Radio Interview at Binnall of America

It was a privilege to do an interview with Tim Binnall, the audio is now posted at his site.
We cover a broad range of topics from the stories on my blog and more. It was a great time with a great interviewer!
The link is below!

The Interview

A Battle in the Heavens

On an empirical level it is of course very odd and striking when the unseen world breaks through our own and reminds us of the reality of the spiritual plane in which we all co-exist with spiritual creatures.

But it should be of no surprise to Theologians or anyone who has even an elementary knowledge of Scriptures from the Judeo-Christian perspective.

We are surrounded by spiritual beings, whether seen or unseen.

Scripture and Judeo-Christian tradition tell us that a third of the angels of God fell from grace and their heavenly abode. With tales from around the world of the presence of demonic or malicious entities that number of the fallen must have been a very high one. Of course there is also the Early Church tradition of the Nephilim, the half breed race of fallen angels and man that was an abomination to God. According to tradition, having died in the flood, they wander the earth to harm or possess mankind. These disembodied Nephilim may also be mistaken for a demonic entity as well. Needless to say, the numbers of these evil creatures are not known, but they are a formidable army arrayed against humanity.

However, a lot of us who deal with these entities on a theoretical or practical level often fail to take into account that these are not the only invisible beings that share our plane of existence.

One a third of the angels fell. That means two thirds are still the loyal messengers of God, protectors of humanity. We are literally surrounded by hosts of light and darkness, fighting in an unseen world. They battle over the souls of men, on an individual and communal level.

Most of the times these heavenly battles take place in the unseen ethereal realm, not noticed by most mortals. But sometimes they are sensed by those who are sensitive or who possess spiritual gifts. Occasionally the battle comes to the home front of humanity when an oppression or possession takes place. And on the rarest of occasions these battles are manifest where they can be visible in our earthly realm to those who have eyes to see.

Syd and Gladys Marklin, missionaries to Columbia have had such an experience. They had served as missionaries to Bogota and the surrounding area for over 37 years when they retired in the late 80s. Syd was the scholar of the family and taught theology to indigenous ministers, but as relayed here on the blog before, Gladys had a special calling from the Lord. Not only was she a prayer warrior and empathetic counselor, she was a spiritual warrior like few have ever been. She combined a sensitive heart, a devout soul, and a caring spirit to be used in incredible ways. It was early in their ministry that she began to stand out as an effective deliverance minister to those oppressed and possessed by diabolical entities. One more than one occasion the spiritual battle she encountered when seeking deliverance for an oppressed soul was not only a palpable presence, but it actually became manifest. On a few occasions she claims to have actually seen the battle take place before her very eyes, as if they were open to the spiritual reality around her that would otherwise be ethereal.

Julianna was raised in a Catholic home, but as a teenager her heart strayed. Giving into peer pressure she became rebellious and since her father would have nothing to do with a rebellious child, she soon found herself on the street before her 16^th birthday. She made by doing anything she could, from eating scraps out of the garbage of the well to do, to selling her body on the torrid streets of Bogotá. A beautiful girl, her services were eventually controlled by one of the wealthy drug cartels, and she began to serve an elite and ruthless clientele. By the time she was 18 she had been beaten close to death over half a dozen times because of her rebellious and stubborn nature. Even though she was so young, the toil of a hard life of abuse had made her grow older than her years. She knew that some night one of the beatings would take her life, and she would be cast aside as so much garbage like she had seen happen with so many others that crossed the path of the ruthless drug lords. So in desperation she sought out help to escape this dead end life.

By chance or the guidance of God, depending how you look at it, she ran into Gladys unexpectedly. Gladys was doing a counseling call to another girl who herself had been walking the streets just a year before. The young girl resided with her mother, and Julianna known her when she was still trapped in a life on the mean streets. She happened to come for aid just as Gladys was there. She offered Julianna sanctuary. It was a risky thing, the chance that someone who knew her reporting they had last seen Julianna leaving with Mrs. Marklin was a real threat. And many of the drug kingpins did not acknowledge the sacredness of the church. If associations were made the Marklins could be in serious trouble.

