Good morning, it's good to see everyone today.
We will be starting another theme today, looking at the call of the birds that Jesus--rather in Revelation 19,
it speaks of the call of the birds that they should eat much flesh.
We'll start with that and we will look at the time frame that that points to in more detail.
I've titled today's presentation, Called, Chosen and Faithful, and that comes from the verse that we will be looking at.
So, we saw this scene before, where we have the series of the planets along the ecliptic, 10 planets with the comet 12P Pons Brooks,
and this is at the time of the solar eclipse,
where the moon and the sun are both at the same place.
And this corresponds to this verse in Revelation 19, verse 18, where it says, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains,
and the flesh of mighty men,
and the flesh of horses,
and of them that sit on them,
and the flesh of all men,
both free and bond,
both small and great.
And we saw before how there are 10 classes of flesh that the birds are called to eat.
And here we have 10 birds, if you will, flying in the midst of heaven in this heavenly illustration.
Now, the first question is, why birds?
Why does God use the symbolism of birds?
More often, the moving heavenly bodies are identified as angels in the Revelation.
So, why are they specifically mentioned as birds?
We have particularly birds of prey.
Well, if we look at the news that has been coming out around this time of the eclipse, one headline says,
a virus 100 times worse than the previous one puts the world dangerously close to a pandemic.
And specifically, it refers to cases of avian flu, or bird flu, that are rising among humans, which includes one recently found in Texas,
leading to concerns among medical professionals about the deadly H5N1 strain.
So, there's already been, or recently been, a case found in Texas of somebody who contracted this bird flu virus.
Another headline from yesterday, in fact, April 19th, H5N1 strain of bird flu found in milk,
says a representative of the World Health Organization.
This strain has led to the deaths of tens of millions of poultry, with wild birds, and land and marine mammals are also infected.
So, it's been transferred to cattle, and that was how this person in Texas got infected, he was a farmer, and he got it through the milk,
or rather,
through the cows,
and they find it especially in the milk of the cows.
They're still learning about how it transmits itself and spreads.
Cows and goats joined the list last month, the list of mammals that can get this bird flu,
a surprising development for experts because they were not thought to be susceptible to this type of influenza.
So, it's a possibility.
It could be that it's pointing to a bird flu, a deadly bird flu, and in fact, this bird flu, from 2003 until April 1 of this year,
the World Health Organization said it had recorded 463 deaths,
human deaths,
from 889 cases across 23 countries.
Now, that's a long span of time, about 21 years, but it puts the fatality rate at about 52 percent, which is quite high.
So, for those who have contracted this bird flu, most of them, or about half of them, have actually been fatal.
Now, granted, in the more recent cases, the fatality has not been quite as high, but still,
it is a possible fulfillment of this prophecy and the reason why God would use birds to represent the planets in this case.
So, we'll have to see what the future holds in that regard.
But what I want to look at here is the dual nature of this sign because I just read the one verse,
but it speaks of the Lord's call to the birds to come and gather to the Great Supper of God.
But what we see in the heavens is we have Pons Brooks and the Lamb, the Devil Comet and the Lamb of God, the contrasting symbolism.
And then the exact location where the eclipse was on April 8th happens to be exactly
on this constellation line of the fish that is lying down on the equator,
on the ecliptic,
rather,
if you will.
See how there's two fish?
One is straight up, perpendicular to the ecliptic, and one is lying down.
And this represents, as fish, they represent the Christians, those who ascend in the end without seeing death,
and those who pass through death.
And so, what this symbolism is showing is it's marking those who pass through death,
as though the Devil Comet as that angel who is standing in the sun,
according to the prophecy.
Like I said, I only read one verse today, but if you look at the whole prophecy like we did before,
it speaks of the angel who stands in the sun,
and we connected that with the Comet Pons Brooks.
And it's pointing, or highlighting, this lying fish as though to highlight God's people and their death.
We have the two contrasting aspects, the Devil and the Lamb, and then the attack against God's people, putting them to death.
But it's also, like I pointed out before, it's the vengeance of God for those who have been put to death, of his people.
Now, this contrast relates to Revelation chapter 17.
