The Return of the Shroud

Monday, June 3, 2013

Dear Friend, The Return of the Shroud: recently the Shroud of Turin has resurfaced in the midst of new developments and new controversy. The Return of the Shroud Word for the Month & for Saturday, June 1 Scripture: Matt. 27:59 See Message: The Resurrection Factor What exactly is the Shroud? The Shroud is a linen cloth which bears a faint image, back and front, of a man who appears to have suffered severe physical trauma in a manner consistent with a crucifixion. Historical records appear to indicate the existence of the shroud around the years 1352 to 1357 in the French town of Lirey. From the 15th century onward, the history of the Shroud is well-documented. The image of the man bears several noteworthy features. One of the man's wrists bears a large, round wound which would be consistent with that of piercing. Small punctures can be seen around the scalp and forehead. One can see multitudes of linear wounds on the man's legs and torso which would be consistent with flogging by the Roman flagrum. The face is swelling from what appears to be a multitude of beatings. The man is bearded and has shoulder length hair, is muscular, and tall for his time. But perhaps the most stunning attribute of the Shroud was revealed in May 1898. In that month, an amateur Italian photographer, Secondo Pia, obtained permission to photograph the Shroud on May 28, 1898. When Pia looked at the image which had developed on his negative plate, he was startled. It turned out that the image on the Shroud itself was a photographic negative. So when a negative was made, the image was reversed and became a positive, the image of a bearded man in stunning clarity. Whatever else the shroud is, it is definitely the world's first photographic image or negative, existing centuries before the camera or photography was invented. Some believe the image was formed by a flash of radiation (as in the resurrection) and further believe that the image is three dimensional. In 1988, two radiocarbon tests were made on the shroud. The conclusion was that the shroud's cloth dated to the middle ages. But this still left the mystery of the shroud's image - a photographic negative before photography - unanswered. Recently the shroud has made news again after new forensic tests were run on it. The findings were based on three new tests, one mechanical and two chemical. Two of the tests involved infra-red light, and the other involved using spectroscopy, which measures radiation through wavelengths. The results of these tests dated the fiber of the cloth back to a period of time between 300 BC to 300 AD - a time period including the years of Messiah's life. Could this be the actual burial cloth of Messiah? And could the image be an actual image of his crucified body? Perhaps. Either way, the shroud remains one of the most inexplicable artifacts in human history. And more important, the evidence of the resurrection remains. What happened in that Jerusalem tomb on that Passover weekend, has changed the course of human history. So whether or not the Shroud of Turin turns out to be a true and accurate witness of the resurrection, there is another - our lives. The truest and most reliable witness of the resurrection is a truly changed, on fire, and all-out life for Messiah. And if we live that, there is no test on earth that can disprove it. Your brother and co-laborer, in His love and service, Jonathan