The Shroud of Turin

A Forged Image
of a Fake Jesus
from the False Church

The Shroud of Turin is another lie of Roman Catholicism. Bible Christians have always known it was a forgery, because God gave the Bible to save them from the fraud and superstition of those who use religion to deceive men and fill their coffers.

 

The Shroud of Turin

What Is It?

The Shroud of Turin is a cloth 14′ long and 3′ wide that many believe was the burial cloth of Jesus. It bears the image of a wounded, longhaired man. Rome has not declared it authentic, but she allows its adoration and promotion as her most famous relic. Pope Paul VI called it “the greatest relic in Christendom.”

It first showed up in a French village around 1355, when relics and other superstitious practices of the Roman Catholic Church were at their height in audacity and quantity. It then made its way to the Italian town of Turin, where it has been since 1578.

Without any documentation or historical explanation for its whereabouts for over 1300 years, many of those not influenced by Catholic veneration for relics have dismissed it as a fraud.

In 1984 scholars suggested the Vatican authorize radiocarbon dating to test the authenticity of the cloth. The Catholic Church chose Oxford University, the University of Arizona, and the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland for the testing. Results released in 1988 gave the limits for its creation to have been between the years 1260 and 1390.

Since then others have presented numerous scientific studies, conjectural theories, and historical possibilities to support its authenticity. Of course, most Catholics passionately believe that it is the real thing without any evidence but tacit church approval.

But God has plainly declared it a deceptive fraud, lie, and scam.

 

The Shroud of Turin

What does it look like?

 

 

Shroud believers take a close-up of the face, open the image’s eyes, and create a Jesus consistent with Catholic icons and paintings.

Or did the original artist use the same icons and pictures to create the image in the first place?

 

 

The Shroud of Turin

Bible Proofs that It Is a Lie

  1. Jesus of Nazareth was not buried in a single cloth wrapping his body and head. He was buried with a linen cloth wound around his body and a napkin covering his head (John 20:5-7). These were two separate cloths, and the napkin for his head was folded and laid separately after His resurrection. It is impossible to have a single cloth with an imprint of His body and face. The forgers were skilled, but ignorant of the Bible. The Shroud is an obvious lie by this fact in the Scriptures.
  2. Lazarus, a close friend of Jesus, was buried the very same way. He had linen burial clothes wound around his body, but his face was covered with a separate napkin (John 11:44). Why did the Holy Spirit inspire such detail from John’s pen? To show again that it is impossible to have a single cloth bearing an image of both the body and face of a Jewish corpse.
  3. The Jewish burial practice is clearly described by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the two places above, and the same apostolic writer tells us further that Jesus was truly buried according to Jewish custom (John 19:40). Why did the Holy Spirit inspire such detail from John’s pen? To give three divine witnesses that the Shroud of Turin is a fraud.
  4. The Shroud depicts a longhaired man. This cannot be Jesus of Nazareth – He had short hair! It is a shame for a man to have long hair, and Jesus would not have done any thing to shame His Father in heaven (I Cor 11:14). Images of Caesar or other rulers of the time show that short hair was the custom of the time, not the womanly look of Haight-Asbury hippies. The Shroud reflects the Catholic myth of an effeminate, longhaired man perpetuated by their art, which has no basis in fact and was condemned by the Second Commandment (Ex 20:4).
  5. The Shroud depicts a man in fair condition. But the Bible declares that the face of Jesus was marred more than the face of any man (Is 52:14). For such a prophecy to have any meaning, the face of Jesus would have been severely mangled. As the gospels record, Roman soldiers beat His face to create the very distorted visual appearance foretold by Isaiah (Matt 26:67; Luke 22:64). But the Shroud does not show it.
  6. The Shroud depicts a man with considerable facial hair still remaining. But the Bible declares that Jesus had His facial hair plucked off (Is 50:6). The forgers were skillful, but ignorant!
  7. Daniel prophetically foretold the rise of a unique kingdom and ruler from Rome’s ruins that would speak and do great things against the Most High God (Dan 7:8,11,20,25). There has been little doubt among Bible believers about the identity of the little horn of Rome for 2000 years, for no other entity but the Roman Catholic Church could fulfill his careful chronology. The claim to possess an image of the Son of God is just one of her arrogant and blasphemous presumptions against heaven.
  8. Paul described the Roman Catholic popes, restrained from power while the Caesars ruled in Rome, as the Man of Sin (II Thess 2:1-8). The primary character trait of this coming religious apostasy was deceitful and lying delusions to damn its hearers for rejecting the truth of God (II Thess 2:9-12). The character and motive of the source condemn the Shroud. Any suspect in a criminal trial with such evil character, evil motives, and all the circumstantial evidence would be guilty.
  9. Paul further described this religion as not having a conscience by declaring two of her favorite doctrines to be lies of the devil – abstinence from meat and vows of celibacy (I Tim 4:1-3). The great departure from the faith he prophetically detailed showed the character of men that would have no qualms about using a forged burial cloth to seduce the simple.
  10. John, the apostle who damned the Shroud by his description of the burial clothes of Lazarus and Jesus, had much to say about Roman Catholicism. He wrote extensively about her in Revelation, but he specifically identified her as a false church full of abominations like the Shroud (Rev 17:1-6). There has been little doubt among Bible believers about the identity of the Great Whore for 2000 years, for John plainly identifies her as the city that ruled the earth in his lifetime (Rev 17:18).
  11. Jesus Himself had warned about religious hypocrites who used long prayers to devour widows’ houses – take their meager financial resources to fill their own pockets (Matt 23:14). He promised them greater damnation. All one needs to do is survey those who most believe and support the Catholic Church to see that it is primarily women, and thus widows.
  12. It is a well-known fact that the Roman Catholic Church has an insane number of claims to other relics throughout its large number of churches … from breast milk of Mary to 5 Arks of the Covenant to 18 foreskins of the baby Jesus to numerous forefingers of John the Baptist to 12 burial head cloths of Jesus and many more!
  13. If the Shroud is a forgery, how was it done in such a way to baffle even scientists today? It does not baffle all scientists. One of the links below contains information about research published in early 2005 that explains the means by which medieval artists could have fraudulently created the Shroud.
  14. But what if scientific examination proved the Shroud beyond 15th century knowledge? There is a simple solution – the Shroud is the joint product of lying men and the devil, just as Paul prophesied of the Roman church (II Thess 2:9). Remember Jannes and Jambres, Pharaoh’s magicians, who by the devil’s power were able to match the first few signs of Moses (Exodus 7:11,22; 8:7,18-19; 9:11; II Tim 3:8-9). The devil has power for limited miracles, when God allows him to exercise it (Job 1:12; 2:6-7; Luke 8:27-33; Acts 19:13-20).
  15. The “scientific proof” of the Shroud being a legitimate burial cloth of the first century containing an accurate image of a crucified Jewish male corpse is no more convincing than all the “scientific proof” marshaled to defend evolution and its related delusions. The Word of God plainly condemns both!

Conclusion

The evidence is clear, concise, and certain … to all noble Bible believers (Acts 17:11; I Thess 5:21; I Tim 6:20-21). The Shroud of Turin is a lie of the Roman Catholic Church. There is sufficient evidence against it that any court in the world that would honor the Holy Scriptures as a legitimate witness would condemn it easily.