Adult Coloring Books and Mandalas, A Warning For Christians

Republished from The Last Hiker

Posted on February 16, 2016 by The Last Hiker

Last week I received a kind gift from a friend. She is one of the godliest people I know. My friend is smart, independent, and she loves the Lord. She is not naive. She is a professional, a leader. She is not a crunchy new-ager. I have known her for 15 years. We are super close.
The gift is a cool and popular new item that many of my other Christian friends have used especially during times of illness. They are popular with cancer patients who just sit all day in hospital beds, bored of Judge Judy.
They are sophisticated versions of what children daily do.
They are nostalgic.
They are adult coloring books.
I see them in Barnes and Noble. I see them in Michael’s Craft Store.
I have seen them in the Christian owned craft store Hobby Lobby.
They are just coloring books.
Innocent.
I have no problem with coloring books. I have kids. We color.
I do have problems with Mandalas though, which happen to be a part of most of these adult coloring books.

So, I just want to give a warning to my sweet Christian friends to stay away from mandalas and I will let you know why.
A mandala is that beautiful circle pattern that looks like it would be impossible to draw free hand. It is also a “spiritual and ritual symbol in Indian religions, representing the universe.  In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a microcosm of the universe.” (Wikipedia).

It is a concentric energy circle.

A mandala is used in tantric Buddhism as an aid to meditation. They meditate on the image until they are saturated by it. They believe that you can merge with the deity by meditating on the mandala. “A mandala is also visualized (dhyana) by the yogin whose aim it is to merge with the deity.”
Focusing on mandalas is a spiritual practice where you merge with “deities”–this practice opens the door to demons.

The thing is, how is the devil going to get Christians to meditate on mandalas?

No Christian would put one in their house and sit and stare at it for an hour, chanting the sacred word!
But if the enemy can get a Christian to stare at a mandala because they are coloring it, he can have them absentmindedly focus their attention on the image and they will unknowingly open up their subconscious to this image in almost the same way.

Mandalas may be used to focus attention, as a spiritual teaching tool, to establish a sacred space or as an aid to meditation or trance induction. (Ritual Objects of Buddhism and Hinduism)

According to the article above about “Ritual Objects of Buddhism and Hindusim,” a mandala is a key tool to practicing a religious ritual, and it opens people up to trances. When you think about how our brains zone out when we color anyways, this makes it even more interesting.

When completed, a mandala becomes a sacred area that serves as a receptacle for deities and a collection point of universal forces. By mentally entering a mandala and proceeding to its center, a person is symbolically guided through the cosmos to the essence of reality. By constructing a mandala, a monk ritually participates in the Buddha’s teachings. (ReligionFacts.com)

The mandala itself is a receptacle for “deities” and “universal forces.” It is not just opening a door to the spiritual realm, it is knocking on the door of a false temple.
If the monk constructing the mandala is participating in a spiritual ritual, what are we doing as we mindlessly trace the shape with a colored pencil and try to keep the pattern balanced with our coloring choices. We are also going through the motions, participating in this ritual without even knowing it.

The process of constructing a mandala is a sacred ritual. It is a meditative, painstaking process that can take days or even weeks to complete. Mandalas are constructed from the center outward, beginning with a dot in the center. With the placement of the center dot, the mandala is consecrated to a particular deity. (ReligionFacts.com)

We need to be aware of what these images are, because they are not just pretty shapes and designs.

Those are the spiritual roots. But how did they come to get associated with coloring books or relaxation?

Well, Carl Jung was a famous Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist in early 20th Century. He founded the school of analytical psychology.  He focused primarily on the study of the integration of the conscious and the unconscious mind.

Jung wrote a book called “Mandala Symbolism.” In this book he introduced the Eastern mandala practice to Western psychotherapy. He began to have his patients create mandalas, to help him identify their emotional disorders. He didn’t look at their tea leaves or read their palms. But he didn’t just believe this was pure science either. Carl Jung was deeply into the occult. He even published a dissertation about the science behind psychic mediums called, “On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena.” Where he sat in and even participated on seances. (The Portable Jung, by Joseph Campbell).
Jung was also seriously involved in practices of alchemy, astrology, studies in mysticism.

So Carl Jung brought the Eastern spiritual ritual of drawing mandalas to Western culture in a “scientific” context.

But how did they end up in our coloring books at Hobby Lobby? Is this purely recreational and relaxing? Is this therapy?

It is a surprising new trend. Even Katie Couric discussed an article about how it has become a craze, and publishers haven’t seen anything like this in 30 years. “Inside the Adult Coloring Book Craze” by Robin Stein.
Is it artistic? Is it therapeutic? Is it stress relieving?
Normal everyday people believe it is just some fun new hobby. But why didn’t they just choose to color with their children, or take an art class? Things that have been around forever?
Why do people want to color in these books with mandalas all over them?
In the article by Stein a mom says,

“I love it,” said Nichole Schmidt, a stay-at-home mom. “It’s very meditative. It gets me away from the kids. And this is my Zen.”

If you go to one of the coloring book websites they will tell you why coloring mandalas are relaxing–“they are energetically alive and promote well-being.”
WHAT?!?!
Go ahead and read from this article by Stephen Vrancken called, “Your Introduction to the Healing Powers of Mandala Coloring.”

About mandala coloring healing

Your Introduction to the Healing Powers of Mandala Coloring Pages

“I awaken to the power of the mandala,
A sacred circle of light and energy,
A pathway to center—to my center and to the universal All,
A channel for healing body, mind, and spirit”

How Do Mandala Coloring Pages Activate the Mandala’s Healing Powers?

