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!)
Preach it, Mom.
Satan sure has some people snookered with his *Did God really say....?* lie when he’s got them to the point of denigrating Scripture like Catholics do.
Besides, Jesus did not leave His side for Thomas to hang onto and cherish.
Then scientists today should have no problem duplicating it in all of its features, right? Only one problem, Jmacusa, it isn’t a photograph. . . and there is no photographic emulsion chemicals or even a trace of such chemicals found on the Shroud. . . and they’ve looked, down to the scanning electron microscopic level, AND used x-ray microspectroscopy, as well as Raman micro spectroscopy and found no pigments or chemicals or image holding emulsions fixed on the Shroud. Oops.
You don’t know what you are blithering about when you post nonsense such as the above claims from inherently false skeptic sources, written by non-scientists, as "the casual observation of a single fibril," and blithering about blood flow being two dimensional when I said NOTHING about the blood flow when I wrote about the image carrying 3D Data. Contrary to your ignorant assertions, the facts are there has been extensive examination of the cloth as a whole, with multiple areas showing no image under the blood stains when samples of the blood were taken. Scientists worked on the Shroud for over 120 hours on a 24 hour schedule in 1978, doing sampling and testing. The Shroud was again examined by scientist in 2002, and those findings were confirmed.
The blood stains ARE registered (if you understand anything about multicolor printing to assure exact layering of one color one on top of another, then you’ll know what "registering" means) exactly to the non-blood image, which was laid down AFTER the blood stained the cloth. Not vice verse.
The image is a 3D terrain map in 2D of the body it covered with the data encoded in the inverse intensity of the shades of the image. No artistic creation or photographic image made with an optical camera can duplicate that data any where near accurately. Attempts to do so have resulted in blobby messes when run through 3D image analyzers.
They didn’t have chemicals and emulsifiers in Michael Angelo’s day either. It’s not a camera as we understand it by today’s standards. Camera is Latin for ‘’room’’ or more precisely ‘’domed chamber’’. Read up on it. The relic industry was big in Medieval times. You had to have some way of convincing the faithful all this was real and ‘’relics’’ were the way to do it. For myself, I don’t think we were meant to see Christ in this world. And I don’t need relics to believe in him.
Guess what Catholics are told.
The CATHOLIC position on Protestants is that as long as they were baptized with water and the formula "I baptize you/thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit",(which leaves a few sects such as the Mormons out) they ARE Christians, who, through no fault of their own, don't have access to the full redeeming Sacraments available to Catholics. Hence the term "separated brethren".
In throes of relocating from Washington (state) to San Antonio, so posting frequency has been down. Retirement move a) warmer climate and b) closer to kinfolk.
There are proofs in abundance. Including a number of the STURP scientists who started out determined to disprove the Shroud's authenticity, and ended up convinced of it.
I am beginning to find a number of Protestants just like showing up and spewing bilge water about Catholicism, and repeating bigoted stereotypes and talking points they were trained to say; which, oddly enough, is what they claim of the Catholics.
By your logic, Jesus never went to the bathroom, either, because it's not detailed in Scripture.
In other words, you're following the Murphy's Laws type dictum "first draw your curve, then plot your data points."
You are being guided by the underlying thought "relics are bad. relics are idolatry. " and concluding with "the shroud is like a relic. shroud bad. hulk *smash*."
Not your finest moment.
Congrats!
...and, I note, from one no-income-tax domicile to another.
I hope when i retire, to leave high-tax Minnesota.
It would be nice if that term was used on these threads instead of ‘heretic’ or ‘bigot.’
I still remember the threads about the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. And how certain Catholics made it a point of posting Protestant-bashing threads every single day leading up to it and bragging about doing so.
And not a single other Catholic spoke up to inform the posters that it was in very, VERY bad taste to do so.
That was my first introduction to the FR religion forum.
It’s easy to point fingers; I know from experience on both sides. It’s less easy to offer the hand of friendship. Especially when that hand has been stabbed a few times.
How condescending of them.
But it most certainly contradicts most of Catholicism's previous doctrine and the CCC.
No, that’s YOUR “logic”.
And it’s not logic either.
I; for one; would like to know (aka the REST of the Story: Paul Harvey - RIP) about the REST of the list: #3, #4, #5 etal.
How you deal with that fact is between you and the King
Heck; I'd be happy just knowing how this 'fact' has been discovered!
Jesus actually SPOKE to you??
Which was the point.
I think Sola Scriptura is a misunderstanding; or too often becomes a "mistake on purpose."
Christ reveals Himself, yes; but we have other believers to talk to for guidance (more experienced; but also, which is too seldom noted, more devoted; those whose ears have been more often open to hear.)
But that includes the saints. Who devoted their lives to His service, and wrote of what He spoke to them.
If one has no qualms about learning from someone over in the next pew, after the service, how much more someone whose life has been formally examined?
(It is interesting, though, that in the lives of the Saints, how many of them are very careful NOT to write of their opinions or thoughts, but instead rely on Jesus giving them directions. May we all strive to do the same.)
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