I'll just read a few verses here, starting with verse 12.
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet.
These are horns on this beast power.
But they receive power as kings for one hour with the beast.
These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
These shall make war with the Lamb.
There's that key part, making war with the Lamb.
And the Lamb shall overcome them.
For he is Lord of lords and King of kings.
And they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful.
So, first of all, they receive power as kings for one hour with the beast.
The Horologium clock, one hour on that clock represents one year.
Because you can think of the comet as the minute hand of the clock, if you will.
And in one hour, it makes a revolution around the clock, like one hour.
And from the beginning, when we began to study the Horologium, we recognized this hourly pattern with the years in sequence.
And in fact, the numbers Roman numeral 10, 10 o'clock pointing to 2010.
And so, each number going up, 2011, 12, 2013, all the way up until 2024 is the midnight hour.
And that's where we're at now with the midnight cry.
So, it is at this time when we have this hour, when they're given power to reign as kings for this hour.
That's when this war with the Lamb takes place.
That's in blue here.
That's the hour.
This is the year from May 28th until just shortly after in June 4th of 2025.
So, beginning shortly after the present time.
It mentions not just that it's a war with the Lamb, but also His people.
He has people with Him.
They that are with Him are called and chosen and faithful.
Now, this war, certainly in some sense, takes place on the earth.
And therefore, the people who are with Him are also here with Him on the earth.
But I want to look especially at these expressions, these words, that they are called, chosen, and faithful.
Because those who are called, if you're called, what are we called to?
To be like Christ, to give a testimony, and to serve Him, okay, on this earth.
And then, what are we called, what event are we called to?
The supper in heaven, the wedding supper, right?
So, we're given an invitation.
And that invitation is our call.
That invitation was given when Jesus died on the cross.
He died on the cross.
He gave His life as an invitation to all the world.
Just as it says in the most famous verse of the Bible, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
That's the invitation.
Come and believe in Him and have everlasting life.
They are the called who are with Christ.
But it continues and says they are chosen.
What does it mean that they're chosen?
We have the invitation has gone out to everyone, the whole world.
But who is chosen?
Does God now just say, okay, you, you, you, and you, and you?
He only chooses a select few?
Or how does that work?
Because He gave the invitation to the whole world.
So, what is it that causes one to be among the chosen?
Yes, He chose His 12 disciples and they gathered many others.
Keep in mind, Jesus Himself said that though He chose 12, one was a devil.
So, even in that sense, we see that that's not exactly what it's referring to.
That's not what it's referring to when He says they are the chosen.
In keeping with the wedding theme, the wedding invitation, the invitation was given at the cross and in formal gatherings.
It's customary to, when you get your invitation from the bride and groom, inside the invitation,
there will be a card where you can answer and say,
yes,
I'm coming,
or no,
I'm not coming.
That's the response.
And that is what governs whether we are chosen or not.
Because the invitation, you send out many invitations to the wedding, but not everybody responds, right?
But those who respond favorably, they're chosen.
You understand?
So, it's simply those who respond to the invitation are the ones who are chosen.
It's their response that makes it so that they are chosen.
We'll look a little bit later at why it's phrased in that way.
But in the heavenly sign, this corresponds to the baptismal scene.
That's when we make our decision for the Lord and we say, yes, I'm coming.
I want to be a part.
I accept the invitation of the cross and in baptism, I commit to come to the wedding feast.
So, the invitation points to those who are called.
Baptism points to those who are chosen.
Let's look at a Bible passage here.
In this story, Jesus makes a point that relates also to this aspect of being chosen.
Now, it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
So, Jesus went to the house of Martha and she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered about with much serving and came to him and said, Lord,
doth thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?
Bid her therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things,
but one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her.
Now, in Jesus' response, we can understand how it works with the chosen because we have the two sisters, Mary and Martha.
And Martha is busy preparing things and not really paying so much attention to Jesus, whereas Mary is sitting, as it were, at Jesus' feet.
She's here and there's Jesus.
You can imagine it in that way in the sign.
So, what did she do?
She made a choice.
