SHROUD OF TURIN: Physical EVIDENCE for the Body of JESUS!? (ft. Dr. Jeremiah Johnston) | Live Free with Josh Howerton
Is the Shroud of Turin really the burial cloth of Jesus, or the greatest hoax in history? Pastors Josh Howerton and Carlos Erazo sit down with Dr. Jeremiah Johnston to examine the powerful evidence, scientific analysis, and how it aligns with the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection. This conversation moves from skepticism to faith as they unpack the brutality of the cross, fulfilled prophecy, and what the Shroud ultimately means for your view of Jesus.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
• What the Shroud of Turin is and why it matters
• The strongest evidence for and against its authenticity
• How the Shroud aligns with the biblical account of Jesus’ crucifixion
• Why scientists still can’t fully explain the image on the cloth
• What the death and resurrection of Jesus mean for your faith today
Stand firm. Think biblically. Live free.
He can really change your forever. I did my PhD on the resurrection. I've published 300,000 words on the resurrection I was conditioned to be a skeptic on the shroud and now I believe the shroud is authentic pastor Josh because I'm not your rational Well, hey, live free nation before we jump into the episode this podcast is recorded right here at Lake Point Church in Dallas, Texas But the live-free nation is spread all over the country and all around the world So if you've been watching and thinking man, I wish I could be part of something like this We want to invite you to take a simple next step and that is join us for church online Every weekend we stream our services live on YouTube Facebook and our church online platform and it's more than just watching a service There are live hosts in the chat prayer teams ready to stand with you and people all around the world worshiping together in real time And so whether you're exploring the faith coming back to church or just looking for a place to start Church online is a great way to jump in and experience what God is doing here at Lake Point We would love to see you in the chat this weekend and now Enjoy the podcast ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. Welcome to episode number 69 of live free with Jeremiah Johnson. We are really excited very excited to be here. Come on. Thank you guys So for people who are unaware of what's about to happen. I seriously think this is gonna be the most interesting episode of live free We've ever done and I'll explain why here in a second. We're gonna go full Indiana Jones Let's go this episode. This is like the Vinci called meets Nicholas Cage national treasure meets Indiana Jones Okay, so here's my lead-in and if you're listening when I say this sentence if you roll your eyes I'm asking you to stay with me. We're getting ready to spend like an hour talking about the shroud of Turin Let's go. Okay, so let me just set this up. I Literally just saw this two days ago. I'm scrolling X and there's a new I think it was Newsweek They do this article on like what did Jesus really look like right and they do this every Easter and it looks like a Neanderthal Somebody drew exactly yeah in seventh grade. Yep. And so here's the question. What here's the question What if we actually already know what Jesus look like? Because of what you're about to walk us through bro. Not only that Jesus took the first selfie We're about to check it out My for my 15-year-old daughter will be delighted and it was powerful. It was a powerful selfie. I Very excited Yes big time flash Yeah, okay, so let me set this up and then honestly, I want you to do the talking So this is a special pre-Easter episode that I think is gonna boost encourage people's faith in the resurrection
1,000 percent okay, so let me set up why you're here and why I would never have had you come talk about this 12 months ago Okay, so no joke. This is true story dude. Yeah, so last Easter leading up to Easter. I'm getting ready to just sort of debrief It was a signing out of finish creation. I was like, I'm a listener podcast a thumbnail pops up for me of you on the Michael Knowles show And it was about the shroud of Turin and no joke dude. I'm we'll talk about this in a second. I'm team Protestant Yep, so I'm like oh man Relics and that's like a Catholic thing. I'm super skeptical and I see the thumbnail and I'm like who hoodwinked Knowles So then I click it. I'm like what crack pie hoodwinked Knowles. You start talking. Indeed. No joke I'm 20 30 minutes in. I'm like holy crap this guy. There may be something to this. Yep, so special pre-Easter episode of a free Bishop Jeremiah, can we just not a bishop you got on a Catholic Listen, let's just start right here. Okay, okay, cuz it live free. It's a bunch of normal deeds. Yep Let's start right here Quick introduction for people have no idea what we're talking about. What's the shroud of Turin? The shroud of Turin is believed to be the actual burial cloth that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus used to wrap the crucified Brutalized dead corpse of Jesus in on Friday April 3rd, AD 33. Well, that was very specific Wow, actually can I can I click on something? Yeah Friday April 3rd, AD 33 Nissan 14. How are you getting that specific date? It's amazing that well It's because the resurrection and the crucifixion of Jesus is the best established fact of the ancient world if we cannot believe that Jesus died by Roman crucifixion on Friday April 3rd, AD 33 based on the lunar calendar Nissan 14 3500 years the Jews always celebrated Passover at the time the tourists said they should based on the two opportunities that Nissan 14 could have occurred during poches pilots rain 26 to - Oh, I'll say that last sentence again. All right, so during, we know the dates of Pontius Pilate reign, I know that's from people heart. - Yeah, 36 or 36, AD. - And you said there's only two opportunities. - There's only two times the lunar calendar aligns with Passover on that Friday
that Jesus could have possibly been crucified during his ministry. And there's two great options actually. Friday, April 7, AD 30, but I'm more convinced that it's Friday, April 3rd, AD 33, for a variety of reasons that I get into. But without a doubt, it's the best-- - Do you tell us about that in your book? - I do, and so it's the best, but the point is, if we can't believe that Jesus died on that Friday and rose again on Sunday, April 5th, which by the way is this Sunday, April 5th. Isn't that ironic? Let's go. - Wow, come on, come on. - So, April 5th, AD 33 is the day of the resurrection. We know from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that sunrise was 5.43 a.m. on that morning, we could go back in time. - I know this. - When the women go to the tomb, they're going there early. They're following Jewish burial traditions. They're going to continue spicing the body. We'll get into why they're doing that, and they're astonished because the tomb is empty, and they run to tell everybody about it. And that's when we have this amazing sprint. I love that the Bible talks smack. I love that John wants you to know that he's much faster than Slow Peter.
He takes two inerrant verses in God's word to say, when the guy finally got there, we went into the tomb, and they see if you follow the chronology in John 20. This is where the Bible is so awesome. I've read it a hundred times. I'm a historical Jesus scholar, but I was humbled. I felt like Nicodemus, when Jesus looks at him and said, "You're the teacher of Israel, and you haven't seen this. "You don't know these things." I did my PhD on the resurrection. I've published 300,000 words on the resurrection. I was a complete, I was conditioned to be a skeptic on the shroud. So, I feel like the intro, I'm just mirroring you, 'cause I'm chuckling to myself. I've been through all of those things. And now, I believe the shroud is authentic, Pastor Josh, because I'm not irrational. - Okay. - Because I'm not irrational. - That's right. - So, all right, to lead this in, 'cause you're gonna, I want you to get some of this stuff that when I heard it for the first time, legitimate, I'm upstairs in my little hangout room. - Everyone's about to get shroud peeled. - Dude, it's, you know, I'm gonna take the red pill. - Here's what we're gonna do. - Let me, for people who are listening, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna let Doc Jeremiah do his thing. And then, what I'm gonna do,
and he told me before the podcast not to tell him what objections I'm gonna throw at him. So, you're gonna do your thing, and then throw out. - These are all AI, anyways, I know. So, that had some help from a researcher also. So, I'm gonna throw at you the strongest objections to the legitimate saying, let's see what you do. So, there are, talk about real quick for people who are unfamiliar, which I have Bible verses about the burial cloths. Reference those real quick, so people know what you're about to do. - So, what we're doing here is not anti-biblical. It's in the Bible. It's fascinating to me that all four gospels, we have 89 chapters in the gospels. All four gospels lead up. One-third of those 89 chapters are about what happened that Easter weekend. And they all mention the evidential detail that there were burial cloths. Matthew Mark and Luke use the term, "Athonia," which is exactly what's behind me right now, what people are looking at. A fine linen burial cloth, a herringbone weave. John's gospel comes along and gives us two other details. It talks about this sudarium, which is the face cloth that the disciples find in the corner of the tomb. - That's way folded. - And then, right. And then, we also hear the strips of linen,
and that, excuse me, is "Athonia." Sendin' is what's in Matthew Mark, Luke and John. Let me be clear, sendin' is Matthew Mark and Luke. John is "Athonia" in "Sudarium." So, we have three different terms for burial used in the gospels. All four gospels make a very specific point that, chronologically speaking, when John saw the linen cloths lying there, he saw and believed. So, that's my hope for the payoff of the broadcast today. You mean, like John, did he not believe before that? Oh, no, he was a follower of Jesus. But when he saw the shroud, he really believed. So, that's the payoff of this broadcast. Watching it all the way through is, your faith is gonna be strengthened, and you're gonna have a measurable strength. You're gonna have a 1st Corinthians 15, 57, 58 experience based on this broadcast. I promise you. - Okay. All right, so, let's get into it. Oh, it's biblical. All right, what am I lookin' at? Okay. And why do you think this thing's legit? I think it's legit because, first off, the shroud of Turin, I was utterly skeptical of it, until I actually bothered to get past the soundbites and look at the substance. So, I had heard about this flash.
