Table of Contents
Now days in our TVs, Phones and Computers we see advertisements of Yoga. What is yoga? Can a Christian practice yoga? Is practicing Yoga a sin? Am I not just exercising ONLY? I will answer a few of this question today. Yoga means “union “of your spirit with Brahman a Hindu god in form of worship. You can’t separate it from Hinduism. To connect to God, you need Jesus. With yoga you’re trying to be one with God instead of being the creation. Can we participate in yoga as Christians and focus on Jesus and not so that it has no connection to its pagan gods? No Exodus 20:3 says, “You shall have no other gods before me”.
Is Yoga Good For Christians
But as you know when a man ceases to believe in God, he doesn’t believe in nothing; he believes in anything even Yoga. Now days you are hearing Holy yoga “Christian yoga” whereby a combination of Hindu Yoga is combined with Christian practice. During holy yoga sessions, Christian music is played in the background, and the chanting of names of Hindu deities is changed to the chanting(repetition of words) of Bible verses(Matthew 6:7). All of this is an attempt to use yoga as a Christian worship experience to deepen one’s faith in God.
Connection with God does not come through yogic meditation, concentration, or the disassociation of one’s senses from one’s Self (John 14:6;2Tim 3:16-17). Yoga has been practiced for years in some Catholic, Episcopal, and mainline Protestant churches and even in some evangelical churches. After all, it seems everyone practices and enjoys yoga. Doctors recommend it. Churches offer it. Even children learn it. Remember what the Bible says in Deuteronomy 12:30, “do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.”
Holy yoga makes you feel it’s a“Christian”thing now; where you are going to acquire deep knowledge of the Self in Christ by to clear you minds(manage stress levels) through this exercises but you forget that we are supposed to meditate on the Word of God according to Psalm 119:15-17 “I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. Be good to your servant while I live, that I may obey your word”.
Brethren exercising and stretching is not a problem, but God would not encourage any demonic practices through it Yoga is Hinduism and it must not be practiced. Did Jesus do yoga or did He pray to God? Yoga comes from a pagan lifestyle and is different from Christianity
Romans 12:1-2… Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.
Remember you can’t baptize sin, sin is sin so there is no such thing as Christian yoga it’s just putting a Christian tag on something that’s demonic. Remember the devil knows how to make people do things they don’t like by making “bad” seem so innocent. He packages it as the potential for self-development, self-discernment, self-deification (the idea that we are all God, and God is in all), and self-determination. The Enemy also appeals to our selfish desires. We see this in the Garden of Eden, when Eve saw that the fruit was good food and desired the wisdom the serpent told her it would give her.
So she ate the fruit;but in the end it separated her from God.Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden’? The Enemy also appeals to our selfish desires. We see this in the Garden of Eden, when Eve saw that the fruit was good food and desired the wisdom the serpent told her it would give her. So she ate the fruit.
By doing Yoga you are opening up your body to spiritual attacks, evil influences. So be careful as advised by the bible in:
1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 Corinthians 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
Philippians 4:7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 6:20-21 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, Some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness. May God’s grace be with you all.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Paul states, “Therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (1 Corinthians 8:13). Could Paul’s teaching here apply to yoga, too? Does this make yoga permissible for us as Christians?
Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
The devil today appears as an angel of light. He reshapes evil until it looks good, useful, and harmless. Lastly, The Devil is mass-markets is dangerous toys to even Christians, He is incorporating them into everyday life. Children are adopting these seemingly innocent principles in primary school. These thoughts are folded into exercise routines and big-brand mission statements. It is widely popularized and made to seem inescapable through media.
But we can escape it. And we must. Everything is not what it seems. Bible makes it clear that there is another world – a spirit world – that is at war with us. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). It’s important we don’t give our enemy a foothold, but instead “test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22).
Pastor Nathaniel
