Over one million people have answered a call on Facebook to storm an Air Force base in Nevada in order to ascertain once and for all if it houses extraterrestrials, an issue that may have implications for the Messiah.

“We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry,” the invitation reads. “If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens.”

The details

The event called for September 20 and aptly named “They Can’t Stop All of Us” is being organized by “Sh*posting cause im in shambles” who describes himself as a “religious organization”. The Facebook page claims another million people have expressed interest in the event.

A pinned post on the page reassures the government that the organizer does not actually intend to storm the Air Force base.

“Hello US government, this is a joke, and I do not actually intend to go ahead with this plan,” the admin posted. “I just thought it would be funny and get me some thumbsy uppies on the internet.”

Not laughing

Spokeswoman Laura McAndrews told The Washington Post that the government was aware of the Facebook post and even though it was clearly intended as humor, she warned that approaching a closed military zone is no joking matter.

“[Area 51] is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces,” McAndrews said.. “The U.S. Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”

What is Area 51?

Nevada Test and Training Range in Nevada, also known as Groom Lake, has been home of the air force testing and training center, has been in operation since 1933. The base is huge, covering over 308,000 acres with at least 22 runways. The site was chosen for its remote location and the large expanses of perfectly flat land allowing for the construction of long runways, many of them unpaved. Adjacent to Yucca Salt Flats where the United States Department of Energy carried out over 700 nuclear tests, Area 51 is a six-mile by ten-mile section of the base in a remote and highly secretive section of the base. The current primary purpose of Area 51 is publicly unknown. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2005 led to the CIA publicly acknowledged the existence of the base for the first time in 2013. 

Area 51 has been used for several secretive projects including the testing of spy planes like the Lockheed U-2 and A-12, both developed under the auspices of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During the Cold War, Area 51 was used to evaluate captured Soviet air-assets. 

The presence of these extraordinary aircraft has been credited with the plethora of UFO sightings claimed in the area.

Secrecy

The government has provided minimal information regarding Area 51. The surrounding area is permanently off-limits to both civilian and normal military air traffic. Security clearances are checked regularly; cameras and weaponry are not allowed.  The airspace for 25 miles around the base is restricted. Even military pilots training in the surrounding area risk disciplinary action if they stray into the exclusionary “box” surrounding Area 51. Aviation maps do not show any topographic details of Area 51. Sections of the base are reported to be subterranean. 

The perimeter of the base is marked out by orange posts and patrolled by civilian guards in white pickup trucks and camouflage fatigues. Signage around the base perimeter advises that deadly force is authorized against trespassers. Surveillance is supplemented by cameras buried motion sensors.

The secrecy surrounding Area 51 goes far beyond these proactive measures. In 1994, a group of civilian contractors and their widows brought a lawsuit claiming they had been exposed to hazardous materials that were burned in an open trench at the base. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence after the government refused to release details of the materials, claiming it would harm national security.  This was reinforced by a presidential order signed by Bill Clinton.

The secrecy has led to wild speculation about what lurks in that remote section of the Nevada desert. The theories include but are not limited to:

• The storage, examination, and reverse engineering of crashed alien spacecraft, the study of their occupants, and the manufacture of aircraft based on alien technology
• Meetings or joint undertakings with extraterrestrials
• The development of exotic energy weapons
• The development of weather control
• The development of time travel and teleportation technology
• The development of exotic propulsion systems 
• Activities related to a shadowy one-world government

End-of-Days implications

Should the event actually take place, bringing the secrets of Area 51 to light, this may have implications for the Messiah. Though alien life forms and extraterrestrials are usually the realms of science fiction and speculation, they may also have a place in the end-of-days. There is even an esoteric branch of philosophy called exotheology which concerns itself with the potential impact on earthly religions and theologies of the discovery of life or intelligence elsewhere in the universe.

Dr. David Weintraub, professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University and the author of Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It?, is uniquely qualified to answer questions on the subject of aliens and religion. In his book, the professor stated that Jewish theology may actually require a belief in extraterrestrials since “there are no limits on the power of the creator. Thus, for Jews to say that no life beyond the Earth could possibly exist would be unacceptable, as such an idea would appear to place shackles on God’s creative power…the universe belongs to God (or is God) and God can do what God wishes to do with the universe.”

Nephilim

The sixth chapter of Genesis describes interactions between strange creatures called nephillim (literally ‘the fallen’) and men. 

It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth—when the divine beings cohabited with the daughters of men, who bore them offspring. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown. Genesis 6:4

The nephillim are mentioned again in the Book of Numbers as some of the huge residents of Israel present after the Exodus.

We saw the Nephilim there—the Anakites are part of the Nephilim—and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them. Numbers 13:33

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 97a) describes how the nephillim will return as a part of the Messianic process. In the Talmuda discussion between Rav Nachman and Rav Yitzchak.

Rabbi Yitzchak asks Rabbi Nachman, “Do you know when Bar Naphli (the sons of the fallen) will come?” Rav Yitzchak asks, Rav Nachman replies, “It is Messiah”.

Amos is the source

Rav Nachman bases his answer on a verse from Amos which connects ‘nophelet’ (the fallen) with the return of the House of David.

In that day, I will set up again the fallen booth of David: I will mend its breaches and set up its ruins anew. I will build it firm as in the days of old, Amos 9:11

An expert weighs in 

Yuval Ovadia, an expert on 

“It is clear that the US government is hiding something in Area 51. This is something they don’t even attempt to deny. It may be aliens. But it is not clear that aliens are what the Bible was referring to when it described nephillim. It would be intellectually dishonest to suggest that there is only one form of alien. If there are one species of alien, there are undoubtedly countless forms. Similarly, there are many beings that are not human that are described in the Jewish sources. Anakim (giants) are one such form that the verse in Numbers connects to the nephillim. It could also be that if there are aliens in Area 51, they could be shedim (demons). But in all the cases, our forefathers knew how to cope with them and we can as well.”

A pice of advice

Ovadia did not suggest storming Area 51 and warned that needlessly endangering life is forbidden by the Torah.

“Jewish sources do not deny that there may be life on other planets. It is left as a possibility,” Ovadia said. “But Jewish sources do not relate to anything that does not have any practical or philosophical implications that we need to relate to. If and when aliens become relevant to our service of God, it will become clear that they are here. Just as the nephillim were obviosusly present to the people before the Flood.”