Short-lived: Greece's Coalition of the Radical Left party leader Alexis Tsipras (second right) and former Prime Minister George Papandreou (right) are sworn-in at the Greek Parliament today.
Using cutting-edge technology on the famed Shroud of Turin, a team of computer artists has uncovered what they say may be a portrait of the true face of Jesus.
The results achieved through the convergence of science and religion doesn't resemble the popularized images of Jesus.
It's impossible to know how close the computer-generated images come to reality, but they'll likely be of tremendous interest, both to believers and to the curious.
"There's a long tradition in Christian theology and Christian history of seeking the face of Christ -- of wanting to know what he was like as a man.
Finding Jesus' Face
The artists worked to pull impressions from the Shroud of Turin, the famed blood-stained linen that many believe was the burial cloth of the crucified Christ.
A team of computer artists, using cutting-edge technology, has uncovered what they say could be a portrait of the true face of Jesus from the Shroud of Turin.
"If you want to re-create the face of Jesus and you want to get the actual face of Jesus, you have only one object and that's the shroud," said computer artist Ray Downing of Studio Macbeth.
The ancient shroud contains a faint impression of the front and back of a human body, along with blood, dirt and water stains from its age.
Cutting-edge modern skills were required to pull an accurate flesh and blood face from a piece of fabric so old.
The yearlong project culminated with a team of graphic artists using the newest technology to create a computer-generated image.
"I have a lot of information about that face and my estimation is we're pretty darn close to what this man looked like," Downing, the lead artist, said.
Ancient Shroud Provides Clues
One of the main problems -- the condition of the shroud -- provided key clues. The team realized there were distortions in the image on the shroud because the fabric had been wrapped around the body.
"The solution was to realize that the shroud wasn't hanging on the wall – it was wrapping a corpse. That's the crux of the problem -- the face is hidden in there," said Downing, who has also used computers to create images of Abraham Lincoln.
"By imitating those distortions we could take the image and put it back into that shape and figure out what the face looked like … it gave us a blueprint," he added.
One the blueprint was formed, the computer artists started the recreation. Of course, there were limitations to what they could do with what they had.
"Inevitably, you do run out of information," Downing said. "You can't see the pores in a linen fabric. There are no eyebrows. It doesn't take a lot of guesswork to assign pores and skin texture to a model, to know that the man did have eyebrows and to provide them. At some point, you do have to leave the realm of actual information and use experience."
There have been a few cases over the years where some have suggested that the counterpart to Christ, the counterfeit Christ, the Antichrist, would be a dead ringer of the original.
That makes a lot of sense
After all, if the Antichrist comes forth as the saviour of the world he would have to some resemblance to the one that he is impersonating, Christ.
It may have been a little bit of a stretch to suggest Alexis Tsipras bears an uncanny resemblance to Elvis Presley as closer examination reveals that is not the case.
However, (you can try this yourself) type the face lifted off the Shroud of Turin into your search engine and you may find much to your amazement, just as I have, that the computer image lifted off the Shroud is so close to resembling Tsipras that it really is quite surreal.
Note well the similarity of the shape of the ears and the shape of the nose between the attached photograph Tsipras and the computer enhanced image, they are quite similar, if not the almost the same.
That fact alone does not prove Tsipras is the Antichrist, and I am not suggesting he is the Antichrist, but that only my observation is quite out of the ordinary, or maybe interesting is a better word to use in this instance.
WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
