Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
We welcome everyone. Today is uh apologetics class. Let's see here. Apologetics. And go ahead and do I need to do anything besides apologetics. Uh this I guess this is class four, but this is part three of the divine inspiration of the Bible. Uh we're going to move on into even though we've touched on some things, we're going to move on into some of the New Testament stuff. Today we're going to talk about uh New Testament manuscript evidence, some of that. And in particularly, we're going to talk about some New Testament archaeological evidence and proof. But this is again apologetics class 4, the divine inspiration of the Bible part three. And I could have put under there New Testament. This is really going to be our focus this morning. So, let's go ahead and dive into this reasons the New Testament can be trusted. We got four here. Number one reason the New Testament can be trusted. There are more than 24,000 copies of portions of the New Testament in existence today. Some which date back to the 1st century AD. In comparison, the Iliad by Homer only has 643 surviving manuscripts. We've already mentioned that, but very significant. We're going to touch on some of the specific ones today. For instance, this is the John Ryland fragment. We'll talk about that today for those of you watching. That would be the little fragment up in the the left corner there. Number two reason the New Testament can be trusted. The early church fathers confirmed the writings of the apostles aka the New Testament cannon in their writings long before the corrupt Roman Catholic Church even came into existence in 313 AD. So all the books of the Bible were talked about were known and even together before the Roman Catholic Church everybody everybody you know critics and skeptics always talk about well the the corrupt Roman Catholic Church is the one that formed the canon. No, they didn't. The early church fathers and and it was pretty much already done by the time of Polycarp, who was John's disciple. That's how soon we had the 27 books already established, the New Testament. Number three reason the New Testament can be trusted. Archaeological discoveries have confirmed specific New Testament people, places, and events. And as you're going to see today, even I believe forensic evidence of the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection. We're going to get into that today. Number four, first century historians confirm the existence of Jesus Christ, his miracles, his crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, his resurrection from the dead, and Christian disciples continuing his teaching. Now, we already touched on that because we touched on Josephus and Tacitus. We're going to we're going to repeat some information in these classes, but I want everybody to get
those four reasons that that's something that uh you need to remember. You need to keep in your mind. Of course, we're going to talk a little bit that that's the shroud of Trin. We're going to talk about that today. The ouary of James, Pilate Stone, we've mentioned that. The Jesus boat. I won't get into the Jesus boat today, but that was one of the more recent discoveries of a first century fishing boat in the Sea of Galilee preserved somehow in the mud. Anyway, but you guys got those those four reasons the New Testament made trusted. And of course, I mean, the obvious one is that uh you know, I mean, it it really, if you think about it, wasn't that long ago. You know, we talked about the eyewitnesses and we talked about the supernatural things. So, this is just some additional reasons the New Testament be trusted above all the others. Uh just some more manuscript evidence just to give you an idea just to compare some of the ancient ancient writings like Caesar written 100 to 44 BC. Earliest copy of that that is in existence is from 900 AD. So, you know, you got a time span of a thousand years and there's only 10 manuscripts of that. Yet, people accept that as historical enough, enough evidence to to say it's legitimate. Um, you have Plato's writings 427 to 347 BC, earliest copy 900 AD. There's a 1200 year gap. There's only seven manuscript copies. Yet, people don't question Plato existed or his writings are legitimate, right? And you can come on down the line. Tacitus the Roman senator you know first class historian wrote in 100 AD earliest copy we have is from 1100 AD thousand-year gap there's 20 manuscripts but so you get the gist of it here we go to the New Testament so written between 40 and 100 AD earliest copy uh that's debatable 125 AD I think there's some earlier stuff but bottom line time span between the earliest copies and when it was actually written was 25 to 50 years and 24,000 ancient manuscripts. Not even nothing even comes close to what the Bible has. So anybody that says, "Oh, we can't trust the New Testament." Well, then that means you can't trust anything else written in history. You understand? If you throw out the Bible, you throw out everything else. All right, just a few. We're going to talk about a few of the most significant manuscript discoveries. Uh the one I mentioned a minute ago, the John Ryland manuscript. Again, they say dated. It could be. Now, you you have to remember their dating process is still I mean all of the scholars and all of them admit that it's not perfect.
So, these are estimates. But I really believe when you look at that fragment to me it looks older than AD 125 or 130. But uh you know of course no one wants to admit that it might have actually been written by Matthew or Mark or John. They don't admit that because that's just too that that would be too much for them. Right? So anyway, this papers fragment known as P52 is encased within a climate control cabinet located inside the John Ryland's Library of Manchester, England. The manuscript fragment was among a group acquired on the Egyptian market in 1920, but not translated until 1934. The fragment contains words from the account of Jesus trial before Pilate. As the paparus contains writing on both sides, it must be from a codeex, a type of book rather than a scroll. This portion of the gospel of John is so old that it helps confirm the traditional date of the composition of the gospel to be about the end of the first century. So when this was discovered, it confirmed the time of the writing of the gospel of John, which John was the last of the gospels written. As writer Tim Chalies says in his blog post, the history of Christianity in 25 objects of the manuscripts that remain to us today, no two are exactly the same. How then can we have confidence that the Bible we possess today is the Bible as God inspired and intended it? This is where we are grateful for the discipline of textual criticism. Textual critics are scholars who examine and evaluate all the surviving manuscripts in order to accurately reproduce the original text. And here we begin to see the importance of this little fragment of paparus encased in glass in John Ryland's library. From this fragment, we know that already in the first half of the second century, there were Christians along the Nile. And these Christians were reading the very same words of God that we read today. I mean, you just you think about that. Just take that in for a moment. That's that's powerful, right? Here's another one. This one is the Bodmmer Papris AD150 to 200. Martin Bodmmer, who began amassing his collection of the world's best books and early writings at the age of 16, died in 1971. He turned down an offer to sell his expansive collection. In 2003, the President Bodmer Library of World Literature opened in near Geneva, Switzerland. Among the approximate 160,000 items is a copy of the Gutenberg Bible and a group of manuscripts. P66, P72, P75, some of the world's earliest Christian writings. P66 dating from AD200 or earlier contains most of John's gospel. This codeex is just one century removed from the time of the autograph, the original text. P72 is the
earliest copy of the epistle of Jude and the two epistles of Peter. That is very important because some of the early church fathers that are a little sketchy tried to argue like like origin tried to deny the book of Jude and the two epistles of Peter. Uh but everybody else accepted them. Okay. So anyway, that's that's real important because here you have copies probably earlier than AD 150 would be my guess. But anyway, so you have P75 which scholars date between 175 and 225 is the earliest known copy of the gospel according to Luke and one of the earliest of the gospel according to John. So again, here's entire gospels and you know the epistle of Jude, the epistles of Peter. Again, what even if we say a hundred years before the Roman Catholic Church ever came into existence, right? Pretty powerful stuff when you really start to think about it. Uh here's another one. A Chester Batty Papri 8200. These third century papris cotices were purchased by a British mining engineer a Chester Batty in n in the 1930s from a dealer in Egypt also known as P45 P46 and P47 they are housed in Batty's gift to the world the Chester Batty library in Dublin Ireland P45 contains part of a codeex of Matthew Mark Luke John Acts contains letters written by Paul Romans Hebrews 1 and 2 Corinthians Ephesians Galatians Philippians Colossians Ians 1 Thessalonians P47 contains the oldest known text of the book of Revelation right there. So pretty powerful stuff. Again, 113 years before the Roman Catholic Church began to try to corrupt the entire church. Here's another important fragment and this is taken out of your early church father's book, but you can find information on this everywhere. But this is the the Murritorian cannon fragment. It's widely thought that Caes a disciple of Irenaeus wrote the Murritorian cannon fragment abbreviated MCF. This is dated to about 175 AD. The fragment is named after Muratoni, the man who discovered it. Both the beginning and the ending are missing. So just remember the beginning of this manuscript is missing and the end of it missing. Uh but the important points to note are this. Number one, they have always been only four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There was one book of church history called the Acts of the Apostles. The MCF mentions 13 of the 14 books written by Paul. There's one real epistle Paul to the Leodysians, but there are four epistles to Leodysian Alexandria. And we don't
