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August 13, 2025 |
| Shroud of Turin | ||
The Shroud of Turin is one of the great embarrassments of Christianity. Christians are divided over whether it is real or fake.
In this study, we'll look at what the Christian view of the Shroud should be and why our view matters.
In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic church began chasing after relics. A relic is "an object that is claimed to be from an earlier time that is claimed to be part of the body or possessions of a special person". For Christianity, these special people were the apostles and, to a lesser extent, other notable people from the Bible, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Some of the early church fathers were also included.
The Holy Grail is the most well-known, I think. It is believed to be the cup that Jesus drank from at his last Passover. It is believed the cup has many magical properties that will help its owner. So the idea is that someone kept that cup after the meal and hid it. Many people have searched for it.
Jesus would have drunk from many cups in his life. He would have also eaten from many plates and bowls. He would have worn many pairs of sandals. Why are none of these things magical? It doesn't make any sense.
In the time when the church chased after these relics, one of the popular ones was the cross that Jesus was crucified on. It is said that enough wood from the "cross" was sold at that time to build Noah's Ark. That probably isn't literally true, but it makes the point. The whole thing was a scam. The church made money from the sale of these. So did other people.
It was claimed that many of the apostles' bodies were found. These were sold, along with the body parts and possessions of many other significant people.
Why was there a market for such things? An AI answers the question this way.
They were believed to hold supernatural powers, such as healing and working miracles, and provided a direct connection to the divine for the faithful
In that answer, we see two motivations. First, they were looking for miraculous help. Second, they wanted a direct connection to God. What should be the Christian's view on these?
If we need miraculous help, we should pray for it and ask others to pray for us. If it is not God's will that we receive the desired help, we should be content with that. Paul went through that when he prayed three different times for healing, but God said, "No."
Going around God when he has refused us is, depending on the circumstances, sorcery, testing god, or witchcraft.
If we want to be closer to God, the Christian already has the Holy Spirit within. How much closer can you be? The only way to be closer is to live a life that is closer to God's ideal. For some people, however, God is not enough.
A finger bone supposed to have come from some significant person cannot bring us closer to God. God is spirit, and no physical thing can bring our spirit closer to his.
Both of these reasons have the same core problem - a lack of faith. If you have true faith, you trust God and are happy to live in his will. If you have true faith, you don't need anything more than God.
These things can also lead to idolatry. In the Old Testament, the Israelites sinned against God and he sent poisonous snakes after them. Then he commanded Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard; and it will be that everyone who is bitten and looks at it, will live." (Numbers 21:8)
There was nothing special about the snake that Moses made. It wasn't magical. The people knew that looking at a bronze snake could not heal them of a snake bite. Therefore looking at the snake with the hope of healing was an act of faith. The only thing that made it special was the promise that God had attached to it.
But it caused a problem - idolatry. Some of the people decided it had healing power of its own and they prayed to it (burned incense).
[Hezekiah] took away the high places and shattered the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel were burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. (2 Kings 18:4)
Instead of going to God, the people were going to the snake. The Shroud of Turin has the same problem. Many people put it on a pole inside of them.
Faith begins with a little fact. The future believer needs to know some things before faith is possible. God makes these available, but never enough of them. Faith is still needed to bridge the gap. God also makes faith available when the time is right.
If a person tries to have that faith come from within himself, it will never be sufficient. The result is a person who goes around looking for more facts to fill the gap. But no matter what he finds, it is never enough. Paul talks about faithless searching and questioning.
This is where things like the Shroud of Turin come in. These people see it as physical proof of Jesus that will help them to believe. It will not.
Once we have that true faith, it does not require fact. It does not even need those minimal facts that made faith possible. It certainly does not need an ongoing supply of facts to support it. Therefore the believer does not search for these.
What then should the Christian attitude be toward the Shroud of Turin or any of these other things? It should be total disinterest. We should not care if it is real or fake. We should be able to put our time into better things than studying them. They have nothing to offer us that we want.