Concerns about New Age and the Church

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the status of the Church? Or the world? I often do, but I try not to think about it so much and do what I can about the little things. But once in a while, there are things i can't push aside, things that shouldn't be ignored or blown off. And, little or big, I can't sit around and watch them without saying something.

Like yoga. I felt bad at my Bible study last week when I made a comment that I didn't think we should be doing yoga. My friends seemed to think I was going off the deep end. And I really did feel bad for offending them if I did, and for saying what I did. But at the same time, I believe it's truth, and I'm honestly afraid not to speak the truth about the New Age, because I see it seeping into the Church so often. And it worries me that many will be led astray like in 2 Timothy chapter 4.

Then I got to thinking about Yoga, and why Christians practice it. And it worries me that so many people are willing to just do whatever as long as it doesn't pose a direct threat or send up immediate red flags. I feel as if many Christians aren't taking time to actually think and research, pray and be taught about the practices they keep. Maybe they aren't all as godly as they sound. Maybe they aren't biblical.

So let me take a minute to educate my readers on Yoga. It's a part of the Hindu religion, a practice used to unite your soul with the Greater Soul of the universe, to allow you to meditate without the distraction of physical pain or constraints. The positions ("stretches") are each designed with a specific purpose to accomplish that goal. In this article, I read that Hindus are actually bothered by Christians practicing yoga and claiming they can use it as a Christian exersize. One Swami said that the idea of yoga as exersize is like calling Baptism underwater aerobics. It simply wasn't meant to be used that way--it was meant as a spiritual endeavor. If I were to ask everyone in my bible study to keel toward Mecca and pray to Allah, they would say I was insane. If I were to say "In the spirit of the Muslims who look toward Mecca and pray five times a day, I think that we should maybe try doing that this week. I think it would connect us with God", I think my friends would tell me I'm insane. But the same kind of attitude is used in practicing yoga. When I hear "I want to do a yoga class" I really hear, "Let's go do stretches that were designed to connect us with an ungodly spirit". With or without the actual meditation part, we are still emulating a religion that we claim to be seperate from.

I probably do sound like a fanatic. But I just get nervous when I see people taking part in New Age practices and claiming that it is part of their walk with God. I know that many people say that to them, yoga is just a form of exersize, but I take issue with that. Because no Hindu will tell you that their yoga is just exersize. And the yoga taught in America today is modeled right after the Hindu practice.

If we state that GOd is original, and Christianity is unique from hindu, Islam, Judeaism, etc, then why are we borrowing practices from those religions? Why would we want to take part in something that came from a stated foe of Christianity? We do not believe that "all paths lead to God" or that "Everything has some part of God in it". We do not believe that practices are what unite us with God, but rather that it is His grace alone, through Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross. While exersize in and of itself is beneficial, I wonder why we have such trouble handling our stress, when Jesus told us to come to Him with our burdens (Matthew 11:28), and to cast our anxiety on Him because He cares for us (2 Peter 5:7). That said, I'm not sure that we need yoga to relax ourselves. And I have dealt with my share of stress. I think that we're depriving oruselves of a chance to know God better and trust Him more wholly when we decide to use New Age methods to calm our anxiety instead of the old fashioned prayer and patience.

I don't like arguing with people, and I don't like having to defend myself when it's something, to me, that anyone should see as a problem. New Age practices have no place in the church. God is original. God speaks to us in these last days through His Son (Hebrews 1:2), and the God-breathed scripture (1 Timothy 3:16-17). He has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 1:3), and we are complete, thoroghly equipped for every good work (1 Tim 3:17) through scripture and Christ.

If you've read this far, I want to encourage you to start looking into practices and teachings that don't align themselves with Scripture. And to familiarize yourself with heretical docterine so that you can be able to discern it. I'm not saying that as a fanatic, but as one who has taken to heart what Ephesians 5:15 and 16 say: See then that you walk carefully, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. I leave you with this, and hope that you are still my friends.

Colossians 2:8-10 NKJV
Beware lest anyone cheat you throuh philosphy and empty deciet, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, who is the head of all principality and power.