Election is best understood in hindsight, for it is only after coming to Christ that one can know for sure whether one has been chosen in Christ. Those who make a decision for Christ find that God made a decision for them in eternity past. It is like the words of the anonymous nineteenth-century hymn: I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me; it was not that I found, O Savior true; no, I was found of Thee.
Philip Graham Ryken

Shrod Of Turin

Shrod Of Turin

SHROUD OF TURIN

BASIC R.C. BELIEF The Shroud of Turin, a 14’3″ long cloth that was alleged to have been the burial cloth of Jesus, first showed up in a small village in France in 1357. Roman Catholic scholars have attempted to minimize the importance of the shroud’s having been missing for over 13 centuries, and some tried to establish its validity because it was said the features of the man plainly seen on the shroud was very like religious icons of Christ that can be traced back to the 6th century. While not an article of faith, it is generally believed this shroud is in Turin, Italy, and that chemical reactions caused the outline of Jesus’ body to be super-imposed on the linen, thus giving an actual negative photograph of Jesus. It is greatly venerated by Catholics.

Another interesting aspect of the Shroud of Turin came as I was reading the publication, THE MEDAL AND THE HOLY FACE put out by the Holy Face Association, Box 1, St. Henri Station, Montreal Canada H4C 3J7. By sending a self-addressed envelope to them, you can receive a religious medal which has an interesting history.

Sister Pierina was a Roman Catholic nun who died in 1945. During her lifetime, she was repeatedly urged by Mary and Jesus to spread the devotion to the “Holy Face,” in reparation for the many insults Jesus suffered in His Passion, as well as the ways in which it is now being dishonored in the Blessed Sacrament by neglect, sacrileges and profanations.

Sister Pierina was given a medal which on one side bore a replica of the Holy Shroud, with an inscription in Latin that, translated, reads “May, O Lord, the light of Thy countenance shine upon us.”

After great difficulty, Sister Pierina obtained permission to have the medal cast. The expense for this was met when she found on her desk an envelope containing the exact amount of money that was needed. The devil is supposed to have expressed his rage at this by burning pictures of the Sacred Face, and beating Sister Pierina savagely.

The first medal to the Holy Face was offered to Pius XII, and now it has spread over the world. It is said that no prisoner of war wearing this badge of salvation has ever been executed. Jesus also is supposed to have requested that a special feast be instituted to honor His Holy Face on Shrove Tuesday.

A 16th century Roman Catholic soldier, sent to persectute the Christians in the Waldensian Valleys, wrote to Rome that it was his great sorrow that he had not been able to travel the short distance to Turin to venerate the Holy Shroud.

Pope Paul VI called the Shroud of Turin “the greatest relic in Christendom.”

POST VATICAN II The Shroud was publicly exhibited August 27 – October 8, 1978 and millions of visitors came to Turin to see it. In a March, 1978 article in the Catholic Digest, a lengthy explanation is given trying to explain the Shroud’s whereabouts between the 1st century and 1354, when it was discovered in France. The comparison between the shroud and some ikons and images, and unsubstantiated legends from the 6th century are possible links.

It was at this time that the group of scientists had the opportunity to subject the cloth to a series of analyses which caused the conclusion by some of the men that it was authentic.

In 1984 scholars presented the Vatican with a proposal for radio-carbon dating. The three laboratories selected by the church to conduct these tests were at Oxford University, the University of Arizona and the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland.

An article from Turin, Italy by Robert Suro, from the New York Times News Service and printed in THE OREGONIAN on 10/14/88 states that the Roman Catholic Church says tests show that the Shroud of Turin could not possibly be Jesus’ burial cloth. Tests conducted independently by three laboratories concluded that the shroud cloth was created between 1260 and 1390. Archbishop Ballestrero of Turin said that they don’t have any answers to explain how the image of Christ was created on the shroud.

“During his recent trip to southern Africa, Pope John Paul II referred to the shroud as a “relic” and said “the problem of the authenticity ought always to be held scientifically open”, according to a report in the National Catholic Register, a weekly newspaper.”

The church has never proclaimed that the shroud was Jesus’ burial cloth, but it certainly has not discouraged that belief. Cardinal Ballestrero of Turin noted that in church liturgical texts and in his own preaching the shroud has been presented as a holy image worthy of “respect and veneration.”

