Saul refused to allow the uncircumcised Philistines to kill him after he was mortally wounded by them. 1 Sam. 31:1-4.
Why did he not allow uncircumcised people to slay him? Because they were spiritually unclean, and the unclean killing him meant that he was surely condemned and disgraced (as he thought). Isa. 52:1; Acts. 7:51.
Thus king Saul opted to have his bodyguard or shield bearer, an Israelite, kill him. 1 Sam. 31:4.
When he refused, Saul killed himself, this meant that he sought to die in honour, this is religious suicide, because religious values determined his death. 1 Sam. 31:4-6.
Religious suicide always follow a presumptious (false) religious attitude, the attitude of some form of salvation from God if one were to take one’s life, or at least risk it due to confirming in one’s mind his calling from God, or his duty to God, sometimes to atone for his sins.
Hinduism teaches religious suicide. Observe the queenmothers of Rama’s family kills themselves to go to the world where their dead husbands were, this is suicide due to religious teachings.
“Whatever boons the queen-mothers named the all-gracious Rama granted. Then, with their minds thoroughly cleansed with them and with profound reverence, the queen-mothers consumed their bodies in the sacrificial fire. Having consumed their bodies in the sacrificial fire they all went to the world of their husband.” Tulasidasa Ramayana, pg. 678.
Here is the same religious teaching as expressed by the so called goddess Sita.
“Then exhorting them, Sita said, “set hanuman and Jambaran free forthwith, my sons you have brought disgrace to your house by striking Shatrughna, Lakshmana, Bharata and Rama unconscious on the battlefield. Providence has inflicted widowhood on me, so now abandon all grief and build the funeral pyre of sandalwood and incense so that I may immolate myself with my husband.” Ibid, pg. 704.
Even the Hindu rite of Sati is religious suicide commanded by the Hindu Scriptures, and for religious reasons.
“A woman who has been chaste and faithful to her husband should mount on the pyre after bowing to her (deceased) husband before the funeral rites start, One who gets away from the pyre due to fainting should observe the vow named prajapatya. One who ascends the pyre and follows up her husband stays in heaven for a period equal to the number of hair on the body, three and a half crore. Just as the snake-charmer takes out the snake from the hole so also she takes out her husband from hell and enjoys with him in paradise. She who ascends the pyre goes to heaven. She is praised by the celestial nymphs and enjoys with her husband so long as the fourteen Indras rule in heaven successively. Even if the man has killed a Brahmana or a friend or any other person of noble conduct he is purified of sins by his wife who ascends his pyre. A woman who enters fire after the death of her husband prospers in the heaven like Arundhati. Until and unless the woman burns herself after her husband’s death she is never released from the bound of her sex. A woman who follows her husband purifies the three families on her mother’s side, the three families on her father’s side and the three families on her husband’s side. That woman who is chaste, who is sad when her husband is sad, who is glad when her husband is glad and who pines when he is out of station and dies when he is dead.” The Garuda Purana, Part 11, pg. 743.
“A woman who burns herself to death on her husband’s funeral pyre makes atonement for all the sins that her husband’s may have committed.” The Garuda Purana, Part 11, pg. 33.
Religious suicide is seen in Hinduism as an atonement for certain grave sins.
“Prayashchitta is to make atonement for one’s sins. The worst sin of all is to kill a brahmana. A sinner who does this should make a hut of dry grass and leaves and live in it for twelve years. Or he may fast himself to death or commit suicide by jumping off a cliff. Immolating oneself or drowning oneself are also acceptable forms of penance.” Ibid, pg. 33.
“Learn properly the particular vows by which all of these guilts just described are individually expunged. A priest killer… may, by his own wish, make himself the target for knowledgeable armed men; or throw himself three times head first, into a blazing fire.” The Law of Manu, pg. 258.
More acts of religious suicide taught in Hinduism.
“Or he [the priest] should set out in a north-easterly direction and walk straight forward, diligently engaged in eating nothing but water and air until his body collapses. A priest who has abandoned his body by any one of those practices [“...drowning oneself, jumping off a cliff, burning oneself to death, and starving to death…”] of the great sages, without sorrow or fear, is exalted in the world of ultimate reality.” Ibid, pg. 120.
Even the Jonestown suicide with Jim Jones and the People’s Temple church was a religious suicide.
“The Jonestown event displayed aspects of all four types of religious suicide that have appeared in the history of religions. First, mass suicide was a ritual that was reenacted in suicide rehearsals in order to reinforce the purity of the community in relation to the defilement represented by the outside world… Second, mass suicide promised release from a world of misery, suffering, and pain. Jones often declared his weariness with the world… Third, collective suicide was imagined as an act of revenge against the United States government, news media, and traitors to the movement, who, Jones insisted, had provoked their final suicidal act… Finally, collective suicide was performed as an act of revolution in the face of what the Temple regarded as the dehumanizing sub-classification of American society,… ‘We committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhuman world’.” Ibid, 137,138.
When Satan tried to deceive Jesus into practicing religious suicide, He rejected it as temptation. Matt. 4:5-7.
a. “If thou be the Son of God…” Doubt leading not to Faith, but to religious presumption concerning self endangerment encouraged. Matt. 4:5.
b. “… cast thyself down…” Presumption concerning self endangerment. Matt. 4:5.
c. The scripture used to push Christ into presumption. Matt. 4:6.
But the real context of the text Satan quoted shows the condition for protection from self endangerment is obedience to God’s Law. Ps. 91:9-14.
The commandment that is against murder refers even to suicide; thus those who kill themselves with religious presumption dies in an act of transgression causing them to be forever lost. Ex. 20:13.
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