Should Christians Practice Yoga?

In the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendego in Daniel 3, the king warned them that if they didn’t worship the idol that he set up, they would be thrown into the blazing furnace of fire, and said, “who is the god who can rescue you from my power?” (3:15). These three godly men didn’t know whether or not God would deliver them from the fire but they were committed to die for Yahweh anyway even though they were richly blessed and had great authority. They were willing to throw that all away so that they would remain faithful to Yahweh. And this was a time before Jesus came to the earth to show us the way of discipleship, of carrying our crosses to follow Him. But having not yet seen this blessed future, they committed themselves to obedience anyway. In their willingness, they went to the edge of shedding blood in their striving against sin (Heb. 12:14).

They didn’t think to themselves, “Oh, I’ll just do this one sin and then ask for forgiveness later.” Or, “I’m just going to perform this outward action to save myself but God knows what is really in my heart.” Because the truth of the matter is: the subjective intent of people’s hearts does not change the objective reality and the objective reality in this situation is, the physical act of bowing down is the same as worshipping another god. It doesn’t matter whether or not their hearts were in it or not. The reality is, this is idol worship.

This same principle applies to yoga. Yoga is not just stretching. The stances are various worship postures to Hindu deities that are a retelling of the story of their gods. It’s not just innocent stretching. They are postures of worship to false gods. And your subjective intent does not change the objective reality. “But,” you may say, “Yoga helps me. It benefits me. It’s good for my body. It makes me feel really good.” Well, what about the Israelites who were worshipping the queen of heaven by burning incense to her? They told Jeremiah, “We are not going to listen to you!” (Jer. 44:16). Because ever since we started burning incense to the queen of heaven, our lives have been good, “we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no disaster, but from the time we ceased to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to offer her drink offerings, we have lacked everything, and through sword and famine we have met our end” (v. 17-18). They put their faith in their past feelings and experiences rather than the word of the Lord. And so, they refused the word that Jeremiah had brought to them. But Jeremiah 17:5 says, “Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind. He makes human flesh his strength, and his heart turns from the Lord.”

First Corinthians 10 says, you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. We know that there are no other gods except the One true God. However, behind every so called god is a demon and I do not want you to become partakers of demons, to have fellowship with them, to entertain them, and give them power (1 Cor. 10). But by practicing these things, you are aligning yourself with the devil and coming into agreement with him. You know what? The demons may actually be blessing you, making you feel good, and be bringing healing to your body. “But why would he do that!?” So that you can continue practicing false religion. That’s why. And the devil doesn’t care about your intentions because your subjective intent does not change the objective reality that yoga is more than just stretching and new age is more than just geological rocks. Understand that any good that the devil brings to your life is ultimately for your harm. His goal is to keep you in an endless cycle of relying on his power and energy to keep you going. And so you keep going back to it like a drug to get your next fix. But in the end, you are not healed. You are still broken.

But don’t just listen to me, listen to those who have come out of yoga and new age and who were once yoga instructors, leaving their careers behind:

How Jesus saved me in Bali on my bathroom floor | New Age to Jesus
THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA

God says, return to me and I will heal your unfaithfulness (Jer. 3:22), “I will not look on you with anger, for I am unfailing in my love” (Jer. 3:11).

I urge you and exhort you to abandon all forms of false worship for the sake of your own soul, for the sake of the sanctity of the church, and for the sake of God’s honor. Consider the example of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendego, and emulate them. These three men had no idea if God was going to help them to deliver them from death but they were obedient anyway. They were willing to die a painful death in their striving after obedience and in their pursuit of honoring God.