have the real Leodysian letter that Paul wrote. He mentions it in Colossians that he wrote that uh it mentions Jude and the two epistles of John and the revelation of John. It fails to mention Hebrews, James, Third John in the epistle of Peter. That fact does not mean they were disputed by this manuscript, just not mentioned or it could have been mentioned in the beginning or the end. That's missing. We don't know. Okay. But it notes that some accepted the the revelation of Peter and the book of wisdom. It accepts none of the Gnostic books like the Gospel of Thomas and Philip and some of that other stuff, the Adam and Eve nonsense that they the Gnostics came up with. So anyway, just remember that the Muratoran cannon fragment. You you will need to know this. Just letting you know. Now, one another point we're going to make and I and I said this uh a little bit earlier, but that these these early church fathers you see the Lord Jesus there at the top of course he directly taught Paul, Peter, John, the other apostles, but they had disciples as well. Paul disciple Clement of Rome, Peter, Ignatius of Antioch, John Polycarp, Polycarp Irenaeus and Hippo Hippolitis Irenaeus also Justin Martyr Tan Clement of Alexandria um so I wanted you to get a picture of just kind of a a little idea of where it starts because here's what's last night I read the epistle of Polycarp now Polycarp was direct directly discipled by John and took over uh John's place in the church of Ephesus when John passed away. I mean this is think about this that's that this guy was friends with the apostle John. So you know you need to pay attention and these two were were friends of each These two knew each other very well as Polycarp talks about Ignatius of Antioch in his epistle to the Philippians and he and he tells you it's interesting in the epistle of the Philippians he's like I'm not I'm not I cannot even get close he said to the wisdom of Paul he said I'm not I'm not but it you know I'm not even trying to act like I'm an apostle. I'm just I'm just writing to you because he actually says they requested him to write to him. But what was amazing reading it is how many times I recognized him quoting from Ephesians, Galatians, you know, Colossians, I mean direct quotes. It it was amazing. You'll see this right here. The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians. This is what I read last night. you and this is just a guy commenting on it but it's true. If you notice here it
says uh citing the gospel of Mark and first Peter St. Polycarp argues that one's perseverance as a Christian is rooted and grounded in Christ who is the pledge of our righteousness. And I mean he just you know so he's quoting Mark and first Peter there at the beginning of his epistle. Polycarp making the first literary citation of the book of acts known. So here's here's Polycarp the disciple of John quoting the book of acts directly in as he's writing a letter to the Philippian church after Paul's gone. I mean think about it. He's so what I'm saying is we not only have we not only have manuscript fragments and you know ancient entire gospels but we have these guys who were friends and disciples of the apostles word for word. So we have their writings confirmed by church history that has quotations. So that's what I'm saying. There's there's been discussion that you could probably take like the writings of Polycarp, Ignatius, Irenaeus, all these these early church fathers and you could almost piece together the entire New Testament from where they quoted things in. All right. So that's significant. It wasn't just, you know, this this is not just, oh, the New Testament just happened, you know. No, it it was done. God God moved on those holy men. The Holy Spirit was upon them. They wrote down directly from the apostles and the apostles passed it on to the people they discipled and the people they discipled passed it on to the next. And that's that's why we have it today. All right. So, you know, here you see him quoting uh the book of Acts. He says at the beginning of his epistle, Polycarp making his first literary citation of the book of Acts known rejoices that the church at Philippi has a firmly rooted faith which still flourishes and bears fruit unto our Lord Jesus Christ who endured for our sins, even to the suffering of death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of Hades, in whom, though you did not see him, you believed in unspeakable and glorified joy. In short, this community is still persevering in faith. And here, Polycarp cites Acts 2:24, 1 Peter 1:8, and Ephesians 2:8 just in one little segment of he quotes so many New Testament passages in his epistle. It's it's amazing. You just you just think almost he's just he's almost just like reciting. And then what most what shocked a lot of people was is that he was discipled by John, but most of his quotes came from Paul. It's interesting here. It says Polycarp he claims to know uh to not know the Old Testament very well. Uh this is reflected in his relatively sparse citation of it. He holds the writings of Paul in very high esteem as he writes in
his epistle 3:2. For neither am I nor is any other like me able to follow the wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul who when he was among you in the presence of the men of that time taught accurately and steadfastly the word of truth. and also when he was absent wrote letters to you from the study which you will be able to build yourselves up in faith given to you. One sees this reflected in his frequent uses usage of Pauline and pastoral New Testament literature. These texts as well as first Peter are what he cites the most. Polycarp's relation to and uses of Pauline tradition have entire studies dedicated to them beyond the scope of this introductory study. uh Irenaeus assertion that the personal uh his personal familiarity with Polycarp with the disciple John it's just and then he goes on to talk it's just shocking that he doesn't quote John more but here's what I like too you find out about old Polycarp here that uh he could not stand heretics and heresies he confronted you know Marcion Valentinis who were complete heretics and just [clears throat] went off on them, man. He called he met one of them. I can't remember if it was Marciano or Valentinis. And he said, "Oh, I know who you are. The firstborn of Satan when they met." These guys were not wimps. All right. Now, let's go back. This is something we covered before, but All right. So we see we have manuscript evidence 24,000 manuscripts going back long time ago almost to the first century I believe some of them are first century we have inscriptions and things anyway on stone from the first century um and so we have manuscript evidence so we also have historical references outside of Christians and this was Josephus and of course for those of you who've never heard of Titus Flavius Josephus he was a law observant Jew of the pri priestly in royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history such as the first Jewish Roman war that he witnessed resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. He also recorded some of the earliest history of Jesus Christ outside the gospels and he was not a Christian. This is just very important. This is something that you need to remind people all the time. But what's significant here and I the reason I'm repeating this again is because I want to show you he talks about he makes mention that it was widely known that Jesus was considered the Messiah that he was crucified under Pontius Pilate that he allegedly as he would put it rose from the dead and did miracles. So let's just read this. This is Josephus, the antiquities of the Jews, book 18, chapter 3, paragraph 3. We've covered this many times in this
