The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Christian Yoga

On the Beth Moore thread, I went into Carla's blog and found an interesting quote:

As I read that, though I recognize the subtle danger of this unbiblical practice, I also recognize that many Christians would probably look at that quote and think it was a good thing, not something to be warned against.
They might not like the connotation of yogic postures, but they would not see a need to throw out the baby with the bath water.

In light of that, how would you try to steer a loved one away from this practice and show them what the Bible says?

This smacks of Eastern Mysticism, a kindred spirit to Richard Foster, for example....

Find where this runs contrary to Scripture and show it to them. That SHOULD be all that is necessary.

Please give examples.

Tom

Examples that Eastern Mysticism is forbidden in the Bible? Check out some of the pieces on the internet against Richard Foster, such as those by Gary Gilley. I am sure there are others but I have read those of Pastor Gilley....

Sorry if I wasn't clear, what I was referring to is a lot of Christians would not see the link between Eastern Mysticism and the quote I provided. They would associate it instead to something like the biblical commandment to meditate (as in Psalm 1). Of course Psalm one in context is not talking about what the quote is talking about. But that isn't as easy to see when people are under false teaching. I know because I have been dupped by false teaching myself before.
Undescerning people have a tendancy to hear people like Beth Moore and not realize that they are being duped, because what they are hearing sounds so right.

Tom

Tom:

First I would give them a history of yoga. What its original purpose, who practiced it etc. . .

Second I would point out to the person what is biblical meditation versus eastern meditation. This is going to require some research on your part. Then compare what these CY practitioners say for meditation and see how closely it matches to eastern meditation practices.

Lastly there is no easy answers to this any more your going to have to combat both post modernism as well as poor theology. So your going to have to do the research.

Thanks for the advice, I think I like how you said to go about this.
I have been researching this and have asked a few friends for help in this endeavor.
At this point however, I am not really sure where all this is going to take me. I do know however, that if I do talk/e-mail to people about this matter. I am going to try to do it as humbly, prayerfully and with out sounding like an alarmist as possible.
There are a lot of very popular pastors and Christian leaders involved in things like this and I know from experience that if it is perceived that someone is ripping apart one of their favorites, they will not even listen or read it.
I once got a huge rebuke by trying to show someone just how heretical Benny Hinn was. It was not a pleasant situation and if I got a rebuke for saying the truth about someone who is obviously a heretic. I can only imagine what will happen if I try to show the truth about many of the popular Christians speakers.

Tom

It seems to me that this is just part of a great issue within the church. All anyone was to do is slap bible verses on it or us christian words and something that was five minutes before amoral at best now becomes moral and even an expression of godly behavior. Pop psch is turned chritian with verses so ripped from their context as to bear to resemblance to their real meaning. My 'favorite' example of this is The five love languages. If you read you'll find less than five verses in the whole thing yet I found myself involved in a 'bible study' were we used this book... yikes... The sad thing is that most christians have no problem with this.

I do not mean to hijake you thread and perhaps what needs to be addressed most os the lack of sound teaching in most chruches.

I have personally done several of Beth Moore's studies and found them to be weak and filled with more stories than actually theology. The point of bible study is to feel good about ourselves and what God gives us right?????!!!!

No such thing as "christian" yoga - its just plain Hinduism! No true christian should touch it!

English Rose

You are of course absolutely correct about this, I hope you haven't been given the idea from this thread that there is such a thing.

Tom

As a relative beginner at all of this, I'm hardly qualified in these areas, obviously, but I have caught this lady's programming late at night on occassion and I was very uncomfortable with it. She reminded me of a motivational speaker that was fixated on using God for income generation during the episodes I watched. Very bold, aggressive mentality.

This is honestly one of the principles that's become so mainstream now that sort of led me into some comfort with the Calvinist mindset. The further along we keep moving in society the more I keep feeling compelled to reach back in time from the standpoint of the faith and where it once was. I've got a lot of research to do yet, obviously, but for an amateur like myself that's a big part of the thought process.

And no, I'm not accusing the folks here of owning black and white TV's~.