Applied mathematical theology

Gregory Benford, one of my favourite science fiction writers (because, I suspect, he's also a scientist) has a cute piece in Nature on what would happen if there was a clearly nonrandom pattern to the cosmic background radiation that could "only be" a message. He mentions "applied mathematical theology" as a discipline that tries to decode it. At the end of the piece, it remains untranslated, with plenty of wiggle room for religion and science. But do you think it would bother any of these applied mathematical theologians if the did decode it, and it said:

Best before 15 billion years A. C.