Nicole,
Having spent about half my life Catholic, subjects like this have been very important to me. For years I was convinced that things like the shroud would prove things to people. Being in a scientific profession, and having worked in a laboratory while completing my undergrad & grad degrees, I was acutely aware of the critical nature of the evidential power of analytical data. While on the other hand, the scriptures have caused me to realize something far better than empirical evidence, and that is the the evidence that comes from the faith that those very scriptures produce.
Hebrews 11:1 ¶ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The scriptures claim that the true evidence of the unseen, like that which is spiritual, in particular the LORD himself and his works, that this true evidence comes from faith, not from seeing or touching. So where does this faith come from?
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
So this faith comes from the scriptures themselves, giving us all the evidence that we need to believe in unseen or seemingly impossible things, like the resurrection of Jesus.
II Corinthians 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
II Corinthians 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
Scientific evidence is great, but faith is far better. Hope based on empirical, tangible evidence of the resurrection, is not really hope after all.
Romans 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Actually, we who have not seen, and yet believed, are really greatly blessed.
I Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
John 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
The LORD did not provide physical evidence for the apostles to show people, but rather empowered them with spiritual power by the Holy Ghost. They witnessed of the resurrection, not by physical evidence, but by power.
Acts 4:33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
The power was not only manifested in the miraculous, but in preaching of that very word of God, from which the hearers get the faith to believe the report, not from the seeing of miracles.
Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Too often its thought that every time they that they were filled with the Holy Ghost , that there were miracles or speaking in tongues. However, that previous scriptures shows that when they were filled with the Holy Ghost, that they preached the word of God. Seeing miracles is not were we get faith, we get that from the word of God. Seeing some of the greatest miracles did not produce faith in the generation of Israel that were delivered from Egypt – not long after the parting of the Red Sea, they were worshipping a golden calf. How many in Israel saw the miracles of Jesus and still cried to Pilate, “Crucify him”? The church that seemed to have the most miraculous, Corinth, also seemed to be the most carnal and have the most problems.
Also, I have come to believe that the blood of Jesus is not in ground of Mount Calvary, nor on the spear of Longinus, and I also don’t think it was left behind on the shroud. I believe that Jesus presented his blood in the tabernacle which is in heaven.
Hebrews 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
The tabernacle on earth needed the blood on it, which was a pattern of that which is in heaven, and so the much the more the tabernacle in heaven had the the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews 9:19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
23 ¶ It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
Again, I believe that it is the scriptures that are the truth, more than scientific evidence:
John 17:17 ¶ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
I Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Not by the miracles or by scientific evidence, but by the word of God, because it is by faith, and it is from the scriptures that this faith comes from.
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
So whether the shroud is true or not, it cannot produce the kind of faith by which a person believes on Jesus to be saved. It is something perhaps encouraging to people who already believe, but certainly not as a substitute for the gospel for those who do not.
I’m not speaking against the shroud, I do not know if it is true or not. Therefore I will no longer point those who I know, that do not believe on Jesus yet, to the shroud, or to the miracles, thinking that this will help. It may actually backfire. They need to get saved first, by grace, through faith in Jesus, which faith comes from the gospel from the word of God.
Thank you,
Gino