Jainism Christianity and Science

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: The Indian Press Allahabad

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JAINISM, CHRISTIANITY & SCIENCE
The 'race of Gods' is, in truth, the race of Men who have attained to Divinity and Godhood. Clement, too, refers to angels and Gods as witnesses to the efforts of the spiritual athlete who tries to overpower the soul's deadly enemy, viz., passion.-A.N.C.L. vol. xii. pp. 419420.
It may be mentioned that the twenty-four Tirthamkaras also figure in Judaism, and in several other religions. Some of them have been mentioned by name even in Hindu Scriptures. All this is given in my book entitled 'Rişabha Deva,' the Founder of Jainism, and is omitted here as we are only concerned with Christian correspondences.
St. Paul says, “For if the dead rise not, then is Christ not risen " (1 Cor. xv. 16), that is to say, he 'bases the conclusion about the resurrection of Christ on the fact that dead men rise: men rise, therefore, is Christ also risen! He does not say because Christ has risen,' therefore, men shall rise.
As regards the point that men in the past have attained to Nervana, the testimony of the early Christian fathers is as follows:
“But if my opponents say, Christ was sent by God for this end, that be might deliver unbappy souls from ruin and destruction, of what orime were the former ages guilty which were cut off in their mortal state before he came? Can you, then, know what bas become of these souls of men who lived long ago... Can you, I say, know ... when souls were first bound to bodies . . . whither the souls of men who lived before us have gone ...? Lay aside these cares, and abandon questions to which you can find no answer. The Lord's compassion has been shown to them, too, and the divine kindness has been extended to all alike; they have been preserved, have been delivered, and have laid aside the lot and condition of mortality. ... If you were free from presumption, arrogance, and conceit, you migbt