Emerging Church Deception Blog: New Age

Showing posts with label New Age. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Online Christian Bookstores Continue to Promote Yoga and the New Age Movement

The following News Update if from Bud Press.
_________________

Online Christian Bookstores Continue to Promote Yoga and the New Age Movement
They continue to do it, despite the Biblical warnings against it

"...any Christian leader who promotes, teaches, practices, or endorses any type of 'Christian spirituality' that mixes yoga and these other influences into it is a leader that has been seriously misled and is misleading others...Because when one opens the door to yoga, mysticism, the New Age and occultism, the kingdom of darkness is more than willing to come flooding through" (Chris Lawson, "Defining Deception: What is Yoga, Mysticism, New Age and the Occult?" Complete article at http://tinyurl.com/yrkdvk ).

To the Reader:

The following online Christian bookstores contain authors and materials that promote Yoga and the New Age Movement. For further articles and information on why Christians should avoid all forms of Yoga, go to http://www.christianresearchservice.com/ChristianYoga.htm .

American Family Association's Family Resource Center:
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon. AFA's bookstore provider is Innovative, Inc. of North Carolina.

Berean Christian Stores:
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Biblepal.com:
Promotes at least 31 items on Yoga (too numerous to list). For verification, go to http://www.biblepal.com/ and type-in the word Yoga in the search window.

Books For Christians:
Promotes 12 items on Yoga (too numerous to list). For verification, go to http://www.booksforchristians.com/ and type-in the word Yoga in the search window.

Christianbook.com:
Promotes at least 12 items on Yoga (too numerous to list). Go to http://www.christianbook.com/ and type-in the word Yoga in the search window.

Christian Book Network:
This website promotes Yoga and accessories pertaining to Yoga such as books, DVDs, Yoga mats, mood music, and clothing (too numerous to list). For verification, go to http://shop.christianbooknet.com/ and type-in the word Yoga in the search window.

Christian Heritage Books:
This website contains authors and books promoting and pertaining to Yoga and the New Age Movement (stopped counting at 1000). For verification, go to
www.christianheritagebooks.com/ and type-in the word Yoga in the search window.

Cokesbury.com-Resources for the Christian Journey:
This website promotes hundreds of authors and books pertaining to Yoga and the New Age Movement (too numerous to list). For verification, go to http://www.cokesbury.com/ and type-in Yoga in the search window.

Dalton's Christian Bookstore:
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Koorong.com (Australia):
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Kregel Christian Books & Resources:
Kregel uses Parable Christian Stores for its online books and materials, where
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher is promoted.

Lemstone:
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon. Lemstone's bookstore provider is Innovative, Inc. of North Carolina.

Lighthouse Christian Stores (not affiliated with Lighthouse Trails Publishing or Lighthouse Trails Research Project):
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Northwestern Book Stores:
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Parable Christian Stores:
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher

Word of Life Christian Bookstores:
Yoga for Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul by Brooke Boon

Researched & Compiled by:
Bud Press
January 23, 2007

Friday, January 05, 2007

Christian Yoga: Rooted in Hindu Occultism

Dear All,
Wishing you and yours a blessed New Year!

The main article in this months SRN newsletter is Christian Yoga: Rooted in Hindu Occultism by Chris Lawson, 1/5/2007.

For those who are unaware, yoga and "Christian Yoga" are being practiced by many people who have no idea what yoga is really all about. Yoga has for thousands of years been utilized as a means to achieve Hindu occult enlightenment – ‘Self-Realization’. According to many, yoga even predates Hinduism. Yoga is a spiritual practice utilized in such belief systems as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and other occult and mysticism based religions. All true yoga teachers (yogis/yoginis) and countless thousands of pages of yoga literature declare that yoga has as its source of power, Kundalini - the Serpent Power.

Is yoga a philosophy and theory? Yes. And it is also a consciousness and worldview altering religious practice too. Simply stated, yoga from the East has been watered down and commercialised for undiscerning Westerners. Even professing Christian leaders have relabelled and integrated it into their Christianity as "Christ-Centered Yoga", "Holy Yoga", "Yahweh Yoga", "Yoga for Christians", “health”, “fitness”, “exercise”, etc. Occultism relabelled is still occultism!

Something a lot of people don’t know is that this mass Western-world-embracing of Eastern spirituality was planned out long ago by a very powerful fallen angel named Lucifer. Lucifer’s (Satan) literature, stratagems and spokes people have revealed this. One such instance is through William Walker Atkinson, an American writer who was influential in turn-of-the-century (1890s-1900s) spiritual/philosophical movements such as 'New Thought' (a precursor to today's New Age movement) and Theosophy. Atkinson as Ramacharaka was a well recognized Western convert to occultism.