Mandalas are used universally to promote healing and other positive states of being. Why? One explanation comes from its very design. The mandala is a circular matrix with a center point—a point from which all things are possible. From this sacred center comes forth infinite possibilities and unlimited potential. When you use your mandala coloring pages, you’re expressing your desires for healing and wellness.
You’re also acknowledging and declaring your own unlimited potential!

He says, that just by using your coloring book you are expressing your interest in the mandala magic, therefore opening yourself up to spiritual outcomes. So even if you are a Christian, he is saying that you are a willing participant in a spiritual activity and essentially “declaring your own unlimited potential.”
He continues . . .

You can think of the mandala as being energetically alive, a means of creating a pathway to a desired state of being. What state of being do you desire to create? Maybe you want to experience inner peace or maybe you simply want to use the circular pattern to express your artistry. For whatever purpose you choose to work with the mandala, know that you can achieve it through mandala coloring.
Imagine yourself with your mandala coloring pages in front of you. All you have to do is set your intention and awaken your mandalas by infusing them with color. It’s that simple and that powerful.
Amazing as it sounds, by simply coloring mandalas, you can accomplish the following:
•    Relax & enhance your meditation
•    Balance your body, your mind, and your spirit
•    Make a spiritual connection
•    Expand your creativity
•    Increase your self-awareness
•    Encourage your self-expression
•    Just have fun, alone or with your friends

So now, he has taken the use of mandalas from a spiritual ritual and transformed it into a New Age form of relaxation on a Sunday afternoon with a glass of iced tea.

How Do You Unlock the Healing Power of the Mandala?
One of the easiest and most effective ways to experience the healing power of the mandala is by using mandala coloring pages.  Why are mandala coloring pages such an effective tool for healing? First of all, coloring is fun and relaxing. It’s an enjoyable way to express your creativity. And, it’s an activity you can fully participate in whether you’re 4 or 94 years old.
Do you want more proof on why you too can easily unlock the healing powers within the mandala coloring pages?
•    There is no right or wrong way to color a mandala.
•    You can color just about anywhere.
•    Coloring lifts your spirits and brings out the child in you.
•    You can color at your own pace.
•    You don’t have to follow any rules when you color.
•    Kids and adults alike enjoy coloring.
•    You know you’re creating a unique work of art.
•    You can share the experience by coloring in groups.
•    It’s affordable.
•    It activates the intuitive genius within you.

So my question when it comes to the whole adult coloring books is this–

Is it really about coloring?

Or is it about spiritual hosts of wickedness sneaking mandalas into our homes and into our subconscious minds?
Is it really about recreation or is it New Age evangelism?
I can color all I want.
But if I do, I am going to get a big fat coloring book of Bible stories.
It isn’t so trendy and cool, but at least it is honest.

*I am not endorsing beer either; I don’t drink alcohol.

Although I am sure many people think beer is more relaxing than a coloring book.

(This meme was just a joke) 

I guess it all comes down to what do you want to practice?
Is it really about coloring pictures?
Would you be willing to stop coloring the mandalas?
I don’t think my friend sinned by getting a coloring book.
I don’t think my friends know that mandalas are wicked sacred objects.
You wouldn’t color pentagrams would you? Upside down crosses? Swastikas?
No–Because you KNOW what they are.
I just want to help get the word out.
But in the end, I am sure that many people will accept it like they did yoga.
God Bless.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12

For More Information:

Meditation: Pathway to Wellness or Doorway to the Occult, by Ray Yungen

What is Yoga?

Reblogged from www.truthbehindyoga.com  

Did you know yoga is not a series of stretches? It is actually an ancient religion with its own god, practices, and doctrine. The poses and breathing are only one aspect of the religion. These components have only recently become popularized, but the religion of yoga has been practiced for thousands of years. 

Yoga means “to yoke.” It is often explained that this means the goal of yoga is to yoke together mind, spirit, and body. But that is not the truth of the term. "Yoga" actually refers to the goal of the practice: to attain "ultimate knowledge" by losing one's sense of self and uniting with the Divine (or Supreme Consciousness, Godhead, or other names depending upon the tradition) in much the same way a drop of water loses itself and becomes one with a body of water, like an ocean or a puddle. 

The term “yoke” also explains the yoking of energies, or spirits, that are invoked to aid in the deepening of practice. These energies are invited into the practitioner and their practice in multiple ways: by the practice of worshiping deities and energies with poses of the body (for example, the sun salutation is a series of movements that pays homage to the sun god), by repeating mantras (each sound, word, and phrase invokes its corresponding spirit), of specific breathing exercises (Ujai breathing is one example, also called “Serpent Breath” or “Breath of Fire”), or by setting the intention to invite the spirit of a specific teacher, loved one, or deity to yoke with the practitioner and help deepen the practice. This is where Christians are encouraged to plug in Jesus and make it a practice for him.

But yoga is not a universal, religiously neutral practice that Christianity can be plugged into, as is being propagated. Yoga is an ancient spiritual pagan practice. The religious doctrine and the practice it outlines are completely opposed to Biblical teachings. Yoga was thought to have been practiced for some time before its religious text, called the Yoga Sutras, were recorded around two thousand years ago. This text explains paths of practices with the final goal of ultimate "freedom" from all attachments and sense of self--of becoming one with god and reaching "ultimate knowledge."

