Have I said that “one needs the Shroud for salvation? No, I have not.
Let me ask you this: If the Shroud IS the real thing, who made the image on it. The answer to that question is the image was made by Jesus Christ, at the moment of His Ressurection. In other words, God made it. . . and left it for us for a very important reason and that reason is to testify to the fact of the Resurrection. Some have called it the fifth Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Shroud is interesting and I find your discussions very interesting but it is evidently not important enough for the Lord to record in the Word. And when I was into the Shroud as a young Christian, I even remember citing some verse in Isaiah (that I had heard about from Paul and Jan Crouch on TBN... not the smartest or most authoritative people!.. :(
And as you know, in our minds, we cannot allow extra-Biblical ideas to take their place in our minds as a "Fifth Gospel of the Shroud" because we cannot add to the sealed Word... we are "not to go beyond what is written"... and we have already the risen Christ in our lives... ; and to quote a previous poster's insight (cuban leaf):
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
For me, his post is salient, but Swordmaker, I REALLY appreciate your thoughtfulness and thoroughness regarding the Shroud. Just hope for you that your faith is in Christ, not an artifact.
And also, since I have benefitted from your Mac posts for so many years, I appreciate the scientific approach you have taken here. Jesus is the ultimate Scientist as the Creator, and I think He loves it when we figure things out about His creation... because we are tracing His own thoughts as Creator! Thanks and GBU