T.D. Jakes

[Dee]

Dee

I suffer from rhematiod arthirtis so I know how important it is to do things that help you to keep healthy and fit. I do basic stretches I learnt in aerobics. As a professional singer I have practiced breathing exercises to increase the lung capacity and strengthen the diaphram. Both have no connection to any Eastern Religious practices.

Now I am not saying don't do Yoga what so ever or anything else of the kind. I did for a while dabble in Tai Chi until I discovered that the actual movements were in fact not just an exercise but part of a worship ceremony for various dieties. Knowing that they several exercises in a particular order did mean something spiritually I felt I was participating in the worshiping of demons, so I stopped.

Now Yoga is similar to Tai Chi. While you may not be chanting or meditating the breathing and stretch movements were primarily devised for spiritual enlightenment not healthy bodies. Having a healthy body is part of their spiritual journey. I just wanted you to know this so you are aware of what Yoga is primarily devised for. I have included to website addresses which are by Yoga teachers explaining about the use of breathing and stretch movements as the beginning of spiritual enlightenment.

http://www.umsonline.org/Reading/PastIssues/2004/Spring04/Articles/Pranayam.htm

the start of the article at that address is below:-


http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/yoga.htm


Thanks for the info but I've read all the literature on it and I still say using yoga strictly for exercise and stretching without all that new age religious mumbo jumbo is okay. I'm not worshiping demons. I'm stretching out my muscles.

I also have a black belt in Korean style Tae Kwon Do and have been taking Hap Ki Do classes. Strictly for self defense, physical fitness and such. No religious mumbo jumbo about chi and all that jazz. Strictly about defending yourself if you have to and getting good exercise while you're doing it.

[NotForProfit]

Dude, are you reading this wrong?

Statement of Faith...
http://www.thepottershouse.org/v2/content/view/18/32/

"God -There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three manifestations: Father, Son
and Holy Spirit."

Yes, "manifestations." That's part of the problem.

It looks like you have not read the information (http://www.apologeticsindex.org/j11.html) provided by Apologetics Index, the first link Christy posted.

Amongst other things, that information specifically addresses the wording of Jakes' statement -- including you part you just quoted. For instance, it says: "The belief that God exists in three 'manifestations' is called Sabellianism or modalism."

It is not that TD Jakes doesn't know this. He has been made aware of this fact, and therefore he knows that the wording of the belief statement is faulty. That he continues to use that specific wording means that he holds to an unbiblical view of the Trinity.

None of his explanations for his views regarding the Trinity -- including his statement in Christinity Today -- have done anything to take away concerns regarding his beliefs. It would be so simple for him to correct the wording of his Statement of Beliefs. That he does not do so -- even after having been shown how it is incorrect and unbiblical -- means he fully supports an heretical view of the Trinity.

[Hope]

I heard him interviewed many years ago, and "manifestation" is the word he used then as well. He denies the distinct "personhood" of the three members of the Godhead.

Hope

[Tenbear2808]

While you think you might be okay because you dont speak the mumbo-jumbo, you might be interested in what "Hinduism Today" says:

January/February/March, 2006
IN MY OPINION

Yoga Renamed Is Still Hindu

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I challenge attempts to snatch yoga from its roots
By subhas r. tiwari

In the past few months I have received several calls from journalists around the country seeking my views on the question of whether the newly minted "Christian Yoga " is really yoga.



My response is, "The simple, immutable fact is that yoga originated from the Vedic or Hindu culture. Its techniques were not adopted by Hinduism, but originated from it." These facts need to be unequivocally stated in light of some of the things being written to the contrary by yoga teachers. The effort to separate yoga from Hinduism must be challenged because it runs counter to the fundamental principles upon which yoga itself is premised, the yamas (restraints) and niyamas (observances). These ethical tenets and religious practices are the first two limbs of the eight-limbed ashtanga yoga system which also includes asana (postures), pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (sense withdrawal), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (contemplation/Self Realization). Efforts to separate yoga from its spiritual center reveal ignorance of the goal of yoga.