The Lord of the Bible repeatedly and strictly commands against having anything to do with pagan gods. He tells us that they are not gods at all (He is the only real God), but demonic forces disguising themselves as deceptive powers (see Bible). The pagan god of yoga, called Ishvara, is claimed by the Yoga Sutras to be the source of all knowledge (Yoga Sutras, 1.25). This god Ishvara is represented by the symbol and sound of "Om" (1.27). Practitioners are instructed to repeat this name (mantra repetition) to deepen their practice (1.28-29). Practicing the movements of yoga paired with breathing techniques and meditation are also said to deepen the practice (2.46-55). I was taught across varying New Age paths that meditation was necessary to develop in order to "open" oneself and to "progress" on the spiritual path. Yoga is one of these paths. The Yoga Sutras expands on reaching the goal of ultimate knowledge by practicing meditative exercises.

The Yoga Sutras outline a path of sorcery and divination through developing meditation. These practices are repeatedly and adamantly prohibited in the Bible. The Lord reveals that the truth behind these practices is that the "knowledge" and "power" are coming from demonic spirits, often masked to appear as esoteric experiences of light and goodness (see Bible). The Yoga Sutras explain that by following this yogic path, the practitioner can attain special abilities to tell the past and future (3:16, 3.22), discover spirits and communicate with master spirits (3:25, 3:32), enter into another person's body (3:38), levitate (3:40), speak with animals (3.17), discover knowledge of past lives (3.18), read the minds of others (3.19), not feel hunger or thirst (3:30), and other attributions of sorcerers and mediums. According to the Yoga Sutras, mastering of meditation lays the groundwork for these powers and leads to what is called "absolute knowledge of all that can be perceived" (3.5). It states that one can also open oneself to such "supernatural powers" with drugs, mantras, and yoga (4.1).

The possibility of supernatural powers and "wisdom," of earning one's way to ultimate freedom may sound exciting and appealing to some. It is supposed to sound appealing because it is a trap. Demonic forces are behind these supernatural experiences of seeming peace, light, and supernatural knowledge and powers. I both experienced this firsthand and discovered numerous scriptures in the Bible explaining this reality. It is the goal of these powers to keep people separate from the real and living God, the only God--the Lord--who says one can't earn his or her way to freedom no matter how hard he or she may try. It's something the Lord gives freely to anyone as a gift. One simply has to choose to accept by faith that Jesus is who is says he is: the only path, the only Savior, the only God. For more on this, see Salvation. 

What About My Yoga Class?
The yoga we know in yoga studios and gyms is one of the practices along this path outlined in the Yoga Sutras. The path encourages meditation to quiet and open oneself to the spiritual, esoteric realm. Yoga is a movement meditation. See Yoga "For Jesus" and "Exercise Only" for more information.

The New Age Movement -- Beginning in the garden of Eden -- Notes and Outline

Post written and published by Jean-Louis Mondon

What is the New Age Movement (NAM for short)? What are its beliefs?

The NAM does not consist of a single group of people and is not identified by a single set of beliefs or source book like the Bible. Rather, it is a network of organizations that are independent and yet bound together by anti-Biblical religious beliefs. Some of these beliefs are:
    1. Monism: the belief that everything flows out from one divine energy. All is one.
    2. Pantheism: the belief that God is all and all is God, including nature and mankind.
    3. Reincarnation and Karma: explaining good and evil.
    4. Universal religion: all religions are just alternate paths to the same goal.
    5. Personal transformation: a mystic or psychic experience that will usually result in a shift from an “old world” belief system to the realization of the “New Age” belief system.
    6. Planetary vision: the belief that the earth possesses a life in and of itself. New Agers are attempting to realize the notion of a “mother earth” or “Gaia” whose children are assimilated into a religio-socio-political consciousness. They believe that a shift of political power that emphasizes the environment (pollution, acid rain, etc.) will help bring about this planetary consciousness.
    7. New Age eschatology: the belief that a coming world leader or avatar will usher in the New Age. (For a more thorough study , see Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult, George A. Mather and Larry A. Nichols)

In Eccl. 1:9 Solomon stated that, “ There is nothing new under the sun.” The New Age ideas are old, but repackaged in a deceiving look of updated and more sophisticated vocabulary.
With New Age philosophy, Satan is using the same temptation that he used in the Garden of Eden: the promise of “hidden knowledge” (Gnosticism) that will make people be “like God”.

PRINCIPLE: DO NOT ENTER INTO A DIALOGUE WITH SATAN.
• What does God say? In Gen 2:16, “ The Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” It means that they were alive and immortal before eating of the fruit.

• What does Satan say? In Gen 3:1, first, Satan plants a seed of doubt in Eve’s mind by hissing sweetly, “ Did God really say, “ You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” Eve should have stopped him right there, rebuked him with the Word of God like Jesus and run away like Joseph. Then, openly contradicting the word of God, he asserts in verse 4, ” You will not surely die… for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened.”
    • Were their eyes closed before? Certainly not.

Then, Satan further states in the same verse, ” You will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
    • Weren’t they like God already? In which way? Gen 1:27 declares, "So God created man in his own image.”
    • Didn´t they already know good? Absolutely! They knew God as Creator, Father, Provider, Teacher, Master Gardener, to name a few of the ways God related to them. They knew Him whose “ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights.” James I: 16.
    • Did they know evil? No. They had not yet met the father of lies.

So, before the fall, they saw and knew only the good there was, God their father, their creator, the person whose nature and character are absolute, pure and eternal goodness and the source of all that is good according to Gen 1:31 which says that, “God saw all that he had made and it was very good.” 

