Human fingerprints in the Bible - mythical creatures

The Authorized Bible has nine verses where the word “unicorn” appears. These are the following:

Numbers 23:22, God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. (Wild ox, NIV)

Numbers 24:8, God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. (Wild ox, NIV)

Deuteronomy 33:17, His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they arethe thousands of Manasseh. (Wild ox, NIV)

Job 39:9-10, Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? (Wild ox, NIV)

Psalm 22:21, Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. (Wild ox, NIV)

Psalm 29:6, He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. (Wild ox, NIV)

Psalm 92:10, But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. (Wild ox, NIV)

Isaiah 34:7, “ And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.” (Wild ox, NIV)

Similarly, the authorized Bible has four instances where the cockatrice is mentioned. A cockatrice is a mythical chimeric beast with the body of a serpent, dragon wings, and roosters torso.

They, of course, don’t exist.

However, people medieval England believed them to exist and put them into both the Authorized Bible and the Wyclef Bible.

Isaiah 11:8, And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.

Isaiah 14:29, Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

Isaiah 59:5, They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

Jeremiah 8:17, For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which willnot be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

These are generally translated as generic vipers in more modern versions.

A common response to this objection is that these words appear only in certain English translations. In essence, these creatures are not found in the original manuscript, but only show up with translations, which aren't "God-breathed."

That may work for unicorns and cockatrices, but does not work for the Leviathan.

The Leviathan is described as a natural creature with double coat of armor. (Job 41:13). It has a mouth full of fearsome teeth and its back has rows of shields.(v. 14-15). It has flesh folds which are tightly joined and immovable. (v.23)

Despite a description of its natural "flesh", nothing like this exists in the natural world. The following are other descriptions of this same creature (v. 18-21)

Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn. 

Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.

Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.

Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth.

Certain translations also mention this creature elsewhere. Notably the Authorized Bible while others refer to at as sea serpent. Notably,  Psalm 74:14 describes it as having multiple heads. "Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness."

Likewise, the description of having meat which can feed people reinforces the notion that this thing exists in the natural world.

It does not. It is a fire-breathing, multi-headed sea serpent. No creature matching this description has ever been found.

To save textual inerrancy, we must either state the the Leviathan is supernatural, but is metaphorically natural with meat and flesh. Or, we must declare the supernatural aspects of it are metaphorical and the physical descriptions speak of a natural creature, say a crocodile.

Either way, we must confront the fact that all descriptions cannot be literally true.

Human fingerprints in the Bible - a flat earth

Passages in the Bible support the idea that the Biblical authors believed the earth to be flat and supported by pillars.

The phrase "ends of the earth" appears 46 times in the NIV Bible. Something flat has “ends”. A sphere does not.

Here's a sample of the phrases:

Job 28:24 "for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens."

Psalm 61:2, "From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

Psalm 135:7, "He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses."

Revelations 7:1 describes the earth as having corners. It states, “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.”

 

Not only that, but evidence that the earth was flat and supported by pillars. See, Isaiah 41:5, stating, “ the ends of the earth tremble.”

Job 26:11 describes a different planet than the one we're familiar with. On this planet, the heavens are supported by pillars. 

Other passages mention the pillars that support the earth:

Psalm 75:3, “when the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm”.

1 Samuel 2:8, “For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; on them he has set the world.”

 Job 9:6, states, “he shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble.” 

Psalms 18:7 states, “the earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook”

Psalm 82:5, “ They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.” 

Psalm 104:5, “he set the earth in its foundations; it can never be moved.”

Human fingerprints in the Bible - Geocentric Orbits (part 1)

The Bible seems to teach, or at least validate, geocentricity. 

Geocentric orbit is the theory that all heavenly bodies (i.e., the sun, moon, the planets, and all the stars) revolved around the earth. This was the popular (if not universal) understanding worldwide until the invention of the telescope.

Galileo had a telescope and could see that moons revolved around Jupiter, not earth. Plus, he could also discern phases of planets in relation to the sun.

