Resurrected: Tangible Evidence That Jesus Rose from the Dead

by Gilbert R. Lavoie, Gary Habermas (Foreword)

Gilbert R. Lavoie, M.D., has studied the Shroud of Turin for more than 20 years. He brings together startling new scientific information that shows how the shroud points to the resurrection of Jesus. With foreword by Gary Habermas.

173 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

Reviews

[Tim Chaffey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the book was pretty interesting. Up until a few years ago, I had always thought of the shroud as being falsified by the biblical accounts of Christ's burial and Resurrection. While I remain undecided about the authenticity of the shroud, in terms of it being the actual burial cloth of Jesus, I was hoping for a little more from this book. Rather than giving a detailed explanation of all the incredible research done on the shroud and how these are simply inexplicable if it truly was a medieval hoax, Lavoie gave an overview of his own research on the cloth. As a result, there are many questions that I had going in that were not even addressed. However, Lavoie's own research had largely to do with how the blood and image came to be on the shroud itself, and much of this is very interesting. Also, the book includes some excellent photographs to display what the author is referring to.
I have a couple of things to nitpick about too. I could have done without the big bang discussion at the end of the book. The entire book deals with the most important and well-attested events in history (the Resurrection of Jesus Christ), and then the author spends 2-3 pages at the end of the book comparing it to the physics of the supposed big bang, or better, the laws of physics just prior to the alleged big bang. Why blend a historical event (the Resurrection) with something that directly contradicts the Bible and did not happen? Also, the depiction of Thomas, the so-called doubting disciple, is rather unfair--although it is consistent with the way many treat him. He is often called "Doubting Thomas" but if you look closely, Thomas didn't demand anymore evidence than the other disciples. None of them believed the women's report of the empty tomb. John believed upon seeing the empty tomb and the grave clothes. But the rest of them didn't believe until Jesus stood before them, so it isn't really fair to single out Thomas as the doubter, but it made for a good storyline to tie each chapter together in this book.
Overall, this is a helpful book on shroud research, but I just felt it could have been strengthened by including some more details about other work done on the shroud. It isn't that he didn't mention any of it since there was some of this in the opening chapters, but there is so much more that he could have discussed.