 

Consequently, the only knowledge that they could gain or acquire was that of a deadly and confusing mixture of good and evil. They fell from the free state of God-consciousness to the state of enslavement that is Self-consciousness which carried to its extreme logical conclusion leads to Self-Realization, the state of having and experiencing the fullness of self in all its ugly rebellion and defiant independence from God and being like its original, perfect model and example, Satan himself.

 

“The acorn doesn´t fall far from the tree”!

It doesn´t get any clearer than this. 
Examine the following statements about the nature and practice of Kriya Yoga and see if you can find any similarity with the account of the first temptation in the garden of Eden. 

This is the primary meaning of Kriya. The involuntary movements caused by the repeated practice of this technique are just the symptoms and results of a deeper involvement with things forbidden by God.  

Kriya Technique Source https://kriya-yoga.com/kriya-technique/ "The teaching of Kriya Yoga is done gradually. It is sectioned into six stages referred to as First Kriya, Second Kriya and so on. The beginner starts with First Kriya. First Kriya is the root, the very foundation which allows for progress through the spiritual path for followers of any religion." Note: (Now, don´t miss this very crucial element of syncretism inherent in Hinduism and present in the apostate ecumenical church [my words added]) It gives access to knowledge of the body, of the Soul and the chakras. It allows for comprehension of the gross body, the astral body and the causal body. Later, after having practized regularly over a period of time and achieved the necessary demanding level of mastery, one can receive second Kriya, and thus progress towards the higher Kriya levels. Describing Kriya Yoga in words has little meaning. A person may truly understand only through practice. If you wish to know what an apple is, a simple description is not enough. Take the fruit, touch it, taste it, then you will really and immediately understand what an apple is. The same goes for Kriya Yoga. The Ultimate Goal The constant practice of iswara pranidhana (practice of breath control in every moment) gives the siddhi (perfection) of samadhi. The incoming breath is î - power, outgoing breath is ra - light, sva - yourself, is between these two. isvara gives life and will fill yourself.  Iswara pranidhana  means that by constantly observing the breath which enters and leaves the body, through practice one will come to the formless state. Then you remain in the divine light enabling yourself to achieve constant nirvana or liberation in your life time. As Jesus Christ said in the Bible: "You can’t see, feel or realize God, but you can be".   Another well researched  article about the religious nature of Yoga : click on the link below:
http://www.arcapologetics.org/articles/article14.htm

Notice that Satan says: Not if you eat, but when you eat. As if it were understood that they were going to do it, that it was only a matter of time. Satan always presents an alluring picture to us, the undeniable pleasure of sin before we discover the very high price we have to pay later for disobeying God.

     • Was the fruit really good or did it appear pleasing to Eve’s eyes? Gen 3:6.
    • How did she know that it was desirable for gaining wisdom? Satan told her.
All she knew about the fruit is what Satan told her, and what she could see with her own eyes. Satan could not give them anything that they didn’t have before the fall, except the knowledge of evil, the disease of sin, the curse of the ensuing fall of all mankind and his destructive, demonic wisdom.

He lied to them - but was it a total lie?
    • What truth was mixed with the lie?
    • Was it true that they were going to know evil? Yes.

Eccl 10:8 states: “He who digs a pit shall fall into it; and whoever breaks a hedge, a snake shall bite him.” (NKJV)

If we are on Satan’s territory, he defines the terms, the rules. We don’t. When he says “you will know”, he doesn’t mean “you will have information about evil, some data to store in your computer memory so that when you see evil you’ll run away from it.”.

Knowing evil on Satan’s terms involves participation, just as knowing God involves participation in His life, His works and the lives of His people.

Satan meant you will know or experience evil in your mind, soul, and body. And in that he was right and true.

    • What does God say about wisdom? Prov 2:6 declares: “It is He who gives wisdom.” Wisdom is not just having knowledge of evil, as Satan said.
Isaiah 11:2 -3 says this about the Lord Jesus: “And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear.” (NAS)

PRINCIPLE: WHEN YOU ARE NOT SURE OF AN IDEA, AN ACTIVITY, STRETCH THE POSSIBILITY OF INVOLVEMENT TO ITS CONCLUSION.
There are 2 trees in the beginning: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
    • 2 kinds of fruits. One gives life, the other death.
    • 2 kinds of choices - one right, one wrong
    • 2 persons:
        1. God, our Father who loves us, wants the best for our lives.
        2. Satan, who is a liar from the beginning, and who seeks to steal, kill and destroy. He wants to take us away from God and His blessings, he wants to take us out of commission instead of being a part of the Great Commission.

The New Age fruit that is so desirable is a change in consciousness through various methods, means, or techniques that will cause one to look at God, the universe and oneself, in a different way. ( Paradgim shift).

Look at Psalm 1., this psalm gives us the general principle of the progression in involvement with sin: walking, standing, sitting. In the case of drugs, it also includes lying down and flying out of one’s mind.

New Age techniques produce the same effect without the help of drugs and deceives people into believing that they have had a spiritual encounter with the source of life. It produces in the adept or devotee a sense of superior self-righteousness due to a false sense of their own purity as they compare themselves to the drug addict or drug user or a christian bible believer. 

However, they have fallen into the bigger trap of Satan which has them bound in their pride which is the first step to anybody’s downfall and destruction.
Look at Gal 6:7: “ Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

If you are asked to accept a new idea or participate in a questionable activity and have any doubt in your heart that it is right remember Romans 14:23 which says: “But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”

As Christians, if we want to know, we can study, and apply the word of life. Deuteronomy 29:29 says: “The secret things belong to the LORD but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

In the beginning there were 2 trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At the end in Rev 22:2: “on each side of the river stood the tree of life.” In the end there is only one tree, the tree of Life. Only one God, only truth, only the righteous.

