By BOB BIRD
In an amazing turnaround from the Biden era, the Trump White House issued Holy Week greetings to the entire country. As a flawed human being, and one who has escaped death by a hair’s breadth, as well as the preposterous dirty tricks of the Deep State, it appears that Trump is discovering something that every person must come to grips with: the soon-to-be experienced Divine Judgment.
We live in a culture that sweeps such soul-chilling realities under the rug, but within every soul exists the basic understanding of right and wrong. There is no escaping it. You do not have to study or be schooled in this truth. The Bible says that God has implanted it in everyone’s heart. We will be called to account, and we are all guilty.
Why is Holy Week necessary to be understood and commemorated? Because to have any chance at eternal life, the Son of God had to become Man, preach to us, demonstrate His powers and accept the preposterous suffering that a Roman crucifixion entails. In our time, we have used the medium of books and movies to impart to us how this may have been like, 2,000 years ago. All are different, all recognize that their version may not be entirely accurate, and yet we can be utterly slammed when we see the following list of non-fiction books or motion pictures:
The Day Christ Died by Jim Bishop.
The Last Hours of Jesus by Ralph Gorman.
The Founding of Christendom by Warren H. Carroll.
But it is the motion picture that our culture has come to chiefly rely upon. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Franco Zeferelli’s Jesus of Nazareth take very little artistic license, and must be classified technically as fiction, yet are based upon solid Biblical narrative and researched facts. Currently an animated feature is out, The King of Kings, and appears to be worthy. Many have seen Risen, starring Ralph Fiennes, a fictionalized yet plausible story of a Roman tribune who encounters the risen Christ.
But what if we could get into a time machine and be there? At the foot of the cross, on Friday, April 7, 30 AD? Or at the moment of resurrection on April 9? What would it really have looked like? How did people react? What about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus? Mary Magdalen’s encounter in the cemetery? What is it like to actually see an angel, as the women coming to anoint the body did? Or the 10 apostles on Easter evening, when Jesus walked through a locked door? Or when Thomas placed his hands into Jesus’ wounds a few days later?
Well, we actually can. Sort of. And you can do it today. On the internet are hundreds of documentaries, brief interviews and talk-show discussions about the Holy Shroud of Turin. It may be from the BBC, National Geographic, the History Channel. If you encounter the opinions of the fast-evaporating skeptics, they are probably hopelessly outdated.
These discussions involve its scientific properties, its history and current theories — which are constantly being revised by honest science. The Holy Shroud is the most scrutinized artifact in human history, exceeding the Rosetta Stone, moon rocks, the Zapruder film or photos from Mars.
What does this artifact tell us? Whenever I lecture on it, with a life-sized replica in the room, you should see what I see: the eyes of the audience, whenever its properties begin to communicate the dynamics of the self-torture of crucifixion. Or the pain of hematidrosis, the sweating of blood. The BB-studded whips of the Roman flagrum. The carrying of a 100-pound cross beam on the shoulders, and the bruising of the knees and head from the face-plants that follow each stumble. Or the fixture of a helmet of thorns.
Only God could leave us His photograph, implanted on linen, and in the medium of a photographic negative. As Lord of Time, only He could reach His loving hand across the centuries to blast our layers of complacency away, in our age that worships anything and everything but Him.
Truly, in every century, mankind is a flock of lost and scattered sheep, ripe for easy picking by wolves. Likely our imagination of the demons and goblins of hell pale before the reality. The voice of the Shepherd calls us, for only He can protect us. The rage of the demons screams at every soul that accepts, with humility, the admission, confession and cost of our sins.
The Holy Shroud silently awaits the investigation of those who have chosen to regard the Bible as a fairy tale. Our electronic age makes it possible to do so without going to Italy or attending a lecture. Only God could be so loving, and so patient, with his sheep.
Go to www.shroud.com and begin the search.
Bob Bird is former chair of the Alaskan Independence Party and the host of a talk show on KSRM radio, Kenai.
The Creator has woven Himself into the fabric of time and space. The 7th Church Age is ending on time. When A + B + C = 6, God = 26 and Jesus = 74. 7 4 is day 37+37+37+37+37 and 2 6 is day 37. Counting day 37 to day 185, 7 4 = Judas Iscariot (149)
Washington DC = 137 and day 137, 228 days remain in the year. United States of America = 228. 228+137 = 73+73+73+73+73. After all, English is the world’s official language. Tik Tok, silly human.
Thank you Bob!