But they relied upon their faith, and God protected them. They did face a battle, though, one just as strong and threatening as any drug cartel.

During her stay in the mission compound Julianna was plagued by very disturbing and graphically violent dreams. She saw herself being beaten to death and dismembered. At the end of the dream she would look in a mirror and see her skinless face screaming back at her. Under her screams she would hear a diabolical laughter, and more than once after awakening from her dreams she heard the laughter in her room. Mrs. Marklin also noticed crosses and religious books in her room were destroyed overnight on more than one occasion. At first she thought it might be Julianna, but after questioning her and her sincere denial combined with the revelation about her dreams, Gladys knew there were things working behind the scenes that were plotting to destroy the young girl.

She suspected demonic oppression. Moreover, she suspected an active curse or spiritual attack from not only an entity or entities, but that there was a human hand at work behind the scenes. After talking to many sources it was revealed that although the cartel had hired a ‘Babalawo’ a practitioner of a variation of Santaria that knows how to communicate with and command spirits. As Gladys had suspected, Julianna was under a serious spiritual attack.

Gladys and her husband Syd, two other missionaries and a few indigenous ministered all gathered for prayer and fasting over Julianna. According to Gladys, it did not take long for strange phenomena to manifest itself in the room. First there was a low hum that grew in volume and then mutated somehow into the sound of a whining cat. Everyone that sat around the young girl began to feel an odd uneasiness permeate the room, according to one of the other missionaries it felt as if the room were alive with hate. Other mystery noises started sounding off from various areas in the building, as if stones were thrown on the roof to doors that were not there closing with violent power.

Gladys was the first one to see it, as a thin mist began form over Julianna’s head. Then two others noticed it as well as it coalesced into distinguishable solid shapes of darker haze.

It moved, back and forth, sometimes with large sweeping arks. The mist seemed to be coiling into itself and sometimes pushing against each other.

Then the figures of mist formed into two distinct beings of half visible shadow and light. One was a large being with great wings, a sword and odd shaped helmet. It was garbed in what looked like a tunic like garment, but the details were blurred as if watching the being through a hazy lens. The other creature was a bumpy and gnarled creature of mostly shadows. It had thin limbs that ended with long claws or hooks, which it used to strike out at the other being. The eyes were yellowish orange globes, and the only truly distinguishing part of the dark creature’s body.

Both beings seemed to be in a heated battle, the winged one that Gladys took to be an angel was swinging his sword tactfully, striking the dark creature in the body or arm as it tried to block the blows. The dark creature would counter attack by lashing out with its deadly claws as a cornered animal would do when faced by a greater foe. Not all saw the battle take place in the ethereal area above them and as the prayers of those present rose to a fevered pitch, the praise and intercession seemed to quickly swing the tide of the battle to the angelic being. With a mighty hack of the blade the dark creature was struck in the neck. A loud screech was heard echoing throughout the room by all present. It was high pitched and almost mechanical rather than that of an animal, but at that shriek of pain, the vision above them vanished.

As if on cue from the unnatural shriek, Julianna slumped off her chair and fell to the ground. She was very week, and Gladys and the others continued their prayers as she was brought to her bed and cared for by one of the other missionaries, who was also a nurse. The young girl woke up hours later and smiled, instead of the usual nightmare that had been plaguing her, she had experienced a wonderful dream. She was walking through a beautiful field with a handsome young man who looked like a body builder. She seemed to know him, but he did not look familiar. Suddenly from a forest edge a pack of rabid dogs ran toward them on an attack. With one swift move the man moved Julianna behind him, covering her from safety and produced a long knife from his side. She had never seen the knife before. He took three steps toward the attacking pack of rabid canines and the knife grew into an enormous sword, and with one swift strike he cut down the entire pack of dogs. The man turned to her and smiled a smile that filled her with peace, and with an enchanting voice he told her, “You are safe now.”

The terrible nightmares had left Julianna after this spiritual battle, and although she never again dreamed of the strong defender, she always had a sense that he was right there beside her. Julianna would eventually leave Columbia and go to school to become a nurse and the last time Gladys had heard of her she was assisting at a free clinic in Central America.