In 1903, Atkinson, otherwise known as Yogi Ramacharaka, wrote his Hindu Yogi occult primer titled The Hindu-Yogi Science of Breath. In it he stated:

“The theory of the East, wedded to the practice of the West, will produce worthy offspring.”

This is exactly the case with Westerners today embracing all manner of Eastern spirituality. Ramacharaka’s words were and are in direct reference to the yogic philosophy of breath control (pranayama), also called “The Science of Breath”. Also, Ramacharaka and many other occultists in the past and present state very clearly that yoga poses (asanas) are rooted and grounded in yogic philosophy. The philosophy, practice, methods and ideology of yoga are one package. For the yogi guru (teacher) the worshipful poses and breath control techniques are inextricably linked – the theory is inseparable from practice. In other words, it is impossible to disentangle or untie the two from each other. To do so is committing ‘yogacide’.

In the ever emerging global spirituality of today, Hindu, Buddhist, New Age and Theosophical evangelists, as well as many other practitioners of occult and mysticism based belief systems are watching their dream come true with the forming of a global universal spirituality. Sadly, undiscerning Christians, false followers of Christ, and masses of unbelieving people are being played like pawns in a cosmic chess game – all jumping on the yoga bandwagon. “Universal Consciousness”, Eucharistic adoration”, “Mother Earth”, “Gaia”, “meditation”, “energy work”, “reiki”, “yoga”, “mantras”, “channelling”, “Tantra”, “drumming”, shamanism” and a myriad of other forms of occultism and mysticism are part of this forming one world religion.

The underlying theme that is connecting this global universal spirituality is pantheism (All is God, God is All) and panentheism (All in God – the universe [you and me too] is part of God). Unbiblical and antichrist to the core, they too are the foundations of yoga. And so it is just as Ramacharaka and his Theosophical Society colleagues foresaw, a panentheistic occult oriented universal spirituality - the theory of the East, is being [HAS BEEN] married to the west. Through the Contemplative Spiritual Formation movement and the Emerging Church movement – “Christian Yoga” has arrived in the Christian Church. Another massive Trojan horse has come. My friends this ought not to be. Through the framework of Eastern spirituality being relabelled as “deeper spirituality” for Christians, people are being deceived.

It is every Christian’s duty to “Test all things, hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil”
(1 Thess. 5:21-22). It is my hope that this article, Christian Yoga: Rooted in Hindu Occultism will persuade you from following those who are caught up in the deceptions of this last hour.

'If any man teaches otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing ... from such withdraw thyself' (I Timothy 6:3)

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Can Contemplative Spirituality Be Dangerous?

Called emerging, emergent church movement, and emerging church spirituality, this post-modern way of doing church is causing people to question the validity of its teachings. Simply put, many emerging church teachings are rooted in Contemplative Spirituality, which comes from the East.

But just what is Contemplative Spirituality and can Contemplative Spirituality be dangerous? This we seek to examine, not in a spirit of contention, but grace, humility and love. (1 Thess.5:21; Phil.1:8-11)

We recommend the following research sites for a closer look at emerging, emergent church movement, and emerging church spirituality.

At these sites you can also find info about contemplative spirituality, spiritual formation movement, contemplative teachers and teachings, contemplative movements, etc.

Emerging Church - Discernment Research Archives
Apprising Ministries Archive
Critical Issues Commentary Archive
Deception In The Church Archive
Herescope
Kjos Ministries Archive
Let Us Reason Archive
Lighthouse Trails Archive
Lighthouse Trails Topical
One Truth Ministries
Understand The Times Archive

Resources
Books, DVD's, Glossary, etc.
Revival or Return To Darkness DVD
Books and Authors: Buyer Be-a-ware!!!
Critical Issues Commentary - Bob DeWaay
Discernment Tool Kit at Deception In The Church
Discernment POWER Search

We exhort you to examine contemplative and emerging church spirituality and test it in the light of the Word of God. Researching the real foundations of contemplative emerging church spirituality may shock you. We have spent many hours examining the teachings and practices in this movement and have found that they ultimately lead to what we call Contemplative Emerging Church Deception.

Obey Jesus and "let no man deceive you."

Do what the Bible says,

"Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Abstain from every form of evil. "
1 Thes.5:21

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Willow Creek "Leadership Summit" - Featured Speaker Promotes Eastern Meditation and the New Age

The News Alert posted below is from the Special Report From Lighthouse Trails Research Project.

It is a sad day indeed when Christian Church Leader Conferences - in this case the Willow Creek "Leadership Summit" - have speakers who are biblically undiscerning and who endorse anti-biblical methods of spirituality.

This is a very interesting News Alert and it shows just how undiscerning the Willow Creek movement has become.