Galileo pieced it all together and figured that the rotation of the nearby planets around the sun comprised the solar system. This is known as heliocentricity. Therefore, the quick movement of the heavenly bodies in the sky in one night is caused by the rotation of the earth. Their slower movement across the background stars is caused by their movement around the earth, as perceived from earth.

If God created the world and universe, then God should know about this. However, the Bible makes no mention of this. If God fully wrote the Bible, then it should. Or, it should disavow geocentric orbits

Instead, it seems to validate the geocentric perspective. Let’s examine a few passages.

In Genesis 1:16-18, God creates the sun, moon, and starts and puts them in the sky. This assumes that the sky is a fixed medium in which light sources can be embedded. I think of rhinestones being glued to a disco jacket. Well, both the rhinestones and disco jacket are fixed media.

In actuality, these heavenly bodies were never "put" in our sky. If they were “put” anywhere, they were put very far away from the earth. For example, the sun was "put" 93 million miles away from earth. From there, its light pierces our sky.

From the perspective of humans without any knowledge of this, it is understandable to then say that the sun was 'put' in our sky.

In another passage, Job 26:9, it states that "he covers the face of the full moon, spreading clouds over it." We know that this is physically impossible, given that the moon is 300,000 miles from the earth, which is far beyond the altitude of clouds. So, we are constrained to read this passage metaphorically.

However, if a person literally believed the sun, moon, and stars were embedded in the sky, then this passage makes literal sense. The clouds physically cover the full moon, as perceived on earth without the basic astronomy that we take for granted today.

Nonetheless, on a literal level, it is consistent with a view that the heavenly bodies are embedded in our sky and rotate around.

Further support that the Biblical authors believed in the geocentric orbit comes from other passages as well.

Joshua 10 recounts a famous story whereby Joshua prays for the sun to “stop”. Verse 13 tells us the “sun stood still and the moon stopped”. Well, the sun has always been stationary it's the earth that rotates.

First Chronicles 16:30 states that the “world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.” Psalm 96:10 also says the phrase, “The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved”.

Psalm 104:5, “he set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.” Ecclesiastes 1:5, “the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurried back to where it rises.”

These are all consistent the human perspective that the sun and planets revolve around a stationary earth.

Human finger-prints and Biblical prophesy (part 2)

The idea that the apostles believed that “End Times” would be within their lifetime is confirmed in numerous other passages. Let’s examine a couple.

Acts 2

The Holy Spirit came upon the people at Pentecost. Bystanders accused them of being drunk, so Peter, quoting Joel 2, states, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

Note, Peter used the phrase “last days.” In common parlance, “last” means final. It suggests that there is (or was) an end coming.

But that was 2,000 years ago. Right?

A common pushback from inerrantists is to redefine the phrase.

For example, I’ve heard it explained as such, “when the Bible uses the phrase ‘last days’, it refers to a final era. This ‘final era’ was implemented at the resurrection.”

A similar perspective is echoed in the following sentiment. “From God‘a perspective, where a ‘single day is but a thousand years,’ the last 2000 years were but a handful of days.”

There are three things wrong with this.

First, Peter does not give any of these explanations in his monologue in his explanation that it was a fulfillment of Joel. So, why read that in?

The question is rhetorical. It’s necessary to save the doctrine of inerrancy. 

Second, Peter’s quote of Joel also includes Jesus coming in on a cloud. This would only make sense if Peter believed the pouring of the Holy Spirit was linked to the second event. Not just any link, but an expectation. For the people at the Acts 2 Pentecost, they should expect to see Jesus on a cloud.

After all, Jesus told them that it would happen in “this generation.”

Third, and this will require more explanation, but these is other evidence that the apostles believed that all things would pass in the timespan of “this generation.”

Human finger-prints and Biblical prophesy (part 1)

 I’ve heard it said that there are 1,800 fulfilled prophecies in the Bible. This, supposedly, points to the full divinity of the Bible. 

