Source: Face on the Shroud: How it appears on
the cloth, and as a photo “negative” that is a “positive.” ©1978 Barrie M.
Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Yesterday on "Holy Saturday," there was an
extraordinary online exposition of the Shroud
of Turin —purported to be the authentic burial cloth of Jesus
Christ — viewed
live across the globe on numerous media platforms.
Catholic
News Service reported earlier this week that amid the coronavirus
pandemic, Archbishop Nosiglia [of Turin, Italy] had received thousands of
requests to pray before the Shroud during Holy Week to ask God for “the grace
to defeat evil as he did, trusting in the goodness and mercy of God.”
The report concluded with the Archbishop's heart
wrenching, yet hopeful statement that seeing the Shroud "will go to the
heart and the sadness of many people who will follow us. It will be like
staying with the Lord on the day we await his Resurrection."
Proclaiming His Resurrection today are 2.4 billion
people around the world who adhere to the Catholic and Protestant
branches of the faith based on the divinity of Jesus Christ. (The Orthodox
Church celebrates on April 19.)
That evokes one of Easter's most frequently asked questions:
Is the Shroud of Turin shown yesterday — evidence of
Jesus' suffering, death, and Resurrection — the same linen cloth belonging to
Joseph of Arimathea that he and Nicodemus used
to wrap the body of Jesus on Good Friday?
That "evidence" is seen on a rectangular shaped
cloth measuring 14.6 feet long and 3.5 feet wide. The Shroud displays a
mysterious faint, continuous, front-to-back yellowed image of a bearded,
crucified man with AB type bloodstains matching the wounds suffered by Jesus of
Nazareth as recorded in all four Gospel narratives.
"Mysterious" because the Shroud is the
world's most revered and studied artifact with numerous unexplained properties
and questions that still baffle 21st -century scientists.
How was the image formed?
No one knows. One popular scientific theory is that
radiation rose from within the body, resulting in a burst of light that
scorched the cloth with a detailed, anatomically correct male image. Yet,
scientists know how the man's image was NOT formed.
In 1981, close to 40 distinguished scientists
participating in the only comprehensive study ever authorized — the 1978 Shroud
of Turin Research Project (STURP) — famously
concluded: "No pigments, paints, dyes or stains have been found," and
"The Shroud is not the product of an artist."
What explains the photographic abnormality?
In 1898, Italian photographer Secondo Pia applied the
"new" technology of photography to the Shroud. In his darkroom, Pia
discovered the Shroud's first "modern" unexplained mystery — when
seen with the naked eye, the cloth is a "negative" image — but
develops as a "positive" photographic negative. The
"positive" image shows in vivid detail the marks of torture endured
by the man.
Why is the Shroud image encoded with 3D
"distance" information?
Amazingly, the Shroud and the image is 2D but reads like
a 3D "relief map." This bewildering one-of-a-kind property was
discovered in the 1970s. Quoting again from STURP's final report summary:
"Computer image enhancement and analysis by a device known as a VP-8 image
analyzer show that the image has unique, three-dimensional information encoded
in it."
How is the Shroud image uniform in
depth?
Remarkably, the man's image is only two microfibers deep
— the thickness of about 1 percent of a single thread — and uniform in
intensity throughout the
cloth with no deviation — a feat impossible to
accomplish with human hands!
Furthermore, there are many more mysteries and
controversies concerning substances found on the cloth such as pollen, dust,
and traces of plants and flowers, some that trace back to Jerusalem in
the spring during the time of Jesus.
What about the radiocarbon dating
controversy?
The most famous, damaging, and widely known controversy
concerns the 1988 radiocarbon (C-14) tests dating the Shroud to between 1260
and 1390, thus denigrating the cloth as a "medieval forgery."
Immediately, scientists questioned and criticized the test protocols.
Finally, in 2017, the radiocarbon test raw data was
released after 29 years. Subsequently, a research study completed
in 2019 concluded that the medieval dates — famously reported in 1988
with great fanfare and "95 percent confidence" — were very suspect
and unreliable.
Given all that background, let's explore the title
question (slightly expanded):
What if the Shroud of Turin is Christ's authentic burial
cloth and proof of his suffering, death, and Resurrection?
As a founding member of Sign From God — a Shroud education
ministry also involved with the planned February 2021 high-tech exhibition about
the Shroud at the Museum of
the Bible in Washington, D.C. — here is what I believe:
The Shroud is authentic because that explains the cloth's
unexplainable mysteries and properties. However, if "proven"
authentic, the Shroud erases all the world’s excuses not to believe that
Jesus Christ is Lord.
To help celebrate Easter, I posed this same question to
colleagues who are world-renown Shroud experts, authors, speakers, theologians,
and educators:
Cheryl H. White, Ph.D., LSU Professor of
History and curator of The Museum of the Holy Shroud,
Shreveport, LA.:
"If the Shroud of Turin is authentic, it, of course,
affirms what many people already believe. Yet, its authenticity still remains
beyond the accessible realm of human knowing. The truly great mystery of the
cloth is its profound parallel to the deeper mystery it represents."
Russ Breault President, Shroud
of Turin Education Project Inc., Shroud Encounter:
"If the Shroud was proven to be authentic, it would
change everything. Why? The Resurrection changed everything. It was a
singularity comparable to the Big Bang. It was proof that Jesus is the Son of
God. He was crucified for a reason and overcame death for a reason.
What reason? For God so loved the world…"
Father Andrew Dalton, Legion of Christ, Assistant
Professor of Theology, Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, Rome,
Italy. www.othonia.org:
"If the Shroud pertains to Jesus of Nazareth, then
blessed are we to behold in it some semblance of the face of God and to
contemplate the body that bore the sins of the world, buried them in the
ground, and then rose to new and eternal life!"
Barrie Schwortz, founder of Shroud.com:
"The Shroud is now an object of faith to a billion
people, but I think each person has to regard it from their own perspective.
The answer to faith isn't on the cloth, but in the eyes and hearts of those who
look upon it." (See my recent
interview with Barrie.)
Gary Habermas, Ph.D. Distinguished
Research Professor, Chair, Department of Philosophy Liberty Baptist Theological
Seminary, Lynchburg, VA:
"It is very possible that the Shroud is the actual
burial garment of Jesus, with dozens of pointers in that direction, combined
with the recent serious blow to the 1988 carbon dating tests. If so, this
could indicate additional converging evidence for Jesus' Resurrection, the most
significant event in human history."
Yes, today, we celebrate "the most significant event
in human history."
Hallelujah! "He
is not here; he has risen."