My doctor, Father Craig Evans, who's probably the finest Jesus scholar in the English-speaking world, 700 publications on Jesus, he begins to tell me about the shroud, and he's like, Jeremiah, we can't quantify the amount of power. You should really look into this. Then my pastor, Jack Graham, on a Friday morning- - Shout out, we love, we love our Graham. - We love him, he's the OG. stuff a little bit. And he said, we'll get up and just share what you're learning. And guys, then I was like, there's video this, I was like, no, I'm not going to stake my academic reputation on this. But let me just share what I'm learning. But here's something for all the dudes watching. I'm looking out there at the time of my son, Justin, I have four boys, one daughter, Justin, my son, who to get him to talk about football or Xbox or girls for anything more than one sentence is an impossibility. He is locked in spiritually. And I'm just sharing about the resurrection and all the facts of the shroud. And I'm watching my this is a 630 AM Bible study. I'm watching my 11 year old son and it is impacting him. And I was like, brother, I will go all over the world to research this. If it gets you excited about your faith, good job, dad. So then I'm in Jerusalem. I'm filming a series. And I've been in more tombs than anyone you've ever met. In fact, I was laughing today because I was in a tomb in Emmaus and the producers, I hope I don't mess the audio, they do this. And I thought, what are you clapping for? And like, Oh, we're scaring the snakes away. You need to do this in one take. I'm filming. I had a day off and I go to the Athenian Museum and I see some of the show and tell them about to show your audience in YouTube cards. By the way, we don't know what's coming. Yeah. So I'm very excited. It takes my breath away. No one's there. And it turns out that the Holy Spirit is really good at his job. And it literally takes my breath away. And I have an experience with the Lord that it's now the best evangelism. What we're looking at behind me is the best evangelism discipleship tool I have ever used and seen in my life. So we're looking at a burial cloth. We're looking at, and this
is typical, we have hundreds of burial claws from the land of Jesus, which is Jerusalem. We even have a burial shroud from the tomb of the shroud. People can search this up. There were Bible deniers that said that the Bible was false because Hanson's disease wasn't around in the time of Jesus. Well, guess what? The tomb of the shroud, it was so air tight that when we discovered it 20 years ago, it actually has flesh on it, hair on it, and it has Hanson's disease on it. And it's dated from the time of Jesus showing that there really was leprosy. You said the tomb of the shroud that we discovered 20 years ago, what is that? That's just another shroud tomb. We have so many shrouds of different one. I'm just making the point that we have lots of shrouds. We still find those. We still find them. And this one actually had leprosy on it, proving that Jesus really didn't know the one, the tomb of the shroud. I'm just giving the example. We have shrouds at Masada where you've been. Lots of shrouds at Masada. And so what's unique about the shroud of Turin is that it has an image of a brutalized crucified man that has complete correspondence with the crucifixion narratives that are embedded in the gospels. I walk me through it. And by the way, this is this is it. This is it. This is this is the exact one. This is a one that wealth, the exact one is an a reliquary in Turin. But this one comes from Stara from my friend Barry Walsh. She's now deceased. He literally did the TED talk on the shroud. So we acquired based on our really good friendship. I acquired this from his organization. And now we use this as this tool. And so what you're looking at that's 14 feet wide by about three feet, seven inches. And this is it matches. It's a one to one scale. And it matches. No one else was crucified in the Roman Empire the way Jesus is. This is the crazy thing, the blood type that's on it. Two Jewish hematologists studied the blood, Helen and Adler. They're Jews. They're they don't have a theological extra grind. It's type AB blood. It's human blood. And the reason the blood is still red 2000 years ago is because this blood has been traumatized. It's from a traumatized individual that when you're experiencing torment and trauma, your red blood cells break down and create extra bilirubin, they secrete it. And that's what's kept the blood red all of these years. And there's blood all over the shroud type AB blood is Semitic blood less than 6% of the world's population has it. If there was ever a priestly line of blood, it'd be type AB blood. So it's human blood. It's not animal blood. It's blood from a traumatized person. I read a recent hematological report.
The blood itself has high levels of ferritin in it, which means the crucified man was experiencing organ failure, kidney failure. We believe he lost one third of his blood volume during the vlogging and its high level of creatinine. He was dying. So again, if you were going to hold this from the blood samples that were in the fibers, these are published in academic journals. So here's the bottom line 102 academic disciplines have studied the shroud 600,000 hours of scientific research. And I believe the shroud is authentic based on their research because I'm not irrational. They all cannot explain how there's an image in the shroud. So it walks like a duck quacks like a duck it might be a duck. So all right. So like, you know, you've kind of dipped your toe on the water here. All right, walk me through everything this here. Okay, that makes Well, you know and then and then how what's the theory on how the image got on there all this stuff? Well and and also I want to pull up I have a 13 second video come on C.S. Lewis's bedroom I had lived in Oxford I was gonna ask you about my did my doctorate there had been to the been to the kiln's numerous times and I took my Pasture there recently and I had never cuz again. I didn't care about the shroud So maybe I saw it. Maybe I didn't couldn't care less at the time Well during all of this phase of research We literally go in to C.S. Lewis's bedroom and we have a Lewis scholar who is guiding us and They take us into C.S. Lewis's bedroom and he had a fire. It's a very modest bedroom by the way I've been fireplace and above the mantle of the fireplace is the picture of the man of the shroud and I asked the question I said tell me about this because I mean Lewis is no Catholic right and think about it He dies in the 1960s. He has on Ray's photo, which is 1931 I think that the next that was like high res for its time in the 1930s and she said oh, yeah In fact if we have the video would be cool to pull it up. This is 13 This is this is 13 seconds. This is me. She this is a C.S. Lewis scholar. We're in his bedroom right now you guys He says that I literally pulled out my office. I wait a minute. You got to say that again Wait, is that the wardrobe? No, probably So Lewis kept an image of the shower deterring about his mantle pieces a reminder that I'll guard how to face Caps yes, Lewis an image of the shroud so every morning his feet hit the ground He knew our God has a face Jeremiah for people watching this don't be like well that that photo doesn't look like this photo
Can you explain that for people? Yes, so in 1898 you guys Photography is invented in the 1840s. It's not there's no professional photography in 1898 a Christian man by the name of Seconda Pia decides he wants to take a picture of the shroud we had always known there was an image on it throughout church history But dude something happened in the dark room. So this is before celluloid film This is before the days we could take pictures on our phones. I've seen the actual camera in turn It looks like a dorm fridge. It's massive glass plates Okay, the exposure took 14 minutes and 20 minutes each. There was no electricity. I've been in the st. Giovanni Cathedral, that's the st. John Cathedral where the shroud is to this day. He builds a scaffolding takes a picture goes in the dark room In the dark room. He sees the image of Jesus's face which he believes He's the first human being looking at the face of Jesus since the Astolic era and never more appropriately says oh my god And then literally literally oh my god And then he develops it he's immediately accused of being a fraudster a hoaxster And I've seen the actual photo and that's what's crazy is the photo negative is actually the photo positive When you take a picture of the shroud when you invert your phone camera You see it and all of its rich and amazing detail and we actually have I can show you on our slides here We actually have an image of it So this is what we have behind us and then in the dark room You see on the right all that on the right is actually the photo positive the negative is the photo positive And this is where all of the details come out in striking fashion So start walking me through cuz dude, I'm I'm a dumb Kentucky kid. No, it just looks like a bunch triangles and lines Yeah, so what am I looking at what makes us go? This is this might this is Jesus So what makes us go? This is Jesus is the image itself Corresponds with all the ways in which we know Jesus was crucified We see a man who has been Crucified and pierced with actual nails in the right spot through his wrists not through his palms of his hands That's medieval Christian art that messed us all up. We see we see on the right blood You can see the the wrist cross literally and then we mean
I don't want to get too technical But even the way the blood is flowing arterial and venous blood flow matches how he died on the cross So the way the blood is flowing on his arms is the way in which it should if you were actually crucified He there's blood at the bottom and then behind me as well where the heat the feet are crucified through the calcaneus literally right through the heel bones And that matches again, what we have of like the another Yehuhan and poor soul crucified under Pontius Pilate We actually have his heel bone and the nail going through it in the Israel Antiquities Museum So all of this is exactly how the Romans killed an Executed non-citizens in the first century especially in the Syrian province of Jerusalem keep going though We have a side wound so the triangles itself Let's go to the next slide too if we can the triangles itself So I want you to see this the triangles are just patches the shroud There's scorch marks on it. There's water stains all over it. So you have to deal with two things. You have to deal with all the contact marks on the shroud, but then you actually see the image, which will get to this selfie. But I want you to see the side wound, which if we go back to the vertical image, if we can, I want to show Pastor Josh and Carla. So look at that. Do you see the left side right next to the triangle, the inner triangle on the upper left, there is a fluorescent almost figure eight. Do you see that? Yeah, I do. That is the way to the right of the triangle on the upper upper torso of Jesus. On the left side? Yep. Yeah. Look, I do see that. So it's the left side. You can see that on the end. And what is that? That is the side wound through rib five and six. Jesus is crucified.
