Written By: Jessica Pregeant
The first time I heard about the Shroud of Turin, I was standing in a grocery store checkout line, reading a tabloid that called it a hoax. I was young, and I figured they knew what they were talking about, so I left it at that.
Years later, I stumbled onto the story of Dr. Alan Adler, a chemist who went in expecting to find paint and found blood instead. That's when I realized the "hoax" I'd believed for years wasn't the whole story.
It would take more power than we can make
Scientists in Italy spent years trying to recreate the Shroud's image using ultraviolet lasers. They managed to color tiny patches of linen, but they estimated that forming the whole image at once would take billions of watts delivered in a fraction of a second. That's more energy than any natural source, and more than even today's technology can deliver.
The blood came first
When researchers examined the cloth up close in 1978, they found no image underneath the bloodstains. That means the blood was on the cloth before the image formed. Whatever made the image happened after the body had already bled onto the linen.
The image is three-dimensional
This is one of the most astonishing discoveries of all. When scientists ran the image through a VP-8 Image Analyzer, a device used to study space photography, the brightness of the image matched the distance between the body and the cloth. The result was a true 3D figure. Ordinary photographs and paintings don't do this. The Shroud does.
And the cloth didn't burn
Any energy strong enough to create that image should have scorched or destroyed the thin, delicate linen. Instead, only the very outermost surface of the fibers was changed: no melting, no burning, no damage underneath. Scientists still can't explain how.
What science can't measure
Scientists have studied the Shroud for more than a hundred years, and they still argue about it. The research I find most interesting is the blood, the 3D image, and an energy no one can explain. Maybe science will settle it someday, and maybe it won't. That's the beauty and mystery of GOD.
But here's what I've come to understand: my faith doesn't rest on a piece of cloth, as magnificent as it is. My faith rests on an empty tomb. When John ran to the tomb that first Easter morning, he didn't find a body. He found the linen grave clothes lying there. Scripture says simply, "and he saw, and believed" (John 20:8, KJV).
The Shroud is a mystery that points us back to that morning. Science can study the linen. Scripture already told us what happened to the One who was wrapped in it.
Wear the mystery
I designed the Shroud of Turin Sepia Faith Tee to carry this story with you, with the science on the back for anyone curious enough to ask. Just like the cloth Jesus was wrapped in, you can wrap yourself in the truth and wear it boldly, because sometimes a simple shirt is the start of a conversation that leads someone back to the empty tomb.
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