For Those Who Have Not Seen, and Yet Believe

 

The Shroud of Turin is not an intentional “fake,” but it is not the burial cloth of Jesus.

In John 4:48, Jesus famously said, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe." This statement, directed at those seeking miracles, highlights a tension between faith based on tangible evidence (signs and wonders) and faith based on belief in Jesus's word. It suggests that some individuals require visible proof, or "signs and wonders," to validate their faith, while others are willing to believe based on what they hear or are told.

He amplified that in Matthew 16:4 An adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it . . .

In Exodus 20:4 God admonished: 4 “You shall not make for yourself any image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me!

There are reasons for this, and it all has to do with human nature. Atheists and other naysayers will point to this and say God is cruel and looks to punish children for sins made by parents until the full debt is paid. That is not what God meant! God knows us. There is a line of logic that explains that if you tell a lie then tell a big one, and if you tell it long enough it becomes carved in stone and society must live with that lie even to the the third or fourth generation! Muslims say that whatever you think about most of the day is your God. Money is not the root of all evil, the love (worship) of money is!  A hammer is useful, but nobody dedicates his entire body and soul to the veneration of a hammer! The twisting of the message of the gospel is the oldest trick in the book. Cherry picking, false theology purported by false prophets, even those claiming to be Christ, put believers into a state of doubt, or worse than doubt, negotiation with the truth. Bargaining with the truth is simply a lie. Truth: A man who rose from graveyard dead does not have to leave a beach towel to “prove” it! Use your common sense! You put all your faith into the beach towel, or some “Prosperity Gospel,” or Book of Mormon, or Qu’ran, or The Karma Sutra, and when the truth comes out, and it will eventually come out, you will have nothing left that’s real except the sound of The Devil laughing in your face! Because he knows the truth!

Practically all Christian Churches have a cross somewhere in the vicinity. Crosses abound, with or without Jesus, depending upon which version of the Bible you subscribe to, but people have an uncanny way of seeing the cross that they can see while skimming over the man they cannot see. From there all manner of magical powers are impugned upon a movie prop that has no more power than that fake 44 magnum in “Dirty Harry.

The development of such props gave us The New Improved Shroud of Turin. Recently an actual burial cloth was found during an excavation of a tomb in Jerusalem. It had absolutely nothing in common with the Shroud. To begin with, there was a face cloth, which in and of itself would forbid the transfer of any facial image to another cloth that was covering the face. And I hear it now. That line, the one below the head? Advocates will claim that’s where God went around the face cloth problem by placing an import on the cloth, but He forgot to Photoshop the line out. Give me a break! And oh yes, no remnants of facial hair. I believe the Rabbi had a beard. And we’re not talking five o’clock shadow here. Jus’ Sayin’. 

In addition to that, it was a wrap, kinda like a burrito. So, if an image did come about it would come off like a line of paper dolls. The face, a large space, the back, more space, shoulders, and on and so on it goes from the nose to the toes, which would make absolutely no sense to the fourteenth century pilgrim who couldn’t read the Bible, even if he were allowed, bringing to kids for Easter. The Shroud was an artistic expression of the Passion of the Christ which everybody understood what it represented until the more educated elite took hold of it and elevated it to a best seller.

The image on the Shroud exposed the brutality of Roman crucifixion. While the modern statue of Jesus super-glued up there to His Montgomery Ward cross in His Sunday best, the Shroud showed the faithful that getting nailed up to a railroad tie was a bit more than a bad hair day to say the least. And Christ’s suffering became all the more real to adherents. But something else has been demonstrated by the many studies of this deified bath robe. Sometimes, not always, the more you study something the less you know. The pandemic? The trail of blood flowing down the arms used to try to prove rigor mortis had something to do with the direction of the flow, and while we’re talking blood flow, the forehead seemingly having a “3” representing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How nice it was an Arabic number. You’d think it would have been at least a Hebrew, gimel ג, or better yet a good ol’ Roman III! But no! A 3! In good ol’ type AB Positive, proving conclusively that Jesus was an Irishman. Oh yes, the DNA; 23 a nobody else, confirming that Mary was indeed a single parent! This is where idol worship will get you. Wanna see a real miracle? That some super religious podiatrist didn’t count His toes, citing three on the right foot and seven on the left. And, of course there are the nails in the wrists. Proof that nobody ever figured out that nails in the palms could not support a full grown man until 1976. Ask the cartels.  All those years of study, and drunk monks, and nobody noticed that? Yeah, right! And Paul McCartney is going to be the next Pope. Pope Paul puffed a pipe and poked a pretty prepper! Hold your breath, say that three times real fast and see if you don’t  see stars and hear church bells. Can I have an “Amen?”

Let us raise our voices in song

That means click the picture 

      —>Read this:-<—

Genesis 1: 26Then God Said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

      —>Now this:<—

 Do you think that God Almighty, creator of everything seen and unseen, with so many intricacies that we are just now beginning to understand the mathematical precision of DNA, the Big Bang, viruses, or what makes the the brain have this non-physical thing we call consciousness, not to mention the massive creation everything else from mountains to mom’s apple pie, then turned it over to us and said, “I made it, you run it,” but was so absent minded that he has to run updates like Microsoft for something that He overlooked?  What is that? God 3.0? Will download as you pray! Oh, PS: The Mormons found the original in Palmyra New York which Joseph Smith translated by staring at a rock in a Dallas Cowboys football helmet that Kielia brought him from the year 12,025! Or words to that effect. I mean, if you preaching 🐂 💩 you may as well write a book and hire a cook!

A priest told me when he was in charge of a parish in South Texas, that the residents thereof would put a Joshua Tree up every Christmas season. A Joshua Tree is kinda like a Christmas Tree without the scent. Anyway, during the season the people would come, hang a little silver ornament somewhere on the tree and ask Jesus for a miracle while they prayed about the little silver hand, or foot, or whatever they’d left. I wouldn’t know what they’d leave on the tree for an STD, but frankly, that’s none of my business.

But right there is idolatry 2.0. Forget how you got gonorrhea, just ask Jesus for some of that ol’ time religion, and then get mad at God when you still have to go get a shot of penicillin.

As I began, so I repeat:

—>The Shroud of Turin is not an intentional “fake,” but it is not the burial cloth of Jesus. When it came on the scene, even the village idiots knew it was just a symbol, but in time it metaphorically became something more, and by the late 1800s it was the real, 100% burial cloth of God, complete with Middle East pollen. And as long as you are worshipping that bathrobe you ain’t worshipping Jesus, because that was Satan’s plan all along. 

Class dismissed!

***********************

Summary for sinners

The Shroud of Turin is widely regarded as a symbolic religious artifact rather than the genuine burial cloth of Jesus. Its veneration raises important questions about faith, idolatry, and the interpretation of religious symbols.

• Shroud's authenticity questioned: The Shroud of Turin is not a fake but is not the actual burial cloth of Jesus, initially seen as a symbol that later gained unwarranted claims of authenticity. 

• Faith and signs tension: Biblical verses highlight the conflict between requiring miraculous signs to believe and having faith without visible proof. 

• Prohibition of images: Scripture forbids making images or idols, warning against idolatry and its consequences across generations.

• Idolatry in Christian symbols: The common presence and veneration of crosses and objects can lead to misplaced worship, overshadowing true faith. 

• New burial cloth findings: A recently discovered burial cloth in Jerusalem differs significantly from the Shroud in structure and features, challenging its authenticity. 

• Shroud’s image and studies: The Shroud depicts the harsh realities of Roman crucifixion but contains inconsistencies such as blood flow patterns and symbolic markings that
  

•