Once again Oprah has offered yet another philosophy for success as she featured her friend Russell Simmons, the author of Do You! In his just released book, he offers 12 laws of achieving success. He states that it is through yoga and listening to your inner voice that you can achieve a deep spiritual connection. However, the interesting twist to his philosophy is that you can achieve this power through Muhammad, Buddha, God or your choice of a higher power. Christians must beware not to fall into the trap of following this post-modern philosophy because it is in direct opposition to the Scriptures.
Sadly, many have fallen prey to speakers that mention the word prayer or god associating those words with being a Christian. Russell Simmons used these same words in his interview with Oprah, but he does not represent Christianity. He claims to listen to the inner voice inside, yet this is not what the Bible teaches. Jesus says to “teach all that I have commanded”[1], as well as “sanctify them with my word”[2]. In other words, Christians do not rely on spiritual feelings of an inner voice, but instead the reading of His word. It is through the reading of the Word that God has given every principle for life and godliness.
Simmons also suggests that through yoga there is a process that clears the mind in order to centralize on your higher power. However, this is also in disagreement with the Word of God. Instead the Bible says to meditate on God’s law. Joshua was commanded “not to let the book of the law depart from his mouth; meditate on it day and night”[3]. The Psalms calls the believer to meditate on God’s Word all day long and Romans urges the believer to stop conforming to the world and be transformed by having the mind of Christ. The believer is not called to empty the mind, but to fill it with the Word of God.
Unfortunately, Simmons also suggests an egalitarian view regarding Buddha, Muhammad and God. However, Buddha and Muhammad never rose from the dead nor did they have a ministry in comparison with Christ. Jesus came to save His people, rose from the dead and stated “I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me”.[4]
The recent book by Simmons calls people to empty their minds and connect with their inner higher power, but God is calling His own to have the mind of Christ and live according to all He has commanded. Turn off the T.V., quit searching through the latest philosophy turn to God’s Word and you will find the hope and peace that passes all understanding.
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 1:8)
Deanna
[1] Matthew 28:18
[2] John 17:17
[3] Joshua 1:8
[4] John 14:6
Deanna,
Great article….thanks for keeping everyone up-to-date on recent philosophies that receive such a massive platform.
Could you go into a bit more details about the differences between the idea of Yoga’s ‘clearing of our mind’s….’ and Christianity’s meditation? The only difference I could conclude was on which ‘book’ or ‘philosophy’ one chose….why is one correct or better over the other?
Roger
Hi Deanna,
I thought your article was good too, but was left wondering about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives and is Christianity really about following the rules in the Bible, or is it about something else?
I’m a friend of MJ’s by the way, who likes playing the devils advocate a bit too much 🙂
Rick
I’ve been reading a book called ‘The Shack’ that is worth reading if you have ever had deeply painful experiences that caused you to question the goodness of God. Anyway, I thought this excerpt would be relevant to my question.
‘In seminary he [Mack] had been taught that God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them only listen to and follow sacred Scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God’s voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerners’ access to God was mediated and controlled by the intelligentsia. Nobody wanted God in a box, just God in a book. Especially one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was that guilt edges?’
Roger,
Sorry for the delay in replying the tardiness was due to finals week.
Thanks for the good question.
You are correct by calling them two separate philosophies. Yoga is often related to Hinduism but has taken shape in many religions and now Christians are practicing a Yoga. I would like to concentrate on the Yoga spoke of on Oprah. The author Simmons is obviously a universal believer meaning all roads lead to God. Yoga is actually much broader than one simple exercise, instead it had a foundation branches into six different schools. However, the basic philosophy is for self realization and transformation in order to guide a person to their fullest potent ional. Filomena Adversa puts it this way “Through the eight limbs one can attain the goal of perfection and expand knowledge of one’s microcosmic connection to the wisdom of the greater macrocosmic of life.” Christianity breads a different philosophy and I will just list a couple.
1. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Pro. 1:7)”. This is having an understanding of who God is. Yoga is about self actualization and understanding who you are and meditating for wisdom but Christianity is about understanding God.
2. So how can we understand God? Romans 12:1-2 says to renew our mind. So what does that look like? This is to pursue the mind of Christ. Jesus said “for the words which you gave me I have given to them” and that it is through His Word that we know wisdom and truth “Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth”(John 17:17). II Peter tells us that God has given us everything for life and godliness, therefore by reading His Word; we can understand His desires and path for our lives.
Basically, it is through God’s Word that we learn truth, wisdom and His desires for our life not through self actualization and our inner lives of meditation. Meditation in the Word requires time spent reading and sitting with God not doing a back bend. Hope this helps, if not then let me know.
Thanks again for taking the time to help others understand the clarifications in such a limited space of writing.
Press on in the faith,
Deanna
Rick,
Thank you so much for asking the question regarding the Holy Spirit. Sorry for the delay in replying, I was in the midst of finals.