Many times during fasting and prayer, depending on the length and exclusivity of the fast, one can experience vivid visions or hallucinations. One time I had a friend of mine imagine a whole scenario that I knew never took place involving myself and other of our friends. When earnest prayer is mixed with a prolonged fast, the mind can either become delusional or particularly acute. I have also had associates who while in a secluded fasting and prayer session experience times of spiritual clarity and wisdom that were life changing.

Was Gladys and the other missionaries who saw this battle of heaven manifest itself in that prayer session hallucinating, or were they granted a rare vision into a reality that surrounds us, a reality that which very few can even perceive let alone experience?

Gladys, Syd and the missionaries and Julianna are all sure by faith and experience it was the latter.

We are surrounded by an unseen world. There are forces at battle around us and the prize they fight for are often the very souls of men and women. Sometimes they manifest themselves as hauntings, sometimes as oppressions, and more often than naught they are less than obvious.

We exist in a world of shadows and light, seen and unseen, understandable and paradoxical. In such a world certainty can be allusive and the unwary traveler may find themselves entrapped by the very things that they though would liberate them.

But for every darkness, there is a light. A light of hope, power and acceptance. The hope of freedom and completeness. When the shadows come, the light will always send them back to the abyss from whence they came.

Until Next Time,

Pastor Swope

See also my Examiner page:

'Devil Dolls' that come to life at night plague mexico

The AntiChrist is in Latin America?

A new short article about Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda, a self proclaimed anti-Christ on my Examiner site here: Examiner

Kinzua Dam: A Paranormal Hotbed

In 1796 Seneca War Chief Cornplanter was granted 15,000 acres along the Alleghany river by Pennsylvania for his assistance to the State as a loyal and a steadfast protector of American families settling in the wilderness of the upper Ohio River basin. In what would become the oldest standing Indian treaty, George Washington granted the land to Chief Cornplanter and his ancestors forever.

Forever ended in 1965 when the completed Kinzua Dam flooded the Alleghany river and covered the ancestral lands of the Seneca leader. Their homes, their only viable farmland, and the graves of the ancestors were now under hundreds of feet of water. Despite petitions from Tribal leaders to JFK to stop the proposed Dam in 1960, the President and United States broke the longest standing treaty between the Government and the Native Tribes of North America.

The residents of Kinzua and the adjoining town of Corydon were relocated, the Indian burial grounds were dug up, including that of Chief Cornplanter himself and the remains were entombed on the nearby hillside with a memorial.

But to this day the Seneca claim that not only was the removal itself a vile act of desecration, but that there are still some missing tribal graves under the flooded waters of the Alleghany. And even the bones of Cornplanter himself were treated with irreverence and disrespect, leading some who witnessed the desecration to believe that perhaps not all the remains of the historic Chief were re-interned. (American Heritage Magazine, December 1968, Vol.20 Issue 1)

The flooded valley is called the Alleghany Reservoir by the Government but to the Seneca nation this man made lake is called Lake Perfidy. Perfidy because of the underhanded deception that was conducted by the Corps of Engineers throughout the planning and building of the Dam and the promises made to the relocation of the people of the Tribe.

With all of the trauma and desecration one is not surprised to find out that there have been paranormal happenings along the Kinzua Dam and Lake Perfidy. But one would be amazed at the cornucopia of high strangeness that has manifest itself along the shores and beneath the waves of this cursed lake. But finding out these nuggets of Fortean happenings is not an easy task. Most of the campers and fishermen who spend their days and nights along the site are not the kind to openly share their incredible stories of the unexplained. But once in a while you get some who are willing to share their stories, and sometimes they are in the strangest places.