class, but again focusing on different aspects, but I just want you to see it again. At this time, there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good. He was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his disciplehip. They reported that he appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders. And the tribe of Christians so named after him has not disappeared to this day. So here is a historical reference to the fact that it was well known that Jesus Christ lived. He did miracles. He was a virtuous, holy man. So he was a sinless man. That just refers to that in his in his nature that he was crucified under Pontius Pilate that it was reported that he had risen on the third day and appeared to his disciples. Almost everything you see here in this first century Jewish historian talking about Jesus remember who lived during that time period confirms everything that basically what the New Testament tells us about Jesus. I mean, tell me God doesn't make sure he has multiple witnesses, right? Let's keep going. We've already talked about Cornelius Tacitus was a senator historian Roman Empire 115 AD. Tacitus wrote the following. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite torches in a class of hated for their abominations called the Christians by the populace. Christristus or Christ from whom the name had its origin suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators Pontius Pilate. So here's again history confirming the existence of Jesus the pilot stone we covered this but this was recovered in uh what was it 1961 first century Roman inscription mentioning the name Pontius Pilate. We covered this in previous classes, but let's keep going here. We got a lot to cover. Now, here is uh something that's recovered. A nail through a heelbone. All right. They found dozens and dozens of these in Israel. Some of the Jews that were crucified under uh the Roman occupation back then. But uh see listen it's funny cuz whenever these people these skeptics these liberal jackle leg scholars whenever they doubt something existed oh that couldn't have happened or they dig up something and so this was discovered so it's look it has been speculated especially by the skeptical scholar and author John Dominic Croen that the crucified corpse of Jesus would have been eaten by dogs either as it
hung on the cross or after it was buried. buried in a shallow grave reserved for executed criminals. But a discovery in GitHar, I guess that's how you say it, a Jewish neighborhood in northeast Jerusalem, proves that a victim of crucifixion could receive a proper proper and honorable Jewish burial. The story begins in 1968 when building contractors unexpectedly uncovered an ancient burial site containing about 35 bodies. One tomb contained the bones of two generations of a family who lived in the century before the time of Jesus. One member of that family was Johannan, who was between 24 and 28 years old when he died. He had been crucified. His bones were discovered in an 18-in long limestone ouary, a bone box, and a 7-in nail had been driven through the heelbone of his left foot. Fragments of olive wood were found at the point of the nail, revealing the wood of the cross on which he had died. To date, this is the only archaeological discovery from Roman times of a crucifixion victim. And it demonstrates that crucifixion victims were buried just as the gospel account suggests that Jesus was taken down from the cross and buried. So you have a skeptic saying, "Oh, the the Bible couldn't be true. The New Testament account couldn't be true. They dig up something proves it was true. This was the practice back then. Now, this burial bone box that was discovered, the ashuary, this is an interesting boy. You want to read some interesting stuff. I knew about this years ago, but I didn't know about the all the crazy stuff that happened around it afterwards. But anyway, here's a biblical archae archaeology review. Here's going back to 2002. As uh amazing as it may sound, a limestone box called an ouary has surfaced in Israel that may once have contained the bones of James, the brother of Jesus. Uh we know this because an extraordinary inscription insized on one side of the ouary reads in clear Aramaic letters which is what they spoke then James son of Joseph brother of Jesus [laughter] it's on the box but is this the name the same James who was the brother of Jesus of Nazareth or was this another James whose father happened to be called Joseph and who happened to coincidentally ly also have a brother named Jesus. Um [laughter] the Ashuary is one of many now in private collection in Israel. I have this guy particular guy here who wrote this article for this magazine says I have been permitted to study and photograph it. Uh very likely it was found in Jerusalem or its environs. We know of hundreds of such ouaries that have been recovered in the holy city city. Unfortunately, as is always the
case, there's controversy around this one. Right. Again, let's let's read a little more about it here. Uh James, the brother of Jesus, was martyed in AD62. By the way, this box was dated. They're dating put it at around AD63. How how much closer could you get? Right. says, "James, the son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." The ouary has provoked controversy as the inscription was originally suspected of being a forgery. However, two imminent paleographers confirmed it authentic in 2012. New Testament scholar Ben Withering states, "It seems, if as seems probable, the ashuary found in the vicinity of Jerusalem, dated to about AD63, is indeed the burial box of James, the brother of Jesus. This inscription is the most important extra bib biblical evidence of its kind. It really can't be denied. Here, here's another thing interesting. I did not know this about this, but this bone box, the man who brought it forward, all right, it says uh the the saga of the James Ashuary culminated in 2012 with the acquitt, listen to this, of an Israeli antiquities collector, Oded Goolan, in a 7-year forgery trial of the century. But the story isn't over yet. So, one of the things he says, right, the guy that brought this forward was accused and charged with forging this 7-year trial ensued and he was acquitted that so this went to court and you imagine they put forth some uh some some experts and the man was acquitted. So, what is that saying in court? court said it's not a forgery or this man would have went to prison. Okay. But one of the things that pointed out here in this particular article says the antiquity of the 20-inch long James ashwary itself is not questioned. It dates between the 1st century BC and the 77 70 AD a period when the practice of ocelagium the collection of bones of a deceased person was prevalent among the Jewish population. It is the inscription on the the Jamesuary or mere 20 letters written in Aramaic that has incited years of debate. But why has it incited years of debate? Because another confirmation, archaeological confirmation of Jesus and of his brother and who his earthly father was at the time. you know, his uh we can say his legal father but not his biological father, right? Um but anyway, pretty interesting. I didn't know about this 7-year long trial and the guy being
acquitted. So, that's why it's good to go back and look up some things. Now, just some more first century discoveries. Uh Nazareth was discovered. Uh this particular article says here despite its fame today in the in the phrase Jesus of Nazareth the town where Jesus was brought up was so insignificant in biblical times that it isn't mentioned in any surviving literature until until after the time of Jesus because of the lack of the mention of Nazareth in the historical record. Some critics have argued that the village didn't exist. I mean isn't it amazing how they always go ah there was no place called Nazareth. That said, indirect mention of Nazareth is contained in Jewish sources from the end of the first century. Archaeology has also added added to this literary evidence. The evidence on the ground in Nazareth gives good indication of an ancient village, ancient date of the village. For example, archaeological digs in the vicinity of Nazareth had discovered tombs dating from the first century AD, confirming the village was a strongly Jewish settlement. Then in December 2009, archaeologists from the Israeli Antiquities Authority excavating in the grounds of a former convent unearthed a house from the first century Nazareth. According to the excavation director Yarda Alexandre, the discovery is of the utmost importance since it reveals for the very first time a house from the Jewish village of Nazareth and thereby sheds light on the way of life at the time of Jesus. The building that we found is small and modest and it is most likely typical of the dwellings in Nazareth that period. So the skeptics said Nazareth didn't exist and then they find first century Naz, right? Uh Peter's house. They found Peter's house. Yes, actually did. This blew my mind too. I did not know about this. Capernaum contains the remains of a church from the fifth century AD which is octagonal in shape. In 1968, archaeologists discovered the remains of an earlier church underneath it. And see, this is what happened. The the Roman Catholic Church come in and they would find a a holy site, a real Christian site, and they would build their crap on top of it, right? And so what happens a lot of times, you had to go down underneath to find the real thing. But um oh the Rome, I'm going to tell you, the Vatican is going to get what's coming to them. You can see why you read why God's so angry with them. He's going to says he's going to return to them double. Uh they just screwed up so much stuff. But anyway, the this had been built around what was originally a private house, which was apparently used by Christians as a meeting place during the second half of the first century. Today, a modern church uh exists suspended above the site with the excavation site visible through the glass floor. Peter Walker, professor of biblical studies at Trinity School for Ministry,
