Posted on 09/20/2017 7:06:52 PM PDT by Sontagged
Good question.
“Perhaps, but we must be diligent about our faith to “show ourselves approved”... before God.”
Yes, but this refers to studying the Scriptures.
“We are peculiar because God’s holiness separates us from the ways of the world that lead unto death..”
Yes, but you are assuming things that are not true in this case.
Timothy, and those in the position of Timothy, were to show themselves approved unto God, by turning others, over whom they possessed influence, from the pursuit of vain and unprofitable things. (From Ellicott)
You cannot show yourself approved unto God unless you rightly divide the word of Truth.
Only when you can properly handle the word, can you have discernment about deceptive religious practices such as yoga.
Like I said on another thread, avoid the problem altogether with Pilates.
There is a very large problem with your argument and perhaps you cannot see it.
You are presuming that every use of part of yoga (physical positions) is equivalent to what formerly was used in religious practice.
By this same standard, I suspect you do not eat candy at Halloween, nor dress up, nor carve pumpkins, nor decorate a Christmas tree, nor use the current names of months, nor days, etc.
Discernment should involve the ability to discern what is religious practice and what is simply eating meat because it is just meat. Or exercise because it is just exercise. Or dressing up because it is just a fun way to get candy.
"4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.7 However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.
9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? 11 For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. 12 And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. (I Corinthians 8)
Eating meat sacrificed to idols is not a sin - according to an Apostle, according to the words inspired by God in Scripture. Despite the meat previously being used in pagan ceremonies. It remains just meat.
If you are a weaker brother, you should not eat meat sacrificed to idols - or participate in yoga, nor do anything that causes you to fall. Is this an accurate description of you in regards to the issue of yoga?
I've also occasionally experienced Christians who are just judgemental brothers, who cannot abide by Paul's instructions - nor abide by other Christians who have liberty. That is a whole different issue.
In this case, I don't know which camp you might fall into with your post.
In either case, I certainly wish you the best as you follow Christ and your own conscience.
Um... do you own a yoga studio or something?
I think your studying to show yourself approved should concentrate on errant Hindu beliefs about yoga, not inverting the “weaker brother” argument about meat with me.
Do your homework on the spiritual entities and entreaties involved with yoga and get back to me, instead of picking vain arguments comparing it to Halloween.
You are aware of the “kundalini” infiltration of these types of entities in the modern church, right?
You do believe in an actual devil as Jesus taught, correct?
Former Kundalini Yoga Teacher Turns to Christianity - Part 1/8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzt9n13AfHs
Andrew Strom Kundalini invasion documentary
No, nor am I involved.
I think your studying to show yourself approved should concentrate on errant Hindu beliefs about yoga, not inverting the “weaker brother” argument about meat with me.
I disagree. It should be the study of God's Word. Not Hinduism.
Do your homework on the spiritual entities and entreaties involved with yoga and get back to me, instead of picking vain arguments comparing it to Halloween.
6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
You do believe in an actual devil as Jesus taught, correct?
Yes. I also believe in the Indwelling Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, our sealing until the day of Redemption - and the plain Words of God regarding Christian Liberty.
You aren't by any chance trying to convince us to get circumcised and keep the Law too, are you??
I’ll ignore your snarky false accusation of legalism and recommend more information for you, so you can recognize doctrines of demons when you see it, as we have been warned.
“Every Yoga teacher, in effect, is a Hindu or Buddhist missionary”:
“Watch as I expose the satanic deception behind Yoga. Many think it is a harmless form of stretching and exercise. It is anything but that, Yoga is in fact a form of Hindu worship and it is an open door to demons. Yoga is meant to awaken the Kundalini spirit within the individual, a snake spirit said to be coiled around the base of the spine.
Once awakened through Yoga stretches, it is said to travel up the spine to the brain and open the 3rd eye, or pineal gland of the individual, which is an occult satanic term used to refer to spiritual vision. Yoga stretches are also pulled right out of the Hindu Vedas (scriptures).”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLVC04Nvw-I
Think you can be Christian and do Yoga? PLS LISTEN TO THIS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DZ7oz_fIq8
• If you have a weak conscience and it would make you stumble to benefit from something that had a pagan origin, you should not do it.
