The Lutheran Hour
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"Yoga is Not God’s Answer"
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Text: Acts 8:4-13
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PRAYER Blessed heavenly Father, in spite of our sin and through Your grace and mercy You invite us to be Your special children. Enable us daily, O Lord, to recognize Your providence, to acknowledge Your love and to look with repentance to the sin-cleansing blood of Your Son Jesus Christ for our salvation. O Lord, You are our Father and our only Hope. In Jesus’ intercessory name we pray. Amen.
“It’s one of the latest and hottest things!” This is what TIME magazine boldly stated on its April 23rd front cover. Hollywood personalities are wrapped up in it and even the exercise room of the U.S. Supreme Court is busy with it. “Americans rush,” TIME says, “from their high pressure jobs to be part of this.” What are they talking about? They are talking about the “power of yoga.” “Millions of Americans are discovering this ancient exercise,” according to TIME magazine.
Oprah Winfrey devoted an entire show to the benefits of Yoga. TIME says “Testimonials clogged the hour program.” “I lost weight,” testified one follower of yoga. “I quit smoking,” said another. Additional testimonies followed. “I conquered my fear of flying,” said one. “I can now sleep soundly,” said another. “It saved my marriage.” “It improved my daughter’s grades.” On and on the testimonials to yoga keep coming.
“Now, wait a minute!” says the author of TIME. Is yoga more than the power of positive thinking? For example, can yoga cure cancer? Now with millions of people flocking to yoga, these are questions that need to be asked. Then TIME astutely pointed out that “By even asking this question, we provoke a clash of two powerful cultures and two very different ways of looking at the world.” According to the author one is the way the people from the West look at the world and the second way is the way the East or people from India look at the world.
Of course this may be true. But, there is an even greater clash going on here. This greater clash is a spiritual clash. You see “yoga” was little known in the U.S. until some 30-40 years ago. Then in 1968, the Beatles and Mia Farrow journeyed to India to sit at the feet of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Since that time yoga has caught on and has become widely popular.
Again, according to TIME, followers of yoga zealously promote their new belief by saying it is so physically refreshing. So are many other exercises people do every day! Adherents of yoga, however, don’t stop with the physical. Regarding this, TIME magazine candidly states yoga “signals spiritual cleansing and rebirth.” Yes, this means yoga is basically a religion or at least for many people, yoga takes the place of religion and thereby satisfies the spiritual needs of more and more people today.
In fact, a reference handbook widely used by secular journalists defines yoga by explaining, “Yoga is a system of spiritual control practiced in both Hinduism and Buddhism. By means of the discipline’s techniques of breathing and other exercises-control of the senses, meditation, and withdrawal-the person involved is led to a blissful union of self with the divine.”
In other words, yoga is a direct “slam” against the Christian faith. You see, if one can, by using special yoga breathing techniques connect oneself to God, then why did Jesus die on the cross? Yoga claims to do what only Jesus Christ can do! The Bible says our sins have alienated us from our Lord. Your sins have torn apart the original relationship God lovingly intended to exist between Himself and you.
But here is the Good News. Just as quarreling marriage partners are reconciled and brought back together again, so also, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has arranged to reconcile you to Himself. In his letter to the believers in Colossae, the Apostle Paul explains it like this, “It was the heavenly Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Jesus Christ and through Jesus, God the Father reconciled all things to Himself. In this way, your heavenly Father has made peace with you through the blood His Son Jesus shed on the cruel cross.”
Then the Apostle concludes by saying that although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind toward God and engaged in evil deeds, God has now reconciled you in Christ’s fleshly body through death, in order to present you holy and blameless and beyond reproach.
Now if what the Bible says is true that through Jesus Christ and through God’s gift of faith you and I are joined with God, then the fundamental religious teaching of yoga is not only false, it is anti-Christian. For anything that takes away from the Person or the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is blasphemy.
Because yoga looks so appealing, this reminds us of the story of Simon the silversmith recorded in the Bible in the New Testament book of Acts. One day Phillip, one of Christ’s disciples went down to Samaria. There Phillip proclaimed [Jesus] the Messiah to the people. The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what he said. They heard and saw the signs Phillip did. Unclean spirits cried with loud shrieks, and came out of many who were possessed. Many others paralyzed or lame, were cured. Consequently, the Bible says there was great joy in that city.
Now, the Bible explains there was a certain man named Simon in the same city. Simon had previously practiced magic and amazed the people. People said “he was someone great.” All of them, from the least to the greatest, listened eagerly to Simon. “This man,” they said, “is the power of God that is called Great.” They eagerly listened to him because for a long time Simon amazed them with his magic.
Oh friends, there is nothing new under the sun is there? Centuries and centuries ago people were impressed by sorcerers and spellbinding preachers, etc. Today, this deception continues in cults like yoga.
