The continuing mystery of the Shroud of Turin and Alexis Tsipras

There are those who are now coming out of the woodwork and announcing that as they do not think the Shroud of Turin is genuine, my analogies regarding the likeness of Alexis Tsipras to the image on the shroud is neither here nor there.

However, there are always going to those who are going to dispute the authenticity of the Shroud as representing a true image of Christ.

On the other hand, the intent of that article was not to prove, or otherwise disprove, the actuality of the shroud as a true representation of the likeness on the Shroud to how Christ would have looked as he walked here on the earth amongst men.

As that is the case, whether or not the Shroud is authentic is not in dispute here as all that I was pointing out was the likeness of the computer-based image taken from the Shroud to Alexis Tsipras.

If it matters at all, my belief is that I think the Shroud is the actual image of Christ.

It is all right for someone to say the Shroud is a fake, but unless those who make such proclamations are able to prove just how the Shroud came into being then that argument holds no water at all.

The bottom line still being that was not the intention of that article at all, and as of this date there is no one who has yet proven just how the Shroud was made if it is a fake as so many seem to allege.

The Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud (Italian: Sindone di Torino, Sacra Sindone)

is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy.

The image on the shroud is commonly associated with Jesus Christ, his crucifixion and burial. It is much clearer in black-and-white negative than in its natural sepia color. The negative image was first observed in 1898, on the reverse photographic plate of amateur photographer Secondo Pia, who was allowed to photograph it while it was being exhibited in the Turin Cathedral.

The origins of the shroud and its image are the subject of intense debate among scientists, theologians, historians and researchers. Scientific and popular publications have presented diverse arguments for both authenticity and possible methods of forgery. A variety of scientific theories regarding the shroud have since been proposed, based on disciplines ranging from chemistry to biology and medical forensics to optical image analysis. The Catholic Church has neither formally endorsed nor rejected the shroud, but in 1958 Pope Pius XII approved of the image in association with the Roman Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus Christ.

In 1978 a detailed examination was carried out by a team of American scientists called STURP. They found no reliable evidence of forgery, and called the question of how the image was formed "a mystery". In 1988 a radiocarbon dating test was performed on small samples of the shroud. The laboratories at the University of Oxford, the University of Arizona, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, concurred that the samples they tested dated from the Middle Ages, between 1260AD and 1390AD. In 2008, a former STURP member stated that sample was representative of the whole shroud. Since 2005, at least four articles have been published in scholarly sources stating that the samples used for the dating test may not have been representative of the whole Shroud.

According to former Nature editor Philip Ball, "it's fair to say that, despite the seemingly definitive tests in 1988, the status of the Shroud of Turin is murkier than ever. Not least, the nature of the image and how it was fixed on the cloth remain deeply puzzling". The shroud is one of the most studied artifacts in human history, and one of the most controversial.

WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.