~Chris Lawson
Spiritual Research Network

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Willow Creek "Leadership Summit" Starts Today
Featured Speaker Promotes Eastern Meditation and the New Age
Aug 10, 2006 -

"I attended a meditation-intensive day at an ashram [Hindu spiritual center]to support a friend. As I sat in meditation in what was for me an unfamiliar environment, I suddenly felt and saw a bolt of lightning shoot up from the base of my spine out the top of my head. It forced me to recognize something great within me ... this awareness of my own divinity."
(from The Highest Goal, Michael Ray, foreword by Jim Collins, p. 28, 2005)

Jim Collins, who wrote the foreword for The Highest Goal will be one of the featured speakers at this year's Leadership Summit, hosted by Willow Creek. The conference will be attended by more than 70,000 Christian leaders, in over 130 locations.

In 1982, Collins took Michael Ray's course, Creativity in Business. The course (and the book named after the course) "takes much of its inspiration from Eastern philosophy, mysticism and meditation techniques" (from the book). In one section of the book it talks about "your wisdom-keeper or spirit guide-an inner person who can be with you in life.... We meditate to unfold our inner being." The book also presents Tarot cards.

Collins was so inspired by Ray's course in 1982 that he wrote the foreword for Ray's 2004 book, The Highest Goal: The Secret That Sustains You in Every Minute. Collins says the book is "the distillation of years of accumulated wisdom from a great teacher." Collins says he discovered "the path to my highest goal" by reading the book. What is this highest goal that Michael Ray speaks of? Realizing the divinity within. And how is this realization obtained? Through meditation. In the book, Ray tells readers to "[p]ractice emptying your mind," "[e]xperience not thinking" and to "[m]editate regularly." Other quotes in the book include those of Eastern religion gurus such as Ram Dass, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Swami Shantananda.

For Willow Creek to include a speaker at the Leadership Summit who agrees with Michael Ray's Eastern/New Age philosophies on spirituality to the point of actually writing the foreword to this book, is almost unbelievable! Over 70,000 Christian leaders, in churches and auditoriums across North America, will be introduced to Collins at a conference that is advertised as offering "you and every leader on your team a place to rededicate yourselves to God's life-changing work." If the spirituality that Jim Collins promotes is a part of this " life-changing work," we fear it will not be God's work but rather that of deceptive doctrines of demons, and Michael Ray's "spirit-guide[s] " that take place.

Special Note: This news about Jim Collins connection with Willow Creek (named recently as the most influential evangelical church) may be as significant as the news last year that New Age sympathizer Ken Blanchard (with strong ties to the Hoffman Institute) signed on with Rick Warren to help implement the global P.E.A.C.E. Plan. And incidentally, both Collins and Blanchard have spoken with Mikhail Gorbachev and former President Bill Clinton in international leadership conferences. Their influence world-wide is tremendous. How is it that the two most influential evangelical pastors have each linked up with someone who is a promoter of Eastern style meditation and the New Age? Lighthouse Trails is confident that the facts speak for themselves, and we encourage you to check this out for yourself.

See below for further documentation:

Living Leadership

Living Leadership 2004

Defense Acquisition University

Create One

Earth-Friendly Vision

Lighthouse Trails Research Project
Editors - Lighthouse Trails Publishing
Please feel free to distribute this special report.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Can one Christianize a pagan ritual? by Brian Flynn

"You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way."

Can one Christianize a pagan ritual?

by Brian Flynn

Over the past few years, I have received hundreds of emails regarding my opposition to Yoga and other mystical practices being used within the body of Christ. The excuses for continuing the practices range from, it makes me feel closer to God, it is just a form of exercise, or my intention is to worship our Lord only. Unfortunately, none of those explanations holds much water when weighed against the Word of God.

On the plains of Moab, Moses shared God’s decrees and laws that the Israelites were to follow before they could enter the Promised Land:

These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall carefully observe in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. You shall not act like this toward the Lord your God… Deuteronomy 12:1-4

By setting these rules, God was guiding His people as to how they should worship Him only and according to His ways. God was also testing His people that they might prove their allegiance to Him. The warning was to avoid being ensnared in the practices of the pagans who lived there. This warning is as relevant today as it was at the time of Moses.

Unfortunately, like the Israelites of old, the warning has gone unheeded.
Read Entire Article...

Visit Brian Flynn's Website at One Truth Ministries

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Yoga: Posture of Apostasy: Can yogic practices be integrated with the Christian faith?

In the USA, approximately 15 million people who professing Christians are practicing Yoga. This is not just a little problem.

Furthermore, the Christian Yoga teachers are not telling Christians about the hazards of yoga. If they were there would not be such a huge growth of yoga classes within the church.

