Add to Cart: The Shroud of Turin Prophecy Package by Russ Breault

Thanks Dan, you found this out before I did. For clarification, I always tell audiences that the message of the Shroud is Past, Present and Future. It is past in that it takes us back to the empty tomb–the resurrection seen as a historical event. It is present in that we can see on the shroud today–in the now–the extreme price that was paid for our salvation. It is future in that it represents a future event. Some may dismiss this, but what Paul writes about in 1 Cor 15: 51-53 references a future event…it hasn’t happened yet…but it is exactly what happened to Jesus in the tomb. How can I say that? Because Jesus is also called “the first fruits of the resurrection.” This means that if he is the first fruits…we are the rest of the fruit that follows at a later time. It is exactly the same concept as when the Jewish high priest was in the temple waving the first fruits of the barley harvest asking God’s blessing on the rest of the harvest. It is no accident that when Jesus rose from the dead…it was on the Jewish Feast of First Fruits! So my view is that the shroud is a picture of not just a past event but also a foreshadow of a future event as well. This is how the Shroud fits into a discussion of biblical prophecy.

In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, praised and recommended by Protestant scholars James C. Charlesworth and Craig Evans, Pope Benedict XVI says that the Resurrection does not stand outside or above history. It points beyond history but has left footprints in history.
There are two footprints, one is the empty tomb, the other the appearances of the risen Christ. It is important to note, however, that the Jesus movement, to become the Church later, was a “Resurrection movement”, not an “Empty tomb” movement. The empty tomb was used only as an explanation about how it got that way, the texts that mention the empty tomb were written a long time after the event.