He continued, “What the Church values most about the shroud is that its representation of a gaunt, sunken-eyed man has a capacity to inspire religious faith.”

From May 1989 letter, St. Thomas Aquinas (Traditionalist) Seminary, Winona, MN. “I would like to share with you certain studies of the most precious relic of the Church, proof of every point of the Creed.

“The Holy Shroud is a marvel, satisfying the cravings of a scientific century which is the most materialistic in history. But more than an `ongoing muystery,’ the linen is a remedy to the modernistic faith. Typically, today’s priests claim that `the ONLY proof of the Resurrection of Christ is today’s testimony of the Christian communities.’ The Holy Shroud proves the modernistic beliefs wrong and the old-fashioned Faith right. How so? Because it is obviously an irrefutable witness of the OBJECTIVE truth of every detail of the Gospel.

“That is when the devil came up with a new master plan, `Carbon 14.’ On October 13, 1988, it was announced that three laboratories had carbontested the Holy Shroud. It dated between 1260 and 1390, 1325 being the average date. It was during the 14th century that the Shroud was mentioned for the first time in the West. It seemed the American, McCrone, was right after all: the Shroud was just a mere painting of the 13th or 14th century, the work of skillful forger. Cardinal Ballestrero of Turin had no choice than to bow down before an explanation which eliminated the miraculous and the extraordinary. The guillotine had fallen! That was the end of the Shroud; its mysteries now relegated to the kingdom of darkness. For 43 days in 1978, 3.5 million people had come to see just a `skillful forgery of the 14th century.’

“However, this `scientific’ conclusion cannot resist the test of genuine science. It is a scientific and common sense principle that obscure and doubtful data must be explained by clear answers proved beyond doubt. But precisely, the authenticity of the Shroud need not be a probem. It is as clear as day that the Sacred Linen had enshrouded the body of our Saviour from which he rose from the dead on the third day.

CHRISTIAN COMMENT Christians certainly do not hold to the exactness of radio-carbon dating, and have always found it more authentic to ask “What does the Bible say?” Scriptural proof that this shroud, a 14’3″ long cloth with both facial and bodily imprints, is a fraud comes when we study John 11:44 and 20:7. The Jewish custom was to wrap the head in a separate linen cloth, and Jesus was buried as was the manner of the Jews (John 19:40).

Isaiah 52:14 says of Christ, “His visage was so marred more than any man”, and the face on the shroud shows no evidence of this. The Shroud of Turin is just another of Satan’s counterfeits designed to obscure the true Christ of the Bible. It is a tragedy that highly-respected Christian teachers should lend their influence in this direction.

Dr. D. James Kennedy, in TRUTHS THAT TRANSFORM, interviewed Kenneth Stevenson, a scientist who examined the shroud and judged it to be authentic. Dr. Stevenson relates that he was raised Roman Catholic, and does not give any details of any conversion from that religion.

While Dr. Kennedy does not state that he absolutely believes the shroud to be authentic, the positive nature of this interview shows that he was leaning to this position even though he admits that when he first heard about the shroud, he “was very skeptical.” This skepticism seems to have been overcome by Stevenson’s “positive evidence” of the shroud’s authenticity.

Dr. Kennedy asked if any of the scientists had become Christians through their examination of the shroud. The reply of Mr. Stevenson is an enthusiastic “Absolutely.” Of course, since we know nothing of Stevenson’s spiritual position now, we do not know what he means by “becoming a Christian.” Many Roman Catholics believe they become Christians when they are baptized as babies.

The whole interview, in which the authenticity of the Shoud of Turin was unequivocably maintained by Stevenson, is described by Dr. Kennedy as “most fascinating.” Many of his followers probably took this as a vote for the Shroud, and it further confused them regarding Catholic evangelism.

SECULAR JOURNALS From NEWSWEEK, 10/24/88. “Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero, `I can assure you that the Holy Shroud has produced miracles and continues to.'”

From ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 6/3/89. CASE IS NOT CLOSED ON SHROUD OF TURIN. “The Shroud of Turin, a cloth alleged by many to be Jesus’ burial garment, may not be the Medieval creation that scientists claimed it was last fall, at least in the opinion of some scientists and Roman Catholic leaders.”