When it comes to something seemingly new, we have to ask ourselves 2 questions:
    1. Where does this come from, what is the source of the information?(The seed, the root)
    2. Where does it lead? (the branches and the fruit)

• FIRST STEP: Be informed. Ask your parents, your youth group leader, your Pastor, an older Christian or anybody spiritually mature enough in this area who can answer your questions or direct your inquiry to someone knowledgeable. If you want information, don’t read directly from the New Age authors. There is plenty of material written on the New Age and cults by people that have been involved, have come out and given their testimonies. You can trust the word of a burnt person who tells you that fire burns.

 
Don’t assume that you are different, that you know better, that you are smarter than the next person. Here is a warning to us from Israel’s history. I Cor 10:1. “(Do not be idolaters…be careful that you don’t fall.)”

• SECOND STEP: Look at the fruit. This is the hardest test of all, because a lot of New Age people seem to be very calm, peace loving, well organized, caring individuals who use their personal resources and energy to promote what they believe are positive changes in themselves, their environment, and society. These may seem good, but they are done in ignorance and rebellion against our Creator, who has His own good plans for bringing peace and light to the world. And they don’t address the real problem with our world - sin.

Remember, these persons however well intentioned and highly motivated are deceived. They have allowed themselves to believe the lie of Satan that “wisdom” is a tool to acquire “god-power”, when such hidden wisdom is really a trap. Unfortunately, in the eyes of God they are like Eve and Adam, as responsible for their sin as is their leader or teacher.

In Matt 7:15-20, Jesus warns his disciples with these words: “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruits, nor [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you shall know them.” (NKJV)

John 16:1. Right after chapter 14 and 15 about the coming of the Holy Spirit of truth, abiding in the vine, the inability to do anything without Him, the command to love each other and to bear fruit, our Lord Jesus warns: "all this I have told you so that you will not go astray".

Then, there is the temptation to “be open-minded”, rather than “intolerant” of these “alternative religions”. Aren’t we supposed to explore and discover?

 

Here is a good analogy: 
"Let’s say you live in a house and it’s summertime. You want to breathe fresh air, so you open the window. What happens? You get fresh air, but along with it, you get dust, pollen, and bugs. The proper thing to do is to put a screen on the window." (Source: heard in a talk given by Greg Laurie)

The word of God acts as a screen that rejects all the impurities, corrupt thoughts, lies, and false teaching that invade our minds, but for that screen to be effective in our lives, we have to study, understand, believe, know and practice what the Word of God says in obedience to our Lord´s command. Psalm 119:9,11: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I have hidden your word in my heart that I may not sin against you.”

Finally, It is my prayer that, “Your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus-Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Phil. 1:9-11.

Related articles: http://thelightseed.blogspot.com.br/2012/12/prayer-of-contrite-repentant-backslider.html

https://thelightseed.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-personal-experience-of-very-young.html

 

https://thelightseed.blogspot.com/2017/03/update-to-poison-of-false-teachings.html7/03/update-to-poison-of-false-teachings.html

 

Jean-Louis

Winter 1989. Shared at The St.Giles Presbyterian Church’s Youth Group.
Revised and shared in Hendersonville, N.C. Winter 1997 for the 1st. Baptist Church Youth Group.

2006. Taught a Sunday School on the subject at Pinecrest Presbyterian Church
Revised, amplified November 2013, Indaiatuba, Brazil.

Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan – The New Age/Eastern Meditation Doctors Behind the Saddleback Health

Rebloggede from: 

July 15th, 2013 | Author: Lighthouse Trails Editors

Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan written by Warren B. Smith is our one of our new Lighthouse Trails Print  

Booklet Tracts. The booklet tract is 14 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are as much as 50% off retail.  Below is the content of the booklet. To order copies of Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan, click here.
Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan
By Warren B. Smith

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.—(2 Corinthians 2:11)

Who would have believed it? Occult/New Age doctors being invited into the church to teach Christians how to be healthy? On January 15, 2011 a fifty-two week health and wellness program—the Daniel Plan—was initiated at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. More than six thousand people attended the well promoted and carefully staged event. Warren took the opportunity to announce that his own personal goal was to lose 90 pounds in 2011. The Daniel Plan website states that “the Daniel Plan envisions starting a movement so the result is better physical and spiritual health for current and future generations.”1 It describes how Rick Warren “recruited three best-selling authors” to create and oversee the Daniel Plan Curriculum—Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Daniel Amen, and Dr. Mark Hyman.2 Although these three physicians are all involved with New Age teachings, they describe themselves respectively as a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew.

On their church’s Daniel Plan website, Saddleback pastor Brandon Cox tried to defend Rick Warren’s indefensible decision to recruit three New Age doctors to implement a Christian health and wellness program. In his “Pastoral Response” to the question “Why did Saddleback Church choose to use these Doctors who have been linked to other beliefs?,” Cox wrote:
“Pastor Rick knows each of these Doctors personally and has the utmost trust in their ability to advise us about matters related to physical health.” In a statement reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood’s “grandmother,” Cox goes on to state: “These Doctors are helping us as friends, but are in no way advising our church on spiritual matters.”3

By repeating and emphasizing the term “physical health” three times in the response, Saddleback was obviously trying to distance itself from Oz, Amen, and Hyman’s New Age beliefs. But the “we’re only using them for physical health purposes” defense was not convincing. All three physicians are alternative medicine/holistic health practitioners who teach the indivisibility of “mind, body, spirit” in achieving optimum well-being. In other words, their New Age spiritual beliefs are necessarily embedded in their medical practice, their best-selling books, and their public appearances.