Holy cow. Hold this. What is this guy? This is a replica that we had made. It's not an artifact. It's an actual replica of the spear that would have pierced Jesus through rib five and six. And guess what? It matches with one to one correspondence. Why does the man of the shroud have a piercing through rib five and six? That blood is post-mortem blood on the shroud. How do you know that? The hematologist published it. Really? That blood is different than all the other blood on the shroud. John's gospel says blood and water comes out. Yep. Serum albulum, I'm probably saying it wrong, has already separated front because I'm not pretending to be hematologist, has already separated from the blood in that spot alone. And that blood's different than all the other blood. Yeah, because it's post-mortem blood. OK, German, I was a common. I know, obviously, Jesus was stabbed on the side. That was not a common. No, normally they broke their legs. That's right. OK, so this was unique for Jesus. This is unique for Jesus, which again, you start looking at the probabilities. There's no, there's no broken bones on the man of the shroud. And I want to be careful. He has a separated septum. That's he definitely has a broken nose, but no bones broke.
That's just simply like cartilage. So no broken bones on the man of the shroud. Which by the way, for listeners, that was prophesied. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. That was the prophecy. So let's let's keep going, you guys. More show and tell. You know, just keep this going. These are heavy, by the way. Yes. Let's see this guy. Oh, hold this. You've got an at this took my breath away. I think it's John 19 one, but I know it's John 19 and pilot had Jesus flogged. Pastors, we go right by that verse so quickly and it's like we didn't even read it. Jesus is flogged with that raw hide and remember the Jews had a real 40 lashes minus one. Rome had no such rule and I am an expert in execution. So I know how dastardly, I mean, these guys would often be drunk, poor antagonist who we have remains from in Jerusalem. He was crucified and then decapitated and they were so drunk they got the chops wrong on his head a few times. So we actually have evidence and the Bible says that Jesus is flogged, that Pontius Pilate has him flogged. And do you see these barbells? We've actually counted up the amount of shredding, the amount of lashes. There's 372 lashes on the man of the front and back, 372 total. But keep in mind, Pastor Josh, we don't have the side. We don't have the lateral sides because when Jesus resurrects, it's an image of the moment he literally passed, we'll get to this through the shroud.
We don't have the side angles. And so we can estimate 700 of these hit the man's body. And that's where he loses one third of his blood volume. And I want you to see the how short that is in a way. There is a really demonic intimacy to how Jesus is tortured. And we know there were two. There were two. One was hit and the other one was cocking back to fire each time. Then they turn him around. There's gashes. Do you know that what you just said from the shroud or from historical sources? Both. They correspond. So, but what I had never seen before was an actual, this is a flagram. This is a Roman whip called a flagram. So that match is being flogged. And we know that he endures that most died. 60% of the criminals just died at that point. So the strength, the man, what I like about Jesus, he's a man's man. He's five foot 10 to five foot 11 weighs 170 to 180 pounds. This is a very physically fit man. A lot of walking. A lot of walking. Probably swinging a hammer with 20,000 miles in his ministry. Probably walking. Few count all the times he went to Jerusalem. But it doesn't end there. So Jesus is flogged. And all of this matches, all we're doing is we're comparing. We're almost doing a Where's Waldo right now of,
okay, what does the Bible say and what do we see signature on the shroud? There's another thing that blew my mind. You already have your mind blown. I'm ready, man. Max Fry, a criminologist. Okay. It's pollen season. It's Passover, right? It's Easter time. We're all well of pollen on our vehicles, especially here in Texas. And he studied the pollen samples, 38 of the 58 pollen spores on the shroud, only bloom in Jerusalem in springtime. What? The other 20. Are you kidding me? Dude, truth is stranger than fiction. So again, you start adding that one more time, 38 of the 58 pollen spores on the shroud that Max Fry, a criminal, a criminologist studied and as a whole respected career as a criminologist spent five years of his life studying the pollen gave five years of his life. They only bloom in springtime in the land of Israel. So if you're a hoaxer, how would you know that? If you're a hoaxer, how would you know Type E B blood? How would you, you would have to torture and crucify a Semitic man and then do it exactly how the Bible says. Then you'd have to rub the shroud through Jerusalem on Easter weekend at the time that all these plants are growing. You're starting to see why the evidence, the most explanatory power shows that it is Jesus's grave close. And we have the moment of resurrection.
We actually may have scientific proof of the moment of Jesus's resurrection left on the shroud. Holy cow. Okay. Is there, I got questions. Is it what, is there anything else you're like, Hey Matt, I want to call attention to this. We're just getting started. Okay. There's more. There's more. Hold this. Very few people have held this. This is no replica. This we just acquired. And this is an actual first century crucifixion out. I'm not saying it's the one he's on Jesus, let me be very clear, but this was used to crucify enemies of Rome, slaves, non-citizens in the Syrian province. Do you see how it's bent, Carlos and Josh, what I had to learn through research was the nails were far more valuable than the crucified victims. They would use the nails again and again and again. Do you know why it's bent? I just did it from multiple use, multiple use, but not only multiple use. Sometimes they would want to minimize movement, but maximize torment. And they would adjust the nails of the crucified victims while they were dying and being crucified. Can you imagine the agony? And so over time, this nail has been bent from usage, but also from torturing and Colossians 214. I love this, you guys. Paul says that Jesus took all of our indebtedness, all the debt we could never pay back.
He nailed it to the cross. So we don't bear that show anymore. So I can bring all the faith lessons in with these. And what do we see on the shroud? We see four piercings on the shroud, two in the wrist, two in the heel bones. And that's exactly what you're holding in your hand. So this is an authentic... That is a first century crucifixion nail. First century crucifixion nail from Rome. From Jerusalem. From Jerusalem. It has a square shaft, so without a doubt, it's first century. And it matches another... Anyone can look this up. You can pull up the crucified victim called Yehohan and John, who is crucified under Pontius Pilate. We actually have his heel bone. We have on all of wood, actually washer. These guys were experts. Yeah, can you imagine? Oh, it would be. Through the wrist. And then for anyone out there, it's like, well, the Bible says hands, or it's all the same Greek word. Form, hands. It's just like the NBA. Yeah, literally. If you get him on the wrist, it's in hand. Exactly. Thank you.
Great analogy. So it matches, though, the heel bone crucifixion nail that we have in the Israel Antiquities Museum. Six inches long. And just imagine that. Jeez. That's... So overwhelming. I didn't know you had that. And it's... Yeah, it is overwhelming. And it should be. But guys, we can't stop there. What else do we see on the shroud? There are 30 to 50 puncture wounds on the head, the scalp, the back of the head. Can you see those up there? Yes, you can. We have a slide that's really clear. That guy? Yeah, I pulled that one up. That's helpful. And then we actually have one with red where I've actually made it red. But this is... This... All of the blood fluoresces, which is fascinating to me, it actually fluoresces. And so what you're looking at is all of the blood on the forehead, there's blood, you know, literally in his hair, all over his face. That's the broken nose. This is like a rendering. Yeah, that's a rendering of it.
And so we can go back... That's based on the shroud. Based on the shroud and the sudarium, the face cloth. And so that's perfect. So that one is amazing to me. Is it all right if I look around, look back here? Of course, dudes. Right here. I'm going to invert my phone to show you this. Like literally right there. Yeah, so let me... And any one of you can do this if you're having Android, go watch another podcast. But if you have a, (laughing) there's other churches for you. - That's right. - Like point's not what I want. If you have an Android, it's color inversion for Android. But I don't have an Android, I'm gonna do settings, you guys do this with me. - All right, so what do I go to? - Very appropriate. - Just settings. - Settings. - All right, and I have the update. So I'm just gonna type classic invert in general, okay? Do you see that? - Just under search. - Yeah, under search.
- Yeah, under search. - Classic invert. - Invert. - And it'll bring it up. - Yeah. - And then just press that button. Your camera will do that. Or your phone will do that, yeah. Turn it on. - Right there. - Classic invert. - Turn it on. Okay, now open your camera. - All right. - Look at the shroud. - Oh wow. - And see how it pops. But what I wanted to point out was the back of my head. - What the heck? What the heck? I had no idea it did this. - That's amazing. Wow. - Holy, can't wait, can they see this? Can we get this on camera somehow? - Yeah, there you go. You can see it. - Look, look, it's you. - They can see it. Hey, yeah.
- This is what Seconda P is sees in the dark room and says, oh my God. But what I want you to look at guys is the back of the head, all the blood on the back of the head. That's the back of the head of-- - This is the back. - Yep, that's the front. Because remember it covers him like a pedo. - He told it. That's right. - He's laid and then it's laid over him. - I see it. I see it, Jeremiah. - There is blood all over the head. - Wow. Jesus was wearing a wreath of corns, of thorns, or a sweatband of thorns. You would not expect to see, there's more blood on his head perhaps than anywhere else, which is shocking to me. We think actually when he was flogged, they probably blinded one of his eyes, because one of the eyes is literally, I had a dentist email me the other day claiming you can even see his teeth, which is fascinating. I haven't looked into that yet. Somebody probably should, but this is so the, let's follow the chronology since it's Easter weekend. Jesus is brought before pilot. Pilot has him flogged, that's not enough.