She chose to sit at Jesus' feet, right?
And what did Jesus say?
He said, she's chosen well.
She chose the good part.
She, instead of being encumbered with preparations for physical food, she wanted the spiritual food from Jesus.
And Jesus said, it will not be taken away from her.
So, in other words, he agrees with that choice.
She made the choice to sit at Jesus' feet to learn from him, and Jesus, in turn, agreed with that.
He chose Mary because she was the one that was interested and put his words above the earthly things.
So, let's look now at the faithful.
They're called with the invitation, chosen with their response in baptism.
And the faithful are those who follow through because you can receive the invitation and give your answer, yes, I will come.
But then maybe between that time and the time of the wedding, something happens and you change your plans and you decide, no,
I'm not going to go.
So, the faithful are those who actually follow through and they do, in the end, come to the wedding supper.
And this we see represented in Orion where our Lord is represented and it also represents that ascension, as we saw in the past.
Amen.
He's the faithful witness as well.
I will get to that in a second.
So, let's look at this in the context of the sign.
In Revelation 22, verse 16, Jesus is speaking.
He says, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star.
So, Jesus is represented in Orion.
Remember, like we talked about last week, we talked about the angel, his messenger.
He's the angel of the covenant and he sent his messenger angel, represented by the horologium, to testify these things in the which are,
of course,
represented in the body of the fish.
And then he says, I am the root and the offspring of David.
The root, you can think of this as the river, the source of the river and the outflow, the root and the offspring,
and that puts David in the middle.
If this is David, Jesus is the root.
He is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and that led to David.
And then he's also the offspring of David, the root and the offspring of David.
And, of course, here we have represented the church of Philadelphia, where Jesus also presents himself as he who has the key of David.
And so, that's where we see David being represented in the sign, is in that position of the baptism.
And David was known as a man after God's own heart.
And, of course, we've seen how the heart is represented at or by the river, the river of blood.
And Jesus also identifies himself as the bright and the morning star.
We talked about last time how the morning star is this angel, his messenger, preparing the way represented by the Horologium.
The passage continues, And the Spirit and the Bride.
So the Spirit and the Bride, Philadelphia, say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is athirst come,
and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.
So, here we have the Spirit, the Bride, and those who hear what the Spirit and the Bride are saying,
giving that call to come and drink from the water of life.
So, those who are faithful are those who come and they drink from that water, as we've seen is marked out by the Greek letter Mu,
that seal of the Holy Spirit,
as it is represented in the sign.
Particularly, this last year, the time when the comet passes the sign of the Son of Man, which comes up to here,
and then the last year after that,
where the waters are drunk,
and then at the end,
coming to the supper.
So, this also, you mentioned about the being faithful, the faithful witness, and here we see Jesus with the oath, making that oath,
and he's committing to it,
though it harm himself.
Looking back at the story, and she, Martha, had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.
So, she sat at his feet and heard his word, ate his food, as it were.
We've seen how the Spirit, the dove, represents that heavenly food that was given to the children of Israel in the wilderness, the manna,
because that's the bowl of manna that was put inside the Ark of the Covenant.
Last week, we talked about the Ark of the Covenant with the two angels on either side, and inside that ark is the bowl of manna,
as well as the tables of stone,
etc.
So, Mary was taking her part from that portion in the ark that God provided, and if we look in the Old Testament, where this is mentioned,
it says,
Moses said,
This is the thing which the Lord commandeth.
Fill an omer of it, that is, the manna, that was one day's portion.
Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness,
when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.
So, it's this bowl of manna, that one day's portion, that corresponds to this additional time of the Spirit,
when we will be using or eating from,
like Mary was eating from,
that bowl of manna,
as it were,
that's what we have for this final year after the sign of the Son of Man.
And it's connected with the coming out of the land of Egypt,
and we've seen how that is represented from the clock coming out like they came out at midnight when the midnight sounded,
then they came out of Egypt,
it was at midnight that they had the last plague,
the slaughtering of the firstborn.
And then early in the morning they left Egypt, and that's what the Passover and the Spring Feasts were commemorating, was that event,
the passing over of the angel at that time when their firstborn were otherwise slaughtered.