Dr. Mehmet Oz
Dr. Oz is the cardiovascular surgeon who was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show for five years before gaining his own popular daytime TV show. He also has a daily talk show on Oprah & Friends satellite radio and writes columns for several magazines including Oprah’s O Magazine. Operating out of Columbia University’s Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Oz is like a modern-day shaman as he mixes traditional medicine with a wide variety of occult/New Age practices. In The Way of the Shaman, a “foremost resource and reference on shamanism,” Michael Harner—an anthropologist who “has practiced shamanism and shamanic healing” for several decades4—gives the following definition of a shaman:

A shaman is a man or woman who enters an altered state of consciousness—at will—to contact and utilize an ordinarily hidden reality in order to acquire knowledge, power, and to help other persons. The shaman has at least one, and usually more, “spirits” in his personal service.5
The following is a sampling of what Dr. Oz subtly, and not so subtly, incorporates into his medical practice and into his life. For instance, Dr. Oz’s prominent endorsement is displayed on the front cover of self-described psychic Ainslie MacLeod’s book The Instruction: Living the Life Your Soul Intended. Juxtaposing the phrase “spiritual well-being” with the word “purpose,” Oz writes:
I recommend this book to those who seek greater spiritual well-being and a better understanding of their life’s purpose.6

In Oz’s endorsement of another Ainslie MacLeod book, The Transformation: Healing Your Past Lives to Realize Your Soul’s Potential, Dr. Oz makes it clear that his approach to physical health is inextricably bound up with his beliefs regarding spiritual health. They cannot be neatly separated out as Rick Warren’s Saddleback staff would have everyone believe. Dr. Oz’s front cover endorsement states:

Ainslie MacLeod is at the frontier of exploration into the soul and its profound influence on our physical selves.7

In The Transformation, MacLeod’s spirit guides tell MacLeod’s readers “that we are standing on the brink of the greatest leap in human consciousness in 55,000 years.”8 Later, in a psychic reading that MacLeod gives to one of his clients, his spirit guides refer his client to Dr. Daniel Amen for help.9 Amen, of course being one of the other two Daniel Plan physicians. In The Instruction, among other things, MacLeod teaches readers how to meditate and contact spirit guides. In fact, spirit guides are referred to a whopping 175 times in the book—40 times before you even get to Chapter One. In his introduction, MacLeod describes how the skeptic in him used to read a book like his and think—“Who died and made this guy an expert?” In his own case, MacLeod said the answer was his spirit guides—one of them being his deceased Uncle John.10

Dr. Oz’s New Age affinity for psychics, spirit guides, past lives, and contacting the dead was showcased on his March 15, 2011 program—just two months after the launch of the Daniel Plan—titled, “Psychic Mediums: Are they the New Therapists?” The promo on his website read: “Can talking to lost loved ones heal your grief? Hear why psychic John Edward believes you can talk to the dead.”11

On a January 6, 2010 Dr. Oz Show, Dr. Oz revealed what he believed to be “the most important alternative medicine treatment” for his viewers in that coming year. His #1 “Oz’s Order” was to “Try Reiki”12—an occult bodywork practice that incorporates the channeled guidance of spirit guides. Dr. Oz was reported in one press release as stating: “Reiki is one of my favorites, we’ve been using it for years in the Oz family, and we swear by it.”13

On a video on Dr. Oz’s website, New Age leader Deepak Chopra teaches viewers how to meditate.14 Chopra’s 2009 book Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul features Dr. Oz’s back cover endorsement.15 Dr. Oz is a personal practitioner of Transcendental Meditation,16 which was founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He has also practiced Yoga for over twenty years17 and is devoted to the New Age teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg—teachings that resonate with the mystical Sufi branch of the Muslim faith that he and his wife most identify with.18

Dr. Oz wrote the Foreword to US—a New Age book written by his wife Lisa, who is a Reiki Master19—a book that opens with a quote on oneness by New Age patriarch Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In his Foreword, Oz credits his wife’s spiritual influence while also mentioning that a number of years ago he “matriculated at Oprah University.”20 Dr. Oz endangers those who put their trust in him by interjecting his occult/New Age beliefs into his medical practice.

Presumably, the “Open Heart meditation” given to Ainslie MacLeod by his spirit guides21 is not used by Dr. Oz before he does open heart surgery. One thing is for spiritual sure, Dr. Oz may be a skilled cardiovascular surgeon, but spiritually he is overlooking one of the most important aspects of the heart. God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, warns, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Multiple references in the Bible also warn about the extremely dangerous and deceptive nature of “familiar” and “seducing” spirits that Dr. Oz is in the process of normalizing through his extreme influence in the world and now in the church (see Leviticus 19:31; Deuteronomy 18:10-12; 1 Timothy 4:1, etc.).

Dr. Daniel Amen
Dr. Amen is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, best-selling author, and medical director of the Amen Clinics for Behavioral Medicine. In his book Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, he encourages readers to “Learn and use self-hypnosis and meditation on a daily basis.”22 In Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, Amen, a self-professed Christian, specifically recommends a Hindu Kundalini form of meditation called Kirtan Kriya. He instructs his readers to chant “sa ta na ma” repeatedly while simultaneously doing repetitive finger movements.23

In a New Age world that says “everything happens for a reason” and “there are no accidents,” the first five letters of this Hindu meditation spell the name of Satan. The last three letters just so happen to be the abbreviated letters of the American Medical Association (AMA). Is this pure coincidence, some kind of cosmic joke, or spiritual mockery?