Such claims generally make my eyes roll. They generally fake ambiguous statements in the Bible, find something in history, and in retrospect claim that the ambitious statement was actually a prediction. Or, there might be a partially correct prophecy.

This post is about the latter involving several a famous partially correct prophecy.

Now, a partially correct prophecy is still a very big deal. That’s impressive. That gives weight to the divine inspiration behind the message. However, it also reveals the human fingerprint at play.

“Not one stone on another” 

From Mark 13:1-2, we read the following “As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!””Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

This is usually understood as a prediction of the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. This occurred several decades later in 70 A.D. The temple itself was completely destroyed. However, a portion of a retaining wall on the temple mount remains today, and goes by the name Western Wall. 

So, this prediction by Jesus is pretty accurate if we strictly narrow it to “buildings” and not expand that to mean anything with stones. An expansive interpretation is suggested by Jesus saying “not one stone here will be left on another.”

But here is the plainly inaccurate part. Jesus also predicts that the destruction of Jerusalem will coincide with a greater world changing apocalypse. This will all happen during “this generation” as stated in verse 30, “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”

So, what are the things that we’re supposed to have happened during “this generation?” The list is long, but I’ll focus on the things that did not happen before A.D. 70:

Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. (V. 6)

And the gospel must first be preached to all nations (V. 10)

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (V. 22)

But in those days, following that distress, “‘the sun will be darkene and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky   and the heavenly bodies will be shaken (v. 24-25), (note, this appears to be a quote from Isaiah 13:10’

At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. (V. 26)

And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heaven (v. 27)

These events did not occur before the passing of “this generation.”

So, either Jesus got it wrong or the Gospel of Mark recorded Jesus’ words wrong. 

Now, people trying to save Biblical inerrancy try to separate the predictions in the passage into two. This is the destruction of Jerusalem and the End Times. The former occured before the passing of “this generation”, while the latter did not.

The problem with that is that the passage does not separate these into two separate predixctions. Instead, they are complelty intertwined and V. 30 has a clear declaration from Jesus that all these things must occur before “this generation” passes.

God-breathed (part two)

The creative pattern continues.

Still on day three, after God calls forth vegetation from the land. "Then God said, 'Let the land produce vegetation:seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.' And it was so." (v. 11).

On day four, God calls forth other lights from the vault of the sky. "'Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.' And it was so." (v. 14-15). These included the sun, moon, and stars. (v. 16-18).

Note, we know today these things are not actually lights made within the “vault” surrounding the earth. Rather, the moon is 300,000 miles away and only reflects light from the sun. Likewise, sun is its own solar body 93 million miles away. The stars are similar but all beyond the Milky Way. Their light does but emanate from our atmosphere, but rather pierces it after a very long journey to Earth.

Nonetheless, the author(s) of Genesis 1 maintains this creative pattern that God builds on what already exists to make something new.

On day five, God called forth living creatures from both the water and air. "And God said, 'Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.'" (v. 20). This happened. (v. 21).

On the sixth day, God called forth living creatures from the land. "'And God said, 'Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.' And it was so." (V. 24).

Man and woman are also made. (v. 27). No other detail about the source materials from mankind is given in this narrative. The narrative in Genesis 2 does specify some details.

On the seventh day, nothing material is created.  God rests and institutes the seventh day sabbath. We can say that the creation of the sabbath rest builds on the creation of time and days, the latter being created on day 4. However, the narrative of the first three days ignore the discrepancy that days are created before the sun to mark it as a day. Nonetheless, the creative pattern of building upon prior foundations remain.

The Creation narrative of Genesis 2 follows the same pattern. "Then the Lord God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (v. 7)

Man is formed from the ground. There is no direct speaking creation which was the pattern in Genesis 1, but God breaths into man "the breath of life."

Man was lonely, prompting God to declare, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (v. 18).

In this account, wild animals and birds are created from the ground. "Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky." (v. 19).

But none of these were suitable for man. So, God created woman. 