"Let each be convinced in his own mind."•If you are an accuser of the brethren, don't do that either. It is evil.
•If you are a Judaizer, don't be that - ever. Legalism is always wrong.
I'll leave you to continue your mission and still wish you the best. You would be far better off studying God's Word than the counterfeits.
Huh? Where did I indicate, much less advocate, some aberrant Christian mode that everyone believes in as I do?
Yoga is Hindu. And spiritually dangerous. To compare Yoga to eating or not eating meat or Halloween is ridiculous.
You cannot recognize a counterfeit dollar bill unless you study the real thing; what in the world are you trying to say here except put up some idiotic Christian defense of yoga.
Weird.
No, sorry. Yoga originated in Hinduism. Hinduism is simply a false religion. Physical yoga is just stretching the body God created and gave you. If this causes you to stumble, do not do it.
To compare Yoga to eating or not eating meat or Halloween is ridiculous.
Hey, believe as you will FRiend. Be convinced in your own mind.
You cannot recognize a counterfeit dollar bill unless you study the real thing;
Then study the Word of God, instead of YouTube videos.
what in the world are you trying to say here except put up some idiotic Christian defense of yoga.
I can't make you see. Assuming you are a believer, you have the Holy Spirit to guide you. He alone can open our eyes to his word.
LOL, you have given me no appropriate scriptures on yoga, which indicate your lack of understanding of the Word, if not a mishandling of it.
And if you believe yoga is just “stretching” then why do you call it “yoga”?
Just call it stretching and get off the thread.
Weird, lackluster sense of Jesus’ warnings against false doctrine/deception you got there.
I still wish you the best.
You mean you “still wish me the best” even though I’ve pulled down your ridiculous arguments advocating Yoga for Christians?
Weird.
I guess I’ll just repost the entire article again:
Yoga led Laurette Willis into a New Age lifestyle. Now she’s warning others of the spiritual pitfalls—and offering an alternative.
The attractive couple on the television screen gracefully moved their bodies into the next yoga pose: arms extended, head tilted slightly back, a deep breath in. In front of the TV set, a seven-year-old girl and her mother did their best to mimic the posture. The little girl, Laurette, loved this special time with her mom.
It was 1965, and Laurette’s mom, Jacquie, didn’t think twice about exercising along with this yoga program that came on the TV after Jack La Lanne. She developed a passion for yoga, and began instructing free classes in her home.
Laurette served as the demonstration model for her mom. The young girl relished the attention—and her family never suspected this seemingly innocent exercise would open the door to a New Age lifestyle that would affect Laurette for the next 22 years.
Now 46, Christian speaker/author Laurette Willis tells everyone she meets about the dangers of yoga. The Oklahoma resident addresses groups across the country, speaking from personal experience and her knowledge as a certified personal trainer and aerobics instructor. She’s developed a prominent presence on the Internet, largely due to her new exercise program, PraiseMoves, which she calls “a Christian alternative to yoga.” She shares her testimony on the website (www.PraiseMoves.com) in a pull-no-punches style, and responds to numerous e-mails—some curious, others critical of her stance on yoga. Additionally, she posts comments on the message boards of other fitness and religion websites. She’s also self-published a book and video about PraiseMoves.
So what caused Laurette to become vocal about yoga?
And is yoga really all that bad?
Her testimony is a bold answer to both questions.
Throughout her childhood, Laurette’s family regularly attended church. “If someone had asked us, we would have said we were Christians,” she says.
“But we never heard the message of salvation at our church.” Lacking knowledge about the Christian faith, Laurette’s mom found herself drawn to New Age practices, and began reading books by Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce (both claimed to have psychic abilities) and taking Laurette to an ashram, a Hindu yoga retreat.
As an adult, Laurette immersed herself in every New Age and metaphysical practice she came across: chanting, crystals, tarot cards, psychics, channeling spirits.
“I tried everything—Kabbalah, Universalism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism —because I was spiritually hungry,” Laurette says.
“I call the New Age movement ‘Burger King’ because it’s like the fast-food restaurant’s motto: ‘Have it your way.’ That’s what the New Age movement tries to do, to achieve God on its terms.”
There was one thing Laurette wasn’t remotely interested in pursuing: Christianity.