says graffiti that referred to Jesus as Lord and Messiah, meaning written on the walls of this house, said that Jesus was Lord and Messiah, provides strong evidence that the room was used as a place of Christian worship, almost certainly because it is believed to be the room used by Jesus, perhaps the home of Simon Peter. Given that early tradition goes back to the first century, this is almost certainly the place where Jesus stayed, the home of his chief apostle. So, you know, remember when Jesus went to Peter's house and healed his mother and it says that everybody gathered there from the city, more than likely became a frequent gathering place for Christians. So, pretty amazing stuff, isn't it? the pool of Silom. Again, skeptics, this didn't happen. In John nine, we read the story of Jesus healing the man that was born blind. Christ spits on the ground, makes some mud, puts it on the blind man's eyes. He instructs the blind man to wash in the pool Silomme. The blind man does so and is healed. Critics of scripture often assume that John's gospel contains fictional accounts of Christ's actions. But the existence of the pool of Silom and the accuracy of the biblical account contradicts the view that such story stories were later inventions. In the 3rd century AD, a church was built above the pool attached to Hezekiah's water tunnel in Jerusalem to commemorate the healing of the blind man reported in John's gospel. Until recently, this was thought to be the pool of Saleom. However, during sewage works in 2004, engineers stumbled upon the steps of a first century ritual pool near the mouth of Hezekiah's tunnel. By the summer of 2005, archaeologists said it was without doubt the missing pool of Silon. Mark D. Roberts reports, "In the plaster of this pool, we found coins that established the date of the pool to the years before and after Jesus. There is little question that this is in fact the pool of Salem to which Jesus sent the blind man in John 9." So skeptics say it's fictional. This place doesn't even exist. There it is. They find it. Now, we're going to talk about the shroud this morning a little bit. The Shroud of Trin. This is something that I looked into many, many, many, many, many years ago. And I I remembered it uh you know thinking well I think there's something to this but you know there just wasn't enough information at the time. We're talking about back late 80s early 90s and so I didn't know the whole story behind it but it's of recent times that they have taken another look at this. But let's just read this right here. It says, "The intensively studied Shroud of Trin, which bears a superficial photographically negative image of a flogged and crucified man, uh, an an
image that also contains three-dimensional information, was formerly dismissed by many on the basis of 1988 carbon dating testing given a medieval date. Now, we're going to watch a video this morning, everybody. We're going to watch a video that explains all this, but they took a sample from a corner of the shroud and went and tested it in the lab and it dated to medieval times. So, like 12,300 AD. So, everybody at that point just dismissed it as, you know, another Roman Catholic hoax. And so, it kind of just got filed off. Well, some people got to looking at this a little closer and realized that this thing had been in a fire, right? a church had caught on fire that had it displayed and and so they were trying to get it out. And anyway, basically they they repaired it. And so what you're going to find out is they repaired it. And what they did was they this was linen made of fine linen as the scripture says, but what they did was they weaved cotton in to it and reweaved it to make it and then dyed the cotton. Now, the rest of the the the whole thing, it has no paint, ink of any kind, nothing nothing painted or put on there. They they've tested all this out, but right there, they finally discovered that there was cotton in there mixed in with the linen and that it had been reweaved. And so, when they had tested that part, it's why they kept getting different dates because it was weaved in with different material. And a lot of times, see, that's another thing. Even with some of these fragments that you find, if anything was put on them later, dirt, you know, oil, something spilled. Um, a lot of times anything that's on there that's from an earlier time, I mean, from a later time can can mess with the dating process. So, that's kind of what they discovered. But anyway, it says that uh this was formally dismissed by many on the basis of a 1988 carbon dating test giving a medieval date. However, recent peer-reviewed scientific findings showed that this dating was unreliable because the samples dated were all taken from the same medieval patch. Moreover, a mass of of historical and forensic evidence points towards an earlier and even first century date for the shroud. For example, forensic evidence ties the shroud to a bloody headcloth known as the uh Sudarium ovdo or whatever an artifact with a pro providence that can be traced back as far as the 7th century. Well, you'll see about you'll see that in a minute uh what that's talking about. says, "A statistical comparison between data from the shroud and the New Testament's description of various irregular details of Jesus' punishment establishes that if the shroud is indeed a genuine first century artifact, then it probably was Jesus actual burial cloth. Hence, the shroud provides archaeological evidence for the
gospel accounts of Jesus flogging, crown of thorns, and crucifixion, as well as the claim that Jesus was given an honorable burial. Moreover, that the shroud no longer contains a body and bears undisturbed blood clots provides additional evidence for the case for Jesus resurrection. Uh we can speak with certainty about events throughout history because the archaeological evidence we find historians write with authority about the rise and falls of of empires and the practices of monarchs and rulers. They are able to do the same when it comes to the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus. Critics sometimes argue that there's no evidence for the gospel narrative, but archaeology says otherwise. Archaeology gives us independent evidence for cultural practices, beliefs, places, and and people mentioned in the New Testament, this evidence confirms the historical character and reliability of the gospel text. Now, since this has been looked at, and let let me just say this, too, as we as we look at this, as we watch this video this morning, I'm just going to say I absolutely believe that this is legitimate. It's going to go through this this this this particular artifact has probably gone through more scientific test and scrutiny than any artifact that we can name. I mean, they've tested it in every which way. Light, X-rays, I mean, you name it, they tested it. What you're going to see in this video that's very, very, very interesting, is that one of the men who was in charge of testing this, and we we're talking about people from we're talking about chemist, we're talking about uh nuclear scientist, I mean, across the board. um one of the guys that was um doing some of the test on it was dying of cancer toward the end and um he decided he heard the the the paper that had been published the debunking the carbon dating saying because it was taken from a patch and he decided he was going to disprove it. Well, when he began, he he had the actual samples from the shroud because he had been part of the original and uh he ended up going, you know what, they were right and he confirmed it and it was he his paper was published um either right before right after he he died of cancer. But, you know, you have to you have to always go, why would a dying man lie in the first place? You know, he's got no no reason to lie. But, I think you're going to see an an interesting thing. And I thought it was uh significant because again, I've been feeling the Lord. It's funny. I've been feeling the Lord tugging on my heart to take another look at this. I had no idea just because I hadn't looked at it in so many years. I had no idea that they had proven that the carbon dating was wrong in 1988 and um that it was legit. So, we're
going to watch this this morning, but before we do, what we're going to do here, and we're we're at the 10 o'clock moment. So, this video is part of your class today, and everything in it could possibly be on a future test. So, this even though it's not going to be me teaching you this morning, this is still material that you're going to have. But what we're going to do, we're going to take a five minute break. So, out there, if you need a if you're watching live this morning class, um we're going to take a fivem minute break. get you a bathroom break, get you a drink, uh because you don't want to get up during this. It's a it's 1 hour and 13 minutes and plus a few seconds. Um but I promise you it's well worth it. Um, I think after you see the evidence and this documentary, and I think it's like two documentaries kind of spliced together, but I think after you see this, you'll understand that this is an important archaeological discovery that I believe God supernaturally preserved. I mean, even the the miracle of it, you know, surviving the fire even though it got burned. um just how um it's still with us today. So, let's take 5 minutes. So, it's uh let's see it. The clock says 10 straight up. Is that the right time? All right. So, 10:05. We'll start the video of the Shroud of Trin as the second half of your class this morning. We're going to watch this video. Like I said, please don't uh, you know, don't get distracted out there and don't get distracted in here. Pay pay attention closely because there's a lot in this, a lot of details and a lot of stuff that will be on your test. So, pay attention. But, uh, anyway, go ahead, brother. You can start that video. Is claimed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Scoffers are trying to say that it's a medieval fraud. It's a fake. But it's well documented that the shroud existed before the Middle Ages. Here's a brief history. The shroud was carried from the tomb of Jesus by Peter and taken to Adessa, Turkey. The shroud was lost and wasn't rediscovered till 944 when a Byzantine emperor sent an army to bring it to Constantinople. In 1204, the European knights of the fourth crusade sacked Constantinople. They took it back to France where Margaret dese transferred it to the Seavoy family. In 1532, a fire in the Seavoi Cathedral in Shambere, France damaged the shroud. And in 1578, the Seavois established their capital in Turin, Italy, and took the shroud with them where it remains today. The first photographs of the shroud were taken by Sagunda P in 1898. And he was shocked to find when he took the pictures that the negative image was a positive image. And Eric Schwarz, who's actually Jewish, he's the Shroud documenting photographer. He says this quote, "Assuming that the Shroud were manufactured in the 14th century, it would mean that someone would have had