However, he removes a rib from man to do so. From this rib, woman is formed. "Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man." (v. 22). 

I guess men won't miss that rib. Presumably, this rib also had the 'breath of life', as the text is silent as to breathing it into woman. 

Regardless, the cycle of creation from prior foundations is established. 

As an overall pattern, something more complex and beautiful emerges. The exceptions are the creation of the Sabbath on day 7 and creating terrestrial and avian wildlife after mankind in Genesis 2. This includes birds, which were created on day 4, not 6 in the narrative of Genesis 1.

Notwithstanding that, the prior creation becomes a building block from which God builds the next thing.

And the next.

And the next.

Each time, God fully incorporates substance of the prior foundational creation. It is not perfected, but amplified in sophisticated arrangement.

This is God-breathed.

God-breathed (part one)

As noted other posts, many Christians interpret the phrase "all Scripture is God-breathed" to mean the entire Bible is infallible on a literal level. Thus, a "God-breath" was perfectly received and understood by the Biblical author.

I, of course, do not share that view. For the reasons explained below, I don't think this perspective is a teaching of the Bible.

Rather, God invariably begins with starting materials which are raised to something far better. Yet, the limitations of the starting material are never overlooked. Instead, they are incorporated and made something more beautiful. 

This is a repeated pattern throughout the Bible and confirmed by nature. This pattern is so strong that I think it is a central teaching of the Bible, and perhaps overlooked by the Sola Scripture crowd. Yet, it is central unifying aspect of the Holy Spirit and Jesus.

So, let's dive into what I'm talking about.

"Now the earth was formless and empty and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water." (Genesis 1:2-3, NIV).

This is the familiar quote. Creation (or recreation) has not begun. God does not begin from nothing, but uses a primordial earth. This is described as "formless", "empty", and "darkness was over the surface of the deep." The only recognizable attribute is "water."

From there, Creation (or recreation) begins in verse 4 with "let there be light". It is this light that is called "good" and is then separated from darkness to make day and night. Note, God does not explicitly call any other prior attributes - formless, empty, darkness, or water - as evil, or bad. Perhaps they are inferred as such in a perpetual and infinite state if that is all that existed.

Regardless, darkness is made to cooperate with light to make the daily cycle, which most certainly is good,

The same happens with water in verse 6. Water is separated by a vault to form lower sea and the upper echelon water. Sky is in between as "God called this vault 'sky'".

Note, the ancients likely believed that water encircled the earth, as the sky was blue and rain came from it, which the Bible calls the windows of heaven.

Regardless, the primordial waters are not inherently evil, but become building blocks of something greater and better. The planet earth is forming.

In fact, God seas a greater potential within the depths of the chaotic waters. This happens on day 3, where God gathers all the waters to one place to make land. (v. 10). This, too, is called good.

God is constructing something beautiful out of something chaotic, formless, and likely ugly to look at. But each time, the primordial building blocks are utilized, they are not discarded. They are transformed.

Let's shift to natural history and we can see other similar patterns.

Fifteen billion years ago, matter, as we know it, did not exist. Instead, the primary element in the cosmos was hydrogen. They combined together, a process that released countless fires around the universe. In these fires, the hydrogen atoms merged with others, and more, and yet more.

Their nuclei clumped together and formed every element of the periodic table. This process today we call 'nuclear fusion' and it still occurs today, in our sun and every star in the night sky.

We are literally all stardust. I'm sure God gets a kick out that. As we look at the sun or night stars, and see their beauty, God saw us in stellar fires of the ancient cosmos.

God called forth matter from the heart of the sun. God assembled all that is from these stars. God did not leave these very, very large clumps of hydrogen alone. But God saw the potential in their re-organization and just it all on fire.

For billions of earths.

Roughly one billion years ago, life, we know it, did not exist on earth. Instead, the precursors of like, unattached organic molecules floated in a primordial ooze that covered the earth. You can say that life was formless, empty, and water covered the deep.

