Shroud of Turin: Blood on the Linen Fibers
There is a conspiracy of silence. I believe that the Church has been deceived into participating in this conspiracy in the past, and continues to be a part of it. There is evidence that that I will present below that I believe will support this opinion. This issue is timely and relates to this present resurrection season especially, as we will see.
Passover is one of the appointed feasts of the LORD, which He commanded all of Israel to observe throughout all of their generations Ex. 12:1-48, Ex. 13:6-10,Lev. 23:4-8). This year, it is occurring this week, coinciding with our Holy Week observances of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
Passover is a prophetic picture of the greatest triumph of Jesus Christ. Yet it is something in which most of the Church refuses to take part. The Church's ignorance concerning Passover and the other feasts of the LORD is based, I believe, on anti-Semitic prejudice. It is an ignorance that can keep the Church, and the individual believer from being effective especially during this time, when many are dying from a pestilence that is covering our land.
Passover memorializes the night when the children of Israel were delivered from the plague of death, and out of their slavery in Egypt. The LORD told Moses that the blood of a spotless lamb must be sprinkled or spattered with hyssop on the doorposts and lintels of every house of the Hebrews so that the angel of death that was about to be released over the land of Egypt would "pass over" the Israelites' homes without harm. The Passover is followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is to be observed for seven days, which makes it a type of Sabbath.
In the same manner, our spotless Lamb, Jesus, provided His blood as a deliverance from death. Have we applied the blood of the Lamb of God to our doorposts and lintels- not only to the doorposts of our physical homes, but to the doorposts of our spiritual houses or temples of God, which are our bodies? Does this ignorance regarding Passover prevent us from applying this same life-saving deliverance from death to the doorposts and lintels of our nation, as an angel of death presently rolls through our communities on a scale which we have not previously seen?
The word "Passover" in Hebrew is pesach which means "a sparing, an immunity from penalty and calamity". Its root word is pasach, meaning "to pass over, spring over, to hop, to skip over, to leap (see the definition of nazah also below)".
The meal which the Church has called "The Last Supper", from which we get our holy communion rite, was a Passover Seder which Jesus shared with His disciples (Mt. 26:17-19). The Apostle Paul, who was a Jew as were all of the apostles, called Jesus "our Passover" who was sacrificed for us (1 Cor. 5:7). Yet the Church remains silent regarding the teaching and the observance of the Passover. What conclusion can we draw from this except that the Church deliberately ignores, or suppresses the knowledge of the power of the Passover, and its prophetic proclamation of salvation and deliverance by the blood of the Lamb? For what purpose would the Passover be ignored and renamed except for the purpose of disguising its message of salvation in Christ from the Jew, and as well as denying the Church's Jewish roots. Both of these results can only have resulted from deep, systematic anti-Semitism, of which we have historical evidence*.
God has also sent His Feast of Unleavened Bread, which immediately follows Passover and cannot be separated from it, at a time when we need it most. As we see the return of Christ nearing, the unleavened bread of this feast not only pertains to the removal of sin, or leaven, from our homes and lives, but it also signifies the immediacy of the leave-taking out of bondage. The leave-taking was so sudden in the Exodus account, there was no time for the leaven to raise the bread. This is a prophetic announcement to us of the need to be ready to leave immediately when the trumpet of the LORD sounds, as the New Testament teaches (1 Cor. 15:51-53, 1 Thess. 4:15-17). This is the precious doctrine of what we refer to as the Rapture of the Church. The Israelites were to eat their Passover meal with shoes on their feet, ready to depart at a moment's notice. Are we ready? The Passover Seder not only memorializes "a night different from all other nights" of the past, but also prophetically announces the night that will be different from all other nights in the near future at the return of Christ. Yet the Church ignores the message of Passover.
The conspiracy of silence, denial and ignorance continues as the Church remains determined to hide salvation in the form of the image of Christ in the Passover from the Jews, for whom God first intended it. For the Gospel is to the Jew first, and then also to the Gentile (Rom. 1:16). The Church has deliberately determined, against all that is in the Word of God, that the Gospel is only to the Gentiles, as it continues to deny and neglect its Jewish foundation, which is Yeshua, Jesus, the prophets and the apostles (2 Pet. 3:1-2), who were all Jews.
Jesus died on the cross on the Passover, at the same hour as the Passover lamb was being offered in the temple, yet we keep silent about Passover, even turning away from it. How should we explain this strange contradiction?
Not only have we turned our backs on the Passover as an image of the crucified Christ, but the Church continues to neglect the tangible Passover image that we have of the crucified and resurrected Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We have that Passover image preserved on the Shroud of Turin, which the world denounces as a fraud, and the Church prefers not to acknowledge or discuss. Again, there is silence from the Church.
