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Did any soaking prayer lately? Yoga perhaps? Then you follow a growing trend of Christians who, in the words of US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, “go east” for their spiritual nourishment beyond the Cross.
Unlike the geographical reference in Douglas’ memoire title (“Go East, Young Man”), you would have travelled beyond the US East Coast in your search for spiritual and physical fulfilment, mysticism and – unwittingly perhaps but still – the occult. You would have looked for feelings and exercises originating from the exciting and mysterious East, territory of the gnostic Desert Fathers and the colourful chaos of the Indian subcontinent.
But what can possibly be wrong with prayer? you’ll ask. And yoga is really just exercise, isn’t it?
Well, that remains to be seen.
Before she converted to Christianity, my wife grew up in a staunchly Hindu family, but even her mother stopped her from doing yoga because of the occult aspects of it. And don’t tell a Hindu that yoga can be “just exercise”, or he will be very irritated with you.
As for prayers, new meditative types like contemplative prayer (“lectio divinia”) and “soaking prayer” that please our senses have become popular since the early 1990’s. They form part of so-called ‘New Age Christianity’.
In a blog on the topic, Roger Oakland from the www.understandthetimes.org discernment website points at the dangers of “going east” for someone who takes his faith seriously.
Oakland, of course, wrote what could be considered the benchmark assessment of the phenomenon, titled New Wine and the Babylonian Vine – Last Days Delusion in the Name of Christ.
His conclusion is pretty straightforward (spoiler alert):
‘New Age Christianity’ is an oxymoron.
I have been following the New Age movement even before the phrase New Age movement was coined. In the early 80s, it became apparent to me that Eastern religion was being widely promoted in the West as something new. While New Agers were enthusiastically advocating Yoga, meditation, crystals, spirit guides, and humming mantras as the ways and means to achieve global consciousness and enlightenment, professing Christians I knew could see Satan’s strategy. No Bible-believing Christian would ever fall for such deception!
Time has a way of changing things, doesn’t it?
Today, it is not uncommon to hear about churches promoting “Christian Yoga” for exercise or “Christian” leaders suggesting that the best way to get in contact with God is to enhance one’s prayer life by getting in tune with God through contemplative prayer or lectio divina. What was once described as New Age and the occult is spiritually acceptable now.
What has happened? Has God changed His Word, or have Eastern religious methods been embraced by Christians? Is it possible that Christians have been duped by Satan and lulled to sleep?
Anyone who cares to do the research will find that Eastern religion remains the same. Linking oneself with the universal energy is still the goal. A Christian can believe that Yoga is for health and well being if he or she wants, but the facts have not changed.
The amazing thing to me is how quickly Christianity has been changed in such a short period of time. Why has this happened? Does it have something to do with the Word of God being undermined? It seems to me that Christians have joined hands with the New Age, and we now have a New Age Christianity that the Bible warns us about.
I am reminded of the heavy statements we find in the Old Testament when the children of Israel rebelled against God. For example, this is what we read in Deuteronomy 18: 9-13:
When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
Straying away from God and being led by the gods is an abomination unto God, and it will be judged. There is not one verse in the Bible that supports “New Age Christianity.”
Perhaps it is time for Christians to take the Bible seriously.
http://www.understandthetimes.org/commentary/c130newagechristianity.shtml