to conceive the concept of photography approximately 650 years before it was invented. I don't think so." End quote. Some of these scourge marks on the shroud appear only [music] under ultraviolet light, which means that the forger would have to paint the marks so that they'd be invisible to the naked eye and then discern that ultraviolet equipment be invented some 650 years later. That's impossible. There's not a trace of paint pigment on the shroud. There are no brush strokes. The images on the shroud are directionless and therefore could not be painted, at least not by a human hand. Kevin Moran, optical engineer, says this, quote, "The shroud image is made from tiny fibers that are onetenth the size of a human hair. The picture elements are actually randomly distributed like the dots in your newspaper photograph or magazine photograph. To do this, you would need an incredibly accurate atomic laser. This technology does not exist." End quote. They also found blood on the Shroud of Tin. According to medical physicist Dr. John Heler and blood specialist Dr. Alan Adler. They found not only the markings on the shroud were blood, but blood highly loaded with Billy Rubin, a bile pigment that would only show up if a dead man had been severely or traumatically beaten. And pathologist Pierre Balone came to the further conclusion that the blood spots were human blood and of the type AB. In fact, there are 13 tests that confirmed that blood was on the shroud. The image on the shroud is negative, but the blood marks are positive. The blood marks on the shroud have remained red. and why it hasn't darkened by time and oxidation is unexplainable. At the back of the toes on the shroud, there's an original bleeding when the man was alive and then in the tomb there was a renewed bleeding. So, two blood flows and this is impossible for someone to forge. In fact, the experts were shocked by the way the blood evidence was transferred to the shroud. It was done perfectly without one smear, which practically, humanly speaking, is impossible. Dr. Max Fry was a Swiss criminologist. He was one of the leading experts in dust and pollen analysis in the whole world. In fact, he single-handedly developed a technique to determine where criminals had been by testing samples of dust and pollen from their clothing. And he was consulted on many crimes by police forces of many nations. Dr. Fry's objective was very simple. If the shroud was forged in France in the 14th century, then only the French or Italian pollins will be found in the cloth. But his exhaustive analysis found some 58 specific pollins, only 17 were native [music] to Europe. The rest were from Palestine in southern Turkey, the site of Adessa and Constantinople. And this meant that the shroud had been in these places at some time in its history. [music] In fact, 13 of the pollins come exclusively from Palestine and are growing in Israel today. They found on the shroud many highly accurate images of many flowers, many hundreds of these, 28 specific flowers. They found to a good degree of accuracy that all these flowers, what's important about these flowers, they all grow in Jerusalem or within 12 miles of Jerusalem. So whatever produced the image on the
shroud also produce a high energy field producing many images of every object that was in the shroud itself and hence we have a highly accurate image of these flowers. They've also found dirt on the footprint of the cloth and this dirt has been found to come from Jerusalem's Damascus gate and nowhere else. And they found three-dimensional information in the Shroud of Tin. And this is incredible because we have to realize that a painting or photograph only has two dimensional information, height and width. And the shroud has been found to have 3D information. And they put it under a special machine called the VP8 analyzer. And the VP8 analyzer found that in the shroud image there is encoded three-dimensional information which an artist could not have put there. It's also a Jewish custom when people die to put coins over the eyes uh when laying the corpse out for burial. And in the test that they did examining the shroud turn, it looks like there's a coin over one of the eyes, the right eye. And this coin has 24 coincidences with a coin called the leptton, which was put out by Pontius Pilot between 29 and 36 AD. And when you look at this coin, you notice the staff. Remember the staff and the letters U, K, A, I. And now we're going to look at the shroud reproducing it closer and closer, larger and larger. And at high magnification, a Father Phus found this. You can see the staff and the letters U C AI. And Father Phus was shocked to see this and but he wondered why there was a C instead of a K. But in 1981 at the British Museum, he found two coins that had a C instead of a K. So this information would throw forging completely out of the question. Father Phil said, quote, "Even the wildest imagination cannot now justify any claim that the tiny letters 132nd of an inch could have been printed on the cloth." Other features that prove the authenticity of the shroud. The locks on the side of the face is a Jewish custom. The body on the shroud is not even straight. The abdomen appears swollen, showing that the cause of death was suffocation. The legs on the shroud are not broken. And the Romans who crucified their victims always broke the legs of the crucified. And this goes back to Exodus 12:46 where it says that they wouldn't break a bone in his body. The blood flows. We have to realize that when you're crucified, the hands fall to a 2565 degree angle. And so the blood flows a certain way. And it's exactly the blood flows on the shroud show that it was of a man who was crucified. In fact, studying the photos of the shroud caused Dr. Pierre Barbari, chief surgeon of the St. Joseph Hospital in Paris, France to say this quote, if this is the work of a forger, then the forger would have to be a trained anatomist for there is not a single blunder. Basically, you also have when a nail pierces the median nerve in the wrist, the thumb goes automatically into the palm and that's what's shown on the shroud. And this wouldn't invalidate the prophecy. They [music] have pierced my hands and my
feet. I can count on my bones because anatomists in all countries and throughout history have understood the hand to consist of the wrist, the palm and the fingers. This is a picture of a Roman scourging device called the flagrum. And you'll notice it consists of a handle onto which are three leather strips that are attached. And each of these leather strips have a dumbbellshaped object attached, metal object. And this device was used by the Romans as a means of punishing an individual by beating his body with stripes. And if you look at the size of the dumbbell-shaped object on the end of the flagroom, it fits perfectly into the wounds on the shroud. One author wrote that there are 120 scourge wounds on the Shroud of Turin. And Jewish law limited [music] the number of lashes to 40 and 40 * 3 is 120. The wound in the side of the shroud measures 1 and 3/4 in by 7/16 of an inch, which exactly corresponds to the size of the tip of the Roman spear called the lamea. It's also called the spear of lengess and it's kept in the Hapsburg treasure house in Vienna, Austria. And legend has it that this is the spear that pierced the side of Jesus and it was owned by Less, a Roman soldier assigned to duty at the crucifixion site by Pontius Pilot. What's [music] interesting is that Hitler believed this legend and he visited the Hapsburg treasure house when he was 19. When he invaded Austria at the very beginning of World War II, he took the spear because he believed that he had to have the spear to go out and conquer the world. Forensic pathologist from Los Angeles County, Dr. Robert Buckland, finishes his announcement of the shroud by saying, quote, "The evidence of a scourge man who was crucified and died of suffocation is clear-cut. The markings on this body are so clear and so medically accurate that they are, in my opinion, beyond dispute." And the other question is, why would anyone keep this kind of relic? so gruesome a relic unless it was the true burial cloth of Jesus Christ. [music] [music] Details of a crime scene are not released to the public. There's a reason for that. Sometimes a person who committed a crime or a brutal murder will like to brag about it. They might be at a bar talking to someone and will accidentally disclose a detail of the crime scene that was not released to the public. That person comes to the police and says, "Hey, I know who did it." And they bring that person in for questioning and they know they have a credible witness. when the witness can disclose details of the crime that were not released to the public that only someone at the crime scene could possibly know. The Shroud of Turan is such a witness, a credible witness that knows details of a crime scene that happened to this man right here. This person of interest that
