The Shroud of Turin: 1.2 The Shroud and me

I will here in this part 4 of my new series, "The Shroud of Turin" briefly disclose who I am and what is my position on the Shroud of Turin. The previous post in this series was part 3, "1.1 Overview of the Shroud of Turin." For more details about this series, see part 1, the "Contents" page.

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THE SHROUD OF TURIN
1. INTRODUCTION
1.2 THE SHROUD AND ME
© Stephen E. Jones

Some readers, to help them evaluate what I write in this series, might want to know who I am and what is my position on the Shroud of Turin.

As I stated in my first post to this blog, I am an Australian protestant evangelical Christian, in my 60s. I have a Bachelor of Science (Biology) degree and am a casual relief teacher in Western Australian high schools.

For nearly 40 years, to the extent I thought about it at all, I dismissed the Shroud of Turin as just another fake Roman Catholic relic.

[Right: Stevenson, K.E. & Habermas, G.R., "Verdict on the Shroud" (1981).]

But as I posted in January 2005 to my now closed-down (by me) Yahoo CreationEvolutionDesign discussion group:

"I am a Protestant and my attitude to the Shroud of Turin was until recently that it was probably a fake. But I saw [and bought] a secondhand book coauthored by Protestant Christian philosopher Gary Habermas ... called "Verdict on the Shroud: Evidence for the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1981). I have only dipped into it, but I was astonished for the evidence that points to it being the burial shroud that covered the crucified Jesus and through which he was resurrected ... If the new radiocarbon date `is up to 3000 years old' then, based on the evidence that Stevenson & Habermas present, I provionally accept that the Turin shroud is the actual burial shroud of Jesus and the unique nature of the image, is indeed additional `Evidence for the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ'!"

By the time I started this blog in June 2007, after much further reading of the evidence for and against the Shroud being authentic, I stated in its masthead what still is my current position on the Shroud:

"I am persuaded by the evidence that the Shroud of Turin is the burial sheet of Jesus Christ and bears His crucified and resurrected image."

Or as I put it in comment under one of my posts:

"Previously I believed Jesus rose from the dead but now I know that He has, in the same way that the Apostle John "saw the linen cloths lying there ... and believed":

Jn 20:3-8. 3So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;

However, having said that, as I also commented under another post:

"I myself have stated many times that I was a Christian for nearly 40 years before I accepted that the Shroud was authentic. So if the Shroud was shown to be a fake, then I would still be the same Christian that I have now been for over 40 years."

Finally, I have not yet seen the Shroud in Turin Cathedral, but I hope to do so one day.

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Continued in part 5, "1.3 The central dilemma of the Shroud."

Last updated: 15 July, 2013.