And then he, they fashioned a crown of thorns, and they put it on his head. Now I have, again, a PhD in these things. And I have never seen a crown of thorns until three years ago in Jerusalem. I brought one to show you guys. - Oh, come on. - This is a replica. - Wow. - This, when I was speaking at the world economic form on the shroud, not lion. If I'm lion, I'm dying. My lips to God's ears. I'm speaking and I've blood all over my hand. I was wondering why everyone was looking at me. Well, the replica I have had pierced my hand. - Really? - Yeah, so I mean, this is just a replica. - Wow. Wow. - Okay. - Oh, it looks heavy. - That is a helmet of thorns, friends. - Oh, this is what, so what? - That is what they would have fashioned. And that is 30 to 50 puncture marks that we see on the crucified man of the shroud. And that's how he received those. They would have fashioned that, and rammed it on his head,
and then brought him before the crowd. And that's where Pontius Pilate and Latin we would have heard Etchohomo behold the man. And if I'm really being honest, all of us would have yelled crucify him at that point. No one would be saved this man. We would be in that crowd yelling crucify this man. Is there any other historical source that portrays the crown of thorns like this? 'Cause I know historically, you know, people picture more like a, like a- - Is that an all kind of medieval Christian art? Like the feminist Jesus, the gay looking Jesus, the Jesus with no beer, that all comes out of medieval Christian art. Not a Jewish man who was killed like we see in the shroud, which we'll look at some images in a minute, but here's the faith lesson. All of us wonder sometimes if God really loves us. And we can get so desensitized to the cross. Romans 5-8 is what the Holy Spirit, when I saw this for the first time, but God demonstrated his love for you and me. And it's in the continuous. It's one of the two places in the New Testament. God keeps demonstrating his love for us and that when we were sinners, he sent his best to die for us. - Here's what I would say too. You know, some people wonder why would Jesus
wear a crown of thorns? They want to humiliate the man. He's claiming to be king of the Jews. They will humiliate him in every way. - Genesis also says that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, a curse fell on humanity and because of our sin, creation was filled with thorns and thistles. It's Genesis three. And then so thorns became a sign of judgment. And so at the cross, what we see is that that judgment was carried literally on Jesus' head. And so what that means is that the cross, our curse became Jesus' crown. And so he willingly took the thorns on him and... Um, and, Come on man. I promise you, that's that. And I'm thinking of the fact I have four sons and I wouldn't give my four sons for anyone. And God knows me like no one else. He knows what a sinner I am and he sent his best for me. He didn't send his worst. He sent his best. And so any time I doubt if God loves me today, I think of these thorns. And God is demonstrating it even now while people are watching this podcast. That's why people need to share this with somebody who's hurting right now. Wow. All right. Keep going. Keep on going through this guy.
There's a lot to take in man, it's a lot to take in. So it's, it's, so then Jesus is crucified. He is, he can't make it to the cross as we know. So he, he's brutalized so bad and in one thing, I love the passion of the Christ, the film, but one thing that gets wrong is they show Jesus carrying the entire cross. There's no way any of man could carry that. So he just carries what's called the pettibulum, the cross beam. And the crazy thing is beyond the abrasion, beyond the lashes on the back, we actually have a diagonal right, top right to left abrasion from him, top the right shoulder down to the left, literally the same abrasion marks from him carrying his cross. It's visible on the shroud. Wow. Yes. And geez, I remember when I was on Pierce Morgan, he was trying to catch me in a question that a lot of, maybe you're going to ask it, his body anatomically is all messed up. Why is, why are his arms so long and man, Psalm 22 is just washing over me right now. He said, my bones are out of joint. David says that prophetically. And I think it's at that point when he's carrying the cross that his shoulders are separated, even before he's nailed to the cross because he can't handle it anymore. You, I'll just go ahead and say it. You did beat me to the punch. Okay. So one of the things I was going to throw at you, I'm just going to read it. Yeah, please. And if there's anything you missed, just say, here's one of the objections. Is people say, man, there's artistic and anatomical issues, I'm going to read it. The image reflects characteristics more consistent with an artistic creation than a real burial imprint. It doesn't look like a, like a man wrapped in cloth, but I actually look, and the guy
has really long arms, fingers, especially his right arm in hand. Yeah. And it's there. They literally, you're looking at, he does. I agree. It's because his shoulders have been pulled out of joint. And what you're saying is, hey, I agree, we have Bible verses for that. Absolutely. And that's the answer out of joint. Psalm 22. Wow. And wow, I gave my back to those literally, we see here in Isaiah, and then it doesn't stop there because this is why what you're doing this weekend at Lake Point, everyone needs to be here. We can get so desensitized to Easter. And I want to show you something else. Not only would we have yelled, crucify him, I'm convinced too many believers are way to desensitize to what Jesus, the price he paid, I tell people all the time now that the shroud is an itemized receipt of how much Jesus loves you. You think about all the financial terms that are used in the New Testament. We've been bought. We've been ransomed. We have been rescued. We've been paid for. What is the last thing Jesus says, a CPA term, to tell us I paid in full? That was literally a term of, it was a receipt had been given. And let me tell you, I'm bringing the receipts on the broadcast today because I want you to hold this. I don't know what this is. Look closely and tell me what, if they resemble these look like little dice for a game.
That's exactly what you're holding. And those are not replicas. Those are actual Roman dice made of bone, made of bone, bone, not human bone, animal bones. And notice you can even see the numbers, they're from Jerusalem in the first century. I'm not saying these are the actual dice that were used, but Isaiah 53 and other passages said, they divide it. They cast lots. They gambled for my clothing. And that is exactly what you're holding. You are holding Roman dice from Jerusalem. I just got these in the first century. My son, Jax, was playing one of my triplets, was playing with him. And we're in the, we're in the drive through of a canes and he's like, dad, these stink. I was like, son, they're 2000 years old, they're made from bone, because that's a dead thing. It's like, yes, they do stink. And Matthew's got, well, all four gospels tell us that while the author of life is dying right in front of them, they're too busy gambling for as close. So let's make sure that our hearts are not desensitized. - Wow. - All right. - Jeremiah, one more thing, 'cause, hold on, I gotta go back to this one, if that's okay, please, Josh. So, 'cause you mentioned, you know, 'cause everybody thinks this is like really long. - Yeah. - It would imply that the, you said there were two guards hitting Jesus. - Yes. - It would imply that every single time that the guards were hitting Jesus in the back
or, I'm assuming, anywhere. - Mm-hmm, everywhere. - They would be sprinkling off the blood on his enemies. - Oh, over him. - Yes, it would have splashed all over him. - And so, man, like, you know, just if you know, first Peter, chapter one, verse two says, "According to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for the sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied." You, it's a sieve, then Jesus' enemies are hitting Jesus, and yet the response of Jesus' in return is his blood sprinkling over them in the same way the Bible says that you and I were enemies of God, and because of Christ, we've been reconciled because of the sprinkling of his blood over us. - Man, that's a picture of what happens with us. - Wow. - At the cross. - Wow. - At the cross. - Hallelujah. - Oh. - Okay. - You want to keep going here? - I want to answer, there was another part of your question that I need to crush real quick. What was the other part of your question?
So, anatomical in the-- - The image reflects characteristics more consistent with an artistic creation in a real burial imprint. - I have to kill this for a minute. So, in 1978, 33 scientists, Stirp, Shroud of Turin Research Project, get permission, not from the Catholic Church, 'cause the Catholic Church did not have ownership of the Shroud until the 1980s. That was something I had to get through. I thought this was some Catholic relic for 2000 years, and I get an allergic reaction to Catholic relics. - We're Protestants. We're out on Catholic relics. - I got 13,000 negative comments for saying that on Tucker, so I'm ready for all of them. So, I do, 'cause I'm a historian. I saw the three Weizmann in the Cathedral at Colne. Give me, Thomas is pinky. No, this is an artifact, 'cause we can actually study it and test it with the sciences. So, the Stirp team took several years to publish their findings, and what did they prove? This is the first time I've used the word prove. Science proved there is no pigment, there is no dye, there is no paint, there is no color, and they were inconclusive about how there's an image in the Shroud. - Okay, so actually, I wanna get to this. So, tell me, like, all right, that's the question.
