Shroud of Turin - Seeing Is Not Always Believing

A famous cloth was found many years ago which many refer to as the Shroud of Turin. This shroud was the cloth used after Jesus had been tortured for several hours and then crucified. For many years this cloth was lost and it was eventually rediscovered again. Evidence of this cloth is proof that he lived and died, but some still doubt it's authenticity. This article will discuss the proof of his existence. There is a famous American quote that simply states, “Seeing is believing”. Many people will not believe a statement or fact until they see it for themselves and with their own eyes. For many people, they only believe something that has recently happened in their lives. If an event has happened in the last one hundred years and it is documented, then people will be more likely to believe it. What about the events that took place several hundreds of years ago or even thousands of years ago? We sometimes have to rely on the stories of scientists or witnesses during that time. For the story of God and Jesus, we have relied on the stories found in the Bible. These events took place thousands of years ago that it is sometimes hard to believe they existed or if the message they left us was actually true. The rediscovery of the Shroud of Turin should be the evidence needed to put all doubts aside. Many experts from all walks of life from: science, religion and educational institutions have “Seen” this shroud for themselves and all the evidence found on the cloth, but they still doubt that Jesus existed. I guess seeing is not always believing, but what about the facts? Image of a crucified man On the shroud, there is an image of what appears to be a crucified man. For some reason or another an image had formed of a man lying down with his hands on his groin. Scientists have tried to find out how this image had formed on this cloth, even after thousands of hours of intense study, they still have no full explanation of what caused this. The were able to tell that the man in the cloth was tortured and crucified because they found blood. This blood had high levels of bilirubin which is a bile pigment that will only appear in a person's blood if they had been excessively beaten. Image of flowers Whatever had caused the image to be imprinted on the cloth, also imprinted other objects. In 1985, Alan Whanger M.D., noticed there were images of flowers. He spent four years trying to identify these flowers. With the help of Avinoam Danin, the world's authority on the flowers of Israel, he was able to determine that the flowers in the image were from Jerusalem. It was documented that Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. Small coins on each eye On further observation, he saw that there were small coins, one found on each eye of the man in the image. The significance of this discovery shows the origin and date that the image was created. He was able to see that the coins had the letters UCAI were engraved and there was a Sheppard’s staff. This was a Lepton coin that was only found during 29 – 33 AD or the first century. This was the equivalent to the common penny and was dedicated to Tiberius Caesar and chances of it circulating outside of Israel was very small. The Shroud of Turin and some of the evidence that has been found by the scientific community is helping to shed more light on this topic. Seeing is not always believing because facts are clearly presented to everyone, but there are still many who refuse to believe. Maybe what is hold us back from truly believing is our judgement. It could be that we are judging the facts before even seeing or hearing them. Maybe what we need to do is silence our hearts to see the truth.