So, this corresponds to the time of the Spring Feasts, and what I want to do is just briefly show you a little study,
it's an old study from 2011 that we've had on our website,
because it is where we find this 372 days.
It comes from a study of the feasts and particularly the sacrifices that they made during those feast times.
So, at the time of the Passover, that was when God instituted the feasts.
And after that, when they came into the land, they would always celebrate those feasts in remembrance of the Passover event,
and he gave particular instructions for how it was to be celebrated and what sacrifices were to be given,
and it's insightful what comes out of that.
So, I'm just going to read this one passage that shows us what sacrifices were specified.
It says in Numbers chapter 28, ".
.
but ye shall offer a sacrifice made by fire for a burnt offering unto the Lord, two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs of the first year.
They shall be unto you without blemish."
So, ten animals here, two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year.
So, this was for the spring feasts.
And then, for each of those animal sacrifices, there was a meat or a grain offering that would be offered, and it says, ".
.
it shall be of flour mingled with oil."
So, there we have the symbolism that points to the dove, wherever it is now.
I have it hidden in my sign, but it points to the dove, which represents oil as well as the bread, the bread of heaven, manna.
So, the flour mingled with oil points to those portions, and we want to know how many portions do we have, and this is where it comes from.
It's about how much was specified to be offered with those sacrifices, how much flour and oil was to be offered with the sacrifices.
And it says, ".
.
three-tenths deal shalt thou offer for every lamb."
So, a different proportion for each animal that they would offer, and so every time they offered a bull,
they offered the three-tenths of a portion.
And then, for the seven lambs, they had the one-tenth part.
And one goat for a sin offering, there was no flour or oil offered with that.
The one goat for a sin offering to make an atonement for you.
So, these are the animals, and with each one except for the goat, there was the grain offering flour mingled with oil.
".
.
ye shall offer these beside the burnt offering in the morning,"
which is a continual burnt offering.
So, that was separate from the morning and the evening offering that they would make every day.
And finally, it says, ".
.
after this manner ye shall offer every day throughout the seven days of the spring feast.
The meat of the sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord, it shall
be offered beside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering."
So, we see that through the spring feasts, they would offer all of these animals.
And with the animals they would have the grain offering, which was flour mingled with oil,
pointing to portions of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God combined together,
as in studying God's Word with the Holy Spirit.
And these portions were given by number, and so you can add up how much did it amount to,
how many portions were there in the spring feast season.
And when you do that, you'll find that there were 51 portions, because it specifies.
.
I'm not going to go through all the calculations, that's not the point, but I just wanted you to see how it's set up, how God set it up.
And in the end, it turned out there was enough flour and oil portions to last for 51 days for those who took part in them.
Now, it's interesting because, well,
51 days was exactly the amount of time from the crucifixion of Jesus until the Spirit was poured out in Pentecost.
51 days.
There was 49 days, and then the next day was Pentecost, and then one day before the resurrection also.
So, right from the crucifixion all the way until the Holy Spirit was given in the early reign at Pentecost on the disciples,
that was 51 days.
So, it corresponds to a particular period of time when those portions would be needed,
and it's related to the cross and to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the early reign.
The spring sacrifices corresponded to the early reign at the time of Jesus' crucifixion, but there were also autumn sacrifices.
So, first of all, in the sign,
the April 8th solar eclipse was right in the middle when comet E3 was right in the middle of these two crossings of the pendulum.
And it turns out that there's exactly 51 days also from April 8th until May 28th when it crosses the pendulum.
I think that is interesting, and we'll see a little bit more about that going forward as well.
Now, let's look at the autumn feasts because the spring feasts pointed to Jesus' first coming, and the time in A.
D.
31 in anticipation of the outpouring of the early reign, the Holy Spirit in the early reign.
And now, the autumn feasts, they point to his second coming.
And so, when we look at, this is now Numbers chapter 29 beginning with verse 13,
let's look briefly at this passage where it describes the same sort of thing as we read for the spring sacrifices,
but you'll notice the key difference.