You are right the Holy Spirit plays a huge role and I would not deny that the Spirit leads in conversations and prompts thoughts. However, let’s look at the role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to “guide in all truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever he hears. He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you” (John 14:13-14). So, what is the truth He will deliver to us? Jesus said “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth” (John 17:17)” Therefore, the Holy Spirit is going to help bring truth, wisdom and understanding through the reading of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is not someone we try to get in touch with through self actualization, but someone that leads us through the pursuit of truth which comes through His Word. The Holy Spirit does lead and prompt in truth, not in an inner seeking meditation, but through God’s Word and prayer.
Run the race well,
Deanna
Rick,
Sadly, the quote you left sounds like the author has dealt with many modern day Pharisees. However, it would be interesting if you would read through the gospel and trace how many times Jesus referred to the Scriptures. Also, read through Psalm 19 and Psalm 119 and write down how many time the Word is referred too. This is the communication God chose to use to communicate to His people and it is up to us to live the life of learning how to love God and others as we would ourselves and by that reflection people will see Christ and not a bound book of leather.
Remember “For the Word of God is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of the soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).
Thanks,
Deanna
Hi Deanna,
Thanks for the reply, I agree 100% that Christian meditation is not about self-actualization. I would submit that it is learning to live in a real relationship with God, and a big part of that is reading scripture but not the only part 🙂
I suppose my concern is that we would fall into the trap of the pharisees and ‘search the scriptures thinking that in them we have eternal life’ (John 5:39-40) forgetting that it is ultimately about a relationship; not with a book, but with the living God.
It is interesting that you would quote Hebrews 4:12 because that has been a scripture that I have been meditating on recently. As I have meditated on it, I was struck by how quickly we take that to mean Scripture, but is it really about Scripture? “For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb 4:12-13) Just a thought 🙂
Have a great week!
Rick
Rick,
…”but is it really about Scripture?”
Hmmmm………there’s some food for thought. Two choices here as I see it:
1) God’s Word (Scripture) is separate from God and not wholly God.
2) God’s Word (Scripture) is God and cannot be separated from God.
The writer of Hebrew’s (yeah, I know; could be a few people, but I choose Paul to make the discussion move along) is talking to the Hebrew people mainly to ‘keep them in check’ so that they would not fall back into judaizing ways. (Did I spell that correctly?) It was so easy for the Hebrew people to fall back into the ways of the Law. Paul wanted them to understand that they needed to find liberty in Christ via the Cross, but also check out the written Scripture to make sure they were doing the will of God. In this, they would find the very freedom Jesus suffered for.
Having said that…..I feel we may be attempting to go down a road that was not intended in the book of Hebrews. Why was it written? To who was it written? It’s intended purposes was to ________________. If we begin reading into the passages too much, we may twist it enough to make it say something it doesn’t say. Thoughts?
Roger 🙂
Rock on.
I’m not sure if you guys caught it or not, but at Oprah’s graduation speech just a few days ago (which aired live on CNN), she frequently used very spiritual language without any connection to God. She kept referring to setting people “free,” and even that one of her students in Africa got “saved” after she found out there was a black historian.
Good game post-modernism. Schaeffer had it right.
Nice post.
Roger,
You could be right that we are going down an unintended road. Hey, if you think I’m not understaning it correctly then please feel free to say so, it won’t offend me. I love to ponder and evaluate things.
Anyway as I understand chapter 4, the writer is saying the the promise of entering God’s rest still stands. We enter that rest by faith (v3) and he encourages the Hebrews to make every effort to enter that rest (by faith) (v11). And the very next verse is the one in question. We have two ways to paraphase this for clarity.
1. Make every effort to enter that rest by faith because the Bible is alive and active and able to judge if you are relying on him or your own work — nothing is hidden from him.
2. Make every effort to enter that rest by faith because Jesus is alive and active and able to judge if you are reling on him or your own work — nothing is hidden from him.
Make sense? Like I said, feel free to correct me if I’m messing something up. Later Dude!
Rick
Now that I have pondered your comment I suppose we could say there is a 3rd option.
3. Make every effort to enter that rest by faith because GodJesusAndTheBible is alive and active and able to judge if you are relying on him or your own work — nothing is hidden from him.
🙂
Rick,
Hmmmmmmmm………
Roger
🙂
Roger,
I know that both Hebrew and James are very Jewish letters. (Given their content you’ve gotta wonder if James wrote in response to Hebrews but anyway…) So, if I were to put the personal pronouns aside in verse 13 then I would assume that the readers were very familiar with the OT use of the phrase ‘word of God’. If you run that phrase through the old testament it’s usually something like ‘the word of God came to’ some person. So I thought hmmm — living; active; comes. Then I put my bible on one side of the room, and I stood on the other and said ‘Come!’, but it didn’t come….. Just Kidding! ;-P
Later!
Rick