I believe such efforts point to a concerted, long-term plan to deny yoga its origin. This effort to extricate yoga from its Hindu mold and cast it under another name is far from innocent. It is reminiscent of the pattern evident throughout the long history and dynamics of colonizing powers. Firstly, the physical geography of a people was colonized, then their mental arena. Now we are witnessing the next phase, the encroachment on the spiritual territory of Hinduism which began in the last few decades. Some of the agents behind "Christian Yoga " also draw from the same treasure chest which supports the conversion movements of Hindus and other sacred cultures.



In 1989, Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Ratzinger, issued a scathing report against yoga and warned Catholics of "dangers and errors " from "non-Christian forms of meditation." He stated, "The Hindu concept of absorbing of the human self into the divine self is never possible, not even in the highest states of grace." In 2003, the Vatican issued a more conciliatory directive permitting Catholics to engage in the "New Age " in general and yoga specifically, but still warning against its spiritual and meditation practices. "I want to say simply that the New Age presents itself as a false utopia in answer to the profound thirst for happiness in the human heart. New Age is a misleading answer to the oldest hopes of man, " said Cardinal Paul Poupard. This document gives its blessings for Catholics to practice yoga, but not as a spiritual discipline!



Today, however, we are witnessing an initiative toward yoga from ordinary Christians whose positive physical, mental and spiritual heath and well being experienced as a result of "engaging " yoga cannot be denied or ignored. This 5,000-year-old system is perhaps the best known, most accessible and cost effective health and beauty program around. Yoga is also much more, as it was intended by the Vedic seers as an instrument which can lead one to apprehend the Absolute, Ultimate Reality, called the Brahman Reality, or God. If this attempt to co-opt yoga into their own tradition continues, in several decades of incessantly spinning the untruth as truth through re-labelings such as "Christian yoga, " who will know that yoga is--or was--part of Hindu culture?



The giant tree of yoga whose limbs reach high up into the different atmospheres, and whose branches stretch across the wide river offering its protection to so many, cannot deny that its roots are located in a specific place Hinduism. Seeking shelter under its vast umbrella does not entitle you to change the tree; instead, learn from its unselfish display of love and generosity.

Subhas R. Tiwari is a professor at the Hindu University of America. He is a graduate of the famed Bihar Yoga Bharati University with a master's degree in yoga philosophy.

Disclaimer:
I do not subscribe to this magazine, nor am or have been involved in Yoga or stuff like that. I remembered having read something about this in a secular newspaper or hearing it on a Christian program that was trying to inform people on the dangers of thinking by trying to pick and choose what they want from any religion and sorta create their own little version of Christianity they would be safe and not practicing anything against their belief.
I think the point most people miss is that your beliefs are a lifestyle not a religion. And if you live it , you are it. IMHO

[Berean Girl]

And we would do well to put aside "what I do or what I think" and rather do "What God says or thinks":

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

Proverbs 15:32
He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, But he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.

Proverbs 27:5
Open rebuke is better Than love carefully concealed.

Ecclesiastes 7:5
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise Than for a man to hear the song of fools.

2 Corinthians 6:14
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

Ephesians 5:11
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22
21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

Colossians 2:8
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

1 John 1:5-7

Fellowship with Him and One Another

5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

[Mentat]

Sabellianism
Heretical teaching denying the doctrine of the Trinity

Sabellianism was an attempt to solve the problem of how to accept the deity of Christ and also maintain the unity of God. Sabellians achieved this at the expense of a trinity of persons in the Godhead. They reduced the status of the persons to modes or manifestations of the one God. The term is frequently coupled with the word 'monarchy' to denote the primacy of God as the Father.

The Son and the Holy Spirit are thus revelatory and apparently temporal modes of God the Father's self-revelation...

Dr. Samuel Mikolaski, professor of Historical Theology and Christian Heritage at North American Baptist Seminary, "The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church" J.D. Douglas ed., pp.870-871

All cults and heresy begin with a misunderstanding of the nature and character of God.