we're looking at, we believe to be Jesus of Nazareth because the forensic evidence and the gospel account match up more than extremely well. This is the dead-on match. And then the shroud of Tan expands upon elaborates upon the gospel account and gives us extreme details. Again, very important point. Sometimes false information is released about the crime scene. When a suspect is being questioned, interrogated, if they can correct the heirs, they know they have a credible witness. This is another way we can be certain of something beyond a reasonable doubt. In the shroud of turn, we see this continually throughout the image. Starting with the nail wound going through the wrist, not in the palm of the hand. It corrects the errors of hundreds of paintings. False information released to the public. Note also the abdominal area is slightly swelled and discolored. That is the first of seven stages of putrification of decomposition. It tells you that the body, the shroud witness is telling us this body has been dead for 48 to 72 hours. So at the time the image was formed, the man in the shroud had been dead for 2 to 3 days. More false info released to the public is that the nail wound goes in the front of the foot when the nail wound actually goes through the side of the foot through the heel. Shroud witness corrects that error. Credible witness again. Shroud of turn knows details of the crime scene that only someone who was at the crime scene could possibly know. The shroud knows the names of several different plants growing around the area where the crime took place. The shroud knows the name of a rare calite on the heel area. The other man in the shroud also observed on the knees and on the tip of the nose. This rare kelsite made contact with the heels with the knees and the tip of the nose and it can only be found around in an area around the Damascus gate near Goltha near the garden tomb. The Damascus Gate is the main entrance to the city. So that places the man in the shroud at the scene of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. He was there. He was there. He was there. [music] Shroud knows exactly how many scourge wounds were applied and where they made contact with the body and the plowers plowed in my back. They made their furrows long. I gave my back to those who struck me my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. Forensic evidence matches scripture. Again, the rare calite on the heel area. Notice that the man on the shroud was scourged by two people. one was taller than the other
knows which parts of his face were struck while being questioned while being questioned by the high priest. Jesus was struck in the face. The right side was struck more than the left. Knows that the right eye was swollen shut as a result. Knows exactly which part of the beard was plucked out. I gave my back to those who struck me in my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. The middle section and parts of the right and left side of the beard were plucked out. Shroud tells us that his nose was araided slash dislocated likely due to violent contact with the soil outside the Damascus gate knows one of his feet made a complete impression on the linen meaning that Jesus was buried with his knees raised in a state of rigor mortise. Bear in mind again, the nail wound goes into the side of the heel, not into the front of the foot. That was false information released to the public. Shroud witness corrects the air. Knows that when a nail is driven into the wrist, the thumb moves inward as a result. The shroud is a witness coming forward saying, "Hey, I know who this person is." It knows the width of a the spear that made the side wound. It matches the dimensions of a first century Roman husta. And of course, we're looking at the side wound. And the side wound has postmortem blood. The blood tested positive for human elbumin. Blood tested positive for hemoglobin. Blood tested positive for elevated levels of Billy Rubin. There are serum contraction rings around that post-mortem wound. There are serum contraction rings around all the blood stains on the shadow turn which are nearly 400. All righty then. Though there are serum contraction rings around the blood stains McFly. Think about that. That means it's genuine. [music] I mean we can reconstruct the exact type of flagrum used to create the scourge wounds on the man of the shroud. It is consistent with a first century Roman flaggroom. Shroud knows how tall Jesus was approximately 5'11 175 lbs. Knows Jesus had long hair. Knows exactly how long it was. knows that it was tied put in a ponytail at the burial. That's not the gospel account. That's information not released to the public. Knows Jesus was buried nude. It says in the scripture from a clothing that cast lots. It doesn't say that he was buried nude, but it implies it. Shroud of turn clarifies. It expands upon the gospel account and gives us details of the crime scene that only someone who is at the crime scene could possibly know. It knows that the blood
from the side wound is going to flow down vertically and then change direction and flow horizontally horizontally across the lower back. Only someone who is at the crime scene could possibly know that. Shroud witness knows that. Knows that as a result of carrying a heavy object on his back, it will leave abrasion and compression marks. And we can we can see exactly we can see those compression marks on the shoulders. Knows one shoulder will be higher than the other as a result of one of the shoulders being dislocated. Knows that the exact angle the exact angles and position of the arms of Jesus while when he died on the cross. Knows a plain weave white linen was not used in the burial as normally would be used. knows a fine linen cloth was used. Fine linen cloth purchased by Joseph of Arythea. That's what it says in scripture. A fine linen. And it tells us, the shroud witness tells us exactly how long it is. It's 8x2 cubits. It's a filotic cubit, a first century measuring system. Shroud witness tells us the linen cloth was a three over one herring bone twill that was in existence in ancient times in Egypt and Syria but not in the medieval time. It tells us the shroud tells us the stitching pattern where they sewed in the 3-in strip along the left side 14 ft long is a first century style stitching that matches linens found in Msada next to the Dead Sea. The shroud also tells us what's not on the cloth, which is a absence of a substance called vanilla, which tells us that the shroud is minimum 1,300 years old. Recent tests of stress on the fabric prove that the cloth is ancient and comes from the time of Jesus. I'm going to quote Dr. Max Fry, who did a pollen study on the shroud starting in 1973. I can affirm without fear of being proven wrong, this cloth dates back to Palestine 2,000 years ago. And with that, we're going to look at the pollen evidence. This is the history of the shroud according to the forensic evidence, the pollen evidence, and it matches the historical record. It begins at the Dead Sea, and then the pollen trail goes to Jerusalem, and then it goes north. Pollen trail goes north through Syria and Lebanon into Edisa, Turkey. Then in the year 912, according to the historical record, it was brought to Constantinople. Okay. The pollen evidence goes all the way nine different plants in Turkey from one side of Turkey to the other. And then in 1204, the shroud is stolen by French crusaders. It
goes through Romania and Hungary and then across the Swiss Alps into France. And for a brief period of time, the shroud was in the open air in Spain and then back into France in the 14th century. And then the Seavoy family purchases the shroud of turn. So it winds up in turn, Italy. At one point the shroud is taken into Rome and there are pollins from Rome on the shroud and then back to turn. But the historical record and the forensic evidence are in agreement. On a side note, the Shroud of Turan was in the open air in a city 150 mi south of Constantinople called Trrowis. Paul of Tarsus makes mention of it of a cloak that he left there. And [music] then it goes across the sea into Greece. There are pollins from Greece on the shroud. It was there briefly. is only one of pollen from one plant and then it either went back to Trrowis and back to Constantinople or the other possibility is the Templar knights brought it into Greece. So either Paul of Tarsus had it there or the Templar knights take your pick. On a closing note on the pollen evidence, some of it was too old and degraded to be identifiable. But of course, if these were medieval pollins from 500 years ago, they would easily be identifiable. Point is, the pollins on the shroud are ancient. [music] [music] Here are the details of the crime scene. Do you want to know exactly what happened to Jesus? cuz we'll tell you everything that happened to this man in extreme detail. Shroud knows myrr and were used on the body. Myrrh and allows were found in the blood by antibbody antigen testing by Dr. Ba Balone. These same myrr and allows were also found on the headcloth in Spain. So the shroud of turn is a witness and in the Bible when whatever Jesus did all the miracles that Jesus did there's always two three witnesses. So who is the witness to the resurrection who are the witnesses? There's always a witness. The witness is the shroud of turn the sudarium of oedo and the third witness would be the empty tomb. We could add Mary Magdalene. Expensive linen and myrr and allows is used on what looks like the most hated person in the city. That's out of place. That's like a gold ring and a pig's snout. It only fits in one historical case.
