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Can Christians do Yoga ?  I read that yoga is a form of hindu idol worship ???

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Yoga is an exercise.  If you're in a class that is more of a Hindu ritual, then no.  But if you're just doing a yoga class to exercise, stretch muscles and learn to relax your breathing, you're not worshipping anything, you're just getting fit. 

I took some yoga years ago.  Didn't like it.  Not fast enough paced for me.  But I did learn to balance on one foot without holding the wall.  ;-)

Hi Sathish,

I understand that yoga is rooted in Hinduism.  I don't believe it's merely an exercise.  I truly believe that everything is spiritual and this is no exception.

 

Blessings, Carla

Char this is what I read in an article

yoga is based on the belief that man and “god” are one. The yogi (i.e. the person who practices yoga) does not seek the control of the Personal Creator God over his life, but he seeks to have himself a fuller control over his own life.So yoga teaches you to focus on yourself instead of on the true God.

In brief, the child of God will not allow the devil to deceive him with such pagan practices like yoga, and he will avoid not only evil but even every form of evil:

“But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)

Examine yoga carefully, see the spiritual deception that is behind it, and abstain from every form of evil. Everything you do in life and the way you think show who is your master. If you think in the pantheistic and New Age way that yoga follows, you prove to be the slave of your rebellious self and of sin. If you think spiritually according to the Word of God, then you prove to be a child of the true God, a new creature who thinks and acts in consistence with God’s Will by His Grace.

Yes Carla I agree to your comment :)

I think the difference lies in...Dan is in India. US yoga often differs from its origins. I took a beginner class around 2001. There was nothing spiritual or any meditation. We stretched to get limber. Not all US yoga. But much of it is a watered down variety here.

The postures of yoga are worship to false gods.  At it's root it is idolatry.

Well I wasn't worshipping...either God or anyone when I went. I was exercising. So then how should one view Christmas?

That's my point.  Some people use yoga as strictly a stretching exercise without doing any of the spiritual ritual.  Many places use a watered down version of yoga as exercise only.  There are also many Christians who won't touch Christmas with a 10' pole because of what it began as, because of it's history, not because people use it to worship paganism, but only because they "used to".  And I'm reminded of Paul's comments on eating meat sacrificed to idols.  Because of what it "was" used for, some feel condemned over it, some do not...Paul did not, I do not.  Christmas and yoga don't condemn me.  But if they condemn another and they partake in it, then it's the same as having sinned, because they sinned against their own belief/faith in that subject. 

 

I read something just yesterday on this.  They said imagine two people back then who came to Christ.  One felt that eating meat sacrificed to idols was wrong and the other did not.  So the one who didn't is in the market one day eating some meat and the other sees this and says it's wrong.  Rather than saying they don't feel condemned by it but will refrain in their presence from eating it, they instead say, no there is nothing wrong with it, here, have some, and they break off a piece and put it in the hand of the one who does not believe in it, and they are tempted and eat.  Both have just sinned. 

 

For me, Christmas, yoga, and even Halloween do not condemn me, because I worship nothing in them.  Christmas and Halloween are holidays.  They're time off work for me and enjoyment for my son.  And with Christmas, the word alone does remind me of Christ.  Yoga does not condemn me because I only see it as exercise.  If it was a class telling me to get in tune with spirits or meditate on my inner being, etc., I'd walk out.  It would creep me out. 

 

If another however are condemned by these things, then they should not do them.  I think we sometimes make things more difficult for ourselves just by asking others opinions.  I know I have done so many many times. 

Seek ye First...no one said you were worshipping... I only said that yoga is rooted in hindu worship.  That's what all of the poses are.  They all have meaning.

 

In regards to Christmas, I view it as a time to get together with family and have nice meals..  It's really nothing more than that to me.  I celebrate the birth of our Lord every day.  We don't know the date of His birth anyway.

But the Christmas ritual is rooted in paganism.  The decorations, santa, it is all taken from pagan practices.  I'd have to look it all up cause I don't recall the details.  But I'm thinking that because something has it's roots in something wrong, doesn't mean the current version of something is wrong. 

 

The poses we did were intended to stretch certain muscles and to build our balance.  They were never ascribed any meaning to our class. 

 

And I know the date of Christ's birth.  It was B.C.  LOL

I understand the point you are trying to make.  As I said, Christmas is family time to me...meals relationships etc... That is all.

It's like that for us too. During the week before Christmas, we begin to give each other gifts each night. We play cards, cribbage, bacgammon, clue, jinga, monopoly and hang out together. We like to go out too like bowling. I serve up some veggie and cheese/cracker trays. We call it silly supper. We break all the rules. Sometimes we eat our dessert first.   :-)  It's our family time. Course Shari is on her own now, but we still enjoy each other's company, and some of our family ideas have spilled over into her family.

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10)
 

That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; (Colossians 2:2)

Love,

Mary

 

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