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!)
To be fair, it’s something we’re passionate about.
Personally I find these threads fun and enjoy posting on them during my spare time. And getting the chance to proclaim the Gospel makes it even better.
Tagline.
It would be nice, yes.
It’s hard to be gracious when grace is taken as weakness; hard to take the first step when you’re sure that you’ll be stepped on because of it.
And thus it starts to degrade.
+1
You commit the fallacy of the undistributed middle and have the cajones to tell her she is not making sense? What a fraud you are!
Romans 9:16-
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Or rather....... are you saying that unrepentant sinners are part of the Body of Christ just because they claim to be Christian were baptized Catholic?
Because, if you make church membership a requirement for salvation, then everyone who is a member is by default saved, whether they like it or not or are living in unrepentant, lifestyle sin.
Likewise, anyone who isn't a member isn't saved no matter how good they are, which is what Catholicism teaches.
OTOH, we recognize salvation is by Christ, a person, not an organization and that church affiliation or membership has no bearing on the person's salvation.
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 1 Cor 11:6.
Try Romans 14 as well.
“And he will stand, for God is able to make him stand.”
Personally I find these threads fun and enjoy posting on them during my spare time. And getting the chance to proclaim the Gospel makes it even better.
I concur.
I've always enjoyed these debates/discussions.
I have learned a great deal in these.
And I have made a considerable number of Christian friends in these discussions.
We pray for each other and encourage each other.
I always try to take Paul's approach in these forums. I'll discuss with anyone on any topic.
Problem is, some of our RC posters don't like or want anything that disagrees with their denomination. They immediately launch into a "you're attacking me" mode. They will run to mgt to have different ones who disagree banned.
Tagline
Ephesians 4:29
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
A distinction without a difference...
Sola Scriptura does not follow from this excerpt of Paul's second letter to Timothy. Every part of Holy Scripture is certainly profitable for all these ends; but, if we would have the whole rule of Christian faith and practice, we must not be content with those Scriptures
That's the difference between the Catholic Church and the church of only the scriptures...And since the scriptures tell us that everything we need to know about Christianity and the church(es) is contained within the pages of the bible, and that we are to reject any doctrine that is developed outside of those written scriptures, we are to reject Mormonism, Catholicism, Izlam and the rest of them...They all lay claim to the scriptures while adding, removing or changing the doctrine within the scriptures...That makes them and all their claims illegitimate...
nor yet with the New Testament, without taking along with it the traditions of the Apostles, and the interpretation of the Church, to which the Apostles delivered both the book, and the true meaning of it.
In the 2000 years or so since its authorship not a single tradition of any apostle has ever surfaced, so we can throw that baby out with the bathwater...
So then it became your Church's private interpretation...The Church that calls everyone father...The Church that forbids people to marry...The Church that has its priesthood wearing long robes with gold thread and expensive jewelry...The Church that tells it people to refrain from eating meat...And these are what, traditions passed down from the apostles that contradict what God's scriptures say???
[16] As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.
The sad but funny thing is that this scripture was written to you and your Church and you don't even recognize it...
Scripture can be destructive to one's salvation if you interpret it wrongly. Hence the need for a Divinely-authorized teacher, that Christ would be with until the consummation of the world.
There are no divinely authorized clergy who continuously pervert the scriptures and boink little boys...
That is totally foreign to them...They don't have a clue what you are talking about...I have read numerous times that they are taught that only their clergy have a personal connection to the Holy Spirit...They are all at the mercy of their false religion...
I did...To the tune of Hey Jude...Not bad...
Jesus Himself is a Sign.(Matt 24:40; Luke 2:12 ; Luke 2:34).
A physical sign...To the Old Testament Jews who were looking for their Messiah...They required a sign...We Gentiles do not require a sign...
Perhaps it's hard for you to imagine a person becoming a Christian without the physical evidence that Jesus existed that your Church claims to have in its possesion...
Nope...Don't need interpretatin'...
Many will have the gift of teaching...Not what some interpretation was decided upon eons ago, but teaching the words of God...
And what about the understanding of those words???
2Ti_2:7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
1Jn_5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
Col_1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
Col_2:2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Luk 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luk 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
Those are some of the scriptures that are hard to understand, if you don't study the scriptures...
Did not Peter condemn private interpretation?
Nope...
2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Peter is talking about biblically ignorant; unlearned people...And those same people trying to expound on the scriptures that they don't know...Like those who pull out 2 Peter 3:16 and throwing it at people they don't agree with when they don't even recognize what the verse says...
So the true Catholic Church hasn't existed since the 60's??? Then why do you keep going???
That's the work of the Holy Spirit, not the mother of Jesus...
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