This wonderful book is a lovely and beautifully persuasive treatise, written with an extraordinary spirit of humility and awesome reverence for both the Holiness of God and the preciousness of His lost creation.
The analysis of the Shroud is like the icing on the cake and the cherry on the Sunday of all Shroud studies I have read and seen on DVD presentations.
It also is of enormous eschatological and evangelical importance, because the author presents a novel interpretation of the image on the Shroud that no one, to my knowledge, has done before, and that he believes is part of the final lifting up of Jesus before all the world, heralding Jesus' final triumphant reign over humanity.
The excitement I feel about this book is that it might serve as a very powerful witnessing tool to Jewish people, who tend to dismiss the story of the Resurrection as a myth, exactly as reported in the Gospels regarding the Jewish claim that the disciples stole away Jesus' body:
Matthew 28:11-15 (New King James Version)
The Soldiers Are Bribed
11 Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. 12 When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 saying, "Tell them, `His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.' 14 And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure." 15 So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
When I lived in the Israeli northern-Galilee city of Tzfat, I actually knew people in the Chassidic community there who boasted that Jesus' body had been callously discarded into a ravine nearby Tzfat. One shopowner claimed as a matter of pride that Jesus had been buried beneath the site on which his shop stood! So this story is widely embraced by Orthodox Jews of all stripes to this very day.
Jesus Himself said He would only give the sign of the Prophet Jonah, and He implied that the Resurrection would be the final seal of Divine Approval for all He did, taught, and said in His earthly ministry:
Matthew 12:38-42 (New King James Version)
The Scribes and Pharisees Ask for a Sign
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You."
39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
Orthodox Jews, and to a lesser extent all Jews, tend to regard Jesus as a sorceror who used unclean powers to perform His miracles, exactly as reported in the Gospels.
Matthew 12:22-30 (New King James Version)
A House Divided Cannot Stand
22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and[a] mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, "Could this be the Son of David?"
24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, "This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub,[b] the ruler of the demons."
25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. 30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.
And Mark reports that claiming that Jesus acted out of impure motives and utilized unclean spirits actually constitutes the unpardonable sin:
Mark 3:22-30 (New King James Version)
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub," and, "By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons."
23 So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: "How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. 27 No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.
The Unpardonable Sin
28 "Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; 29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation"-- 30 because they said, "He has an unclean spirit."
It is probable that many persons doubted Jesus' veracity in His lifetime; however the Resurrection should have put all those doubts to rest. Thus, it is of the greatest importance to persuade Jewish people that the Resurrection did in fact occur and is not just some kind of "clever myth". This might be the only way to rescue them from the spiritual oblivion that awaits all who blaspheme the Holy Spirit, exactly what they do when they claim that Jesus cast out devils by the power of Beelzebub.
Since Jews tend to respect science, the evidence about the Shroud that this book presents might carry great weight with them and force them to reconsider their historic skepticism about the veracity of the Resurrection.
Anyone interested in and challenged by Jewish evangelism should read this book, and perhaps memorize its salient points. It presents the strongest possible case for scientific proof of the veracity of the Resurrection of Christ.
It would make a wonderful companion volume to Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ and The Case for the Easter, packing a tremendous one-two knockout punch to satan's efforts to blind people to the truth of the Resurrection of Christ.
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