They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to them

       When I was in high school I was really into reading about the Shroud of Turin.  The Shroud is thought to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.   I read a lot about the cloth and all of the amazing facts about it that were hard to explain.   I read about it's amazing photographic-negative image that was a PERFECT negative (hard to do even by pros today).   I read about the studies done on it and how everything matched up for it to be the actual burial cloth of Jesus.

       When the Shroud of Turin was carbon-dated and the date came to be from the 13th century, my heart sank.  I wanted science to re-enforce my faith.  I wanted so badly to have something that I could point to and say, "See this??  Look at this!!!"   Then later I saw a news-piece that showed a woman from Iowa challenged the finding by showing the scientists that they had drawn their sample form a part of the cloth that was repaired in the 13th century after a fire burned part of it.  The chief scientist was amazed that a woman from Iowa was right when she pointed out that the cloth had been repaired using a method of "inter-weaving" a new piece of cloth into the old in such a way the naked eye could not tell , but a seasoned weaver would see that the weave changed directions where the new and old meet.   This inter-weaving also explained the big date difference in dates the carbon-dating method found in the samples no one earlier could explain.   Now they knew it was because the samples closer to the old cloth had more old cloth woven into it and it accounted for the large discrepancy in the dates.    Now all that had to be done was to get a new sample from the cloth again.  But this is impossible now.   When the scientists were brought in to examine and test the Shroud of Turin they showed the church that the cloth was slowly deteriorating from UV light.  To slow this process down the church treated the cloth with a chemical that now makes it impossible to do carbon-dating. 

    I find all of this to be too coincidental to just be "fate".    It's too coincidental that:

1. The cloth would be in a fire and burned in the 13th century but mostly saved intact and only a small part of it needed to be repaired.    
2. The scientists would just happen to take their sample from the wrong section that had been repaired by a fire (of all the areas they could have taken, they took it from the worst part).  
3. They can't take any samples because their research showed the deterioration of the cloth causing the church to take actions that would prevent any future dating.   

     Coincidence? 

     I don't think so. 

     I think God has shut the door on yet another "scientific-faith-proof" we so desperately want.  We are like the "rich man" in the story of "The rich man and Lazarus" who pleads with God to send Lazarus back to his brothers to warn them and Abraham says, "They have Moses and the Prophets to warn them. Let them listen to them".  We want more proof than just God's word.  We want science to back us up.   We want something physical to point to that says, "You faith is real!"    But God will not give that to us.   We have more than Moses and the Prophets.   He has given us his Son and put his Spirit into our hearts.   That is all we need and no more.