Next Sunday, He has risen ….. indeed he has.
Thanks Bob.
Excellent. Thank you.
Though I believe religion helps some people get along in life, it has also proven a killer of millions and do not see any significance to the shroud of Turin.
I thank Bob for sharing and would like to do the same. My God requires no religion because it is absolutely everything and is time and space with no beginning and no end, never was made by an individual of any kind, because it always was.
We have had sextillions of lives prior to being born and again after our present biological life forms expire.
“religion” ….. “proven a killer of millions”?
Mao – 60 million dead
Stalin – 40 million dead
Hitler – 30 million dead
King Leopold – 8 million dead
Hideki Tojo – 5 million dead
Pol Pot 1.8 Million dead
Lenin – 50K dead (slacker)
Castro – 30K dead (Caribbean slacker)
That’s the list 3rd Gen ….. except for Leopold, they were all atheist/nationalists
You conveniently left out the crusades, burnings, infant sacrifices, both world wars and countless other religious conflicts/wars., You have a lot of work to do George.
This is the list of the worlds top mass murders.
I left nothing out (but did skip to Lenin & Castro)
WW2 was started by Hitler dude.
The religious conflicts of the past, when there was sub-par killing methods, are nothing compared to our modern communist/atheists leaders.
Work?
I’m retired.
I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.
Keep your illusions private.
Another absolutely fantastic book on the subject of the crucifixion of Christ. The Crucifixion of the King of Glory by Eugenia Constantinou PhD
And if you think all of the regimes you’ve listed here were secular, your ignorant on a gigantic scale.
Very truthful and well written. Thanks for the article to reflect on.
KEEP CHURCH SEPARATE FROM STATE AS IN THE CONSTITUTION!
God & Country
In God we trust
One nation under God
(Christ)mas a Fed recognized holiday
Every President (including Obama) was Christian
There is NO words stating a “separation of church & state” in the constitution or the Declaration
Libs made that up (and not that long ago)
From the first time I ever heard of it and saw it, I was convinced that the Shroud of Turin was nothing but a medieval forgery. A very clever and ingenuously made forgery, but still a forgery. Just the fact that the image on it is perfectly flat, and not distorted by the shroud having been draped around the body, is enough to demonstrate that.
Jefferson: Allow me to compliment you. Only through criticism and skepticism can we arrive at truth, and your response allows for dialogue. Being a Shroud skeptic is perfectly reasonable, but be aware that many former skeptics have turned into advocates for authenticity. If you go beyond your feelings, and learn the facts that keep piling up by the newest and most sophisticated sciences, you may be shaken. The Carbon-14 dating of 1988 is a perfect example. This team arrogantly dismissed it as a medieval forgery, too: 1390-1260. But they were handicapped by their own narrow perspective, as if C-14 trumped all other disciplines and sciences. The more knowledgeable-yet-persistent skeptics have dumped it as their “proof” of forgery. It took 20 years, but the C-14 test is now utterly discredited, and we now know exactly where they made their mistakes. And from other angles, too, such as scatter X-ray technology, plus the obvious documentation of extant historical records and artifacts, all of which move its dating way, way back from those dates. Then there are pollen samples and textile weaving style which place it in Palestine. If you are confident in your conclusion, you should not be afraid to dig deeper than you have. Go for it, and stay in touch.
Your take on this is absolutely wrong. The C-14 test has not, as you claim, been discredited. The consensus among scientists is that there has been no compelling evidence to refute the dating done in 1988.
In fact, all of the hypotheses used to challenge the radiocarbon dating have been scientifically refuted,including the medieval repair hypothesis, the bio-contamination hypothesis and the carbon monoxide hypothesis. I think you suffer from confirmation bias.
What you mean by bio-contamination is correct. That and the bio-plastic coating theory as well. These were floated as hypotheses and never were tested. I never heard of the carbon monoxide hypothesis, which might go under a different name.
However, the medieval repair HAS been tested, and absolutely sustained, and by overwhelming consensus. You are free, of course, to cherry-pick your own sources. It was Ray Rogers, who lashed himself to C-14 results and poo-poohed the idea and claimed he could laugh it off in 5 minutes. He possessed a control sample of the Shroud from 1988 in his own lab, and put it under the microscope. He called Barrie Schwortz back in 90 minutes, to confirm that he would eat his words. He was on hand personally for the press conference to sustain that the medieval weave was fact. Perhaps you missed it. As usual, the mainstream media ignored it.
Was the shroud image a template for the zig zag man.