In the same context of the program, the Bishop of St. Albans mentioned that if the bones or the body of Christ could be found, then that would be the end of Christianity. It came to my mind that we have in one of our books, Jesus in Kashmir, that there is a grave as such. I’m just wondering if we have approached him on this point, because if we can actually prove this to him. Oh, still, the end of Christianity, in fact, already came when Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. appeared.
In that sense, that Allah Ta’ala started the beginning of the end for Christianity. But these claims have no meaning whatsoever, that that would be an end to Christianity. Whatever evidence you go on producing, new interpretations would evolve. And that evidence is not going to end Christianity up. This is 100% certain. These are just hollow words. The man is such a crooked being, if he chooses to be crooked, that he always somehow distorts things and comes out with new explanations and things. So I tell you, for instance, when the question of the shroud of Turin first appeared in the press, there was some hot interest in that. And we also held a convention on that issue here. Deliverance of Jesus Christ from cross.
Now, at that time, some Ahmadis also very naively believed that if the results of investigations went into our favour, then immediately there would be a worldwide collapse of the Christianity. And suddenly all the Christians say, all right, tauba tauba, and we come back to you and all that. It was just wishful thinking, nothing more than that. In fact, it really happened that in the investigations at NASA and say, I don’t know whether they call it NASA or NASA or what? NASA, yes. They ultimately proved not beyond a shadow of doubt, of course, because it’s not possible for any man today to prove that point beyond a shadow of doubt.
But scientifically, whatever could be proved in whatever strength, that was proved to that degree, that the shroud of Turin, number one, belonged to the age of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. Within the 100 years of that era, the coins which were used to shut the man’s eyes, whoever he was, according to the report, also tallied with the age. In a very short period of time, during the period of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, those coins were minted and after that they ceased to be minted. So that coin also was already minted when this happened.
And so the period still narrows down. Then the marks on the picture, on the drawings, were tested very extensively and they declared that it was impossible for it to be a forgery because the superficial, the most superficial layer of atoms has got a photosynthetic reaction and it was not a coloring or any painting or even drawings by pencils or coal that might have created those pictures, it is out of all question. Because they said even at the slightest pressure of hand and with the driest possible inks, but soft enough to leave its marks, it is not possible for it not to penetrate thousands of layers below the surface.
While in the photosynthetic phenomena, only the very upper layer which receives the light gets the chemical reaction and it has that, it changes in color and so you see the phenomena of picture developing there. But an artist, whatever he may use, cannot create the same phenomena of the superficial change in the atoms which do not go below and deep. So the scientists declared that it is now 100% sure, at least at this point, of this point they are sure that this was not a fake and the picture evolved out of natural means and the phenomena was that of a photosynthetic change, chemical change. So those who said it was a fake picture, they were ruled out.
The blood marks they established spoke of a person who was bleeding while he was lying down prone. That person could not have been dead at the time of when he was crucified, during that period. If he had been dead, then the blood could not have oozed out and spread all along in small pools and evenly distributed all around the wound, all around the wound. That point was also established with them. And it was also established that the general picture presented the same story or retold the same story as we hear of what happened to Christ. Because there were definite marks around the head where a crown is seated, of that crown to be a crown of thorns.
You know small pricks are found all over the place around that head line on which the crown is fixed or seated. And there are marks of lashes as described in the biblical story on the back of the same person. And they computerized the pictures and through the most modern applications of scientific devices, they rebuilt the thing as if out of dead. I mean this picture in itself is a resurrection which they have created. And they have not missed even the minutest details. All along this investigation, some Christians representatives of the church were also with them. And one or two scientists who were also involved in this investigation, they were extremely prejudicial Christians and they themselves held the faith very strongly in Jesus Christ’s death and his resurrection.
So all this did not leave any doubt whatsoever that the shroud of Turin was not a fake. It was not a work of the later centuries. Whatever happened, it happened during the time of Jesus Christ and the picture unfolds the same story as we hear of Jesus Christ. That is certain. What is not certain, they say, that still we can’t say 100% that this was the Jesus. If, I mean, there is always a possibility, however remote it may be, that that person may be someone else to whom exactly the same treatment was meted out in the same circumstances and we have lost touch with the facts of that person and what happened to him. So although, I mean, this is not plausible, but they say scientifically because there is that opening, so we can’t say it is 100% certain and beyond the shadow of doubt.
Having witnessed all this, the Christians who were associated with this, they came out with a fantastic idea, a new idea and still they saved Christianity. They said, all right, all this might have happened, but to us it gives a very different message. The message is that when he was revived from death, at that moment his body bled, at that moment that flash of light which came from within his body, that provided the light which was responsible for the photosynthesis phenomena to be activated.
So how can you beat them? It’s impossible. Whatever facts appear, if human mind is determined not to believe, he would always find out some excuses. So to say for a bishop or any other cardinal or even pope, that if the body of Christ is found here on earth as a corpse, the Christianity would fall to pieces. This is wrong, absolutely. A few cardinals may perhaps become renegades, but the body of Christianity will still remain the same. I was, if I might just hold the floor a moment longer, I had in mind that on the tomb, as we know, to be the tomb of Jesus I know what you had in mind, but Ahmadis are not going to open up the grave of any prophet. We consider it disrespect.
But those who do not, if time comes and if Allah so desires, they will do it on their own. Will not be able to stop them if they have decided, if Allah has so decided. So the time, it seems, has not yet come.
