Dec. 9, 2009 on the side of a mountain, during a snow storm, bleeding out after a fall explained everything I ever needed to know, and told me how strong my faith was.
/johnny
You don’t realize what kind of an epic oxymoron is embedded in your comment.
I certainly don’t need a piece of cloth to confirm my faith, either. However, it is so wonderful that we continuously find evidence and validation for the Scriptures on a nearly daily basis.
Really? Sounds like an interesting story. Tell us more!
Christianity is based on historical facts that can be investigated. People typically come to Christ in two ways, by pure Faith (your case and mine) and purely by Reason, (C.S. Lewis for example). Then of course there is everyone in between. The Shroud is just another means by which to bring more souls into the fold that might not otherwise get there. God will take you any way He can.
The shroud is either the authentic burial shroud of Christ, or it is not.
If it is not, it is singularly unique as a forgery or artifact created hundreds, if not over a thousand years ago, that modern technology can not replicate or explain.
If it is the authentic burial shroud of Christ, well, God does nothing without his reasons.
In either case, it merits my attention and a bit of contemplation, but my faith is certainly not contingent upon it.
He did what He had to do before the Kodak camera was invented.
“I don’t get it...bleeding out after a fall explained everything I ever needed to know, and told me how strong my faith was.”
Yes, sir, Johnny, and I understand that. My God and my Lord and Savior have delivered me/us from inescapable circumstances in several instances that we know of, and likely many, many more. These are faith building experiences. I do not need the Shroud to know who my Lord and Savior is...on the other hand I find it interesting that this just might be something preserved to affirm to us in our generation what those who stood at the foot of the cross, gazing upward, and those who encountered Him after the Resurection saw and believed first hand.
He is all powerful, all loving, all caring, all giving. He is God. He, though God, as man died so that we might live. I came to know Him in a very personal way before I knew anything about a Shroud, or any other kind of ‘relics’ that might bear some testimony to what God tells us in His Word. I do not need that. My faith is what I have because He gave me my faith. And that faith grows, by the day.
Again, I thank you for sharing your faith. God is Good. God brings people, events, circumstances into our lives to teach us and to enlighten us. He obviously is doing that with you. We too know that nurturing. Blessings.
No one said you had to care about it.
But if you're a Christian, I don't know why you wouldn't be curious about what could potentially be Christ's burial cloth.
Besides yourslf, there are other people in the world who can benefit from this, like the atheistic scientists who studied it, and became Christians.
You wrote:
“I don’t get it.”
I do. Maybe you should try harder to understand.
“I care nothing for a piece of cloth purported to be 2000 years old.”
It’s Christ’s burial shroud. It’s not a “piece of cloth purported to be 2000 years old.”
“Dec. 9, 2009 on the side of a mountain, during a snow storm, bleeding out after a fall explained everything I ever needed to know, and told me how strong my faith was.”
So you needed a special life threatening event to realize what you should have known anyway? And some people need or just like to have the affirmation that the shroud offers them. So what’s it to you if that’s the case?
So, there's other sorts of evidence that there's something beyond the here and now and we show it to them.
But if you think that your method can work with others, go to it man.(wink!)
Wow. It took 8 posts before we got the first “I don’t care.” Yay
Freepmail.