Posted on 07/28/2019 6:02:04 AM PDT by Kaslin
In an imaginary “ranking” of Christian topics that elicit the most fervent discussions, Jesus Christ is No. 1. But near the top is the Shroud of Turin — believed by millions of Christians to be the authentic burial cloth of Jesus. This “ranking” was inspired by you — Townhall readers who wrote over 500 impassioned comments in response to my July 21 piece, “Shroud of Turin: New Test Concludes 1988 ‘Medieval Hoax’ Dating Was a Fraud.”
I purposely read all your comments to gain insight into my role as an adviser and fundraiser for a groundbreaking exhibition about the Shroud of Turin at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. This spectacular museum, among the largest and highest rated in the city, is located only three blocks from the Capitol. And just prior to the January 20, 2021, presidential inauguration is when this high-tech Shroud exhibit is scheduled to open.
Threaded throughout hundreds of your responses about all aspects of the Shroud was one overarching theme summarized by these three comments:
“Anyone who requires physical evidence to underpin their faith doesn’t understand the concept of faith.”
“JESUS CHRIST died for all. HE is what is important. Making such a fuss about this piece of cloth is a distraction from HIS work of SALVATION.”
“I respectfully submit that the only ‘relic’ which really matters is the one which was left us on that first Easter morning: The tomb is empty! He is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!”
Of course, “He is Risen” is also the foundation of my Christian faith, (made slightly more complicated by having been born Jewish). But I feel compelled to discuss and explore the comment that reads in part, “…such a fuss about this piece of cloth...”
And my response is simple: The Shroud of Turin exists because HE exists. An answer that echoes what God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14).
Thus, the existence of the Shroud of Turin raises two questions that I will attempt to address: First, what exactly is the Shroud? And second, a deeper dive into “Why does the cloth exist?”
The Shroud of Turin is a 14.5-by-3.5-foot linen cloth with a linear front to back mirror image of a crucified man. The Shroud has the distinction of being the most studied artifact in the world, yet the cloth’s numerous mysteries remained unexplained by modern science.
At this moment the Shroud lies in a fireproof box in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, as it has continuously since 1578. (But secretly relocated between 1939 and 1946 when Italian authorities feared Hitler was seeking possession.)
Dating the Shroud has been controversial and the subject of my July 21 piece.
Among Shroud historians, there is no dispute that in 1352, over 200 years before the Shroud was housed in Turin, Geoffrey DeCharney displayed the cloth in Lirey, France marking the beginning of the Shroud’s documented "modern" dating.
There is also much circumstantial Shroud evidence through art, artifacts, and coins that pre-dates 1352. Moreover, scientifically verified botanical evidence found on the cloth in the form of pollen, dust, flowers, and even the weave and type of linen traces the Shroud back to first-century Jerusalem.
The cloth with its mysterious properties has survived wars, invasions and the ravages of time including numerous fires — most recently in 1997 at its home cathedral in Turin.
Most harrowing was the 1532 fire in Chambéry, France. Miraculously the entire cloth was not destroyed but left those distinctive linear markings along both sides of the Shroud that we see today. Hard to imagine, but the linen cloth was stored in a silver box, folded in 48 layers, when drops of molten silver burned through the cloth’s outer folded edges.
The point is, against all the odds, the Shroud exists. And, as stated earlier, because He exists. There is also a significant Bible-based reason found in the Gospel of John known as “Doubting Thomas” (John 20:24-31).
But first, a “guest” who will explain this passage needs a proper introduction:
It turns out that the many Townhall readers who commented about not needing the Shroud’s “physical evidence to underpin their faith,” represent a large swath of Christian believers. I learned this when asking Russ Breault— my fellow Shroud exhibit team colleague, and a world-renowned Shroud expert and speaker — if he had experienced similar attitudes after over 30 years of hosting his popular “Shroud Encounters” to sell-out crowds.
