Christian Yoga? It's a Stretch...(Is Yoga Demonic? Yes, it is.)

[Muwahid]

I didn't know the Bible bans all secular practices...

They're not secular, they're rooted in paganism.

Like Halloween is demonic, yet it's taken to be secular cuz its a nice money maker for candy companies. Will I celebrate it because it's a convenient holiday? no.

 

[wannaberocker]

Birthdays (celebrations) have ungodly origins, do Christians recognize that and not celebrate them?

when the wise men came to celebrate the birth of Jesus were they wrong? Or the shepherds who celebrated the birth of Jesus, were they wrong?

no where in the gospels is the celebration of the Saviors birth discouraged.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

This should explain it
"Instead, feel free in Christian liberty to stretch however you’d like, participate in exercise, calm your nerves through breathing, and even contemplate the Scriptures in silence. But do so in a way that does not identify with yoga and non-Christian mysticism. Do not seek to negate your mind, but rather renew your mind with the Word of God. Do not seek to empty yourself, but rather be filled with the Holy Spirit. Do not seek to turn into yourself for enlightenment, but rather look out to the God of the Bible. Do not seek to become one with the universe, but rather be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. "

That doesn't explain anything. Saying that yoga is "non-Christian mysticism" doesn't make it so. Check out the Yoga X DVD in the P90X program. You'll see what I mean.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

when the wise men came to celebrate the birth of Jesus birth were they wrong? Or the shepherds who celebrated the birth of Jesus wrong?

no where in the gospels is the celebration of the Saviors birth discouraged.

Traditionally, Christians do not celebrate Christmas or any birthdays. (Normally days of death and/or martyrdom are celebrated) This is a relatively new phenomenon.

 

[Simple]

Just doing a review and the Yamas are pretty damn close to the 10 Commandments.

Ahimsa -- Non-violence. 6th Commandment
Satya -- Truthfulness. 9th Commandment
Asteya -- Non-stealing. 8th Commandment
Brahmacarya -- Sexual responsibility. 7th Commandment
Aparigraha -- Abstention from greed. 10th Commandment

I'm pretty sure all these principles called Niyamas are shared with Christianity too. I cited a few verses.

Sauca -- Cleanliness. Not only external cleanliness of the body, but attending to internal cleanliness such as avoiding the impurities of anger and egoism.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Santosa -- Contentment. Not spiritual complacency, but acceptance of the external situation we are allotted in this life.
10th Commandment
Tapas -- Austerity. Deep commitment to our practice.
James 4:7
Svadhyaya -- Self-study. Spiritual self-education. Contemplation and application of the scriptures or sacred texts of our chosen path.
Isvara pranidhana -- Surrender of the self to God. Acknowledgement that there is a higher principle in the universe than one's own small self.

Ok good for you. You are master of your own life.

yet, you cannot back your stance on Christianity without making Jesus out to be a liar. So if ya believe in a brand of Christianity where Jesus lied, then I have to wonder is it even Christianity to begin with?

Yes I can and I believe I just did. Booya

 

[dannno]

Ok good for you. You are master of your own life.

yet, you cannot back your stance on Christianity without making Jesus out to be a liar. So if ya believe in a brand of Christianity where Jesus lied, then I have to wonder is it even Christianity to begin with?

Why does Jesus have to be a liar? We have a book that is 2,000 years old, it wasn't written until decades after he died and was controlled by what were posing as religious but were actually political structures for over a dozen centuries.

Jesus could have been like, "Yo bros, I'm the love and the light! You cannot have eternal happiness without me." and some how, some king, ruler or magistrate was all like, "dude, we could change this around a little bit and make this Jesus guy sound like he is the ultimate authority, then we can claim that ultimate authority and use it to control the peasants!"

Maybe Jesus was all about people accepting love into their hearts and there was a mistranslation or something somewhere and suddenly it became all about him rather than his ideas.

 

[eduardo89]

They're not secular, they're rooted in paganism.

Like Halloween is demonic, yet it's taken to be secular cuz its a nice money maker for candy companies. Will I celebrate it because it's a convenient holiday? no.

As long as a birthday is simply a celebration of one's birth and not an idolatrous occasion that robs God of his glory, then there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Muwahid]

when the wise men came to celebrate the birth of Jesus were they wrong? Or the shepherds who celebrated the birth of Jesus, were they wrong?

no where in the gospels is the celebration of the Saviors birth discouraged.

That's not the kind of birthday I mean, the birthdays of today are eerily similar to the birthdays frowned on and marred with tragedy in the bible, in fact if you want to use the bible as reference birthdays are pagan. Here's Genisis:

20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.

Only references to these types of celebrations are referring to polytheists, and today, they're celebrated. You'll find a lot of practices are rooted in satanism, polytheism, and simply other religions.

 

[eduardo89]

Traditionally, Christians do not celebrate Christmas or any birthdays. (Normally days of death and/or martyrdom are celebrated) This is a relatively new phenomenon.

Birthdays have been celebrated by Christians since the early middle ages, but before that and still many people celebrate their Saint's day.