So, if it's not dye, what's your theory on how the, how did the image even get on the Shroud? - This is where I got Shroud red-pilled. This is where I became a Shroudy. - Oh, let's go, come on. - Well, hey, Liffry Nation, Easter at Lake Point is coming, and we would love to celebrate with you. So, no matter where you're tuning in from, we would love for you to come and join us April 3rd through 5th for a powerful and uplifting service as we celebrate the life-changing truth that Jesus defeated the grave. Hey, this is a moment for the whole family to come and experience hope, purpose, and the story that still changes lives today across all of our eight campuses in the DFW area. Come hang out and let's gather to explore who Jesus is and why his story still matters. Also, if you come and visit us for the very first time and you tell us you're coming from the podcast, we would love to hook you up with some Liffry merch. Just find us in our first time guest tent and let us know. Hey, for service times and details, text the word Easter to 20411, and we will see you there. - The best scientists in the world, and let me be clear. I've met with many of these scientists. I'm talking about weapons scientists. I'm talking about rocket scientists. I met one when we were doing our tour event
in Southern California from the Jet Propulsion Lab. He's like, "Oh yeah, everything you said's accurate." He was working on the Mars Project. And these are scientists, Eric Jumper, John Jackson, physicists who are at Los Alamos, Sandia Laboratories. They work on atom bombs. They get the weekend with the shroud, and they prove that there's literally no paint, no dye, no brush marks. They cannot understand how there is an image in the shroud. The best scientists in the world cannot explain it. So I fly to turn Italy, and I meet with a guy named Paolo de Lazaro. He is a physicist, and he works at a neolaboratories. Anyone can look this up. He spends another five years of his life studying how do you change with no pigment paint, dye, or brush marks? How do you change a made of flax, essentially, a linen shroud? So they literally grew a shroud, and they beamed their laser for five years at it. And they were finally able to basically change the coloring and to leave a mark because otherwise you would scorch it. If it's too hot, it's too powerful to just burn it up, right? They were able to basically change the size of a postage stamp, not 14 feet behind us. at one 40th of a billionth of a second to leave an image on the shroud is what Paulo de Lazaro said, light.
So we're talking about energy, cold energy, and this is the moment of resurrection. So the shroud is not a death cloth. It's a resurrection cloth. So I'm meeting with Paulo and I'm like, so are you saying it's Jesus? He's like, well, of course, 34 billion Watts of energy traveling at one 40th of a billionth of a second reminds me of all these passages. Because think about it. Jesus, every time he manifests himself in the New Testament, he manifests himself as brilliant lights. The new heaven and the new earth someday will have no need for the sun. That's significant. I just want to point that out for listeners yet. Trace that real quick because you got transfiguration. His face was changed. Became like lightning. Obviously. Yep. Yep. But you have Paul and I have filmed on Roman roads at noon day, okay, and in the land of Israel, curbed their first century roads. It's hot. I'm sweating. Paul says that he has an experience of seeing the resurrected Christ. And if you follow the book of Acts, he says it was brighter than the noon day sun. So anyone getting chills yet. So what we have in this residue, what we have is this signature on the shroud of the moment of Jesus' resurrection that is so powerful, it literally left a selfie mark on it. Gracious. This is Jesus' selfie. Wow.
So the theory is that in the same moment, in the same way that at the transfiguration, his face became like lightning, it kind of, hey, upon resurrection, that same light of glory manifested itself and left that. And it pushed the 2,750 pound tomb out of the way. Gracious. But let me show you. This is animated. Okay, so play this for a minute. Just see. This is a shroud. No, hit play. Okay. Boom. Wow. So that is what happened. That's slow motion. So Jesus didn't like stand up like Lazarus and take his grave clothes off. His body emanated at the moment of resurrection through the shroud. What makes you say that? There it is. Look. And by emanated, Jeremiah, you mean? Literally physically. Well, because Jesus appeared here in rooms and then disappeared. He walked through the door. So the body has new capabilities as ours will in the resurrection. It is not, it's not, this world does not have any control over him anymore. And so I thought he would like stood up and pulled off. No. So when John, does anyone have a Bible, John 20, we need to look at John 25 through 8.
So we created this, shout out to Stargate Studios and Malta. So this is what John would have seen in Peter. So John 20, five through eight. Can you read that? Yeah. Verse five and stupid to look in. He saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloth lying there and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus Jesus's head, not lying with the linen cloth, but folded up in a place by itself. And the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed. He saw. And what did he see? The linen cloth. Fascinating. And you guys, dude, I'm just putting this together. So you're saying he may have gone in and seen the imprint on the, and I believe it was still glowing. Now this is speculative. Okay. This is not his, I don't, I haven't proven this. I'm working on an article on it right now because he goes to the tomb early. There's no electricity. I mean, this is, this is an animation. I mean, I doubt that the sun would have reached it because they would have gone down into the tomb. I've been, again, in tombs, tombs, or this was a rock-hewn tomb. I've, well, I've been in the actual tomb. You wouldn't, we wouldn't have had sunlight like that coming in. I believe the face of Jesus was still glowing on it when he saw it.
Interesting. Think about the verse. Think about that verse, the, uh, to give them the ability to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Dude. The light, I'm going to say that more time, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Wow. I had never seen that before. It was not until chronologically they saw. So this, and then I do want to clear, this may be one of your tough questions for me, but I want to clear something up. There are so many fine Christians and I've gotten this email a thousand times. That's why I wrote it in my book. So they say Jeremiah, John's gospel said linen strips plural and they think that Jesus is a mummy. They think that he was mummified. So let me clear this up to help find Christians like me who get confused by this. If we didn't have John's gospel, the only word that's used is cinden, which is behind us, fine linen cloth singular, John's gospel gives us the face cloth, pseudorium, which we can talk about, but then it also uses this term, a phonia. That's plural. at the head, the feet. I was leading the tour recently with a bunch of college kids and they all take pictures of themselves to sleep, you know, with their mouth open and then post them at each other and bully each other and all that. So they actually would do that. There's a job band.
They just to dignify the body. So when you're dead, you're not like, you know, they would actually, so a Thony would have been probably there as well. - That's where the strips, yes. - That's where the strips come from. So we're not doing anything unbiblical here. We're actually exegeting the scriptures. We're letting scripture interpret scripture, the four gospels. So the answer is yes to all four gospels and that's what he would have seen, which is so helpful. - Okay. So like, I was looking at this book, by the way, this is great. - Thank you. - Okay, first of all, for listeners, tell the book is The Jesus Discoveries, 10 historic finds that bring us face to face with Jesus. Pretty recently, published, right? - Yeah, yeah. - The last two weeks. - Yeah, okay. - Well, already looking at it. - Congratulations. - It's awesome. We'll stick it in the show notes and I think we'll have some copies in the bookstore. - Thank you. - But so you got this thing on pay.
It's on pay 30. - This is the probability. This blew my mind around. - Okay, so yeah, this is insane. So talk me through, and don't we have this? - Yes, we do. - Do we have the probability thing? - Yeah, they're the two slides out there, 20 and 30. - Talk me through this. And then I want to start throwing at you. - Yeah, let's go. - The objections. - Yeah, absolutely. So here we see all of the different wound patterns that match the crucifixion narratives embedded in the gospels. I want to share something with you. The most evidence that we have from antiquity about crucifixion comes from four sources, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Okay, crucifixion was so agonizing and so irrelevant to the Roman Empire because no Roman citizen was crucified. So we actually, the best description we have from antiquity of crucifixion are the four gospels. - Fascinating. Fascitous doesn't really get into it. Suetonius, Diocasius, Josephus, a little bit, but as far as the description of crucifixion,
also this is why if we want to invent a religion, we would have never invented it the way the gospel writers did. I have a chapter in my book, Body of Proof, what the gospel writers should have done better if they were inventing a false narrative rather than a real one. 'Cause everything they said flew in the face of what the Roman mindset would have accepted. And so look at this, look at the scourge marks. You can see it, the feet wounds, there's that side wound I was pointing out, the blood angle, the wrists, the elongated arms, the wound pattern, there's those shoulder abrasions, Josh. Do you see those right there from carrying the vestibulum on the left? - Yeah, top left. - Yep, yeah. His body is in rigamortis. This is important, actually. So he's probably in the tomb 39 hours. That's Mark 1240, they say, give us a sign. He says, I'm gonna give you one sign. I'm gonna give you the sign of Jonah in my resurrection from the dead. So Jesus body does not decay. There's no decay on the shroud. So rigamortis usually lasts 39 to 45 hours. - What does that mean, Jeremiah? - Rigamortis is when your body stiffens.
And so his body would have been very stiff. That's why we even can see that the buttocks is even like, I mean, it's like he's flinching all over his body. His muscles are tight because his body, his head is elevated, his knees are up because his body is in rigamortis at the moment of his resurrection. And there's no bodily decay oozing on the shroud. My body will not see decay. - Wow. - Sacrifices and offerings you did not require but a body you prepared for me. So there's no body bodily decay on the shroud. And so that's what we see. So now let's go to the probability. So fast forward, Barbaris. I'm in Turin and I have to meet this mathematician named Bruno Barbaris, all the credit to him. And the irony of his last name, Barbaris is not lost on me at all this Easter weekend. He did a calculation. He is a mathematician. He has been with the actual shroud over 100 times. Like if the president of Italy wants to see the shroud, Bruno shows you the shroud. He's given 4,000 lectures on the shroud. He's a mathematician. He doesn't have a theological axe to grind. He assigned this probability that when you look at the, all of the correspondence of how the man of the shroud
is crucified and you compare it to what we see in the gospels, he gives it a probability of one in 200 billion that it is not Jesus. Wow. Wow. So this is on my YouTube channel. Like I'm, you know, I'm from Kansas. You're from Kentucky. I'm from Kansas. I'm like, so Professor Barbaris, are you saying it's Jesus? I write about this in the book and he almost gets frustrated and he's Italian. He's like, how can it not be? He actually does it. He said, nah, that hurts. He's like, the numbers forced me to believe it's him. Of course it is. Wow. I was like, oh, I feel stupid for asking. And I would thank you. He said, didn't you hear me one in 200 billion chance? It's not. Is he a believer? Yes. A devout believer. Cause he's not. Cause he's a rational man, right? A rational man. So that's why I said at the beginning, because I'm not irrational. I know a lot more about the shroud than I do how my car will work to drive me home today.