“I thought Christians just wanted to give me a bunch of rules and dogma,” she says. “I didn’t know they were speaking about a relationship with Jesus.”
But in Laurette’s quest to find herself, she only found a deepening sense of loneliness. “God will use whatever it takes to bring you to your knees,” she says. “I’d made a mess of my life. I was an alcoholic. I’d been promiscuous. I tried every form of religion, never coming to any knowledge of the truth.”
One day in 1987, a thought popped into Laurette’s head: What if everything I thought about God was completely wrong? Two days later, she fell to her knees. “I didn’t know anything about the Bible or Jesus. I just cried out to God from the depths of my soul, ‘I give up! You win! If you can do something with my life, you can have it.’ “As Laurette asked God to take control of her life, she felt a physical weight lift from her body.
“I learned much later that the weight was sin,” she says. “I hadn’t realized sin was real. New Agers think the word ‘sin’ is an acronym for ‘self-inflicted nonsense.’ That’s the deception of the Enemy, because if there’s no sin, then you don’t need a Savior.”
She remembers the change at the moment she accepted Christ: “I felt peace descend upon me for the first time in my life.”
After giving her life to God, Laurette began devouring the Bible. She burned her New Age books and disengaged from everything associated with her turbulent past—including yoga.
For years, Laurette never gave yoga a second thought. But in 2001, an idea popped into her head: What if there was an alternative to yoga that provided exercise while spiritually moving Christians to praise the Lord? She spent a good deal of time in prayer, wanting to be certain this idea was God’s will.
After two years of planning, Laurette self-published a PraiseMoves book and video in 2003. She began certifying PraiseMoves instructors across the country last fall.
The PraiseMoves program utilizes gentle stretches that correlate with Scripture verses. There’s “The Eagle” stretch, where the arms are pulled back to resemble a bird in flight. While students hold this stretch, Laurette reads Isaiah 40:31: “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles” (NKJV). Other stretches include “The Angel” (Psalm 91:11), “The Rainbow” (Genesis 9:16), and “The Altar” (Romans 12:1). At each session’s end, students are asked to prayerfully consider a verse from the Bible, or to spend some quiet time expressing gratitude to God.
The Problem with Yoga
Laurette wanted PraiseMoves to provide all the physical benefits for which yoga is often touted: improved flexibility, weight loss, reduced stress, and improved circulation, to name a few. But she wanted the similarities to end there.
The goal of all yoga, Laurette explains, is to obtain oneness with the universe. That’s also known as the process of enlightenment, or union with Brahman (Hinduism’s highest god). The word “yoga” means “union” or “to yoke.”
“Yoga wants to get students to the point of complete numbness in their minds. God, on the other hand, wants you to be transformed by the renewing of your mind through his Word,” Laurette says.
Before she became a Christian, Laurette used subliminal tapes to train her mind to empty itself. These tapes are often used in yoga classes, she says. She also taught yoga classes and instructed her students in astral projection, or “stepping outside” of the body, which Laurette says poses a serious spiritual danger.
“If there’s nothing in your mind, you’re open to all kinds of deception. After coming to Christ, I wondered who—or what—came into my body when I ‘stepped out.’ While I don’t believe Christians can become possessed, I do believe we can become oppressed by demonic spirits of fear, depression, lust, false religion, etc. These are all things designed to draw us away from Jesus Christ.”
But what about hatha yoga, the less overtly spiritual form of yoga taught at most gyms? Even in this format, Laurette says there are commonly used words and poses antithetical to God’s Word. For example, the word “namaste,” often said at the close of yoga classes, means, “I bow to the god within you.” The sound “om,” chanted in many yoga classes, is meant to bring students into a trance so they can join with the universal mind. And the “salute to the sun” posture, used at the beginning of most classes, pays homage to the Hindu sun god. Laurette believes it’s impossible to extract Hindu spiritualism from yoga—and she’s gotten a bit of confirmation on this from an unlikely source:
“I received an e-mail from a staff member of the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy in New Jersey. The staff member wrote, ‘Yes, all of yoga is Hinduism. Everyone should be aware of this fact.’ This staff member included that she didn’t appreciate my ‘running down the great Hindu/Yogic religion,’” Laurette says.