Why is this great deception of the devil so effective? Well, when one hears of thousands, even millions of people turning away from the solid facts of Christianity toward the more sensational and popular yoga, one is reminded of an article that appeared in the May 14, 2001 issue of The New York Times. The headline stated: “News Weeklies Turn a Cold Shoulder to Hard News.” This article included the front covers of TIME magazine, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report magazines. The author pointed out these news weeklies “have grown softer over the decades and now prefer to publish “life-style” articles rather than the real tough issues of society.” The report continues by saying, “In recent weeks key changes suggest the days of the news weekly magazines publishing ‘hard news’ may have finally ground to a halt.”
Oh yes, people are getting tired of hearing what’s really happening in the world. So they’re turning to something more self-satisfying. But, isn’t this also what is happening in Christianity? Thousands, probably even millions are no longer satisfied with the basic Christian faith. They are bored with sermons based on the Bible. They find the Good News of God’s grace in Jesus Christ as “old hat.” They often turn a “deaf ear” to the Good News of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ. This blessed forgiveness was obtained by our Heavenly Father through the bloody death and glorious resurrection of His only Son.
Now people want something to ease their tensions in life, stimulate their physical wants, and give them a bit of heaven now and then. Therefore, there is little doubt that TIME magazine on its recent front cover was absolutely correct when it said people are flocking in large droves to things like yoga — a very anti-Christian cult. These people do not want to be bothered by God’s clear revelation in the Bible that they are sinners. Most of us don’t want to repent. So we flock to other things.
If you are looking around for some kind of religion or spirituality more exciting than the historic Christian faith, be very careful. In fact, if TIME magazine is true and I believe it is, you may be one of the millions for whom yoga is quite inviting. If this is the case, think very carefully about what you are doing. The stakes are high. See, if you are a follower of yoga, when you come to the end of your earthly existence, be prepared to call on yoga to rescue you from the curse of your sins.
But yoga does not claim to do this. At the end of life yoga is useless. Take the high road. Look to the crucifixion cross of Christ crucified. Look to Jesus. Look to that One whom your heavenly Father promises will deliver you from the domain of darkness and transfer you to His Kingdom. In this Deliverer, in Jesus, you have more than a physical exercise. You have more than physical refreshment as in yoga. In Jesus Christ you have the forgiveness of all your sins, plus the absolute guarantee of being in Paradise with God forever! Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for July 8, 2001 “Yoga is Not God’s Answer” 68-44
ANNOUNCER: I’m Mark Eischer here with Dr. Wallace Schulz. I heard you speak today of the millions of people turning to yoga and other forms of eastern-influenced spirituality. Would something like this have happened, let’s say, 40 or 50 years ago?
SCHULZ: My guess on this, Mark, is probably not. Several decades ago, people were, shall we say, more settled in one of the traditional Christian faiths or denominations. More recently, however, because of the increasing secularization of our culture, people have become what we might call “religiously unhinged.” This means they have no real ties or connection to any particular religion or denomination. I think this is something pretty obvious out there and I think a lot of studies show this.
ANNOUNCER: This unhinging makes people vulnerable and open to new religions?
SCHULZ: It certainly does. In all of this, I think, we have to be very careful of one significant factor involved.
ANNOUNCER: And what’s that?
SCHULZ: This is the thing we mentioned in our last program also. The devil is always sneaking around trying to deceive us. The Apostle Peter talks about the devil as a roaring lion in the periphery trying to devour or destroy us. The devil likes to practice his deceptions especially in religion. You see, the foundation of the Christian faith is the Word of God. God’s Word deals with facts of history. God’s Word contains information. And some of these facts don’t always deliver immediate excitement. The basic doctrines of the Christian faith don’t always produce thrilling emotions like we sometimes would like them to.
ANNOUNCER: By contrast, cults and other non-Christian religions often deal with emotions?
SCHULZ: In a sense, this is true. What I think we’re seeing is the devil likes to work more on feelings and first impressions. The devil cannot tolerate God’s Word. He also tries to use sensational events in relation to religion and spirituality and, unfortunately, this approach seems to be very effective in enticing many people away from the historic faith.
ANNOUNCER: But let’s be clear. You’re not saying there is no emotion in Christianity?
SCHULZ: Absolutely not. We are not saying this. In genuine Christianity, the facts of faith always precede emotion, however. The emotions never come first nor do they authenticate the faith. For example, when we hear the Good News that God has forgiven us in Jesus Christ and that God has done something for us we don’t deserve, this is tremendously thrilling. It involves our entire emotions. Or when we learn the exciting fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and through Baptism we can be united into this same resurrection, as the Apostle Paul outlines in Romans 6. That’s incredibly exciting. Frankly, I don’t think we can get over-emotional in our thoughts, feelings or even singing about these great matters.
ANNOUNCER: What is the bottom line?
SCHULZ: The bottom line here, I believe, is quite simple. There is no need for anybody to cast around in our culture for one of the exotic cults such as yoga trying to entice us away from the true and historic Christian faith. Instead, we need to always focus our eyes and encourage our friends and family members to also focus their eyes of faith on the Lord Jesus Christ-Christ crucified on the cross and raised again on the third day so we, too, might be raised with Him. Because, you see, when Jesus was crucified, He died for our sins. When He was raised, His resurrection is the absolute guarantee that all his followers will be with Him soon in paradise.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Dr. Schulz. With that, we come to the end of our broadcast for another week.