In his book The Brain in Love (formerly titled Sex on the Brain), Dr. Amen recommends tantric sex to his readers. He writes that tantra “is a term applied to several schools of Hindu yoga in which sex is worshipped.”24 He states that “[s]ome tantra yoga teachers recommend meditative practices that also share elements with Kundalini yoga, where subtle streams of energy are raised in the body by means of posture, breath control, and movements.”25 He later adds:

After you have agreed to safe boundaries, you can take sex to a new level by investing in a few books or magazines. I write for Men’s Health magazine and it is always filled with great sex tips for couples. Cosmopolitan and other magazines have playful ideas as well. Books on tantric sex or role-playing games can also be fun.”26

Dr. Amen’s fascination with tantric sex and Kundalini yoga is very similar to the teachings of Indian gurus like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Swami Baba Muktananda. Dr. Amen’s New Age sympathies are also evident in his willingness to write the Foreword to author Lucinda Bassett’s The Solution. In her book, Bassett quotes New Age leaders Marianne Williamson, Eckhart Tolle, the Dalai Lama, Neale Donald Walsch, and others. She describes Walsch as “a spiritual messenger whose best-selling books and lectures profoundly touch the world.”27

Dr. Mark Hyman
Dr. Hyman is the chairman of the Institute of Functional Medicine and author of the best-selling book The UltraMind Solution. With its front cover endorsement by Dr. Mehmet Oz, The UltraMind Solution offers practical medical advice while at the same time recommending a number of New Age resources to his readers. For example, he recommends the website of New Age author and guided imagery proponent Belleruth Naparstek.28 Her books and materials are designed to help people meditate, become more psychic, and connect with spirit guides. Her website describes how her materials are used worldwide by patients, hospitals, HMO’s, government agencies, etc. Dr. Hyman and New Age leader Dr. Bernie Siegel are listed as two of Naparstek’s “contributing health and mind-body health practitioners.”29 Siegel, of course being the New Age leader Rick Warren used to introduce the idea of hope and purpose in The Purpose-Driven Life. Like Dr. Oz and Dr. Amen, Dr. Hyman recommends meditation and yoga to his readers.30

Dr. Hyman endorsed a New Age book titled Power Up Your Brain—The Neuroscience of Enlightenment. It is co-authored by shaman/medium Alberto Villoldo and neurologist David Perlmutter. The Foreword from the publisher states:

And now two men, two seers—a shaman and a scientist—are combining their experiences and expertise to explore the totality that includes all of the spirit world and all of the scientific world—as One.31

David Perlmutter writes:

For it had become clear to us that access to the Great Spirit or Divine Energy—that natural force which is called by so many names—is available to all. In a sense we are all shamans, and the most advanced teachings in cellular biology are validating lifestyle activities that for centuries, have been paving the way to enlightenment through meditative practices not just for the chosen few but for all who care to learn. Our collaboration explores the implications of this not only for individuals but for all of humanity.32

Villoldo—who spoke at a 2011 Palm Springs Prophets Conference with New Age leader Barbara Marx Hubbard33— writes:

During my years studying with the shamans, I learned about their belief in the Divine Mother, which we each have the potential to discover in nature. This was not the bearded old man whose image I had come to associate with “God.” Rather, this was a force that infused all creation, a sea of energy and consciousness that we all swim in and are part of. I came to understand that our Western notions of the divine are perhaps a masculine version of this life force that infuses every cell in our bodies, that animates all living beings, and that even fuels stars.34

Power Up Your Brain includes a chapter recommending various “Shamanic Exercises” that include an invocation to the “Great Serpent.”35 Dr. Hyman’s back cover endorsement of this book sits alongside New Age leaders Bernie Siegel and Greg Braden.
In his endorsement, Hyman betrays his belief in shamanism and the inextricable New Age link between physical and spiritual health. He writes:

The shaman and physician for millennia were the same person until the 19th century when they were split apart in the name of science. Now through the lens of 21st-century science, Villoldo and Perlmutter bring them back together, illuminating the web that links together our physical and metaphysical energy. For anyone feeling a loss of energy of body or soul, Power Up Your Brain is your guide to restoration and rejuvenation of your deepest energies.

Also referring to “restoration” in The UltraMind Solution, Dr. Hyman lists three New Age centers in his “Resources” section. Under the heading of “Restorative and Educational Retreats,” he recommends the Omega Institute, the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, and the Shambhala Mountain Center.36 Ainslie MacLeod—the Dr. Oz endorsed psychic—is a “faculty member” at both the Kripalu Center and the Omega Institute.37 ]

The Omega Institute offers a number of workshops led by key New Age leaders like Neale Donald Walsch, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, and Alberto Villoldo. Classes such as “Conversations with God,” “Contacting the Spirit World,” “How Shamans Dream the World into Being,” and “Bootcamp for Goddesses,” are readily available to those following Dr. Hyman’s advice.38 And at the Dr. Hyman endorsed Kripalu Center, New Age leader Deepak Chopra offers a workshop on his Dr. Oz endorsed book, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul. In case people can’t make it to Saddleback Church, Dr. Daniel Amen also teaches a workshop at Kripalu.

