PICTURED: British filmmaker David Rolfe has been documenting the Shroud of Turin since 1978, capturing decades of scientific research aimed at proving the linen’s authenticity
DANIEL WHYTE III, PRESIDENT OF GOSPEL LIGHT EVANGELISTIC SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL, SAYS THIS IS VERY INTERESTING; HOWEVER, IT WILL NOT ALTER OR ADD TO HIS FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST AT ALL, AND IT WILL NOT ALTER OR ADD TO THE FAITH OF TRUE BORN-AGAIN-SAVED CHRISTIANS AROUND THE WORLD. WE DO NOT NEED THE SHROUD TO BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST BECAUSE WE HAVE HIM. IF IT CAN BE USED TO CONVINCE UNBELIEVERS, ATHEISTS, AGNOSTICS, SKEPTICS, AND SCIENTISTS TO BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, MORE POWER TO IT!
Filmmaker David Rolfe was a self-professed atheist when he set out to make a documentary about one of the most revered religious artifacts in history – the Shroud of Turin.
With the 1978 movie, the photography expert set out to find a prosaic explanation as to how a blood-soaked imprint of a man matching Jesus Christ’s description manifested onto the cloth relic.
Instead, he was so convinced of its authenticity he converted to Christianity and has since made several documentaries and published books on the shroud.
‘I started off as an atheist, and then became an agnostic. And I’m now a Christian, because I cannot possibly understand anything else that could have produced that image,’ said Rolfe.
The 14-foot-long shroud features a faint, brownish image of a five-foot, six-inch tall man with sunken eyes, wounds on various parts of his body that match the injuries suffered during Jesus’ crucifixion.
Rolfe, from England in the UK, has put up a $1 million prize for anyone who can recreate the shroud’s image of a crucified man without showing traces of ink, paint or other agents.
Prominent research in the 1980s appeared to debunk the idea that the shroud was used to wrap Jesus’ body because testing dated it to the Middle Ages, long after Jesus’ death.
However, as DailyMail.com revealed this week, more recent analysis using modern X-ray techniques once again placed the cloth’s origin back to the time of Christ.
Rolfe explained that the 1980 research focused on a small corner of the shroud which had been repaired some time between 1200 and 1400 due to wear and tear.
It was paraded by bishops throughout history during religious ceremonies in Turin, Italy, where it is housed.
This meant the fabric tested was older the the rest of the material, explained Rolfe.
Rolfe has offered the British Museum – which was involved in what he called that ‘flawed’ analysis – $1 million to reproduce the shroud with its famous imprint.
‘They haven’t attempted, not even for a million dollars,’ he said.
‘I am convinced [the Shroud of Turin] is authentic, I personally have no doubt,’ said Rolfe who recently released a new documentary called ‘Who Can He Be?‘
Last year, backed by his film company, Rolfe opened up the $1m prize to anyone who could reproduce the shroud with all of its ‘characteristics.’
By ‘characteristics’ he means the imprint of the wounded man.
For some believers, including Rolfe, the outline Jesus’ body was miraculously imprinted onto the fabric when he was resurrected over 2,000 years ago.
The shroud also does not show signs of ink or dye that would suggested it was a fake – no visible trace of any paint, ink, dye, stain or pigments.
‘Contestants must match both the pattern of bloodstains seen on the Shroud of Turin, and the composition of blood, including hemoglobin, bilirubin, immunoglobulin, and albumin,’ according to the rules of the challenge.
‘In addition, the largest blood stains should exhibit surrounding areas of ultraviolet fluorescence as noted on the Shroud.
‘When light and shade are reversed as in a photographic negative, the image must appear as a realistic and anatomically accurate representation of a body.’
Rolfe told DailyMail.com that no one in his native Britain had claimed the prize.
‘No one has come forward either from America to claim it,’ he added.
‘Once they realize what the actual image characteristics are on the cloth, they quickly realize that they can’t reproduce it.’
The Bible states that, Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body of Jesus in a linen shroud and placed it in a new tomb as shown in this painting by Giovanni Battista della Rovere in the 1500s
More than 170 peer-reviewed academic papers have been published about the mysterious linen since the 1980s, with many concluding it to be genuine. Who the cloth relic belonged to is another matter, however.
Testing in the 1970s looked at whether the images were made through painting, scorching or other agents, but they none could be confirmed.
