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Why Does The Shroud of Turin Still Exist?
Townhall.com ^ | July 28, 2019 | Myrah Kahn Adams

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!)


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: shroudofturin
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To: Hebrews 11:6
I’ve seen reputable research showing that every believer was prayed for and heard the Gospel an average of 7-8 times.

After I got saved, I started meeting people I didn’t even know, who told me they were praying for me. One of the guys, actually, literally and physically drew me a picture, on a piece of paper. It was the Nav’s bridge tract. It really helped. 👍

1,061 posted on 08/02/2019 8:03:11 PM PDT by Mark17 (With Jesus, there is more wealth in my soul, than acres of diamonds and mountains of gold)
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To: Mark17

Often I enjoy testing the research by asking believers if they know who prayed for them. So far, including tonight, I’m batting 1.000.


1,062 posted on 08/02/2019 8:25:00 PM PDT by Hebrews 11:6 (Do you REALLY believe that (1) God IS, and (2) God IS GOOD?)
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To: grey_whiskers
A History of Christianity
Kennrth Scott Latourette
Harper and Brothers, New York, NY
(Published circa 1940, too early for Library of Congress numbers, a typical seminary students required personal library)

Latourette dedicated a whole Chapter to this movement, titled "THE RADICAL REFORMERS: THE ANABAPTISTS," PAGES 778-787. Here are a couple of excerpts re our discussion:

==========

They sought holiness in doctrine and life (Page 779):

"Anabaptists maintained a high standard of morality. Indeed, theirs was an ethical as well as a religious urge. They did not believe in salvation by works, but they taught if salvation was genuine it would issue in good works. They expelled from their fellowship those who slipped from their standards. Even among their severe critics were those who admitted that they were honest, peaceable, temperate in eating and drinking, eschewed profanity and harsh language, and were upright, meek,, and free from covetousness and pride. Many were abstainers from all alcoholic beverages. They endeavored fully to live up to the ethical standards of the Sermon an the Mount. The Catholic way of striving for Christian perfection was that of the monastery, communities of celibates away from the world. The Anabaptists were akin to the monks in seeking perfection in communities separate from the world, but, unlike the monks, they married."

"Usually Anabaptists were bitterly persecuted by other Protestants and Catholics, for to both they seemed to be dangerous revolutionaries, upsetting the established order. Some may have had a continuity from groups that had been regarded as heretics in pre-Reformation centuries. Violence all but stamped them out on the Continent, Yet some survived."
The Anabaptist attempt to capture and control the Munster municipality failed (Pp. 783-784):
"The Anabaptists obtained control of Munster and there attempted to organize what they believed to be a Christian society. The Bishop laid siege. Aided by Lutherans and Catholics he took the city (June 24, 1535), Matthys* had already perished in a sortie. The surviving leaders, including Jan of Leiden, were tortured and killed, and the authority of the bishop was reestablished,

The effect of the Munster episode was to confirm the bad odour attached to the name of Anabaptist. Reports circulated of the extremes to which Anabaptist fanaticism had gone during the months of stress in community of property, polygamy, and the ruthless suppression of opposition. As is the manner of such reports, they grew as they were told and retold and departed further and further from the facts, Actually private property had not been abolished and, while some of the leaders had contracted polygamous marriages, severe laws were enacted against adultery and fornication. Although only a minority of the Anabaptists were involved, and these chiefly from one strain of the movement, that associated with Hoffman*, it was popularly believed, especially among the governing and respectable classes, that all Anabaptists made for chaos in government, society, morals, and religion."

* prominent Anabaptists
=========

But reading over the whole chapter, it is quite clear that the Anabaptists were a classification of a type of independent, autonomous, Bible-preaching, monagamous-practicing assemblies of believers seeking New Testament holiness, a class of believers still present in today's society in great numbers.

I also think that they were quite influential in overcoming the corruption then present throughout Europe.

1,063 posted on 08/02/2019 8:30:28 PM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: Hebrews 11:6
Often I enjoy testing the research by asking believers if they know who prayed for them. So far, including tonight, I’m batting 1.000.

Since that was way back in 1970, just before I shipped out for Vietnam. There were a good sized number of people who prayed for me, I just can’t remember most of their names. 👎

1,064 posted on 08/02/2019 9:07:38 PM PDT by Mark17 (With Jesus, there is more wealth in my soul, than acres of diamonds and mountains of gold)
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To: Mark17

How joyous to reunite with them in our eternal home! What fun to learn about all the myriad instances God has blessed each of us personally and specifically, both directly and through others.


1,065 posted on 08/02/2019 9:26:18 PM PDT by Hebrews 11:6 (Do you REALLY believe that (1) God IS, and (2) God IS GOOD?)
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To: Hebrews 11:6

+1


1,066 posted on 08/02/2019 10:14:42 PM PDT by Mark17 (With Jesus, there is more wealth in my soul, than acres of diamonds and mountains of gold)
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To: imardmd1
Yep, great.

As Garfield the comic strip cat would say, "Big Fat Hairy Deal. "

Here's the problem. I never heard of Kenneth Scott Latourette. I don't even know him from *Eve*. {+}

So I don't know whether he's cherry picking; or whether there are equally "august and learned" sources among both other Protties and Catholics, who would be just a cocksure that the Anabaptists committed real heresies and grave immoralities as doctrinal. To be distinguished, say, from the Church at Corinth, where one of the dudes was sleeping with his father's wife: a bad sin, but it wasn't like the Church at Corinth was teaching that doing this was recommended by God or anything. Just one individual acting like a modern liberal or something.

Given, you know, that

1) both Lutherans and other Catholics ganged up on them to cauterize Muenster, and the Lutherans and Catholics are not particularly noted for their friendliness towards each other during that era /dry>.

and

2) even *your* source (I never heard of this book, remember?) acknowledged that a significant subgroup within the Anabaptists (including one of the leaders by name) committed polygamy.