And ye shall offer a burnt offering, a sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord, thirteen young bullocks, two rams,
and fourteen lambs of the first year.
They shall be without blemish.
So, what do you notice right off the bat?
There's a lot more, right?
It went from instead of, what was it, two young bullocks to now we have thirteen.
So, that's a big difference.
And then from one ram to two, and from seven lambs to fourteen.
So, everything is much more, a lot more animals were offered, and correspondingly more flour mingled with oil.
So, just quickly going through this, and their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three-tenths deals unto each bullock,
and so on and so forth,
as all the same like we read before.
But that was for the first day.
Then for the second day of the feast, instead of being like in the spring where every day was the same, here we see a difference.
On the second day, ye shall offer twelve young bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of the first year without spot.
And on the third day, eleven bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs.
On the fourth day, ten bullocks.
The fifth day, nine bullocks.
The sixth day, eight bullocks.
And finally, on the seventh day of the feast, the last day, seven bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish.
So we see this countdown from 13 to 12, 11, 10, all the way down to 7, and we'll talk about that in just a second.
But first, all of the portions that come out of all these many animals and each one having its grain offering,
there were a total of 372 portions that come out of the autumn sacrifices.
And so that's exactly the number of days that we see represented there from one crossing of the pendulum to the next.
372 days.
Just exactly the 372 portions that God provided for.
So he provided from the spring feasts, he provided from the cross until the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
That was the spring feasts.
Then the autumn feasts, they provide from the latter rain, from the outpouring of the latter rain,
372 portions covering that time until the end.
So you see the symmetry.
We go from the spring feasts, you have from the time of the cross until the outpouring of the Spirit in the early rain.
That was when the disciples were all gathered together and they received the Holy Spirit like tongues of fire.
That was 51 days after the cross as it came from the spring feasts.
Then now in our day we have first comes the latter rain and then 372 days until represented in Orion we have Jesus' second coming.
Does that make sense?
Good.
And those 372 days are exactly what we see in the remainder of that sign as marked by the horologium.
So on one side you have the 51 days from the solar eclipse to the pendulum line of the cross.
Then you have another 372 days on the other side pointing to the spring and the autumn feasts, the portions.
So let's look at this countdown from 13 down to 7.
If you just look at the symbolism, biblical symbolism of the numbers, every number has a certain symbol, it represents certain things.
Now this is maybe not hard and fast, but you have a general impression that that 13 represents rebellion,
putting oneself above the government of God,
whereas 12 represents God's government,
his covenant with man.
Similarly, 11 represents chaos, instability, one more than the order and stability of God's law.
So in this countdown we see a progression.
Number nine represents a finality or making a decision, eight is like a new beginning.
Children were circumcised on the eighth day, and after a week of seven days begins the eighth, a new beginning.
And then finally the completion or rest, that Sabbath rest in Christ.
And so we have this progression from rebellion coming into order with God's covenant, giving up that chaos and instability,
and submitting to God's law,
making a decision for the Lord,
finding a new beginning,
and completing that in the rest of Christ.
Now this progression should relate to the 372 days of this time in the end, because that's from those sacrifices that were offered,
it should correspond to that period.
And if we look at the church of Smyrna, Jesus' letter to the church of Smyrna,
they're the ones who are especially featured in this time because of the trials,
the tribulation.
And that's what Jesus counseled them and encouraged them and comforted them regarding especially those trials.
And so let's just look at his letter to them, it's short, just a few verses, beginning in Revelation 2 verse 8.
And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive.
So first of all we have the first, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and the last at the horologium, the time of judgment,
which was dead on the cross and is alive,
he's been resurrected.
And he says, I know thy works and thy tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich.
And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Now this synagogue of Satan, if we were to represent them with a number, what number would you choose?
Okay, it could be six I suppose, but 13, the government of Satan.
These are those who are his kingdom as it were, his government, they abide by his rules.
So they're the rebellion, right?
So if we continue, we see this countdown represented in the whole sequence of the letter.
Jesus continues and he says, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
So Jesus said that he always cast out fear, right?
And he told his people always when they were afraid, fear not, it's okay.