The Shroud of Turin is a long piece of linen with an image of a man who was the victim of crucifixion in the exact same manner as recorded in the Gospels. This Shroud was used to loosely cover the dead body of a crucified man from the area of Jerusalem, as was the practice of Jewish burial customs of the day. What this Shroud tells us is that what was originally a cloth or veil of death for the grave, has been swallowed up by the image of the victory of the resurrected Lamb (Isa. 25:7-8, 1 Cor. 15:43). The outer areas of the Shroud surrounding the central image is swallowed up by later fire and water marks (subsequent baptism of the Holy Spirit?), which do not trespass upon the central image itself. There are several scripture references regarding physical evidence seen with the eye that convicts and convinces both Jew and Gentile of the atonement and resurrection of Christ (Gal. 3:1, Zech. 12:10-14, and Isa. 52:14-15 below).
The conscious conspiracy of silence practiced by the Church applies to its silence regarding the Shroud of Turin as well. For the Shroud is a witness of Jewish customs of burial at the time of Christ. Not only does the Shroud shout loudly and clearly to the Gentiles, but the way the frontal and dorsal images appear on the cloth is a specific witness to the Jew. For Jews were not wrapped as a mummy for burial, but by a long piece of linen upon which the body was laid, which was then folded over the head to loosely cover the front or top of the body as well. The Shroud is the testimony of the Gospel to the Jew in its details. The body depicted on the Shroud shows evidence that phylacteries (items strapped to a Jewish worshipper containing the word of God) were worn on the forehead and arm. This identifies the person on the Shroud as being a Jew. So the Shroud is not a Catholic relic, nor a Christian relic. If we are going to characterize it at all, we must say that it is a Jewish relic.
Original scientific research on the Shroud has already concluded that the image, which has several unusual characteristics, was not created by any paints, dyes, or tints, nor is any manmade method of application indicated on the fibers. Human blood is present on the Shroud. The image itself, with its very unique qualities, cannot be accurately duplicated by any process. Incorrect Carbon Dating performed subsequently to the original investigation, which declared the Shroud a forgery, was overturned by later scientific analysis.**
Although the Church handles and keeps the Shroud as if it were more precious than gold, it refuses to publicly discuss what many believe to be the authentic burial cloth of Jesus, despite scientific findings that would lend support to that conclusion. Why the silence?
The prophets wrote that something would be seen that would astound and shut the mouths of those who saw it:
"Just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men; so shall he sprinkle ("nazah" - to spurt, spatter, sprinkle, to startle, besprinkle especially in expiation, to leap (see the meaning of Passover above), to cause to exult, to fill anyone with joy) many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him; for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider." Isa. 52:14-15
The passion or torture of Jesus even before His crucifixion, would have caused His blood to spatter and spurt in agreement with the definition of nazah used in the scripture above, in the same way that the hyssop branch dipped in the blood of the lamb would spatter the blood when striking the doorposts and lintels of the homes of the Israelites on the Passover night of Exodus. It also would produce this same kind of blood spatter as indicated by the wounds on the body depicted on the Shroud. Yet the Church remains largely silent on these things.
The Church has been deceived through its anti-Semitism into keeping hidden these obvious Jewish characteristics of the truth of the Gospel from the Jews. The spiritual powers behind the deception have much to gain from keeping the Jews unaware of their Messiah, their Passover Lamb. The Apostle Paul said regarding the salvation of the Jews:
"...if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh (Jews) and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches." Rom. 11:14-16
The receiving of salvation by the Jews would revolutionize, revive, and benefit the kingdom of God in every way, which should be the goal of the Church. Life from the dead, and holiness revival would come from this restored Jewish root. Paul said he would use any means possible to bring this about. Paul wrote that the salvation of the Jews is so essential to the Church, and to the kingdom of God, that if it were possible, he would give up his own salvation to accomplish it (Rom. 9:1-5). Does the heart of the Church cry out for this salvation as Paul's does? Its silence in word and practice on this matter, however, "speaks" plenty.
As the Lord keeps His promise to remove the scales from Jewish eyes (Acts 9:17-18), and spiritual blindness is reversed (Rom. 11:25-27), it is time for the Church to lift the cover off of the almost 2,000 year old conspiracy of silence that makes the Gospel of salvation unrecognizable to the Jews*. The same tactic has been used in the case of the Feast of First Fruits, which is Resurrection Sunday. The Church has hidden the correlation of these two events under the disguise of the pagan term, "Easter", which has nothing to do with Christ or His resurrection. Unfortunately, most of the Church has continued along this path to its own loss and weakness, but we can begin to make a change. Each of us can begin to discover the Jewish roots of our faith, and put them into practice. This is not a form of legalism, but enrichment. I have been blessed to attend a church that has for many years taught the Jewish foundation of our faith. My faith has become deeper and richer because of it, and I am thankful for it. In the Jewish roots of our faith, the LORD continually confirms Himself, His Word, His Son, and His plan of salvation for His creation. In the Jewish roots of our faith, He assures each of us of His eternal promise that He is, and will be with us, and we will to be with Him.
We can all take measures to end the conspiracy of silence.
Jesus said, "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Jn. 4:22-24
Our Father has ordained the Passover for all generations.
**Recommended reading regarding the scientific findings, Jewish culture, and scriptural references concerning the Shroud of Turin:
"NAZAH: White Linen and the Blood of Sprinkling" by Dr. Kenneth Stevenson
*Early Church history concerning anti-Semitism and rejection of our Jewish heritage:
Letter from Emperor Constantine to Church Bishops
