Matthew Stuckey here, and I wanted to make a video on the religion of Jainism from a biblical perspective.
The religion of Jainism from a biblical perspective.
Now, Jainism appears in the top 20 of most common religions worldwide.
Whenever you look at charts of how many adherents that various religions have,
they have over 4 million followers based on how they count the numbers.
Now, of course, when it comes to those charts, they usually list all the philosophies coming out of China,
oftentimes don't appear in the charts, or in Africa as well, the African traditional religions.
But there's 4 million followers of Jainism worldwide, so it is a big religion, but it is most prominent in India.
Oftentimes when I make videos like these, I give the myths of various religions,
but I don't think most people know a whole lot about Jainism,
but I'm just going to kind of give you the facts and give you some Bible verses to basically look at this religion.
And so, two of the famous followers in Jainism were Mahavira, which was in the 6th century BC.
He is considered a contemporary of Buddha, and he was an ascetic,
and so basically he renounced just all of his life and all of his possessions and things such as that,
very similar to the Buddha that lived during that time period.
Another famous one is Ashoka, and he was a king, and when you look at the story of him,
he was a very vicious, reprobate, evil person, brutally murdering lots of different people,
and he looked at himself one day, and he, this is supposedly, he looked at himself,
and he said, oh man, I feel terrible that I'm this wicked, evil murderer and everything,
and then he basically became this Buddhist pacifist.
So he's actually a Buddhist, not a Jain, but he is revered in Jainism.
Well, the Bible says, though,
unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure,
but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient,
and unto every good work reprobate.
It talks about your conscience being seared with a hot iron, and that was Ashoka. He was a wicked person.
So this religion of Jainism, here are some highlights.
One is that they, point one, they are extreme vegans.
When I say extreme vegans, I mean extreme.
There are a lot of vegetables that they refuse to eat because it will do violence toward those vegetables.
They do not eat potatoes or onions or root vegetables,
and the term is Ananthakaya, which means they believe with these vegetables,
they are one body containing infinite organisms,
and so to eat a potato would cause violence to that potato,
and they're just the biggest pacifists.
They're so full of peace that they're not willing to eat a potato or a carrot.
Even the way they will get vegetables out of the ground,
they believe you have to be very careful because you want to make sure you don't do violence to these vegetables.
So they're like these animal rights activists, but they look at this not towards just animals.
They apply this to plants and even water about how we need to basically protect them,
be fair to them and stuff like that.
But the Bible says this in Genesis 9 verses 2 and 3.
And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth,
and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moved upon the earth,
and upon all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you,
even as the green herb have I given you all things.
So when they got off the ark, God said you're not allowed to eat any animals,
whereas before they were given every green herb,
they were given every plant that they were allowed to eat,
and then after the ark, they were allowed to eat any animal.
Now, of course, during the Mosaic Law, there was clean and unclean animals, which was lifted.
We see that with the story of Peter in the book of Acts.
But any plant, any animal, we're allowed to eat in our present world.
But they say, well, we couldn't even eat plants.
So they're extreme vegans.
And so they're also obsessive about not killing any bugs or harming any animal whatsoever.
And so in these Jain households, if they are strict to what they follow,
their houses, no matter how many bugs or cockroaches or e-peas or however many animals and flies and spiders,
they will not kill them.
It's wrong to kill them.
And so they've got to protect those animals.
And so what some Jain households will do is do preventative maintenance,
do something to prevent from allowing bugs to enter their house.
But of course, if you've ever lived in an apartment or had a house,
bugs find a way of getting in.
And so of course, nothing wrong with killing those bugs to keep the cleanliness and things such as that.
But they are against that.
So that's point number one, they're extreme vegans.
Point number two, they're against killing or harming any animal whatsoever.
Point three, they have a weird obsession with water.
So point three is water.
So the ones that are the strict monks and nuns, they do not bathe.
They don't take showers.
They do not brush their teeth.
And they do not use toilets.
And the reason why is because they believe that there are organisms in the water
and they do not want to harm the water.
And so they will never take a bath.
They will never brush their teeth.
And they believe toilets use water, which will harm them as you flush.
And also, the waste product will end up causing microorganisms to live and to die.
And it's just too much violence to flush a toilet.
It's too much violence to brush your teeth.
It's too much violence to take a bath.
I mean, you are harming the water according to their teachings.
I mean, these are the most extremists with these.
I mean, you look at all these crazy wacko liberals,
and they're like the most extreme with this sort of stuff.
So point one, extreme vegans.
Point two, they do not kill bugs.
Point three, they're weird obsession with water.
Point four, they have two denominations of Jains.
One is the Digambara.
And those are the ones that I want to highlight.
So they have two denominations.
And one of the denominations is the Digambara.
They have a few weird teachings.
One, because the goal of Jainism, they do not believe in a creator god.
They're actually atheists, so you could just put them under atheism, I guess.
But they're a religion that doesn't believe in a creator god.
But they believe, though, that reincarnation takes place, rebirth takes place.
And so their goal in life is to stop the cycle of rebirth
so their soul can be just kind of at one with everything,
just like in a lot of these Eastern philosophies.
But they believe that women must be reborn as men
before they're actually able to enter into that moksha, that salvation, that nirvana,
before their soul can just be at one and they can stop the cycle of rebirth.
Now, once again, there are two denominations of Jains.
