Deliverance from the Cross — Page 68
indulgence Sixtus IV, Julius II, Clement VII, and - Gregory XIII. This is what Pope Benedict XIV, an authority on controversial religious questions, had to say about it: The Shroud, a very special memento of our Lord, is kept at Turin, and the Popes have confirmed that it is identical with the Shroud in which Jesus was wrapped. More than thirty other Roman Popes have also recognised the Shroud, including Pope Pius XI, who was an archaeologist and scientist of world-wide repute. ' If God had wanted to uphold Jesus, he would have had to save him and surely not to let him die on the cross, which Moses called the accursed wood. Jesus himself was confident that he would be saved, as the Bible predicted. But one can understand that, as the climax on the cross approached the decisive moment in the history of religion even Jesus began to doubt and lose hope. My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Jesus knew that, if he died on the cross, it meant, according to the laws of Moses, that God had forsaken him. These laws entitle the Jewish people to say: God did not uphold Jesus, for he died on the cross! The history of the Jews shows throughout that, as far as they were concerned, death on the accursed cross was the end. But God did save Jesus and did not let 68