And I have no problem getting in the car and driving home. I have no clue how the air conditioning works, the transmission. I know some of our audience does, but I know a lot more about the shroud. - All right, go back to this real quick. - Yeah. - Now, is there anything you want to point out here, or can I ask you a question? - Go right ahead. - All right. So like, okay, but what about this? Like what somebody, what I'm assuming people would say, is yeah, man, but like somebody would just read, they would just read the gospel accounts and they would know what to put into the shroud to match the, you know, so it's marksman's error. - Right, exactly, yeah. - You see what I'm saying? They would know what to do, so the probability thing doesn't work. - But the cumulative data that you would have to add to that then is, okay, you would have to actually crucify someone to do that. They would have to have type A/B blood. They would have to have pollen from the first century. You'd have to have a side wound in the exact spot between rib five and six. Another thing that people would definitely get wrong if you're a hoaxer, is you would have made Jesus much shorter
because people often say, oh, people were only about five foot one. The women were like four feet, 11. We actually have people crucified taller than Jesus in Jerusalem from the reign of Pontius Pilate, the tomb of Yeohannan. I think he was six, 11, something like that. Six, six to six, 11. So the fact that Jesus is five, 10 to five, 11, according to this, you wouldn't have made that up. You wouldn't have known that. You would have actually guessed wrongly. So again, all of the cumulative data is easy to respond to that and just say, well, no, actually, and again, no one else crucified their victims this way. You would have probably been more influenced by the fact that there would be no crucifixion. There would be no crown of thorns. His legs would have been broken. It would not have lined out this way. So I'm a dumb, Kentucky kid, but I'm even thinking here for a second, all right. So like the theory the skeptics have is this thing was created in like the 1300s. - 1260 to 1390 based on carbon dating. - Okay, I'll get to that in a second. I'll get to that and see you're beating me to the punch here. So, and what you said is if somebody had done that, then they would have based all of this on medieval art. And to your point earlier, all medieval art,
for instance, with the crown of thorns, all medieval art makes it like a wreath. - And through the palms? - Yep, yeah, that's right. - And that's right, but on the shroud, it's a help. So there's things like that, it's like man-- - He has a long beard, he has a long hair. He has a beard that's been plucked in the front. - Okay, so don't you have something about the face? - Yes, okay, so these are all what we call the icons. These are all, and that's just a fancy word for paintings of Jesus that are very old. The Christ Panto-Crotter one in the top right corner is the most famous, that's at St. Catherine's monastery that dates to the mid-sixth century. So 550, something like that. - Top right. - Top right of what we're looking at. So all of these look the same to me. They all, and there's over 200, by the way. I couldn't fit them all in one slide. But like, what is the source material that all these people are using for the shroud or for the face of Jesus? Let's pull it up now. Bro. - Hmm, how would they know? - They had to have source material before the fifth century, four sixth century, and they all match this. And dude, I've got some more show and tell.
Now this is super crazy what I have right now. - Okay. - This, you have to go over to the Hagia Sophia and Istanbul to see, but mine's better than the one they have there. - Come on, man. - I've got a Roman solidus in my hand. It's solid gold. It's from the late seventh century. - What? - I want you to look at the face. That is, what does that look like? - It looks like, hang it back. - Yeah. - Looks just like that. - So, wait, is there a way for me to hold this up to the camera somehow? - There you go. - Can I zoom? - It looks like an iPod. - Well, this is quite fast. - Well, the good news is there's pictures of it in my book. - Yeah, we'll show as well in close to here. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll show this. - Trinity will help us out here. - This is a true story. - I had just acquired a bronze coin. This is a hilarious story. I have time to tell it. I just acquired a bronze coin of Herod the Great.
And all the coins in Jesus' day, this is important for people that love the Bible. They're in the genitive. It's Haradu Basile of Herod the Great. The coins likeness, it literally belonged to them. So there's a whole faith lesson in there when Jesus said, "Whose image is this? "Give the Caesar what Caesar but give God your life "because my image is on you." That's a different story. So, I want to show this friend of mine, Bob Chitwood. Shout out to Bob Chitwood. He helps me all over the world. And I said meet me on Wednesday night at church at Prestonwood and I will, I'm going to show you my coin. He's like, "Okay, well, I got something to show you too." I was like, "All right." And so we meet in the pew and he's like, "During COVID, I got into buying gold." And he hands me, dude, the Justinian Roman solidus that has a strike on it, that it's almost mint condition, which is why I said it's better than the one at the Hagia Sophia. He handed you that. He hands me this. Okay. I said, Bob, look at what you're looking at. You said, what? I said, what does that look like? He's, well, that looks like the shroud. I've never seen that. I've never noticed that before.
I said, dude, this is a Roman solidus of Justinian that Alan Wagner, a professor at Duke University, pointed out that there are 200 points of correspondence between this coin and the face of the man of the shroud, far beyond what's acceptable in a court of law. So what's the theory on how that happened? The theory, well, first off, that's in the 600s. It's the first coin with Jesus on it. There's a whole thing in there. He's battling the Caliphate, which is, Islam is killing all the Christians they can. And his last stand is, I'm going to put Jesus on the money because he's Christ, Lord of all. And he puts himself on the back as a market humility. But Wagner gets this from Duke University. You can look this up and he sees 200 points of correspondence between that face. So again, it all goes back to the same source material in this all anti-dates that predates the medieval dating by 700, 800 years. Wow. How do you explain that? Okay. So that leads me to this objection. I'm going to read it to you. So I guess it was in 1988, there was like a few labs that started doing carbon dating. That's totally corrupt. Can't wait to talk. Okay. I've never heard this one before. Yeah. I'm ready for it. Okay. So in '88. Hold my coffee.
Okay. I got two. I got two. Some labs started doing carbon dating. They're doing carbon dating on the thing. And they date it to, I've got it right here. That's exactly it, to between 1260 and 1390 AD, which coincides with the shroud's appearance in France in the 14th century. What say you, Doc? Utterly corrupt data based on not what I'm saying, the 2019 Journal of Archaeometry published by the same Oxford University that says, now you cannot use that carbon dating because based on the raw data, which the British Museum suppressed for 27 years, my friend Tristan Casia Blanca just published a book on this. He did the equipment. He did the Frenchman. He did the equivalent of a, and we just spoke at the International Shroud Conference together, he did the equivalent of what we call in America like a Freedom of Information Act took years, got the raw data finally of what they actually tested on the shroud. And they tested the one corner that all the scientists from 1978 said, don't test this. Don't test the corner. It's been patched. You're going to find cotton fibers like, because even this shroud, I don't know if you notice we have gaff tape on the corners, it's already falling apart on the ends. And this is a replica. So obviously the church is smart enough to know, hey, this thing's kind of fraying on the edge. So we're going to patch it with cottons, which anyone can see under a microscope, but the rest is fine linen. So they supposedly take the top left piece, the Reyes fragment, and they tested seven labs are supposed to test it, only three do Oxford, Zurich and Arizona.
One guy is awarded a five million dollar endowed chair. You can look this up for yourself after he writes it on the chalkboard and sits there like this 1260 to 1390. The corrupt British Museum that I've been in a thousand times, suppresses the raw data for 27 years. So according to my buddy Tristan, what they found and what the journal of archaeometry points out in 2019 is the sample that they tested is not homogenous with the shroud itself. They may not have even tested the shroud. What? The corrupted piece, or if they did, it's one of those patched pieces. So if we were to line up, if we were to stack up all the evidence against the shroud, the only evidence that I ever hear is this carbon dating, and maybe I'll hear new stuff today with these questions, but you cannot use that. That is not acceptable anymore. You need to update your research. When did that change? 2019, the Journal of Archaeometry. And then with this Freedom of Information Act, where now we can actually see that the samples they used are not homogenous with the shroud. And then there's new testing happening in 2024, 2025. Well, and then that's the other thing. I get into the five ways in my book that the shroud has also been dated. The Institute of Crystallography, well, this has been crazy to learn all this, y'all. Wide-angle x-ray scattering, waxes dating, remember how I said that we have lots of other shrouds from the land of Israel, has compared the date of a shroud without a doubt dated to the 80s, 70s, with the shroud of turns, we have a shroud from Masada and then we have the shroud of turn, they have both been getting old together at the same time. They can tell the degradation on the shroud that it's been getting old based on waxes dating for 2,000 years. Wow.
been getting older for a lot longer. - Wow. - Okay, show me the, do the face thing real quick. - Okay, this is a shout out to my friend Doug Powell, an awesome scholar, an apologist. This is what he created a mid-journey. Look at that. - So this is based on the Shroudon brand. - Oh, he did. - And like Jesus may have looked like that. - Absolutely. - Base he did. - He's an olive skinned, Jewish man, long beard, long hair, don't read the Corinthians passage about short hair. - Oh, and you beat me too. - That's why he's gone. - Okay, don't read that at me. Don't ice-a-geat that at me. No Jewish man had short hair and didn't have a little beard. And this is cool, the way Doug did this. - But he beat me too. - Probably someone asked about it, but go ahead. - He inserted just two things in the mid-journey, the image of the Shroud, and then the Christ Pantochrotter icon, just those two things. And I give more of this on my Instagram, the whole story of it. And that's what becomes the cover of my book.
