Well, I hope you come away from this, with something to help strengthen your life in Jesus Christ.
I disagree about the abstinence definition you give. The bible says something opposite of what you say.
What I see in your reply is desperate dog paddling, to keep your involvement in yoga ok in your mind.
Hey, do whatever you want, we're all going to give account of what and why, at the Judgement Seat.
Since you KNOW the Christ-rejecting religion of yoga, it's strange, to me, that you are ready to fight, to keep on feeling good about doing it.
Just give it up. Go on to some other form of exercise. Walk. Get on a treadmill, or on an elliptical machine. Push a plow in a field, just stop yoga. It's tainted, and you are aware of this.
Right, don't ask, but, if you find out it was sacrificed to gods, or is from a sinful origin, it's your job to GIVE IT BACK, to REJECT IT.
I stand by my words, because they are God's words, found in His Holy bible.
simply swap the meditation of yoga with prayer and the worship with worship of God
Or, even simpler, walk away from it, FLEE. If you're going to rationalize this, I wonder, do you rationalize worldly things elsewhere in your life? That's between you and God, but, I've met people who talk exactly like you, and they are always, after talking a while to them, really wallowing in the hog pens of the devil. Why dine at the junk food bin of Satan, when you can feast on clean, pure, unadulterated
foods, meat, milk, and honey, from the royal banquet table of JESUS CHRIST?
Enjoy your junk food.
If we were passing by a group of Christ rejecting yoga practitioners, I would not stop you from laying down with them.
I would be sad for you, and pray for the Holy Spirit to convict you. I would start witnessing to the others on their mats, telling them Jesus died for their sins, and He loves them, and wants to give them a BETTER WAY.
I would be so happy, if they took up their mats, and walked away from the damnable atmosphere, but, I do realize that many are called, but few there be that find the straight and narrow way, to Heaven, and few there be that can handle staying on it.
It takes a lot of guts, relying on Jesus, and perserverence, to stay on the straight and narrow.
It's a daily battle, hourly, and most people don't have the backbone for it.
They wilt, and then rationalize.
As for your labeling it legalistic, that's also a typical response of people who want to stay in the world, and look like the other lost sinners around them, so they don't have to feel uncomfortable standing firm for the Truth.
I hope one day you get to stand firmly for Jesus, even though dozens of others mock, ridicule, and
laugh at your beliefs, and your refusal to move.
Be ye STEDFAST, UNMOVEABLE.
Work at it. Work hard, and then, work HARDER at being a Christian soldier, Handy.
May God bless you, and you receive His guidance.
handy said:
This has been a good discussion and Biblereader you have brought up some good food for thought and consideration. I’m taking away from this discussion three things that I think are fairly important:
First: Abstaining from every form of evil doesn’t mean to not do something because of what it might look like or even because of what evil others might do in the name of false gods. The greatest example of this is sex, which has been violated in every possible way imaginable, and yet is something that God expects His married children to engage in and enjoy doing so.
Yoga isn’t mentioned in the bible, but physical activity that was dedicated to the worship and service of false gods is, in the form of Paul describing races that were ran to achieve a perishable wreath, and using these races as a metaphor for our own walk with God. I find it hard to believe that the Holy Spirit would inspire Paul to write about games as such a positive metaphor for our Christian walk, if we are to abhor everything that has ever been dedicated to a false god. For then, one must abhor running races and boxing, both of which are Olympic events that were dedicated to the gods but were used by Paul as positive metaphors.
Abstaining from every form of evil means exactly what it says, abstain from every form of evil. Not what looks like it might be evil, but what is evil. Worshipping false gods is evil. Exercises that sometimes are used to worship false gods, meats that were once dedicated to false gods, sex that was used to act out fertility rites, none of these things are evil in of themselves, but were things that were used for evil purposes.
As Paul stated in the matter of meats sacrificed to the gods, “For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we exist for Him.†(1 Corinthians 8:5-6)
Paul then goes on to state what we Christians truly do need to concern ourselves with; not a litany of “do not handle, do not taste, do not touch†(Col 2:21) but rather that there are those whose faith are weaker than ours. In the matter of eating meats sacrificed to idols, Paul advised a “don’t ask†policy. However, if one was eating a meat sacrificed to an idol and the subject came up, Paul advised not to eat the meat, so as not to cause a weaker brother to stumble.
But, we cannot ignore the fact that Paul advised the “don’t ask†policy either! Because if something that was once dedicated to false gods indeed tainted it forever with evilness and sin, Paul (being inspired by the Holy Spirit) would never have told us to “don’t ask†but rather would have exhorted us to flee.
Second: There is also the practice of some to embrace both the spiritual and physical aspects of yoga, but simply swap the meditation of yoga with prayer and the worship with worship of God rather than the Hindu gods. This I do find to be against the scriptural warning to worship in spirit and in truth. We know how to worship our God, via obedience, via going about the good works that God has appointed us to do, and to join corporately in prayer, singing, study and communion. While dance can have a place in worship, as we know that David danced before God, yoga exercises do not. Neither should we be dragging a bunch of treadmills into worship services and try to worship God whilst running like a bunch of hamsters on a wheel, or join in worship while sitting on pilates balls. It isn’t that there is anything sinful about running on a treadmill or doing pilates, just that they do not hold a place in worship.
Third: What is lawful, what is liberty and what is legalism? We know that all things are lawful, but not all things are edifying. If one is doing yoga exercises without spirituality, just the exercises, we know that this is lawful because all things are lawful. Is it edifying? For me it was. Edification meaning building up, restoring and repairing, which is the good it did for my hip. If something is lawful and not edifying, why do it. But, if something is both lawful and edifying and one wants to do it, then one has the liberty to do so.
We do have liberty in Christ. Our liberty should never be exercised at the expense of another’s faith, which is why we need to exercise restraint for the weaker among us. If Biblereader and I were to go out for a walk and during our walk go by a park equipped with yoga mats, just because all things are lawful, I do not have the “right†to say, “Hey, I’m going to stretch my hip here, cause the walking is causing it to hurt. I’m going to do some yoga now, why don’t you join me?†It would be sinful of me, given Biblereader’s convictions in the matter. (I am not saying that Biblereader’s faith is weak, far from it, but that we must exercise restraint in these matters. I think we need to respect others convictions as well as be thoughtful of others weaknesses.)
What is legalism? Legalism is when we take something that we are convicted by and make it a point of salvation for the whole church. It is just as sinful as anything else we can stumble over. The Pharisees sinned big time by hedging the Law and saying, “We are not to work on the Sabbath, plucking grain is technically work, so we must not even pluck a grain of wheat on the Sabbath. Plucking a grain of wheat is SIN!!!!†What did that lead them to do? Reject their Messiah on the basis that He was a sinner, plucking wheat on the Sabbath. We need to guard against legalism just as surely as we need to guard against allowing worldly things to draw us away from God. (Matthew 12:1)
If one looks at yoga exercises, and is concerned about the spiritual roots of them, then I think we should follow Lloyd’s excellent point that if anything hinders your walk with God, or causes you to question it, or puts a seed of doubt there, then it is not a positive and one should not partake in it, unless and until one’s conscience is clear. Whatever is not done in faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)
Good point then I guess, and my answer is, "I don't know" if I'm being honest. Can I think on it?