Breault replied:
“I get that statement all the time! When someone says, ‘I don't need the Shroud for my faith,’ I usually say, ‘That is fantastic! But that doesn't mean the Shroud was not meant for someone else.’ ”
Breault continued: “In the Doubting Thomas story, Jesus pronounced a blessing on those who ‘believe yet have not seen,’ but Jesus did not condemn Thomas for his unbelief. In fact, a week after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared a second time, and the first person he spoke to was Thomas, who was not there to witness Jesus’ first appearance. Jesus then quotes Thomas' words back to him, ‘Thomas, thrust your hand into my side and place your fingers into my nail wounds and be not faithless but believe.’
At this point, Thomas — forever known as "Doubting Thomas" — makes the strongest profession of faith in the New Testament saying, "My Lord and my God." Then Jesus pronounced a blessing on those who can believe without seeing. So we are blessed if we can believe without seeing, but we are not cursed if we can't get there without some additional evidence.
Therefore, perhaps the Shroud is a silent witness to the world offering all of humanity the same opportunity Jesus gave to Thomas. In some proverbial sense by looking at the Shroud, we too can thrust our hand into His side and place our fingers into His nail wound and find our faith in the process.”
Thank you, Russ! And now my final thoughts for Townhall commenters.
If blessed with great faith, you are free to ignore or downplay the image on the Shroud showing Christ’s great suffering and victory over death. Yet, take comfort in knowing that the Shroud is there to supplement or reinforce the faith of others while potentially witnessing to the ever-increasing number of Doubting Thomases found throughout the world.
In the end, I believe that the Shroud exists as proof of God’s greatest gift to mankind —the Lord Jesus Christ — who lives and reigns forever and ever. Alleluia!
(Now, let the comments begin!)
The Anabaptists had multiple/shared wives before the Mormins did. There are lotsa ways to go astray.
That was a nice non sequitur.
Does the teaching match that of what the Lord teaches once you strip away all the culture and traditions?
That’s the only judge of a church’s value.
And the Jews had multiple wives long before the Anabaptists did.
What’s your point?
There was one group of Anabaptists, IIRC, who had their wives as community property so to speak.
Like the Dem party or NXIVM.
FREepmail, btw.
Your writing showed that you presumed, twice without asking, to be able to winkle out the motivation behind my remarks. That is "reading another's mind." In both cases you were wrong, as well as yet a third time in your denial of practicing parapsychology.
So, do you believe in "once saved, always saved"?
What I believe in is that The Written Word of God tells exactly how a human may, by a one-time irreversible personal decision, accept His offer to change one's ownership from that of Satan to that of His Only Begotten Son, and thus escape one's initial status and its consequences.
The true gospel is very simple, clear, and it is this:
Jesus saves the willing sinner.
This change of ownership will not be granted to anyone who believes that the transaction includes an option for either party to reverse it, because in that case one's commitment is not complete, because it assumes that Jesus' commitment to save and protect His property is not complete. This is a false gospel.
So, yes, I believe that God's saving and His eternal preservation of a penitent is of a one-time personal choice by a sinner of ownership change, and is irrevocable.
I also believe that a person who is led to believe in a clever false gospel that says salvation can be lost, that really Jesus does not have the power to maintain His ownership forever, that person does not possess eternal life.
If you believe that you can cause the loss of your salvation, then not only do you not possess it, but also you are not the host of the Indwelling Holy Ghost Who infallibly leads one through the process of progressive sanctification, and perfects a soul's holiness upon separation from the old dead corrupted body.
That is, one who believes you can lose your salvation already has.
MM, that is not so. There were, and always have been, plenty of independent autonomous local New Testament Christian immersionist assemblies who preached sound doctrine, administered church discipline, and have resisted and rejected the cathological paradigm.
They are the ones that the Roman organization pursued with fire and ropes and swords and torture engines to wipe them out. It has been a continuing Trail of Blood (click here). I have a couple of copies of this pamphlet.
Another good source of the history of such independent assemblies is found by perusing the contents of "The Origin of the Baptists: by S. H. Ford (click here and here).
In this, Ford bores down through the ages from the recent past to the beginning. Though the various kinds of Baptists are the prevalent form today, there are also lots of other New Testament assemblies with other titles. And they arre growing today, whilst the denominations professing catholicism (= agreement with the "Apostles Creed"; Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran, etc.) are dwindling through failure of recruiting, doctrinal corruption, and sedition.
