Yoga is Dangerous to Christianity

Debates are healthy! We should be putting any practice to the test with our scripture. It’s important to discuss dangerous practices for even if someone disagrees it plants a seed so that they may understand where they went wrong in the future

I think it is fair and accurate to say that yoga originated from India and Hinduism. There are some yoga studios that have their own atmostphere going on (with Buddha statues, murals of Hindu gods, insense, LGBT flags, etc.) that make the yoga class more spiritual. There are other yoga classes that are without these aspects and more fitness related sometimes with dumbells, top 40 music, etc. Personally in the later classes I do not feel like I'm worshipping another god. But if someone is really uncomfortable because of its orgins they should not go through with it. My church actually offers free yoga weekly.

Yeah, debates on here aren't friendly. I've witnessed some of the same people arguing the same topics for years, with neither budging.
Not disagreeing with you, just giving you a heads up on what to expect from someone that's been here 9 years.

Even if you treat it as a physical practice and ignore the spiritual aspect, the question is not how do we see it, but how does God see it? Do you think the Heavenly Father looks down at Christians or anybody for that matter honoring and imitating Shiva with our bodies as part of a spiritual system that is meant to align our bodies with Brahmin? Just because we ignore the history, doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit choses to ignore it with us. For example when an unbeliever or someone who has unrepented sin takes communion, the Bible says in first in 1 Corinthians 11:29 that a person eats and drinks judgement onto themselves for not discerning the body of the Lord. Because they ignore the spiritual significance of eating bread and drinking wine they reap the spiritual consequences. For a person to ignore the significance of yoga and say they just use it to stretch is arguably the same as a Hindu taking communion just because they want to ignoring the purpose. People in the Bible never try to justify a pagan practice because they scrap them all together. If God didn’t want them practicing pagan worship in 1 Corinthians 10 then i assume he wouldn’t want us practicing them now. Instead we should get our stretches from a personal trainer, a chiropractor, or a physical therapist. All that can easily be found on YouTube. It’s our duty to make sure we are being imitators of God alone in our bodies. The yoga posture Warrior 1, 2 and 3 is intended to mimic Shiva cutting off the head of Daksha and putting it on a steak. I didn’t know that until after I was in psychosis and curious about why Yoga made me have an ego death after I was done practicing in my back yard. Yoga is not something Christians should be practicing, or anyone else.

There is the aspect as to whether or not the Evil spirits behind the practice leave you alone if you do not acknowledge their presence in the practice. We have the tendency in our culture to think that if we believe it, it is so and if we do not believe it, it is not so. People think that if they do not believe in God, He is not there. So it is easy to think that if they do not believe in any demonic influence in yoga, then the demons will not recognize the positions that bind the one Performing to the spiritual forces behind the pose. It is for this reason, I believe, that Paul warned Christians not to participate in demonic practices even though they have authority over the demonic. If we present our bodies to that which has Evil authority, we give permission for them to have Authority over us in some area. Ignorance by accident or design does not mean the spiritual world changes itself according to what we believe.

Stretching my body meditating on the word of God is so good for my faith. Listening to Christian music as I seek to open up the tight fibers in my hip flexors, and core muscles quiets my mind towards Him.

I agree it best to avoid the third eye stuff, and it can be a very self-centered practice. I def believe it should be practiced unto Him. He tells us to do and say all things in the name of our Lord and Savior.

I do not agree though that stretching our bodies, while meditating on Him is bad. I think we should treat our bodies as temples, caring for them can allow us to better serve him.

Lord, if I am wrong please reveal yourself in this matter. Lord let the words of my lips and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you. I only want to honor you. View attachment 218553

Like i said above, there is nothing wrong with stretching your body they way a chiropractor or a physical therapist would recommend. However, combining yoga and Christ reminds me of the sect in the New Age movement of being a “Christian” Witch. You simply can’t combine the occult with Christ. You can’t move your body in ways that were originally meant to worship Hindu deity’s for Christ. That’s like Hindu taking communion for Shiva. Corinthians 11:29 states that a person eats and drinks judgement onto themselves for not discerning the body of the Lord. Your body is a temple for the Lord to dwell him. Use your appendages in a way that only works for him my dear sister in Christ ❤️

Good thread, thanks for posting. Look up yoga, Hinduism, the history, practices, gods, beliefs, etcetera. Look at what they themselves they themselves say. There are many who are offended that Americans and others have tried to take the Hindu roots and beliefs out of yoga. You can’t truly separate the practice from the beliefs they’re rooted in. A nonbeliever could technically come into any church and without believing eat and drink the bread and wine/juice because they’re hungry or thirsty. However, they’re usually asked not to participate unless they are a believer. At the very least it would not be respectful to do so, but at most God wouldn’t like it either. The Bible says not to eat or drink the body or blood unworthily or you eat and drink judgment on yourself (see 1 Corinthians 11:27). The same would apply to saying you are only “stretching” when those stretches are ones that worship other gods in that religion and culture and those that practice it know this as well as God.

“… do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I will also do likewise.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods… Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it” (see Deuteronomy 12:29-32).

There are tons of ways to exercise your body and stretch that do not involve yoga or meditation which are eastern religious practices whether the person participating believes so or not. Reality doesn’t change based on opinions like believing or not believing in God doesn’t change the fact that He exists. We’re not to be “unequally yoked with unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 6:14) and if we participate in their customs then by doing so we do get lumped up with them and therefore are liable to be judged and punished as well.

There are testimonies of various people who have come out of New Age practices that originally didn’t believe in the occult until they got possessed etcetera. If you look up “kundalini warning,” “kundalini spirits,” or “the dark side of kundalini” you get some interesting results. There are testimonies that to a Christian automatically should bring up red flags for possession, but they’re told their experiences are normal and are of “past lives” or things that they have to get “used to” as their brain “adapts” to their “third eye” being opened and such. But they themselves admit to experiencing bouts of rage, depression, loss of self-control, loss of consciousness, fits of psychosis, uncontrolled body movements etcetera. And it’s not even when they’re practicing it, but randomly throughout their day which has even caused some of them to lose their job.

So why do so many not experience these things? I think through the Holy Spirit by the grace and mercy of God. It’s like playing with Ouija boards. Some people have bad experiences and some don’t. When my dad was young, his friend got thrown across the room playing it. Yet I had a teacher who didn’t see anything supernatural happen the time she used it. People claim they can use astral projection and travel out of their bodies, yet it never worked for my dad when he tried it (or myself for that matter when I was little and tried it). I didn’t know any better at the time, but I’m glad it didn’t work for either of us.

Anyway, I think if you play with fire you’re liable to get burnt. Not everybody does, but it’s definitely more of a possibility and NOT recommended. The more often you do it, the more likely you’ll get burnt but some people get burnt the first time. Why take a chance when you have so many other options? God told the Israelites not to adopt the customs of other nations in serving Him and the same would apply today. He said “And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them” (Leviticus 20:23).

We (who think yoga is not a good practice) are not here to judge our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, but to warn and exhort in love like the Bible says. God is our judge and in the end we will all individually stand before Him. We should worship Him in ways that please Him. What possible justification could satisfy God for a person to willingly participate in a custom that people use to worship other gods? “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).