Jesus of Nazareth. First century ancient cloth. First century cloth 8x2 cubits. I mean all the pieces of the puzzle [clears throat] are here. if he doesn't want to put them together. Shroud witness tells us a cap of thorns was used, not a crown. It corrects the air the false information given to the public. Notice how many drops of blood will make contact with the cloth during the burial in the non-image areas, which there are over a hundred on the right side. And a series of these drops come a short distance from where the cap of thorns was. As if when the cap of thorns was removed, it left blood drops on the cloth. The legs are not broke. The shroud witness tells us that the man in the shroud, his legs weren't broke. Matches the gospel account. And when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was dead already. So they so they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced the side and out came out blood and water. But the sequence of events, the man in the shroud is beaten, mocked, scourged, beard plucked out, crucified, side pierced, legs not broke, wrapped in the shroud in fine linen, and the body left the shroud before decomposition set in and as a result formed an image. And this image was formed 48 to 72 hours after death. And who does that sound like? Who would that be? Beyond a reasonable doubt. Beyond a reasonable doubt, the man in the shell is Jesus. We have so many different numerical match points in this case that it is actually superior to DNA evidence. the calculated odds of probability and chance that another person underwent this sequence of events. Beaten, part of the beard plucked out, mocked with a crown of thorns, scourged and crucified, right side pierced, legs not broke, wrapped in a fine expensive linen with my owls, and then the body was removed but from the cloth before decomposition set in and left a 3D imagery behind. One in 282 billion chance. [music] [music] All right, we're going to note similarities between the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Odo. First one are the blood stain patterns are very similar. On the back of the head of the Shroud of Turin is a blood stain that looks like a number three. And then you go to the cedarium of ovdo and lo and behold you have the same type of blood pattern that takes on the shape a numerical shape of the number three. Now what's significant is that the blood is type AB blood on the cedarium of ovato. Same blood that's on the shroud. Same blood same pollen. Same rare calite my on the cloth. Pulmonary edema fluid on the cloth. I mean, the cloth was authenticated as the property of Jesus in the 11th century by the Spanish government. 120 points of facial recognition, points of congruency, 70
points that match in the front, 50 points that match on the back, 120. Beyond any reasonable doubt, the person whose head that made contact with Sudarium of Odo is the same person whose head made contact with the Shroud of Turn. The kelsite, the rare kelsite from the Damascus gate that's on the tip of the nose of the shroud of turn is also on the sudarium. All right. So the person whose head made contact with the sudarium also the tip of his nose also made violent contact with the ground outside the Damascus gate. I mean at some point you got to wave the white flag. The sudarium is a known item of Jesus. So, we're comparing it to the shroud in the same way you would get the dental records of someone to compare with their remains to make a positive ID. You know, somebody please direct me to where in the historical record another person had a Gundelia torn a 40 plant put on their head. Somebody besides Jesus of Nazareth because that's the only person in history that's ever been mocked and crucified as a king. And those pollins are on the Sudarium of Oedo. Now, it's not there by random coincidence. There are 120 points of facial recognition between the cedarium and the shroud that match points of congruency. That is better than dental records. That is a positive ID beyond any reasonable doubt. The man whose head made contact with the cedarium is the same man whose head made contact with the shell return. [music] Our [music] witness, the shroud, knows Jesus was scourged on nearly every square inch of his body. By his stripes, we are healed. Says in Isaiah, but nowhere in scripture does it state that Jesus was scourged from head to toe. Only says Jesus was scourged. Shroud of turn elaborates tells us exactly where the shroud tells us the width and length of nearly every part of the anatomy of Jesus. It is forensically accurate. No less than three forensic pathologists confirmed that a genuine dead person made contact with this linen. Dr. Pierre Barbet, Dr. Robert Buckland, Dr. Frederick Zugby, another forensic pathologist from Germany, another from England, blood chemistry experts, Dr. Alan Adler, Dr. John Heler, another forensic pathologist, Dr. B of Bologone confirmed it. Knows that the blood is type AB. Shroud knows that there's elevated levels of Billy Rubin in that blood. Blood passed over a dozen tests to be genuine blood. Four times what is required by law to be used as evidence in a court of law. So the blood evidence could be brought into a court of law, but the carbon dating would never be allowed as admissible evidence. Again, the shroud is a witness to the beating,
mocking, scourging, crucification, and death and resurrection of Jesus. Is that worth watching? Ain't it wild? Blood evidence, photographic evidence, dating evidence, the pollen evidence. It's just unreal. And I, you know, when you think about it, you talk about that calsite that was on his heel and his knees and his nose. Uh, and I've been to the Damascus gate. I've walked through that gate. Right outside the Damascus gate is Golatha, the place of the skull where Jesus was crucified. If he was carrying the cross and this is what watching that if he was carrying the the cross beam across his back and they tied his hands to it and he goes through the Damascus gate and he falls he would first trying to break his fall go to his knees but then his hands are held so he's going to go face down into the ground. I mean how this is what the forensic evidence tells us and it's exactly with what the Bible says. So, I I you know, there's many more documentaries on this. Um, you could tell that this was like three uh put together. There's people that have done great presentations. I watched another one uh separate one last night. But again, think about it. We have written evidence of the scriptures. We have manuscript evidence. We have archaeological evidence. We have non-Christian historians saying all of this happened. And then we have an artifact, a piece of archaeology that, you know, if you read the gospels, you see that it says they folded that up when they they went to the tomb. It was folded up and set aside. You know, the apostles would have kept that shroud. You know, it would have been passed on as very um special to them because that was kind of like the last thing they had. uh from him. So, um just powerful. And and and here's another thing they said the the post-mortem bleeding um that that it had stopped and then restarted. I think about when Jesus rose from the dead and he tells and you know and when he appears to Mary in the garden and he tells her when she realizes it's him and he says, "Don't don't touch me. I've not yet ascended. Well, the reason he had to ascend, the reason she couldn't touch him is he had to take his blood to the mercy seat in heaven. The tabernacle that Moses saw the tabernacle in heaven and he made the one on earth as a replica from the pattern he saw in heaven. So, there's a mercy seat. There's an altar of incense. Everything that was in the tabernacle of Moses has a it was originally it's in heaven. Moses just made copies of it. Jesus took
his blood to the mercy seat in heaven as high priest to make an atonement for mankind. That's why he told Mary, "Don't touch me yet." Because he had to go do his high priest office. He took his own blood into the holy of holies in heaven. And that's why the blood restarted. But you you think about this. It's just it's just mindblowing when you hear I mean medical doctors, forensic experts, uh photographic experts, uh chemical experts. Um and yet we have people that hear all this and go, "No, I don't believe it." But still, we need to know this. It's just mind-blowing. Look, I I've like I said, I've been to Israel. Paul, you've been to Israel. Um, and you walk when you walk out of Damascus gate and you look and you see the hill that still looks like the skull and they you you can walk around behind it, go through the garden and and go to the garden tomb and you you see, you know, the Bible says the tomb was near where he was crucified. So you've got this sheer rock face of this cliff going up and on top of that's Goltha is the hill and you got this sheer rock face. Bible talks it was a rich man tomb he hwn heuned out of solid rock. So you've got this tomb hun out like a cave made by they chiseled out a doorway there. And what I was blown away is when you get there you can see how uh they chiseled out of the rock the solid rock face of that mountain side. They chiseled the track. You did you see this part? They chiseled the track that's about this high from right and you got it about this wide and where the stone it was a track for the stone. And what's wild is is you you have this doorway here like this. down here you've got what's left of you know partially left of the track that the so you can see how big the stone was that ro well you can see where when they rolled the stone over the doorway there's a cut a circular cut in the side of that cliff in the side of that rock where that huge heavy stone when they started rolling it cut into the side of that as it rolled over the doorway you can see that now with your eyes. Folks, we have all the evidence we need to know Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Messiah, God in the flesh, lived, did everything, everything that the New Testament, the Gospels, the apostles said he did and who he was. It's beyond again like this guy said, it's beyond any reasonable doubt.