I'm referring to the Digambara.
The other ones do not believe that, but the Digambara,
they believe that women must be reborn as men first.
Not only that, the monks in the Digambara denomination of Jainism,
they do not wear any clothes at all.
And the reason why is because they believe you must remove yourself from all attachments.
Many of these religions coming out of India, they believe attachments are bad and desires are bad.
And by wearing clothing, you are attaching yourself to that clothing.
You must kill off that desire. You've got to kill off that attachment.
And so, I personally watch documentaries on various religions
and I try to educate myself about things just to a loose degree.
And I remember just pulling up something on Jainism and, you know,
they are absolutely correct that the monks do not wear clothes.
And I don't know why they showed this on YouTube,
but they just showed this monk walking around just completely naked wearing no clothes.
And I was like, man, I don't want to see that.
Like, what in the world?
And apparently you get away with it if it's for a religion.
You're allowed to run around naked.
And they showed it on YouTube just completely, just disgusting.
But they literally just don't wear any clothes.
So anyways, obviously that's wrong.
I mean, Adam and Eve.
And look, they intuitively know, they by nature know it's wrong to be naked.
That's what shows these people are actually perverts
because Adam and Eve, they were immediately aware of it.
And kids will reach that age where they know that it's wrong to be basically without clothes.
But they are a bunch of perverts.
The monks, obviously, as they walk around naked with no clothes.
Number one, they're extreme vegans.
Number two, they don't harm any animals at all.
Number three, they've got a weird obsession with water
that they've got to be careful with using too much water
because you don't want to harm the water.
Number four, we talked about the digambara denomination of Jains.
And number five, lastly, they're strict ascetics,
which means basically they devoid themselves from all attachments and everything in life.
Now, the nuns and the monks are the most extreme.
However, there are plenty of Jains that are successful business people in the world.
They're successful in banks and businesses and career.
And many, from what I understand, do well financially.
But they are strict ascetics, basically separating themselves from all worldly attachments.
Now, of course, we're against worldliness as the Bible believe in church here, Verity Baptist.
But what they're separating from are just extreme things that you don't need to.
I do agree in some ways it's good to be a minimalist
in terms of not just being overrun by possessions,
but just this over-obsession that they go is just ridiculous.
And so one of the big things is the Salekhana vow that people take.
And so some Jains, their goal is to end the cycle of rebirth.
So some people take this Salekhana vow.
And what that means is you starve yourself to death.
And so this is something that's come up in the courts in India
because suicide is actually illegal, punishable by being in jail for a year, I think it is.
But many people take this vow, and then they just starve themselves to death.
There was this teen girl just several years ago,
and that was really big on the news whether or not the parents would get in trouble
because she starved herself to death.
And people that follow Jainism will worship these people and say,
this is great that they did that.
So they'll often go months and months without eating and just destroying their bodies.
But the Bible says our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost.
We are meant to actually take care of our bodies and not to destroy them.
And God expects us to, the Bible says, gives us this day our daily bread.
We're supposed to eat every single day.
Now when it comes to the ones that are the monks and the nuns,
they don't work a job at all.
They literally walk around the monks, especially the Digambara denomination,
without any clothes, and they just beg for money.
They're just like this panhandling homeless person who's too lazy to work
and he's a derelict and a loser.
And then people that are other Jains, if they are Jains,
they're expected to actually bring those people in off the streets
and feed them and cook them a meal.
And they do that.
So they'll cook a meal for this naked monk that's sitting on their couch or whatever
and he's too lazy to work.
But what does the Bible say about not working?
The Bible says, for even when we're with you, this we commanded you
that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
So in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 10,
Paul talked about the problem of men that would refuse to work
and he said you're not even supposed to eat if you're not willing to work.
And these Jain monks that are walking around without any clothes,
and they're not the only religion coming out of India
where the leading people are just these lazy derelicts who refuse to work
and somehow they get worshipped by people as being so godly and spiritual.
You know what?
They are lazy derelicts and that Jain monk,
he deserves to starve to death if he refuses to work.
And apparently they have no problem with starving to death
because it's part of the Salekana vow.
But nobody should give them any food if they refuse to work
when they're fully capable of actually working.
I'm not talking about people that have a disability
and have problems working or a lot older,
but I'm talking about someone who's 30 years old and takes his vow,
walks around naked and refuses to work.
I mean, not a chance we would bring him into our house to feed him food.
And so, anyways, their goal is ending the cycle of rebirth.
So I want to just close in Luke 16 and just show you that when people die,
they go to heaven or hell immediately.
It says in Luke 16 verse 22,
And it came to pass that the beggar died,
and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried,
and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment,
and seeeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.
And so you have two people.
Lazarus dies, he goes to heaven,
and then the rich man, he dies and he goes to hell.
And when you die, you're either going to spend forever in heaven or forever in hell.
Those are the only two places you could go.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I thought that Hinduism was a crazy religion.
Well, it's pretty much nothing compared to Jainism.
Jainism is bizarre, it's insane,
and yet there are over four million people worldwide
that are part of this religion of, you know,
basically being careful to take care of water and animals and plants
and are these strict ascetics.
It is a crazy, crazy religion.
And what they need is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We need to remember, the Bible says we were also sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived.
And so if people grow up in this religion, it is a foolish religion.
They're deceived.
And you know what, they just need the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Anyways, thank you and God bless.