Somehow, I don't know, maybe God used electric sparks, but they formed larger and larger molecules. Eventually, enough of them formed a porto-cellular organelle, perhaps a DNA molecule or maybe a photosynthetic piece of chlorophyll. These eventually combined with other cellular organelles to create the first full cell. These in turn cooperated with others to form multi-cellular organisms.

But at each level, the full potential of the prior building blocks are valued and incorporated into something larger, more complex, and beautiful.

God does not forget the starting materials, but shows their potential. The "fingerprints" of this process remains today. For instance, every mitochondria in your body has its own DNA set. A likely product of evolutionary cooperation where mitochondria were once independent organisms that joined a cell a which needed it.

The same happened with chloroplasts and their incorporation into plants and photosynthetic bacteria.

Many Christians balk at evolution. I see the fingerprint of God. It is a beautiful story. One retold in the Bible itself.

(to be continued)

The Apostolic Hedge

There are verses that Christian fundamentalists use to support inerrancy and full divinity of the Bible.

The one that I have heard the most most common is 2 Timothy 3:16. The verse states, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (NIV).

When cited, this verse is also used to support the literalism of the Bible. If the claim were the Bible were inerrant and metaphorical, then most people, including myself, would likely not object.

However, since the claim of Biblical inerrancy is conjoined with literalism, that creates problems. 

The Bible has plenty of clues to avoid this problem

The first is the Bible debates itself. For instance, if you were a first century Christian and wanted to know should you eat meat that was offered before idols, the Apostles themselves disagree. The Apostle Paul thought it was fine (1 Cor. 8), but Peter and John disapprove (Acts 15 and Rev. 2, respectively). John even calls it a “sin” to do so.

Other verses go straight against the notion that “God-breathed” means an inerrant, fully divine Biblical text. There are numerous “Apostolic Hedges,” where the Apostles themselves admit their own humanity.

One numerous occasions, the Apostle Paul admits that he is speaking of his own personal opinion, and not of a divine utterance that is channeled though him. These include 1 Cor. 7:6-7, 12 and 2 Cor. 11:17. For instance, in 1 Cor. 7:25, he states, "Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy." (NIV).

This verse is incompatible with the idea that "all Scripture is 'God-breathed'" means all verses were originally dictations from God, which the human author merely recoded. In fact, such a notion would mean that the Apostle Paul is lying or misunderstands that it an actual command from God. 

But let's move on. 

The Apostle Paul goes further to discount perfect knowledge in spiritual matters. In 1 Corinthians 13:12, he writes, “ For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part”.

The Ancient Romans had glass, but it wasn’t the kind of clear glass that we know today. All glass (at least that which survived) was dark. It transmitted some light, but was distorted. Nothing was clear.

Here, Paul admits to a distorted, unclear spiritual sense and fully admits having an incomplete knowledge. This should include whether he is receiving a perfect dictation from God.

These Apostolic Hedges aren't limited to the Apostle Paul, but goes to the entire church of Jerusalem, including the Apostle Peter. This occurred at the Council of Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15.

Verse 28 states, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements.”

“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” Just dwell on that.

They are not claiming it is entirely from God. In fact, they specifically acknowledge the human element in it.

This level of humility is very refreshing. How many times do we hear pastors quote the Bible as if you disagree, then you disagree with God?

Fingerprints - divine or human? Or both?

I have a had a long and ongoing spiritual journey. I've come to recognize the spiritual power of the Bible, but also its humanity. 

It has both human and divine fingerprints.

You know what? So does Biblical interpretation and everything else that happens with the church. That, too, has elements of both divinity and humanity.

Many people tend to think the Bible is one or the other - fully divine or fully human. 

One problem with the fully divine camp is that it can lead to Bibliolatry, i.e., the worship of the Bible. This is a logical conclusion deriving from the claim of literal inerrancy. For if the Bible were perfect, doesn't that make it God?