Her statements about yoga have also drawn criticism from some Christians. Some accuse Laurette of being judgmental. Others say her fears about yoga are irrational. She’s quick to tell critics PraiseMoves isn’t for everybody, but she doesn’t back down from her stance on yoga. When she speaks with Christians who practice yoga, she encourages them to pay close attention to any hesitation they feel—and then to check out the facts for themselves.
Numerous Christian women have told Laurette they decided to quit yoga after learning about its Hindu roots. It’s a hard decision for those who’ve invested many years and many dollars into the practice.
Laurette says, “I tell people that if their reasoning is, ‘But I’ve already paid for these yoga classes,’ or ‘But I just bought these cool yoga pants and a yoga DVD,’ to ask themselves: Am I willing to give these things up to know the truth?”
Subscribe to TCW’s free email newsletter at this link for weekly updates and chances to win free books and music downloads.
Holly Vicente Robaina, a TCW regular contributor, lives in California. Laurette’s new book, BASIC Steps to Godly Fitness, will be published by Harvest House this April.
Proceed with Caution
There’s a new practice popping up at churches and fitness clubs around the country. Dubbed “Christian yoga” or “yoga for Christians,” these programs supposedly offer the physical benefits of yoga along with Christian spirituality.
But is it really possible for yoga to be transformed into a practice for Christians?
Doug Groothuis, author of Confronting the New Age and a professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary, says proponents of “Christian yoga” are misled—and are misleading others.
“’Christian yoga’ is an oxymoron. Yoga is rooted in Hinduism and cannot be separated from it,” he says. “There’s nothing wrong with stretching and calming down one’s breathing. But yoga isn’t really about that; it’s aimed at transforming human consciousness to experience the Hindu god, which is a false god.”
TCW found several “Christian yoga” instructors who are affiliated with secular yoga organizations that have a Hindu or New Age bent.
When investigating a Christian yoga class, be on the lookout for: Sanskrit language. Many words commonly used in yoga pay homage to Hindu deities.
Metaphysical jargon. Phrases such as “breathing in positive energy and breathing out negative energy,” “focusing on the third eye,” and “getting in touch with the divinity within you” have New Age implications. Projection.
Beware being told to empty your mind or to step outside your body.
Feelings of discomfort. Pay attention to those feelings. Even if you can’t pinpoint why you’re uncomfortable, this may be the Holy Spirit’s way of letting you know the class isn’t for you.
It’s my understanding that the different positions of yoga are different prayer positions for the different deities and that by assuming those positions, you are indicating to those demons an openness to their influence in your life.
If Halloween were only about getting dressed up in a cute costume one night a year and going around asking for candy, I might agree with you.
But the *holiday* has become more and more vile and evil by the year.
Have you taken a good look at the kinds of *decorations* that are being put up these days? The gruesome, displays depicting rotting corpses etc?
Halloween may make all the ghosts and witches seem like fun and games, but the supernatural is NOTHING to joke about.
I *HATE* Halloween with a passion. I cannot wait until it’s over, but now, we’re in for a good two months of advertising and disgusting displays of evil.
And I do not think yoga is harmless either and that is because of the prayer positions involved.
“You mean you “still wish me the best” even though I’ve pulled down your ridiculous arguments”
No. I wish you the best after determining you were likely not a weaker brother in Christ, based on the words in your posts.
That leaves two choices based on your posts - critical Christian or Judaizer.
I cannot help you with either of these, but God can use His Scripture to open your eyes.
So I wish you the best.
“But the *holiday* has become more and more vile and evil by the year.”
Collecting candy and dressing as a fireman remains morally neutral.
“And I do not think yoga is harmless either and that is because of the prayer positions involved.
For the believer, there is only thoughts and words directed to God that can occur in any physical position.
Best
You are one step ahead of me; I actually only just understood that in the last few days.
GBU
LOL; critical Christian? Or Judaizer?
How about someone who exercises discernment of spirits?
Or adheres to John’s admonishment to “test the spirits, my beloved, for the spirit of anti-Christ is already in the world”?
But enough about me, let’s get back to you. What will it be -”Yoga” or “stretching”?
Agreeing with you about Halloween.
Especially lately when the Lord has revealed so many actual Satanists/Luciferians/witches/pagans (whatever they call themselves) who consider Halloween a high holiday.
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