Click here to read more about the Hazards of Yoga at the Spiritual Research Network

~ SRN

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Yoga: Posture of Apostasy
Can yogic practices be integrated with the Christian faith?

by Larry De Bruyn

"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet . . ." Rudyard Kipling's words accent the difference between eastern and western spirituality, between Hinduism and Christianity. But the two, "the twain" as it were, are now meeting via yogic practices being promoted in various places of worship and activities of spirituality. Take for example, one Jewish synagogue. The weekly Shabbat services of Congregation Beth-El Zedek have included such activities as "Torah Yoga," which asks congregants to "stretch and take deep breaths" as the Torah is read, or when as worshippers enter the synagogue, they are "welcomed by Torah meditations set to drums and chanting."[1] But Jews are not alone in adopting yogic postures and practices.

"Christian yoga" is also gaining popularity. Thomas Nelson, a Christian publisher, recently released a book titled, Yoga for Christians, by Susan Bordenkircher.[2] In an interview with the Denver Post, the author, a fitness instructor, explained, "What we are attempting to do with a Christ-centered practice is fill the heart and mind with God, becoming 'single-minded' as Scripture calls it." Unapologetic for promoting so called "Christian yoga", she explains that "Christ-centered yoga is definitely not just a repackaging of . . . yoga. The difference, she says, lies in the intention: shifting the focus from self to God with yogic postures ('breathing in' the Holy Spirit, for instance), integrating health as critical to effective godly service, and slowing down enough 'from our fast-paced lives to actually hear God's voice.'"[3] Wow . . . "breathing in the Holy spirit . . . slowing down . . . to actually hear the voice of God."

The instructor's words betray an ominous and foreboding ignorance of Christian truth. Believers do not breathe in the Holy Spirit. When by faith people are justified (i.e., saved), in a millisecond of time they are regenerated (Jn. 3:3, 5-7) and instantly indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. Corporately and individually believers are the "temple" of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). As Paul wrote to the Roman believers, "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom. 8:9). There are only two types of persons in the world: saints and "ain'ts"--those in whom the Holy Spirit lives, and those in whom He does not. Given the Spirit's abiding presence in the life of the believer, how can He then be inhaled into the soul via yogic practice? Answer: He can't, because at salvation the Holy Spirit makes the justified believer's soul His sanctuary! Hopefully this yoga instructor isn't suggesting that regeneration takes place by a sort of yogic "inbreathing" of the Holy Spirit. If she really is, then by adding a human mechanism (i.e., "breathing in"), her version of spirituality stands in blatant contradiction to the salvation that comes "by grace . . . through faith" (Eph. 2:8-9). Her spirituality formula also opposes Jesus' testimony that like the wind, the Sovereign Spirit blows when and where He "wishes" (Jn. 3:8). The Sovereign Spirit will not be manipulated or controlled by yogic "inbreathing."..

Read full article...
http://www.frbaptist.org/bin/view/Ptp/PtpTopic20060522141106

Also check these out:

Ankerberg Theological Research Institute:

Yoga Pt.1: Description, Claims,Occult Potential, Dangers
Yoga Pt.2: Yoga and Children - Purpose of Yoga
Yoga Theory and Practice: Separable? - Part 1
Yoga Theory and Practice: Separable? - Part 2
Yoga: Kundalini Yoga
Yoga: The Occult
Innocent Yoga? Altering Consciousness in an Occult Direction

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Christian Yoga-Oxymoron

Brian Flynn has done en excellent job at telling the truth like it is. Brian has an excellent website and he speaks at churches and conferences exposing the deception of New Age and Contemplative spirituality in the church.

See Brian Flynn's website: One truth Ministries

Learn more about Brian Flynn's book Running Against The Wind: The Transformation of a New Age Medium and His Warning to the Church

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Christian Yoga-Oxymoron
by Brian Flynn at One Truth Ministries

- Why is there such a thing as Christian Yoga? It certainly has no scriptural or biblical basis in support of it. I have repeated many times in my book, my writings and in radio interviews that Yoga is an eastern spiritual practice and has no place in the church. Do you think that Hindus who practice yoga are doing it to attain rock hard abs? The answer is clearly no. The purpose is spiritual. It is not just the meditations; but many of the postures used are a form of sun worship. Does that sound Christian to you? If you do not believe me than this newspaper article called "Is Yoga Debased by Secular Practice" should prove it. After you have read the article please click the link at the bottom of the page to return for my comments.

*****************

The description of Yoga is contradictory with Christianity, "Its practice strives to unite the individual soul with the "greater soul" of the universe..." The response from Christians who practice Yoga state that they do not use the meditations normally associated with Yoga. However, the meditations are not the only problem. "It is a whole series of ritual appreciations to the sun, being thankful for that source of energy." To think of it as a mere physical movement is tantamount to "saying that baptism is just an underwater exercise..." Can't Christians find another form of exercise to use then one that is clearly connected to eastern religions? Even the Hindus in the linked article are stating that it is a Hindu religious practice and to stop pretending that it isn't a Hindu religious practice! They seem a bit upset don't they?...

Read entire article at Brian Flynn's One Truth Ministries website...

Emerging Church Deception Blog