Many Christians believe that the Christianity of today has been fully ordained by God, and some might not be willing to believe that we can learn anything new about Jesus' message and person. However, if this were so, there would be no need for new generations of theologians and biblical exegetes. Many biblical exegetes of today are acknowledging that recently-discovered writings contemporary with the New Testament (e.g. from Nag Hammadi) show that early Christianity was not as homogeneous as was previously believed. Different groups of Christians had various beliefs about Jesus. If that is the case, and if today's Christianity is seen through the lens of a misperceived past, then we may have to reevaluate not only the past, but the present as well. Just as the politics and egos of his day affected Jesus' life and death, so the same forces affected the development of the early church. In the early church, only certain beliefs about Jesus were allowed and others were labeled as heretical. It should be pointed out that various church communities had different scriptures until the New Testament canon was finally standardized in 498 CE. Can we be absolutely certain that there is no truth at all in some of the so-called heretical views?
Many accept without question that what has evolved in Christianity is exactly what God has desired. However, one has to balance the idea that God is guiding the church through human instruments with the idea that God has the final authority in determining the way His Spirit can work in the church. Religious history, including Christianity's, is replete with individuals and groups who, because they presumed to speak absolutely for God, mercilessly persecuted others who did not believe as they did. Humankind is never so dangerous as when it believes it possesses all of the truth. Can we ascribe all of the mainstream beliefs that have come down to us as being the work of the Holy Spirit, or is it possible that God has allowed some seemingly unorthodox beliefs to co-exist with orthodox ones in order that further truths may be discovered in our day? If, in fact, all of the mainstream beliefs that have come down to us are from the Holy Spirit, why are many of the beliefs contradictory? Although the Jews were the chosen people, God allowed their almost 2,000 year history prior to Jesus to be the means by which Jesus would teach new truths about God. Could the almost 2,000 years of Christian history be the basis for a rebirth from startling new insights as we approach the 21st century?
As one recent article (Woodward, 54) about Jesus points out:
"Like the millennium itself, much of what we now think of as Western ideas, inventions and values finds its source or inspiration in the religion that worships God in his name. Art and science, the self and society, politics and economics, marriage and the family, right and wrong, body and soulall have been touched and radically transformed by Christian influence. Seldom all at once, of courseand not always for the better. The same Jesus who preached peace was used to justify the Crusades and the Inquisition. The same gospel he proclaimed has underwritten both democracy and the divine right of kings. Often persecutedeven todayChristians have frequently persecuted others, including other Christians. As Pope John Paul II has repeatedly insisted, Christians cannot welcome the third millennium without repenting of their own sins.
This millennial moment invites historical reflection: how has Christianity shaped the way we think about God, about ourselves, about how individuals ought to live and the way that societies are to be organized?"
In a previous article of ours, it was mentioned that one of the authors (Benford) claimed to have had divine scientific and religious revelations concerning the Shroud and other matters (Marino and Benford, 1999). Although this is not the forum to elaborate, I (Marino) affirm that I have received my own independent signs that convince me of the veracity of her revelations. Obviously, even both affirmations together do not guarantee veracity, but the readers are invited to judge the data we are presenting as objectively as possible and decide for themselves.
As we approach the new millennium, we might well consider whether the Shroud could be the means through which further truths are discovered after almost 2,000 years of Christian history. Could the Shroud help to reveal a different Jesus to us today, just as he did to the Emmaus disciples after the resurrection, who had believed they had known and understood him so well before his crucifixion? As Trenn noted, "Throughout His earthly life, Jesus spoke in parables, which in Aramaic may be translated as "riddles." How appropriate then, that He should have left such a magnificent conundrum for posterity" (Trenn, 137). What riddles about Jesus and the Shroud are there still to decipher?
Prior to answering this profound question, one must be able to discern who Jesus really was and what he represented to humankind. Humans have always felt safe in believing that Jesus Christ was a superior human being who never committed a transgression. We have been taught to believe that he was born perfect, lived perfectly, and died perfectly, as a God would have done. By accepting this version of Jesus, we accept our own chronic imperfection. We subscribe to the belief that we are "frail and broken human beings" who could never be sinless or perfect like Jesus because he was more God than a mortal. But is this how Jesus saw things? Is this what he came to earth to teach us?