 

[eduardo89]

That's not the kind of birthday I mean, the birthdays of today are eerily similar to the birthdays frowned on and marred with tragedy in the bible, in fact if you want to use the bible as reference birthdays are pagan. Here's Genisis:

Only references to these types of celebrations are referring to polytheists, and today, they're celebrated. You'll find a lot of practices are rooted in satanism, polytheism, and simply other religions.

God probably frowned on them because they did not merely celebrate the day of someone's birth, they became idolatrous feasts.

 

[Muwahid]

As long as a birthday is simply a celebration of one's birth and not an idolatrous occasion that robs God of his glory, then there shouldn't be a problem.

But what if yoga is just stretching? That's the point I'm trying to make.

for the record i don't celebrate birthdays for the reason I'm citing so I'm not attacking the point of the OP. I'm just wondering about consistency of this rationale.

 

[wannaberocker]

Traditionally, Christians do not celebrate Christmas or any birthdays. (Normally days of death and/or martyrdom are celebrated) This is a relatively new phenomenon.

how can it be a new phenomenon when the Angel tells Mary to rejoice, when she became pregnant. The same with the wise men. The same way the Angel tells the Shepherds to rejoice when Christ was born.

the birth of the savior was a time to rejoice according to scripture. Not because pagans did it or not, but rather because Christ the savior was born.

 

[eduardo89]

But what if yoga is just stretching? That's the point I'm trying to make.

for the record i don't celebrate birthdays for the reason I'm citing so I'm not attacking the point of the OP. I'm just wondering about consistency of this rationale.

I'll post this again

Instead, feel free in Christian liberty to stretch however you’d like, participate in exercise, calm your nerves through breathing, and even contemplate the Scriptures in silence. But do so in a way that does not identify with yoga and non-Christian mysticism. Do not seek to negate your mind, but rather renew your mind with the Word of God. Do not seek to empty yourself, but rather be filled with the Holy Spirit. Do not seek to turn into yourself for enlightenment, but rather look out to the God of the Bible. Do not seek to become one with the universe, but rather be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

 

[wannaberocker]

But what if yoga is just stretching? That's the point I'm trying to make.

for the record i don't celebrate birthdays for the reason I'm citing so I'm not attacking the point of the OP. I'm just wondering about consistency of this rationale.

then its not really yoga, it stretching and to call it yoga is inaccurate.

think of it like Chinese food. American Chinese food is not really "Chinese food", real Chinese food is nothing like American Chinese food.

 

[Yieu]

You just called my religion demonic.

That is not very nice.

By the way, yoga is not exercises. Yoga means union with God, or having a relationship with God, which is the goal of every religious person.

Let me state that again.

Yoga is not exercises or stretching.

Having a relationship with God, which is the translation and goal of the word Yoga, is not demonic.

Yoga means having a relationship with God. If you are against it, you are saying that you are against having a relationship with God, whether that relationship is through the Christian religion or Hindu.

Time to quote my signature...

People of different religions praise the Lord's holy names and qualities according to the view of their scriptures. The Supreme Lord accepts everyone's mood. If anyone shows malice towards another's religion he actually shows malice to the Lord Himself, who is worshiped by that religion.

 

[Yieu]

How would you feel if I called your religion demonic?

It's not true, and it's not nice.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

how can it be a new phenomenon when the Angel tells Mary to rejoice, when she became pregnant. The same with the wise men. The same way the Angel tells the Shepherds to rejoice when Christ was born.

the birth of the savior was a time to rejoice according to scripture. Not because pagans did it or not, but rather because Christ the savior was born.

It's just not an orthodox thing, AFAIK. Nobody knows the exact date Christ was born, anyway. (We do know from the details available that it wasn't wintertime)

http://richmondparkchurch.org.uk/christmas
Logically, it would make sense if Christmas had existed since the birth of Jesus, or at least since the resurrection of Jesus and the founding of the early Christian church. But, oh no! That would be far too easy! The first Christians didn't celebrate the birthday of Jesus; birthdays weren't considered a big deal in Jewish or early Christian culture. It was over one hundred years after the birth of Jesus that the church first suggested a solemn, respectful feast should be observed in honour of Jesus' birthday, and not until Julius 1st -who was pope from 337 to 352AD- that the date of 25th December was set for this "Feast of the Nativity".

 

[eduardo89]

It's just not an orthodox thing, AFAIK. Nobody knows the exact date Christ was born, anyway. (We do know from the details available that it wasn't wintertime)

Christians (well any Christian with half a brain) wouldn't claim that Christmas is the day of Jesus's birth. It's the day we celebrate it though.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

You just called my religion demonic.

That is not very nice.

By the way, yoga is not exercises. Yoga means union with God, or having a relationship with God, which is the goal of every religious person.

Let me state that again.

Yoga is not exercises or stretching.

Having a relationship with God, which is the translation and goal of the word Yoga, is not demonic.

Yoga means having a relationship with God. If you are against it, you are saying that you are against having a relationship with God, whether that relationship is through the Christian religion or Hindu.

Time to quote my signature...

That's true, but it's used in its secular form in the West most of the time.

 

[specsaregood]

How would you feel if I called your religion demonic?
It's not true, and it's not nice.

Yeah, kinda fails that whole "do unto others" test.