And so he says again, fear none of those things which you shall suffer because they're in his kingdom.
And his kingdom of love, and perfect love casts out fear.
So you could connect that with the covenant.
And then he continues, behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that he may be tried.
So there's that chaos, that instability, not sure what is happening.
There's the war aspect there.
And you shall have tribulation 10 days.
So that one's even written in the text.
Incidentally, to understand that prophetically, what those 10 days are, we should understand that here we have one day represented.
It's one day's portion that was held in the ark and that corresponds to one year.
So the tribulation for 10 days would suggest 10 years.
And this is just the last of it, going from 2024 to 2025.
So if you subtract 10 years, you come to 2015.
And what happened in 2015?
The image of the beast was established in the United States when on June 26th of 2015,
the Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage was the law of the land.
And that began what really has come to be quite a chaotic and problematic environment it has created for the
United States and the whole world because the United States more or less leads the world in those things.
And so this whole woke movement has come about really since that time in 2015.
That's the 10 days of tribulation that culminates in this last year when it's really a physical and grueling tribulation.
The passage continues, be thou faithful unto death.
So there's that finality, that decision, making the commitment to death.
And I will give thee a crown of life, the new beginning.
So we see the countdown in the text of his letter to the Church of Smyrna.
And it concludes, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
And of course, overcoming is the completion, you've come to the rest.
And so we have these 372 days that are represented.
And that countdown from rebellion to rest in Christ, all corresponds to this time.
The 372 days come from that autumn sacrifices, and so does that countdown.
It's a purification process.
Just like we saw before, he sits as a refiner purifying the sons of Levi.
Now there's one other confirmation that I would like to consider for this 372 days, and it comes from a very different source.
It is an artifact from history.
It's actually the most studied artifact in all of human history.
The only problem is that you've probably heard of it, but you've written it off, at least if you're anything like I was.
You never even gave it a second thought, because when you were introduced to it,
it was introduced as a Catholic deception and medieval fakery,
something from the Middle Ages where they faked this artifact to make money for the church.
And this is how it came to my understanding, and therefore I never considered it until by happenstance, if you can call it that,
this week a video had come into my feed,
and it talked about this artifact.
And it wasn't from a Catholic perspective, but a Protestant perspective, and they were supporting it, and I was like, really?
And so, I listened to the evidence for the first time, and that's what I want to show first, because I have to introduce this.
It's not really necessarily a big point that I want to make, but in order to get to that,
I have to talk about this artifact a little bit first for some minutes.
And what I'm referring to is called the Shroud of Turin.
Has anybody heard of this, first of all?
No?
No one's heard of it?
Okay.
Well, it was first photographed, let me start there, in 1898.
And what it is, it is a cloth, a linen cloth, and it has in it, if you can see it, a faint image of a man.
Do you see it?
There's a front side of the man, and then a back side.
You see it?
You see the face here?
There are the arms, there's a hand, another hand crossing over, and then the legs, very faint, in this linen cloth.
And on this side, there's the back of his head, and then his back and legs.
And this has gathered a lot of attention over the years because of what it purports to be.
Can you guess, based on this, what it has said, what the claim is of this linen cloth with this image of a man?
It's proposed that this is the very linen cloth that Jesus was laid in, in his tomb.
And it's based on this faint image of the front and back of a man.
So, many people, of course, being skeptical, say, oh, that's just artwork, it's sketched in there, or whatever,
and the church used it for their own purposes.
By the way, it was only in the possession of the church since 1983, or thereabouts.
Before that, it had changed hands, and it has a long history.
But in 1978, there was a team of 33 scientists that got together to study this Shroud of Turin.
It's called the Shroud of Turin, by the way, because that's where it's located, in Turin, Italy.
And these images come from the video that I mentioned.
And so, this is where they gathered.
They brought 10 tons of equipment in 70 crates to analyze this shroud in different ways, trying to understand what is it?
Where did this image come from?
And they did various testing on it using various types of equipment.
I'll spare you reading all of the names from everything, but you see they did a variety of different kinds of analysis,
looking at particles,
looking at the blood that was on the linen shroud.