Another group of experts from the Institute of Crystallography announced in 2017 that they had found evidence that the shroud featured the blood of a torture victim.
They claimed to have identified substances like creatinine and ferritin that are usually found in patients who suffer forceful traumas.
The alleged findings contradicted claims the face of Jesus was painted on by forgers in medieval times.
The burial cloth has captivated the imagination of historians, church chiefs, skeptics and Catholics since it was first presented to the public in the 1350s.
French knight Geoffroi de Charny gave it to the dean of the church in Lirey, France, proclaiming it as the Holy Shroud.
Rolfe has become fascinated by the mystery of the shroud, not that he does not believe it to be real, but in that he hopes to provide more evidence to support his case.
In 1997, he asked Dr Robert Bucklin to conduct an autopsy using images of the shroud and the report was published before the scientist died in 2001.
‘I took to him full-size photographs, both positive and negative, of the shroud,’ said Rolfe.
‘He carried out an autopsy based on the image and the wounds, showing [the mechanics of crucifixion].
‘When you were crucified, you died of suffocation because you were nailed by your feet.’
He continued to explain that in this position, blood from wounds will trickle down the body a certain way, which was what Dr Bucklin had uncovered.
‘Upon examining the chest, the pathologist notes a large blood stain over the right pectoral area,’ the autopsy report reads.
‘A close examination shows a variance in intensity of the stain consistent with the presence of two types of fluid, one comprised of blood, and the other resembling water.
There is distinct evidence of a gravitational effect on this stain with the blood flowing downward and without spatter of other evidence of the projectile activity expected from blood issuing from a functional arterial source.
‘This wound has all the characteristics of a postmortem type flow of blood from a body cavity or from an organ such as the heart.
‘At the upper plane of the wound is an ovoid skin defect which is characteristic of a penetrating track produced by a sharp puncturing instrument.’
The Bible states that a Roman soldier pierced Jesus’ side to ensure he was dead on the cross before removing him.
Rolfe also mentioned that the autopsy identified three straight lines on the person’s back, which aligns with Jon 12:1 which reads, ‘Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.’
The Romans used a flagrum, which was a whip with three leather bands, each with a lead ball on the end.
‘[The Roman flagrum] made a straight line of three and left as scars and blood marks on the back,’ the filmmaker said.
‘The detail is just amazing, you can actually calculate the height of the people who carried out flagellation by these marks on the cloth.’
Dr Bucklin’s report determined the back image of the shroud showed ‘traumatic injuries which extend from the shoulder areas to the lower portion of the back, the buttocks, and the backs of the calves.’
‘These images are bifid and appear to have been made by some type of object applied as a whip, leaving dumbbell-shaped imprints in the skin from which blood has issued,’ the scientist continued.
‘The direction of the injuries is from lateral toward medial and downward suggesting that the whip was applied by someone standing behind the individual.’
Rolfe has made over 90 documentaries during his career but said his latest ‘Who Can He Be?’ made the biggest impact on him.
The filmmaker said he realized the Shroud of Turin was just like a photographic negative, which is created by energy in the form of light that shines on a specific paper to produce an image.
‘In a way, that’s what I saw in the shroud image, and especially the fact that it was a negative,’ said Rolfe.
‘There’d been a vast amount of energy and light would have been part of that and it wasn’t a chemical reaction. It was a scorch, but basically it was very similar to what it might have been as I’d done in my own darkroom.’
He likened the scorched shroud to leaving an iron on a piece of clothing for too long.
Leaving the iron on for a few seconds will not leave a mark behind, but longer than that and the board will scorch that goes through the cloth.
Rolfe continued to explain that the iron only scorches the surface of the cloth when held for a split second and does not penetrate the other side.
‘That’s what you have on the shroud,’ he said. ‘It’s only the top of the fiber of the shroud that is actually scorched. The rest of the fiber isn’t scorched because [the burst of energy] was so powerful and fast.
‘It could only be done by a process that we can’t possibly understand because it was the thing that created Christianity. It was the resurrection. It was a dead man who came to life, and it was a miracle.’