- Holy cow. - Because I think it's so striking to see that's likely what Jesus' resurrection face looked like. - Okay, so I am gonna read the first Corinthians. - Please do. - Okay, that was one of my questions. - Let's do heresy together, so out of context. - Two biblical objections to this. Number one, Dr. Johnston, doesn't this violate the second commandment against having images? - Hold my coffee again, Carl. - Okay, that's number one. Number two, what about first Corinthians 11-14, where Paul says, does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it's a shame to him. So Dr. Johnston, obviously Jesus wouldn't have had long hair, and God wouldn't have preserved a quote unquote, grave an image. - All right, now thank you for these great questions. So I, as Barry Schwartz, the same thing. And again, I want to appeal to him because he gave the TED talk on the Shroud, and then he later published an awesome journal article. I was the editor of a journal called The City when I was a professor at Houston Baptist University, and I asked him to answer the five top objections, and I summarized that and give him all the credit in my book. And I said, isn't this a grave an image? The second commandment just for the benefit of our audience
says, you will have no other God, you're not gonna worship a tree God or anything you made. And oh, Barry said, and this is a Jewish man. Barry said, oh, that's so easy to answer. The Shroud is not man-made, so it's not a grave an image. It's the moment of resurrection. No man made the Shroud. And by the way, I've had the Shroud, literally this replica all over the world with me. I think we put 125,000 people through our exhibits last year. I've never seen one person worship it. I've never seen one person pray to it. Now, can I tell you this? I got on my knees in front of the actual Shroud, and I didn't pray to the Shroud or worship it, but I had a moment where I said, Jesus, make me a more ardent defender of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Please, I rededicate my life to you right now. So it's like taking people to Israel. So the Corinthians passage, if you've been to Corinth, they had short hair there, they looked like Romans. If you studied Jesus in Judeaica, himself, no Jewish men, and I answer this extensively, they all would have had beards, they all would have had longerish hair, and there's no correction there needed, because again, Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. This is, I've been to Corinth, you guys probably have too many times. This is not a Jewish community.
This is a Roman area, so very, very simply, and again, Paul took the Naz right vow, he shaved his head, he did some interesting things, but there is no evidence that any Jewish man in the 20s and 30s AD would have had no beard and short hair at all. - Interesting, to your point, what you said earlier, so we already mentioned that C.S. Lewis strikingly, that this really surprised me. This C.S. Lewis had an image of-- - Appreciated it so much. - That's right. - And to your point, that is why, and he wrote a letter to an Anglican nun about the shroud, and he said, I'm gonna read him. This was C.S. Lewis' letter back to her, thank you so much for the head of our Lord from the shroud, it has grown upon me wonderfully. I don't commit myself to the genuine, it's basically going, I don't know. I'm back then, totally understandable. He said, one can ever be quite certain, but the great value is to make one realize he was a man, and once even a dead man, there is so much difference between a doctrine and a realization, and he had that photo framed so that he would remind himself this was not some abstract doctrine, like a real guy, dot on a real cross for the real you, and if you really give him your life,
he can really change it forever. - And that's powerful. - That's it, man. - Yeah. - Okay, so okay, you got those. So those, you got those objections. - Yeah. - Those objections. - Any more? - Okay, yeah, I gotta, let me do a couple of others. All right, what about this? Dr. Johnson. - You can just call me JJ. JJ. I'm trying to think of something woody to say. JJ. - Hey, but there is simply no historian. In fact, Bishop Pierre, something I can't pronounce, a French name, who had jurisdiction of the church where the shroud was located, told the pope the shroud was a forgery and said the previous bishop identified the artist. - I've responded to that completely in a blaze article we should put in the show notes. - Yeah, do that. - That really goes down the rabbit hole 'cause I don't wanna lose the audience, but it is not a forgery at all. And there are reasons he wrote that that I literally just blast out of the park.
But can we bring up, we actually have a map of the provenance, this is the term, of the shroud. We know that Eusebius references the face cloth. - Eusebius does. - The shroud is based. - Eusebius does. - And then explain who Eusebius is. - The greatest church historian. Yeah, he was there at the Council of Nicaea. So if we play this, this is the route that we have historically of the shroud. We know it's in Edessa in 544. - How do we know that? - Based, again, thank you to Eusebius, the early church historian and others who talk about the fact that there's this face image cloth at Edessa, and it actually gets lost in refound, yes. Gets lost and refound in Edessa, that's 544. It's interesting how it races away from Islamic conquest in Asia Minor. It's in Constantinople, shot out to the Greek Orthodox who never get credit. They probably protected the shroud, the Eastern church for a thousand years before the Catholic church ever had it. This is why I always say, the shroud belongs to the unified church. Doesn't belong to the Catholic church, doesn't belong to the Eastern Orthodox, it belongs to the unified church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it goes to Athens, we know all this historically.
It's cool though, you see Naples during World War II. Hitler was fascinated with the shroud and thought it would give him power to win. So that's a whole story in and of itself how literally at the Abbey in Naples, the monks there protected the shroud from Nazi-SS when they came to try to find it. My kind of monks. Dude, I would have liked those guys. They had no idea it was in the altar that they were literally going around. They're like, just keep praying and singing and the Nazis left and they were looking for the shroud. So that's the only time it's been out of turn since 1578. Turn is in Italy, northern Italy. And so again, this is the very clear provenance that it goes way before Chamboree, France, Leary. We actually have it far before that. But again, I always tell people this, it's only been known as the shroud of Turin since the 1578th to 16th century. It was known by different names before that throughout history. Just like my beloved Kansas City Chiefs were once known as the Dallas Texans. It had different names to it. And so this helped me understand it. I'm a visual learner. And again, back to the pollen, you guys.
The other 20 pollen spores that we have on the shroud are from all of these places. Are you serious? And mass fry took five years to prove that, to go all these places and match up the pollen? No way. That's stupid. I know, wow. That's incredible. So basically you're saying, hey man, this is just a lie. It's simply a lie that there's no historical evidence over the 1400s. Get infected with a little history and easily answered. That's fascinating. That's crazy. All right, we already did the artistic anatomically. Oh, by the way, I want to say this where you're talking about Constantinople. One of the things that's really interesting, and I heard this on one of the other podcast you were on, one of the things that's really interesting is that I love about this, is it's both a death and resurrection? Yes. Peace. That's right. So which is interesting because major world religions, you know, as Contra Islam, obviously Islam says that Christ was not crucified. I have 1.57 now.
Yeah, so Islam's claim is that Jesus was a prophet, but he was not crucified. I think the Quran literally says they crucified him not. Yeah, exactly. With an exclamation point. So they deny obviously the crucifixion, and then obviously Judaism denies the resurrection. What you got right here is essentially, you would have proof of both death and resurrection. And burial too. I would add that. It's good. You have death burial and resurrection in one artifact and nothing outside the Bible does that except the shroud. That addresses the atheist. There's an atheist claim there that the body could have been stolen. Right. No, not with Jewish burial traditions, not in non-war time, absolutely not. So. All right, what about this doc? JJ? What about this doc, JJ? Okay, but JJ, the shroud fits perfectly into a period when relics were widely produced and circulated. Why should I believe this is any more authentic than pieces of the quote "true cross" or many other holy objects? Now, first of all, me and Carlos were doing a little research before this, and we found some old Martin Luther quotes
about relics that are too funny not to read them. Oh, they're amazing. So I'm gonna read these. And then you can respond to the objections. So by the way. Don't get offended though. No, he not gonna get offended. I'm not a Catholic. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. This is team Protestant all the way right here. So first of all, for anybody that does know, Martin Luther obviously kind of kicked off the Protestant Reformation. So I'm going to read some amazing Martin Luther quotes. What lies, by the way, the other thing I'll say is Martin Luther had a very spicy sense of humor. Yes, he did. Very. And he had a brewery in his basement that his wife led for him and he had a library in his bathroom. I've been in it. So the man in his bathroom had a library at his toilet. What's funny about that is apparently he would. Apparently, he had some form of, like, IBS, like, some property and the library built in his toilet. There's a literal Martin Luther quote, I'll butcher it here, this like, "I break wind in Vittenberg and they hear it in Rome." Like that's a literal Martin Luther quote. So here's some Martin Luther quotes for you. What lies are there about relics?