And in the conclusion of this study that they did in 1978, some of the people who were studying it, the scientists,
they had a change of opinion.
Not all of them, but some of them.
For example, one from the Nuclear Technologies Corporation said, we all thought we'd find a forgery and we'd be packing our bags, job done,
it's fake,
in half an hour.
But they had a period of five days to study it that they had it available to them, and they worked around the clock during that time.
Another person said, I was convinced it was forgery, but now there's no question in my mind that there was a scourged,
crucified man in the shroud.
So, again, these scientists who studied it recognized this is not a fake.
It's not just artwork.
We can't figure out how this image came to be, but the person we see here fits only one person known to history.
Of course, that would be Jesus Christ.
So, among the tests that they did, they looked at, for example, the pollen.
These are samples of some of the pollens that had collected on this linen shroud, and they analyzed them using electron microscopy.
And they found there were quite a number of different plants that they came from, many of which came from the land of Jerusalem,
even though the shroud itself,
after hundreds of years,
had not been in that place.
Also, they found some limestone particles all over the cloth, and when they analyzed the chemical nature of that limestone,
they found it had the exact same characteristics as limestone that is found in the tombs and caves around Jerusalem.
As far as how the image appeared, you can look up close to the fibers, and you see here is a part where it's stained with the blood.
And you see it, when you look at it up close, you see the red color of the blood, and you can see how it affects the fibers a little bit,
making them stick together.
Whereas here, this is part of the image, and when you look at it up close, you don't see anything.
This is one of the more prominent, more visible parts, the tip of the nose,
and you don't see any image there when you look at the actual fibers.
It's just the fibers.
Here is an even closer view of the fibers, and you can see it's just a little bit of discoloration on the fibers of this linen shroud.
It's even only on the very top layer of fibers.
It doesn't even go deep into the cloth.
Just on the top layer of the fibers.
Another interesting aspect is if you look at the shade of the image.
You know, there are lighter parts and darker parts, and if you relate that to depth, you see that it forms a clear, a nice,
ordinary looking three-dimensional image.
So, it's proportional to the depth.
The intensity of the color of the image is proportional to the depth.
Whereas, if you take any ordinary image and you apply the same test to it, it's all distorted and it doesn't look normal.
So, that shows that however this image was made, it reflects the depth, the actual, it has 3D information in that image.
And furthermore, the image, it's like a negative.
Like when you take a picture with a film camera, and you have the negative and then you have to develop the film to make it a positive.
But the thing is, this, even if it were from the Middle Ages, that was long before photography was ever invented.
They had no concept of a negative.
They wouldn't do artwork in the negative form.
Besides that, there's no trace of any pigments,
there's no chemicals found on the cloth that were ever used in any kind of artwork from anything else in that time.
And therefore, in their report, after three years of analyzing the data that they gathered from this shroud,
they conclude for now that the shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged,
crucified man.
It is not the product of an artist.
The blood stains are composed of hemoglobin and give a positive test for serum albumin.
In other words, it's real blood that it is stained with and not just some red coloring.
And so, this is the conclusion from these scientists who studied it.
So, it's an authentic shroud of a crucified and scourged person.
Now, one other detail about this linen cloth, it's a very high quality and expensive material,
one that only a wealthy person would be able to afford.
And somebody who was a criminal and crucified would not be the same class
that would be able to afford such an expensive cloth such as that shroud.
But you know the story of Jesus.
Who was it that gave his tomb?
It was Joseph of Arimathea, and it was his linen cloth, his shroud that he had and that he wrapped the body of Jesus in.
And he was a rich man.
Yes, thank you.
There are many wounds that you can see.
You can see the scourge marks on both sides.
That's the backside of the man.
And here's a closer view.
And you see the many scourge marks in different angles on his back.
Not just his back, but also on his front.
And this is where it connects to what we've been talking about with these 372 days in a rather interesting way.
A 2010 study of the shroud called New Image Processing of the Turin Shroud Scourge Marks.
So they're just looking at the scourge marks, not the other wounds.
It also has blood stain from his side wound, his feet, his hands, and his head all on the shroud.