IF YOU WERE TO DIE TODAY, WHERE WOULD YOU GO: HEAVEN OR HELL? IF YOU’RE NOT SURE, “BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED” FOR JESUS CHRIST SAID THE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS EVER SPOKEN IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD WHEN HE SAID, “FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.” READ FURTHER RIGHT HERE:
THE BIG QUESTION
GOSPEL LIGHT MINUTE X #447 WITH DANIEL WHYTE III
This is the “Chief of sinners,” Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International, with the Gospel Light Minute X Podcast #447 titled, “The Big Question” I’m here to remind you of what the Bible says, that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” like you and me.
“HAVE YOU BEEN BORN AGAIN?”
The question is not “Have you joined a church?” or “Are you trying to do your best?” or “Do you have religion?” but “Are you twice-born?” Jesus Christ said in John 3:3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”.
We enter the physical world by birth. Spiritual life likewise is entered with a birth. We become members of a human family by birth; we become members of the family of God by birth, by being “born again.” There is no other way to get into the human family except by birth, and there is no other way to get into God’s family except by the new birth. Neither education, nor cultivation, nor reformation, nor “turning over a new leaf,” will accomplish this. What is needed is not a new “leaf” but a new “life”! “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
A New Nature Needed
By physical birth we become partakers of human nature; by being born again we become “partakers of the divine nature”. A Christian is the product of a divine “begetting”. The second birth is not an improvement of the old nature; it is the imparting of an entirely new nature. The old nature is hopelessly corrupt and incapable of ever being made fit for His presence. The new birth requires a creative act of the Holy Spirit. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature”.
Not “Trying” But “Trusting”
“Trying to follow Christ” is not Christianity. Christianity is not imitation of Christ, it is the indwelling of Christ. Christianity is not trying to do anything. It is trusting Christ Who has done it all! He has “finished the work” and there is nothing left to do but simply to receive and trust Him. He shed His precious blood on the cross and the work is all done once and forever! Cease trying and begin trusting! Believers will progressively become more and more like Christ, but by His power, not their own.
What Must I Do To Be Saved?
Simply “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”. The Bible says in 1 John 5:1, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God”. The Bible states in John 1:12,13, “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”.
You are born again, you become a Christian by trusting a Person—receiving a Person. The very moment you do this, the Lord Jesus Christ comes in and life begins!
What Is Meant By “Believe”?
To “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” means more than simply believing the historic facts concerning Him. Intellectual belief about Christ is not sufficient. The belief that brings salvation must be “with the heart,” that is, with the whole being. This belief also includes repentance: “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”. The Bible states in Acts 17:30, “God … now commandeth all men every where to repent”.
The faith which saves, then, includes the necessity to repent, and to receive Christ as Saviour and Lord, to rest upon Him alone for salvation. It means to trust Him so utterly and completely that, if He should fail, there would be no hope at all!
May I Know That I Am Born Again?
This is an important question. We know that we are born again by the testimony of God’s Word. God says in John 5:24, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”. Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as explained by God’s Word? If so, then you are saved, you are “born again,” you have “passed from death unto life.” God says so! Take God at His Word, and go on your way rejoicing!
One Final Word
You may “belong to a church,” you may be “trying to do the best you can,” you may be “striving to live right.” Your outward life may be the model of moral correctness, and you may be looked up to, honored, revered, and respected. Yet, if you have not been “born again” you are just as lost as if you had never heard of Christ. Yes, you may teach in the Sunday school, read the Bible, sing, shout, “feel happy,” and all the rest—but if you have never been “born again” you are still in your sins and a stranger to the Lord Jesus Christ!.
If you want to be saved from the wrath to come and from an eternity in Hell, and if you believe that Jesus Christ suffered, bled, and died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead and you are willing to trust Jesus Christ with all of your heart so you can go to Heaven, please pray with me what is called the sinner’s prayer: Holy Father God, I acknowledge that I am a sinner and I admit that I have sinned against You and that I have broken Your Ten Commandments. I have lied before. I have stolen things before. I have lusted after people and things before. I have dishonored and disobeyed my parents. I have taken Your holy Name in vain. For Jesus Christ’s sake, please have mercy and grace upon my soul and forgive me of all of my sins, my failures, and my faults. As I now believe in Your Holy Son the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that He suffered, bled, and died on the cross for my sins, was buried and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and help me to repent of my sins past. Help me to turn from my old, evil life and follow You in the new life. For it is in Your Name I pray. Amen.
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