There is no reasonable doubt. Manuscript evidence, archaeological evidence, forensic evidence, historical references. You mean you present this case to people and they just got to be go, you know what? I don't care what you say. I I still don't believe it. That's willful ignorance. That's choosing to disregard a mountain of evidence. So apologetics, again, apologetics this class, what it's about, looking at the evidence. I I I've been confident one thing. Most people have not looked at the evidence. Not all of it. But if you were to if you were to go into court with all this stuff, if you go if you were to go into court with an honest judge and jury, what are you gonna come out with? Jesus Christ of Nazareth existed. He existed. He did everything they said he did. And like they said, that image and all of the evidence left on the shroud also shows that the image was made before this man decayed, before this man completely began to decompose. So what's the story we have? Jesus was dead for three days, but God didn't let him see corruption. He did not decompose. He was raised supernaturally. And I believe it was the supernatural power of God. I believe what happened was I don't believe Jesus rose up alive and uh unwrapped himself. I believe he supernaturally by just sheer uh power and glory of God, he passed through that cloth and that's what left the image. And that's why it's so weird. It's so freaky. It's a It's a negative, you know. Oh, well, that's what Kevin said. That's how negatives are made. Light passing through. He didn't Jesus say, "I'm the light of the world." So, man, can you imagine how intense that must have been? And and here's a personal story you want to talk about. you know, the Catholics, the Roman Catholics in Jerusalem, you know, they've got some false places that they claim because there's another place they claims the the tomb, but it's not because when you if you go by the biblical account, it you know, the there's only one that fits it. Well, this is a this is a testimony. When I was there, my brother was with me 1988. We we were traveling around the country. And so, we started we were witnessing to people. We took tracks. We were preaching to everybody. We're staying in these youth hospitals and we were preaching to everybody. We and we met
people from all over the world. We're talking about young people, you know, from Australia and Germany and France and Belgium and New Zealand. I mean, just from everywhere. So, we started witnessing to this guy and well, there were two guys that were from Belgium and they were not saved. They were not believers. There was another guy from New Zealand who was a believer and then this guy David Hook we ran into in a hostel in um in Tel Aviv and we started witnessing to him and he started arguing with us cuz he was an atheist from Australia, right? David Hook was his name. So he starts arguing with us but the next day we get up to pack up to leave the hostel and we go get on a bus and I think we're going to Hifa somewhere. We're just going somewhere else in the country and Hook, David Hook, ends up jumping in the in the bus with us and comes back and sits down beside us and he goes, "Y'all don't mind if I hang out with you?" I said, "Well, sure." And so we, you know, we preach the gospel to him and debate his arguments for for, you know, the whole ride, the Hifa, uh, you know, an hour or two, whatever it was. And, you know, I mean, just it just went on, you know, for about a week. But he kept hanging out with us. It's like he wanted to hang out with us. So we let him. He was like, "Yeah, come on, man." So it's me, my brother Allan, David Hook from Australian, atheist, uh, Les from New Zealand, a believer. The two guys from Belgium, I can't I think one of his name was Mark, but they're atheist, agnostic, whatever. You know, they don't believe anything. Um, but we travel around the country together for a little while. So we go back to Jerusalem. Now, my brother and I had already been in Jerusalem, but we go back to Jerusalem because they hadn't been there and Hook hadn't been there. Hook was had just graduated from high school and this was his uh graduation present that he had asked for for years leading that he wanted to go tour the Middle East. And so, that was his graduation present. So we take him to Jerusalem and because my brother and I had already been there and we had a guy that an old guy that had been in Jerusalem, Jewish guy that lived in Jerusalem since 48. He had already toured us around uh Jerusalem. And um anyway, so we take Hook and we go to the Garden tomb. There's no lie. No, we're staying in a youth hostel together. And at this point, the Belgium guys have left. So it's me, Allan, Les, and David Hook in this hostel, David Citadel. So we're, you know, across the streets. So we're inside the old city area and um so we take Hook and Les and we go to the Garden Tomb. Now, we've already been there, but we go there and like, wait a minute, the guys from Belgium did stay there because they went with us. So I remember showing them Goltha. We we went out the Damascus gate first. I showed them Goltha, showed them in the Bible words. Now, those two guys from Belgium, they're like, "What? Wow, that's written 2,000 years ago." And there it is right
there. I mean, that's I remember hearing them say that go, "Wow." We walk around, we go to the garden tomb, and you know, you can 8, 10, 12 people can be in there, you know, but they've got the where they actually laid him. They have that kind of blocked off. You can't walk in that area, but you can walk inside the tomb, duck inside the door, and, you know, about nine or 10 people can stand in there comfortably. And there was some guy in there, some tourist guy talking about the oct, you know, the sound and the, you know, octave levels in there. And it was interesting because it did sound different in there. But we're we're in there. We're talking about, you know, that's this is the garden tomb. Here's what the Bible says. You know, I'm explaining what the Bible says about Jesus crucified Goltha. That's the hill. The garden tomb is close by. It's cut into rock. What the So, I'm just explaining the whole thing. Right. Hook's there. The atheist David Hook from Od. So we we stay there for I don't know maybe an hour. And so you walk back out and you walk they've got a little gift shop. You walk through that and you walk into a an alley and I remember camel was squatting just you know taking his rest right there you know just chilling uh in that alley. And um we walk by this camel and we're walking down. So me and Hook are like up in front of everybody and you know people are you know the rest of them are kind of lingering back behind and this is what David Hook says to me. Now you got to remember this guy's been arguing with us and his atheism and why he doesn't believe for two weeks. Two weeks he he uh he's kind of quiet which was odd for him. and he's kind of quiet as we're walking down this alley and he finally he he turns to me and he says,"You know," he said, 'I felt a strange peace and presence in that tomb that I've never felt before in my life." And all I said to him was, I said, "Well," I said, "That's Jesus trying to get your attention, boy." And just, you know, just kept walking. I didn't say anything else. So, we all get back to our our hostel and our room and it was four of us sharing the a room in this youth hostel and um the crazy guy for the less from New Zealand had a little Sony Walkman with the speaker you could plug in and he was playing that. I remember it was the Hosanna Integrity tape from like 19 87 or 88 but it was the the Jewish one. It was the one about the you know mighty warriors I got. It had all that on. I'm going to need to look that up cuz it was it had it was just great. He was cranking it and we were just, you know, we're all joyful, me and my brother-in-l having a good time. He's over sitting on his bed looking down at the floor and I'm like, man, I was just thinking this guy is just he's he's I was thinking at the point I said, man, what's it going to take? You [laughter] I was thinking about So, we you know, I don't think about him anymore. and he's sitting over
there and finally he he lifts his head up and he interrupts us and he says, "Hey," he said, "you know what guys, I want this Jesus that you guys been talking about." And so, wow. I was like, "Wow." So, we walked over there and I led him in prayer to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, to ask him to come into his life. The presence of God that filled that room It was so strong. It was hard to stand up. It was hard to I mean, it was so obvious. I mean, we were all just just, you know, everybody knew Jesus is standing in this room with us. The presence of of God was just strong. And so, at the end of the prayer after he prayed, we still all had our heads bowed. I just said, "Lord, I thank you for your presence being here so strong." Man, when he lifted his head up, his eyes were just bugged out. He was like, "He is here in this room with us." I mean, I will never forget that. And I'll never forget, you know, we stayed about he stayed about another week before he had to leave. And we all hung out for about another week. And we I had a New Testament, little pocket New Testament I gave him. He and he had started reading the Bible. And I remember he was reading Matthew. Last time I saw him before he left, he was laying on his bed reading Matthew. And I remember when he left, he and uh he he held his Bible up and he said, "Good day, mate." And he uh we made a little trade. He wanted he wanted a shirt that I had and so but and he had some sandals. He had some sandals, some leather sandals. And uh he's the one that got me wearing sandals because he said, "I'll trade you, mate." And I was I just give you the shirt, man. He said, "No, no, no, no. We trade." He goes, he gave me his his the leather sandals and I gave him my shirt that he wanted. And um cuz it had it was a baseball shirt that I had that I played baseball in and like the it was like farmers bank or something that uh you know was our sponsor. And so he was a farmer and he wanted that, you know. So I'm like, "Sure, man. Here you go." [laughter] But uh you know this stuff's real and it's like I think I think him seeing that seeing the reality of this place spoken about 2,000 years ago just broke down all of his arguments. And that's again that's why apologetics and and talking about the real places and the real stuff and the you know God's not against it. He will use that to break through their their arguments and their doubts and their questions. And then, you know, he comes in with his presence and finishes it off. So, anyway, uh it's time for us to quit
today. I hope you enjoyed that. I hope you learned something. You guys have a blessed day and uh class dismissed.