Kinzua is an Indian name which means “fish on spear” and the area since the flooding has been a prime Pennsylvania fishing spot. Indeed there have been record catches made on the man made lake. My family has fished at the Dam for years and I had never heard of any paranormal activities. However, recently I took a trip to the Tom Ridge Center, a welcome center to tourists coming to Presque Isle Peninsula here in Erie and I came across some strange first hand information. The reason for my trip to the center was to check out their exhibit of the 1966 UFO landing on Presque Isle, which I have reported on here. The Exhibit was not very informative and actually very condescending, disappointing since the incident was listed as never solved by Project Blue Book and the amount of time the Air Force investigated the incident. In fact the Air Force is never mentioned at the display; all they reference is a Park Ranger who claims ‘nothing spectacular happened’. But what peaked my interest was an adjoining display of Bayside Bessie, Lake Erie’s resident lake monster. The display made it seem that the creature had been sighted locally, when it was only briefly seen in the 1890s and the modern sightings took place near Cleveland Ohio. So I talked to one of the executive staff of the center about the display to see if I was missing anything. And of course when you talk to some people about the unexplained, you usually get their own stories.

The staff person told me that there have been some very strange sightings of a lake creature at Kinzua. She had heard a report from a Park Ranger that the Dam divers had a harrowing encounter with a very large snake-like creature within the last year. There was video supposedly shown by the Army Corps of Engineers to some Government officials of the creatures in Lake Perfidy. The executive told me the neck of the creature they had on tape had a massive neck that was almost two feet thick. The tape was made as divers were doing maintenance on the Dam itself and it also showed some monstrous fish near the bottom of Lake Perfidy as well. I was told that the divers have since resorted to working in cages as they inspect the Dam for fear of both the unknown aquatic creature and the car sized Catfish that might mistake them for a possible snack. Intrigued, I did some research...

Read the rest at my Examiner Article Here:

What lies beyond the Veil?

Where do we go when we die?

Two things spurred me to write this blog today.

First was the passing of three American Icons, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.

When legends die most people begin to wonder about their own mortality as well.

Secondly an acerbic comment left by ‘John’, an obviously confused person who by the prejudgment of his Fundamentalist ideology accused me of twisting Scripture to my own ends and urged me in no certain terms to ‘repent’. The topic in question for which ‘John’ had issues with was that of the Scriptural view of ‘Ghosts’ I examined in my article The Bible and the Paranormal Part 1:Ghosts.

When people of deep faith or conviction are presented with the idea that the ideology that they hold so dear might not be based on fact but conjecture, they either get go into a classic stress reaction which leads to fight or flight.

Judging by the comments of some, ‘John’ notwithstanding, that has been the overall reaction by Christians of a particular mindset to this topic.

Beware Christian Dogma Ahead!

While many of you might not hold to Christian belief, the Christian traditions have merged with Western Culture to such an extent that common beliefs in Christian circles are those in common culture as well.

The dominant Christian/Western view is that as Christians when we die, we go to heaven or hell depending upon what you either a) did with your life, and/or b)your relationship with Jesus Christ.

But does the Bible really say that?

Again as in my previous articles I must say we must look at the Bible as a whole and in context.

Most Christians get the belief that they are going straight off to heaven when they die because of some key passages from Paul the Apostle:

2 Corinthians 5:1-8 (NKJV)

¹ For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, ³ if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. ⁴ For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
⁶ So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. ⁷ For we walk by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Philippians 1:21-23 (NKJV)

²¹ For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²² But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. ²³ For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

So it would seem from a quick glance at these Scriptures that the Apostle Paul in these two letters is telling us that when you die you go right to Jesus in heaven. Many Christians comfort themselves with this thought, and to challenge it is considered heresy.

But when looking at Scripture as a whole it is not so clear cut.

Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians tells us something a little different about those who are dead:

¹³ But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

(1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 NKJV)

So here Paul says those who die are asleep. They are not alive and consciously living with Jesus in heaven. He also uses this terminology in the first letter to the church of Corinth, 1 Corinthians:

¹⁷ And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! ¹⁸ Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. ²⁰ But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.

There is a belief among some Christian traditions of ‘Soul Sleep’. Once the body is dead, the soul is not conscious. The soul and spirit sleep until they can be united with a new body.

So are we ‘asleep’ in souls sleep, or are we in heaven, or something else?

To define this let’s look at the verses that follow 2 Corinthians 5:1-8, Vv.9-10

⁹ Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Paul is talking about being with Christ in the context of the judgement of believers. If you also follow the context of the other Scriptures here as well, you will see that Paul is putting all this terminology and referencing into the context of the resurrection.