But looking just at the scourge marks, and this was the type of Roman scourge that would have been used.
And the marks, they come,
you see them in sets of two or three similar to something like this that would have two or three of these weighted straps.
They would slap it on the person's back with great force.
And depending on the nature of what they used to weight it down, how jagged it was, it would inflict wounds or bruises.
And it was quite a severe punishment.
Therefore, Pilate wanted to do that as a compromise.
The priests surrendered Jesus or asked that he be crucified, and he said, why?
What has he done?
And then in the end, he decided, okay, I'll just scourge him.
That leaves him already half dead.
That should suffice and they should be happy with that.
But they weren't happy with that and they wanted him crucified.
And therefore, it was very rare for somebody who had endured such a scourging to additionally be crucified on top of that.
But in this study of 2010, they counted the most prominent of the scourge marks, which they highlighted.
This is a picture from that study.
And they highlighted those scourge marks that were the most prominent.
And what they found was there were 159 bloodstains on the front of his body.
That would be where it wrapped around his legs or arms to the front,
because they would have them put their hands up on a pole and then they would whip them on the backside.
159 bloodstains on the front and 213 bloodstains on the back.
And when you add those together, which they do in the article, 372 bloodstains.
These were the most evident bloodstains from the scourge marks that have been marked in this study.
There's a verse in Isaiah chapter 53.
It says, but he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him.
And with his stripes, we are healed.
So this just makes it a very real image.
He was beaten 372 times.
That's the most evident ones pointing to this year of tribulation during which we are healed.
That's what it's pointing to.
By his stripes, we are healed in that period of 372 days.
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But it was on our account.
And it brings our mind to the Lord's Supper.
Paul says, for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, his body.
The bread represents his body like we see in Orion.
And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat.
This is my body, which is broken for you.
This do in remembrance of me.
We see Jesus's body represented in Orion.
We see the winepress represented in the Horologium, the body and the blood of Jesus.
After the same manner, also, he took the cup when he had supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood.
This do ye, as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till ye come.
And now we are at that time when he is coming.
This is the day of the Lord.
It's the day of his coming, the year.
And Jesus himself, in Matthew chapter 26, he said, for this is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
There we have that healing aspect again.
But I say unto you,
I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom.
And so with that remembrance,
I just want to formally invite everyone to participate in a Lord's Supper Communion service on May 24th of this year after sunset.
We choose this day because that is the anniversary.
It was May 24th of AD 31 when Jesus had his last supper with his disciples, when he last drank of the fruit of the vine.
And so that's also in remembrance of his death, his burial, and his resurrection.
His body and his blood that were given for us that we might enter this time,
this final year with all of our portions from that manna in the heavenly ark.
And so with that, I conclude and just want to reflect on the significance of what Jesus did for us.
And we can always reflect on his sacrifice because it's always relevant to us even today and in all that we do.
So let's stand for a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving your Son as a sacrifice for our sin, that he bore the punishment,
he took the scourging for our sin,
that we might be healed even in this time.
It's a time that is a very painful time and we see that vividly depicted in the sign
and in the historical artifact that records the lashes that Jesus received for us.
And we thank you for that precious gift, for the life, because he was raised from the dead to give life to all, to give that invitation,
the call that we might come to you to be chosen and to be faithful.
So Father, we praise you for all that you do, for your work in us and for orchestrating all things from the beginning of time until the end.
You know the end from the beginning.
You were the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And we just praise your name.
It is in the name of Jesus, Alnitak, the wounded one of Orion, that we pray.
Amen.
Before I go, one thing I mentioned, the called, the chosen, and the faithful.
The called, the chosen, and the faithful.
It's Jesus who calls us, it's he who chooses us, and it's he who makes us faithful so that we also can be faithful until the end.
Though it is to our own hurt, just like we talked about with Jesus before.
So it's just from his perspective.
For him, we are the called, we are the chosen, and we are the faithful, because that's what we see in Christ in the sign of the Son of Man.
Called, the chosen, the faithful, coming from him as a gift to us.
He calls us, he chooses us, and he makes us faithful.
Amen.
Thank you.