That's a real quote, by the way. Look that up. We looked that up as much. What lies are there about relics? One claims to have a feather from the wing of the angel Gabriel. In the Bishop of Mayans has a flame from Moses burning bush. How does it happen? This is amazing. How does it happen that 18 apostles are buried in Germany when Christ only had 12? But I'll give you another one. Here's another one. These are funny. If all the people, he's mocking the Catholic church's ways doing. If all the pieces of the true cross were collected together, they would fill a whole ship. Yet the gospel testifies. There was only one cross. One last one. There are enough nails from the Holy Cross. So by the way, for listeners, if you didn't know this, little church history, especially in the early medieval period, tons of Catholic churches would claim to have some relic that dated to the actual events. And so he's saying they were just making up tons of them. So here's another one. There are enough nails from the Holy Cross and various parts of the world to shoot a whole team of forces. So JJ, it seems like, man, this just arose right in that period when all these relics were happening. And man, aren't we Protestants where it gets relics? Yeah.
Well, we are. Absolutely. There's 20,000 relics and they have different degrees. Noles and I were just talking about this last week. And here's the interesting thing about the shroud. It's not a relic. It's an artifact because it can be tested with the sciences. And there's one other artifact of the Catholic church has the Sudarium of Oviedo, which we have an entire chapter of the Doug Powell contributed to my book. That's the face cloth, the Sudarium that also has type AB blood on it. It matches. But it matches blood type, which is fascinating. We can jump into it down to that. But I want to answer this, Martin Luther is in a time where to be a priest, these men were utterly corrupt. Don't think like your modern pastor today, good man, living moral lives, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1 commitments, no, these guys were some of the most corrupt people that you could meet. John Tetsl is popular at this time who said famously, "Every time a coin in the copper rings, a soul from purgatory springs." I've been to the home of John Tetsl, and so the relics. It's interesting. Frederick the Wise protects. I don't want to geek out on the Reformation, but Frederick the Wise is the protector of Martin Luther, and he's the one who actually has Luther abducted, so he's not burned at the stake and then protects him at the Vartburg castle where I've been. And it was interesting by the end of Martin Luther's discipleship and Frederick the Wise's life, he had actually put away all the relics he owned because he was growing in his love for God's Word. He's the little side off there, so I agree that I'm not here to defend Catholic relics
of any kind, and especially how they were misused and abused to give people absolution and salvation and pay for forgiveness and pray for the dead and all anti-biblical. But again, I've realized the shroud isn't a relic, it's an artifact. It's been tested by the sciences. And what you're saying is, man, honestly, it's just not true that the evidence points to arising in the medieval period during this era of relics. Exactly. It's just not what the evidence says. No, and I'm not the only one. I mean, there is a growing number of biblical scholars and archaeologists that feel the same way that I do based on the evidence. Let me ask you two quick final questions here. All right, so let's just say, someday it comes out that, man, actually it was a hoax. Someday, somebody finds an old journal from, you know, 1360, whatever it is, and some guys like, oh, man, I did it. Yeah. Yeah, that kind of thing. Does that affect your faith in the resurrection at all? Not one bit. Why not? Because, again, the evidence is so powerful that Jesus died and rose again. You cannot explain the suffering in the world without the resurrection of Jesus Romans 818. Jesus foretold it in Mark 831, Mark 931, Mark 1033 and 34. On the third day, Jesus misionizes, Hosea 6, 2. On the third day, he will raise us up. Jesus Adam braided resurrection, Mark 5, Luke 7, John 11, Jairus' daughter, the widow of name son Lazarus, he showed he had power over death, fourthly, all of the archaeological Number five, the resurrection was not what his disciples expected. This is where a lot of people lose out.
They don't realize this is probably why Judas fell out of the boat. 4Q285, the Dead Sea Scrolls community, says that when the Messiah shows up, he's going to kill the Roman emperor, the katim, and he's going to proclaim himself God, cleansed a corrupt priesthood, vanquished the temple, and that was the Messiah they were looking for. This is why Peter and Matthew 1623 says, "Jesus, you can't go to the cross." And he literally says, "Get behind me, Satan." I'm going to the cross. So his disciples didn't expect it. And then how do you explain the conversion of Saul of Tarsus? What we can say is that Jesus appeared to those who loved him. Jesus appeared to those who were indifferent to him, and he appeared to those who were hostile to him. None other than his own family. Mark three, his family thinks he's nuts. Mark six, he's basically called a bastard by this son of a nik, this illicit child. John seven, five, not even his brothers believed on him. This is why we have the appearance to James, which gives me chills right now even thinking about. 1 Corinthians 15, seven, and he appears to James. James is like a lot of our family and friends. They're the most skeptical of Jesus. And he was humiliated by his brother. I mean, think about it.
And yet James goes from skeptic to believer. I would have loved to be at that appearance tradition, by the way. I could see him appearing to James at the at the at the home workshop, you know, bro, check out my side. They got me good. Check out this dude. Here I am. And here's what we know about James. He becomes a pillar of the church. According to Galatians, Paul sinks out his wisdom. James, Peter, and John, he's the pastor of the world's first mega church. So don't hate on mega churches. James probably had 20,000 in this congregation if you count up the book of Acts, conservatively. He dies according to Josephus in 8062. This is Antiquities 20, believing his brother is the Messiah. So I have four sons and you have to ask yourself this question critically. What would it take for you to believe your brother was the Messiah and to die believing that? My boys don't, I break up civil wars every day, okay? They don't think their brother is the son of God. And then I don't even have time to get to Saul. And then finally, everywhere the Christian message goes, society is improved, humanity is re-humanized. This is a message, the gospel that's unstoppable. So I haven't even mentioned the shroud and I've just given you seven reasons that are my body of proof of why, without a doubt,
I believe Jesus rose from the grave and comes out, the shroud, wasn't it? I'll say, okay, let's keep going. - Yeah, that's right. - Wow, man, there's a bunch of dudes in particular. Like, we're here more and more, especially like long distance truckers and a bunch of guys who are like, man, you know, kind of trying to figure out the Jesus thing. And you know, maybe I don't know, I don't know. And what would you say to somebody who, they're here in this and even while we've been talking and they've been sitting in a truck or working out on a treadmill. And like while you've been talking, there's been something rising in their heart. They're like, yeah, I think it's time to bend the knee. - Yeah. - What would you say to that guy, right? - I want you to pray the prayer that the center prayed that Jesus heard, Lord, be merciful to me as center. That's enough. You don't need the right words or formulaic. Jesus, I trust that your payment was enough for me on the cross and that you rose again. I believe that. So Jesus, I trust in you to forgive me and my sins. That's all you have to pray. You don't even need to pray, just believe it. And the proclaim Jesus is Lord, Romans 10-9, and you'll be forgiven.
There's a second person I wanna talk to you this Easter weekend. Maybe you're coming to Lake Point this weekend for the first time without someone you love. You've lost a loved one, you've lost maybe a child, maybe a husband, a wife, a best friend. The beauty of the resurrection is we can talk about our loved ones in the present tense because of the glory of the resurrection. First Thessalonians 4, we grieve, but we don't grieve without hope. John 14-19, Jesus said, because I live, you will live also two dozen times we're given that promise. So therefore, we can be strong, we can be vigilant, always abounding in the work of the Lord 1st Corinthians 1558, because we know that everything we do for Jesus matters because of the resurrection. - Dr. Johnson, Jeremiah, would you please pray for the people who've been listening? - Absolutely. - Amen. - Thank you, Jesus, for the power of the resurrection. And Lord, Romans 8-11, your word says the same power that rose Jesus from the grave dwells in every one of us is believers. Lord, we don't know if it's 34,000 billion Watts or what, but we know it's a power we can't quantify. It's a power that forgives our sin. It's a power that takes us out of addiction. It's the power that brings our marriages together and helps us be better parents. And so Lord, we want to saturate ourselves
in resurrection power. It's been to help us know you better, to have a face-to-face look at you, Jesus. We say with Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, we want to see you face-to-face. We say with David, "Your face, Lord, will I seek?" We say with John in Revelation 22.4, "Jesus, we want to see your face clearly." And this broadcast has given us a glimpse, Lord, a blink, a twinkling. And we can't wait to be with you face-to-face. And so, Jesus, thank you today for the powerful truth of your resurrection. And Lord, we pray that you bless all the services at all the campuses at Lake Point this weekend, that God, your spirit, would be here. Lord, I pray people wouldn't just invite people, I pray they would bring people, and also those that aren't even here in the DFW area, that they would watch online, and get friends and family, and have watch parties this Easter, and say, "Hey, come listen to Pastor Joshua's message." Annoying to service is Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Jeremiah. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thanks for having me. [Music]
Recommended topics
- God Behind Bars Music+
- New to Pando+
- Ministry of the Week+
- Devotionals+
- Foundations+
- Mental Health+
- New Believers+