The Judeo-Christian tradition holds that there will be a bodily resurrection of the just at the end days. That is the great hope. We will not dwell in heaven for eternity, though by the language the scripture uses we could, but our bodies will be transformed and be like Christ at His resurrection. It will be a supernatural and multidimensional body that can traverse heaven and Earth. Not only that, but the whole cosmos shall be re-made so there is no more sin, war or death. That is the great hope.

What Paul references here then is what Christian Theologians call ‘The Intermediate State’ or ‘Disembodied Existence’. While the body dies, the soul lives on. It is the state of the body between death and resurrection.

Dr. D.E. Nilsson in his Biblical Doctrine Study concerning the Intermediate State acknowledges that : “The state of the human being after death is left largely in the shadows by Scripture”. Millard Erickson also agrees stating that “The doctrine of the intermediate state is an issue which is both very significant and problematic.” (Christian Theology, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990 p1174)

Early church fathers believed that all who die, righteous and unrighteous alike descend into Sheol or Hades, a gloomy dream state where they await the second coming of Christ.

(Joachim Jeremias, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedich, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, 10 vols. Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 1964-1976, Vol 1, pp.657-58)

Sheol and Hades are terminology associated with the grave, but in early apostolic thought it was almost a purgatory like waiting place where the souls of the dead waited until their final judgment. The just had joy and the unjust experienced torture. So the righteous in Christ experienced bliss, and although they were not in heaven itself (they had to be in the resurrected form to be granted that privilege after the judgment) they did experience comfort.

Many ancient writers who’s belief system that were akin to the ancient church fathers believed there was fellowship between souls in Sheol/Hades and the individual still laid claim to their identity. The supernatural phenomenon of a haunting, if it was not classified as demonic, was often thought of as a soul escaping Sheol/Hades up until the late 19^th century. (Burmester, William. New Castle News/Lawrence Country Historical Society: New Castle, Legends of Lawrence County. 1984 pp.85-86)

So where do we go when we die?

Traditionally we await the judgment of God and Christ in a disembodied existence. In that existence to have a taste of what that judgment will be. For the good, Christ comforts them and according to apostolic thought, there is a fellowship with family and friends. It is much like the phenomena related by those who have a near death experience. For the bad, it is not pleasant.

Significant in the early church thought is the concept of a souls escaping or somehow not being in Sheol/Hades.

While many will try to refute that the Bible talks about ghosts as disembodied spirits of the dead in Scripture, you cannot escape the evidence that the Scripture does reference ghost/spirits many times in a manner that does not associate them with demonic forces that need to be exorcized (1 Samuel 28:7-25; Matthew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52; Luke 24:33-43; John 6:14-21). Scripture tells us there was a belief in ghosts in the believing community of the Old and New Testament. Early church belief and writings demonstrate that believers untainted by millennia of political manipulation of theology believed that some spirits were indeed the disembodied dead who somehow escaped the confines of Sheol/Hades.

So we have Scripture and ancient church tradition to lean on. After we die we are in a place awaiting our final destination.

A place of peace for some, a place of torment for others.

A place that for some reason or another a spirit can escape or in some way avoid.

How?

We do not know.

But the spirit will not be able to avoid judgment for good or ill by its Creator and Sustainer of life, even though it might traverse the land of the living for a time.

Until Next Time,

Pastor Swope

The Paranormal Pastor on Pair a Normal Guys

Tonight, 6/23/09 at 9pm EDT

http://www.nowpublic.com/strange/pair-normal-guys-inc-radio-presents-paranormal-pastor

UFO in Singapore

I stumbled upon a strange video that supposedly shows a UFO over Singapore on May17th.

The report is from May 18th.

There is speculation that it is sunlight reflected on jet contrails, but that just does not seem right.

The phenomena descends on an angle toward the horizon instead of fades, like a contrail would.

One would also guess it might be a piece of space junk entering the atmosphere, however it does not have the appearance of breaking up, but remains the same as it dips below the trees, during a supposed time frame of 15 minutes.

The video can be found on my Examiner report here: Examiner