My email address for your comments, questions, and suggestions, D. Gilbert at skywatchtv.com.
Thank you for watching.
As we keep watch, I'm Derek Gilbert, and this is Skywatch TV.
Most American families are just 72 hours away from disaster here at Skywatch TV.
We hope we can help avoid that.
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I'll see you in the next one.