The only reason we assume that only Catholics (Roman, Greek, Orthodox) were present in the beginning was that they slaughtered their opposition, and only the survivors get to write the history.
So God had nothing to do with the Church avoiding heresy?
(Except you, of course.)
The absurdity of your statement is so far
beyond profoundly stupefying it can only
be outdone by your next.
Your claim that the a people that
gathered in council after council
to develop the core beliefs listed below,
built cathedrals and hospitals,
repelled invasions and
fostered countless generations of loving families
was capable of such atrocity is believable by only
the desperately confused.
The very fact that you aren't
terrified from making such a
vial, offensive and atrocious claim stands
in direct contradiction to it's validity
The One True Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by Christ Jesus
, that built Christendom(western civilization.)
The Nicene Creed
I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
+10 One God
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
+10 Christ Jesus
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
+ 1 Consubstantial with the Father
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
+ 1 For our salvation
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
+ 1 Virgin Birth
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
+10 Suffered, Died and Rose
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
+ 1 Ascended, Seated
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
+10 Come Again in Glory to Judge
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
+10 Holy Trinity
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
+10 One Visible Church
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
+ 1 One Baptism
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.
+10 Resurrection of the Dead
The Ten Commandments:
1. I am the LORD your God. You shall worship the Lord your God
and Him only shall you serve.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not murder.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
10.You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.
+10 The Ten Commandments
The Greatest Commandment
1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy
whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength
2. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
+ 2 The Greatest Commnadments
The Seven Sacraments Catholic Church:
1. Baptism.
2. Eucharist.
3. Confirmation.
4. Reconciliation.
5. Anointing of the sick.
6. Marriage.(XY+XX, Till death do us part)
7. Holy orders.
+ 7 The Seven Sacraments
The Precepts of the Catholic Church:
1. You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation
and rest from servile labor.
2. You shall confess your sins at least once a year.
3. You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the
Easter season.
4. You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by
the Church.
5. You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church.
+ 5 The Precepts
The seven chief corporal works of mercy:
1. To feed the hungry.
2. To give drink to the thirsty.
3. To clothe the naked.
4. To visit the imprisoned.
5. To shelter the homeless.
6. To visit the sick.
7. To bury the dead.
+ 7 Corporal Works
The seven chief spiritual works of mercy:
1. To admonish the sinner.
2. To instruct the ignorant.
3. To counsel the doubtful.
4. To comfort the sorrowful.
5. To bear wrongs patiently.
6. To forgive all injuries.
7. To pray for the living and the dead.
+ 7 Spiritual Works
Pro-Life - From Conception Until Natural Death
+15 Pro-Life
7
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If you can't prove that statement with verifiuable accepted scholarly non-Catholic references (plural), that' s just a damnable lie. Step up to the plate and prove it. I will look here in my 1200 page volume of history of Christianity by Kenneth Latourette and see if there's even a sliver of ttuth in what you claim.
Eh, ran across it online maybe ten years ago when someone was talking about random heresies & various nutburgers of the Middle Ages.
It was more a historical curiosity from their point of view, it wasn't even a Catholic site.
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
People seem to forget that there's been a *lot* of warfare in Europe; in a lot of cases you had what one might call confusion of Church and State. That sucked sometimes, as some of the fighting in France between Protties & Catholics; sometimes it saved our ass, like driving the Muslims out of Spain or Jon Sobieski keeping them from overrunning Vienna (only about 100 years before the Declaration of Inependence, to use a nice round figure)...
For some reason the phrase "Geneva Convention" comes to mind: and the with it the reflection that Islam has had nothing like the Reformation , either.
What? An authoritative source like wikipedia?
*SNORT*.
Or this one?
Plus what is going on today.
I don’t even remember. My mind stored it as a random fact, and didn’t attribute any particular importance to it.
I wish there was too, but the problem is, 1st Corinthians 2:14 raises its head. Oh well, what can you do?
Excellent reply. But we can pray for the uncomprehending, and we can conduct ourselves such that they feel our love for them and they begin to wonder about and want what we have.
That is exactly what led me out of a dead religion. 👍
I’ve seen reputable research showing that every believer was prayed for and heard the Gospel an average of 7-8 times.
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