Christian Yoga – False Teaching
CNN INTERVIEWS: PASTOR JOHN MACARTHUR VS EMERGENT CHURCH (HERESY) PASTOR DOUG PAGITT RE: CHRISTIAN YOGA
Video: Christians & Yoga – John MacArthur vs False Teacher Doug Pagitt – CNN Interview
Christian Yoga False Teaching – takes a brief look at the False Teachings of Yoga. Is Christian Yoga Biblical?
YOGA DESCRIPTION – “A Hindu Theistic Philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of: Body, Mind, and Will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation.” It’s Exercises (Physical, Mental or Spiritual) based on Eastern metaphysical assumptions designed to aid in enlightenment or self-realization. Goals sometimes include altered states of consciousness or uniting the practitioner with the impersonal pantheistic God. Types of Yoga include: Karma Yoga (spiritual union through correct conduct), Bhakti Yoga (spiritual union through devotion to a Guru), Juana Yoga (spiritual union through hidden knowledge), Raja Yoga (spiritual union through mental control), Hatha Yoga (spiritual union through body control/meditation), Kundalini Yoga (spiritual union through focusing inner energy) and Tantra Yoga (spiritual union through sexual practices). Yoga philosophy is based on the concept of reincarnation and is drawn from the Upanishads & other Hindu scriptures. (Sources: wfial.org) / MORE ON YOGA & ALSO CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER
“Christian” Yoga – False Teaching
As a Christian, would you…
1) Worship the Sun?
2) Practice various ritual genuflects to Idols?
3) Seek to have your spirit leave your body in an attempt to gain Mystical Knowledge?
4) Arouse the “Serpent Power” at the base of your spine to allow a new spirit to enter your Brain?
5) Merge with a Demon to find your “god in us?”
6) Writhe on the floor helpless in fear, uncontrollable laughing or weeping, intervals of ecstasy, tremors, spasms, and violent shaking?
7) Dabble in the Occult in seeking unearthly power?
8) Believe that you are God and all is God?
“No way!” you’d easily exclaim. And yet, those are the very things one does when participating in the eastern occultic practice of Yoga.
Yoga is Hinduism
Now, I know what you might be thinking. “Occult? Oh, come on now! Aren’t we overreacting just a little bit? Yoga is just exercise.”
But, did you know that Yoga is one of the essential religious practices of Hinduism? As Subhas Tiwari, a professor of yoga philosophy and mediation at the Hindu University of America in Orlando, Florida stated in the September 5, 2005 issue of Time Magazine —”Yoga is Hinduism.”>
Hinduism is monotheistic, sort of. It recognizes one supreme deity known as Brahman, or “ultimate reality.” Brahman is the universe and all it contains. Essentially, god is everything, and everything is god, a belief that is known as pantheism. To take the concept further, if everything is god, then that would include you and me. Unlike Christianity, Hinduism has no concept of a personal and knowable God, who is separate from His creation. To a Hindu, Brahman is simply all that exists.
Hinduism also has a polytheistic side. It includes aspects of worship of multiple deities that are all considered manifestations of the one “ultimate reality.” In addition to the major incarnations of Brahman, forces of nature, animals, and humans can all be deified, giving Hindus a pantheon of 330 million gods and goddesses to worship.
And, in fact, Yoga is the major missionary arm of Hinduism and the New Age movement in North America.
“Christian” Yoga?
There are a surprising number of Hindu influences in our North American culture. Many of these go unchecked or even unnoticed by the Christian Church. Yoga for one has really caught on in the Christian community and many church calendars have become filled with Yoga classes. The spiritual effects, though, have been detrimental.
Christians will often say about Yoga,”Well, I don’t practice the spiritual part of Yoga, I just do it for the exercise. It’s the same as the Apostle Paul saying it’s OK to eat food sacrificed to idols”(1 Cor 8).
But, how many people who know of the New Age indoctrinations behind Yoga are standing outside watching Christians practicing it? What by our example are we telling the world?
- In 1 Cor 8:9-11, Paul warns, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.”
Not only does the Christian ruin the testimony of Christ to others, but as—
- 1 Cor 8:12 states, “When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.”
The Christian Response
What should we do with Yoga, then?
- 1 Cor 8:13 concludes, “Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.”
Yoga is not worth the workout if it puts your walk with Jesus in peril and ruins the chances of someone coming to Christ. Because there is a proliferation of false teachers promoting false doctrines indicating we’re living in the end times, Jesus is about to fulfill His promise to return (Matt 24:24; Mark 13:22). May He not arrive and find us stretching to a “sun salutation” in a Yoga class.
“CHRISTIAN YOGA – FALSE TEACHING”
Copyright © By NATHAN E. JONES / LAMB & LION MINISTRIES – 9/23/2009
(This is Not the actual Title of Nathan’s Article – As there was no title— so we put this Title above)