A second problem with absolute divinity stems from this. For when people in this camp start seeing human fingerprints in the Bible, then they might lose their faith in God. After all, they were told not to expect any human fingerprints whatsoever. So when they appear, the Bible falls and drags down God.

This shouldn't be a surprise.

On the flip side, the fully human camp does not recognize the divinity of the Bible. More than likely, it also fails to recognize the divinity of the Church, or the Spirit at work today. I think this is an understandable, but tragic consequence, as the Spirit is foundational for the fullness of life. 

Yes, I believe in miracles.

One focus of this blog is to explain my rationale for these beliefs.

I hope you come along.

Yoga and demons (supposedly)

I recently saw a posting on FB about a person who argued that Christians should not do yoga.

The reasoning is that Yoga is a spiritual practice intertwined with Hinduism. So, if a Christian practiced Yoga, then he or she opened the door to the Hindu gods (I.e., demons) coming inside them. The same applied if one did parts of Yoga, opening shakras.

The example of proof of this was anecdotal. Specifically, the author had a handful of healing prayer encounters with Christian Yoga practitioner who had demonic pain. This was relieved when the people renounced Yoga in combination with Christian prayer.

Let’s unpack this.

First, if Yoga opened the door to demonic pain, then this should be far more evident and widespread. There are so many practitioners of Yoga. I’ve done a bit of it myself a few years back. 

The evidence seems point the other way, that Yoga relieves pain by stretching and loosening the muscles and ligaments. This is a good health practice.

Second, there is a Biblical debate that’s weirdly on point - eating food offered before idols.

Food offered before idols, it was believed, empowered the food with the presence of deity before whom the food was offered. So, if a person infested the food, doesn’t that person “allow” the deity into themselves? This viewpoint is articulated in 1 Cor. 8:7, where Paul writes, “Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.”

Hey, aren't you just inviting demons to literally defile you? This article on Yoga makes a similar point.

Well, the Apostles disagreed about this. The Council of Jerusalem, led by Peter, declared that people should abstain from food polluted by idols. (Acts 15:20). The Apostle John articulated a similar position. He refers to it as a sin taught by Balak and Jezebel (Rev. 2:14, 20).

The Apostle Paul took a strong stance and says these people have a weak conscience. (1 Cor. 8:7). He explains that, “But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.”

In and of itself, Yoga poses do not bring people closer to God. I hedge, as I think there is a spiritual link of mind and body. A healthier body will have a healthier spirit. 

But is it spiritually defiling? The first point above undercuts that it spiritually defiles people.

Third, let’s take an entirety different viewpoint. This will actually The subtext of the author’s perspective is one of the superiority of Christianity over Hinduism. The gods of Hinduism are actually demons as they latch on to you with the Hindu practice of Yoga. Or, restated, no part of Jesus can be found in Yoga.

This is a classic viewpoint of Christian exclusivity and superiority. It can lead to very unhealthy and unloving results. Many of the problems of Christianity stem from a warped sense of good and evil in the world. This emanates from believing themselves to have moral and spiritual superiority and “nonchristians” are morally and spiritually inferior.

I will unpack this in later posts.

Demons enjoy Christian judgmentalism. That needs to be considered in claims like Yoga brings in demons.

Desert Spring

The title is inspired by the story of Hagar and Ishmael's exile into the desert. Sara banished Hagar after the birth of Isaac, the child of Abraham and Sara.

Hagar and Ishmael found refuge by a desert spring. There, an angel of the Lord came to Hagar and encouraged her.

Deserts are beautiful, but dangerous and wild places. Like Hagar, sometimes we are forcibly exiled into them. Sometimes, we choose them as a refuge as we cannot stay where we were.

They can also be places of spiritual transformation. If you go into one, let it transform you and teach you wisdom, growth and maturity.

For many people have found themselves in a desert. Some are forcibly exiled by their spiritual community. Others seek refuge from their spiritual community.

This blog is dedicated to those people, whether they currently find themselves in a spiritual desert, or have been transformed by one.