Which kinda goes back to the entire reason I mentioned them, you know. There are all *kinds* of ways to slip into error whether of doctrine, or practice.

{+} point of rhetoric, that was. I Googled the name earlier today when you mentioned sententiously that you were going to look up the book he wrote. I'm afraid I don't look on an Ivy League pedigree as a guarantee of much of anything any more; and while (for example) Jonathan Edwards of the Great Awakening ("Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God") finished first in his class at Yale (*graduating* at age 17 -- in an era when standards were higher, e.g. I read in 1846 you had to be able to read Latin at the level of Cicero to be *admitted* to Harvard)...nowadays the Ivies are full of Communists, Apostates, Heretics, and other assorted ding-dongs. I don't know for sure when the heavy rot began or how fast it spread.

= = = = = = = = = = = =

Btw, I just had, not a light bulb, but at least a small birthday candle, light up above my head.

Baptist...Anabaptist.

Did you get so angry and alarmed, because there is some doctrinal or historical link, between the Anabaptists, and your denomination (I don't know it, but I think Google said Latourette was Baptist. And you chose his book as authoritative and dispositive, so there just might be the chance that you happen to be a Baptist too. (See, the problem is that "ana" can mean either "back to, again" *or* against. So it might be one of those odd misleading accidents in naming, or it might be significant.)

...and when I Googled it right now, I got this: Do Baptists spring from Anabaptist seed?

1,067 posted on 08/02/2019 10:46:15 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers
I didn't just look up the book. It is in my personal library and right handy. I read it through, about 20 years ago, some 1500 pages including pp. 1470-1516 fine-printed index. This book is a standard reference book in every Divinity school in the world. Latourette was a fine theologically trained scholar on the Yale staff, eventually becoming Director of Graduate Studies of the Divinity School. Latourette was awarded honorary doctorates from seventeen universities in five countries. /his view was professionally impartial toward reporting historical fact in great detail. The work is not polemic in nature, and relied on by students of all disciplies for accurate reporting.

His credentials and achievements need no defense from someone like yourself. It does not seem likely that you are in any position to impeach Latourettes career or writings. I chose to give your claims re Anabaptists a fair shake by comparing them with a solid detailed reference account. And I selected excerpts to fairly report what history says about them.

On balance, your tone of dealing with this still does not fairly recognize what history reports, and that is that those leaders that engaged in the aberrance of polygamy were a minor segment both in number and in time that simply does not represent the overall practice of this holiness movement, whose generic name only refers to their insistence on scripturally rebaptizing professing disciples, whose infant baptisms without their accountability for it was simply unbiblical.

Sizing things up, I can't credit you with much of a mature outlook, despite your username. Going forward, I'll not be wasting much time with you. I've already given you your fair share, and it hasn't been very profitable so far.

So have a great day. I've got other things to do.

1,068 posted on 08/03/2019 12:50:04 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: grey_whiskers
(He follows up by saying, "Call no man Teacher" either...but Protties have no problem loudly proclaiming their new lineup of Bible *teachers*...)

(He follows up by saying, "Call no man Teacher" either...but Mackeral Snappers have no problem loudly proclaiming their rebellion against the very words of Jesus.)

1,069 posted on 08/03/2019 4:54:48 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: grey_whiskers
Nice Freudian slip, there. bro. :-D

Some people make 'em; others post them on their FR homepage.

1,070 posted on 08/03/2019 4:56:15 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: DungeonMaster
There is scarcely a sinner, however hardened, who does not possess some spark of confidence in her.

A more eloquent illustration of the True Scotsman fallacy I've have not seen lately.

1,071 posted on 08/03/2019 4:59:13 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: grey_whiskers
... I read your posts, not your mind.

I'll remember this.

1,072 posted on 08/03/2019 5:01:27 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: grey_whiskers
Forgot the various flavors of Orthodox, have we?

Zat anything like...

... the various flavors of Catholicism?

1,073 posted on 08/03/2019 5:02:44 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: grey_whiskers
Completely different take than Evangelicals, btw.

No doubt!

But we'll be here when he's (?) ready to make the next step away from a controlling power structure.

1,074 posted on 08/03/2019 5:04:39 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: grey_whiskers; Normandy; teppe
The Anabaptists had multiple/shared wives before the Mormins did. There are lotsa ways to go astray.

And the MORMONs will be quick to point out that many old testament patriarchs had them WAY before anyone else did.

1,075 posted on 08/03/2019 5:06:22 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: imardmd1
That is, one who believes you can lose your salvation already has.

I guess I'm in that boat; slowly sinking into Hell.

How do I get my Salvation back?

1,076 posted on 08/03/2019 5:08:55 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: imardmd1
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.

Oh?But we've been told so OFTEN on FR by highly educated Catholics just the opposite!

1,077 posted on 08/03/2019 5:10:17 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: grey_whiskers
"It is before his own Master that he stands or falls. And he will stand, for God is able to make him stand."

I guess it just depends on just WHO is the master.

1,078 posted on 08/03/2019 5:11:14 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: grey_whiskers
 

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,
' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'

'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.'  


1,079 posted on 08/03/2019 5:13:08 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: infool7
Please enjoy our forum, but also please remember to use common courtesy when posting and refrain from posting personal attacks, profanity, vulgarity, threats, racial or religious bigotry, or any other materials offensive or otherwise inappropriate for a conservative family audience.

Please observe on FR some folks who will whine about BIGOTRY every time their sacred cow gets gored.

It gets old, but please endure their petty outbursts; as they mean well.

1,080 posted on 08/03/2019 5:15:56 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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