Key Scriptures Regarding Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. —(2 Corinthians 6:14)
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. —(Ephesians 5:11)
Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils. —(1 Corinthians 10:21)
Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. —(Romans 14:13)

Shepherding the Church into a New Age/New Spirituality

In the 1990s, a well-known Christian leader rightly warned that alternative medicine and holistic health can provide an easy entryway for deceptive New Age teachings. He further warned that changing your diet can also end up changing your worldview. In other words, sometimes losing weight can also mean losing your soul. Speaking from his leadership role with the Christian Medical Association, Dr. David Stevens also urges great discretion regarding alternative health practitioners. He states: “Not only do we have to make a choice; we also have to evaluate the trustworthiness of each messenger and the validity of the message.”39

The Christian Handbook to Alternative Medicine also warns, “Consider carefully not only the therapy but also the character and worldview of those offering the treatment.”40 Thus, it is definitely “buyer beware” when it comes to mixed-bag physicians like Oz, Amen, and Hyman. But that doesn’t seem to matter to Rick Warren as he openly aligns himself with these New Age doctors and promises to make their joint Daniel Plan a worldwide phenomenon. Instead of sounding a warning trumpet and protecting the church from three New Age physicians, Warren praises them and trumpets his ungodly alliance with them.

One can only wonder if the prophet Daniel’s vision of the end days included a look at Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan—a compromised pastor and three New Age doctors with their psychics, spirit guides, tantric sex, necromancy, Yoga, Reiki, Transcendental and Kundalini “sa ta na ma” meditations and more—all in Daniel’s name. If so, it is no wonder the Bible records that he “fainted” and became “sick” for a number of days (Daniel 8:27).

It doesn’t make any difference in God’s scheme of things if Rick Warren stands slim and trim in front of an adoring church audience after losing 90 pounds. What may be remembered is that in the midst of all the self-congratulatory statistics and frenzied media hoopla, a finger suddenly appeared on the wall behind Rick Warren and wrote the following:

Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. —(Daniel 5:27)

To order copies of Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan, click here.
Endnotes
1. Week 11: Re-Focusing The Daniel Plan (http://danielplan.com/blogs/dp/dp-week-11-re-focusing-the-daniel-plan).
2. The Daniel Plan: What Makes it Different? (http://www.saddleback.com/thedanielplan/healthyhabits/whatsdifferent).
3. Pastoral Response, Brandon Cox, Saddleback Church (http://www.danielplan.com/toolsandresources/pastoralresponse).
4. Michael Harner, Ph.D., The Way of the Shaman (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1980, 1990), back cover.
5. Ibid., p. 25.
6. Ainslie MacLeod, The Instruction: Living the Life Your Soul Intended (Boulder, CO: Sounds True, Inc., 2007, 2009), front cover.
7. Ainslie MacLeod, The Transformation: Healing Your Past Lives to Realize Your Soul’s Potential (Boulder, CO: Sounds True, Inc., 2010), front cover.
8. Ibid., front flap.
9. Ibid., pp. 243-244.
10. Ainslie MacLeod, The Instruction, op. cit., pp. 9, 12.
11. “Psychic Mediums: Are they the New Therapists?,” The Dr. Oz Show, aired 3/15/11 (http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/are-psychicsnew-therapists-pt-1).
12. “‘Try Reiki,’ Dr. Oz Tells Millions on TV,” 1/9/10, The Reiki Digest (http://reikidigest.blogspot.com/2010/01/try-reiki-dr-oz-tells-millions-on-tv.html).
13. “Dr. Mehmet Oz Declares Reiki as His #1 Alternative Medicine Secret,” 1/9/2010, Bio-Medicine (http://news.bio-medicine.org/?q=medicine-news-1/dr–mehmet-oz-declares-reiki-as-his–231-alternative-medicine-secret–64270).
14. “Meditation Techniques Demonstrated by Deepak Chopra,” The Dr. Oz Show, added to videos on 2/25/10, (http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/deepak-chopra-meditation).
15. Deepak Chopra, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You (New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, a division of Random House, Inc., 2009).
16. AARP The Magazine, May/June 2010 issue, p. 82.
17. Ibid.
18. Lisa Oz, US: Transforming Ourselves and the Relationships That Matter Most (New York, NY: Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2010), p. 179.
19. “‘Try Reiki,’ Dr. Oz Tells Millions on TV,” op. cit.
20. Lisa Oz, US, op. cit., p. x.
21. Ainslie MacLeod, The Instruction, op. cit., p. 17.
22. Daniel G. Amen, M.D., Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (New York, NY: Times Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1998), p. 302.
23. Daniel G. Amen, M.D., Change Your Brain, Change Your Body (New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, a division of Random House, Inc., 2010), p. 223.
24. Daniel G. Amen, M.D., The Brain in Love (New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, a division of Random House, Inc., 2007), p. 144.
25. Ibid., p. 145.
26. Ibid., p. 148.
27. Lucinda Bassett, The Solution: Conquer Your Fear, Control Your Future (New York: NY: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2011), p. 146.
28. Mark Hyman M.D., The UltraMind Solution (New York, NY: Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2009), p. 402. (Belleruth Naparstek’s website recommended by Dr. Hyman: http://www.healthjourneys.com).
29. Our Practitioner Bios, Health Journeys (http://www.healthjourneys.com/practitioner_bios.asp).
30. Mark Hyman, The UltraMind Solution, op. cit., p. 384.
31. David Perlmutter, M.D., F.A.C.N., Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment (New York, NY: Hay House, Inc., 2011), p. xiv.
32. Ibid., p. xviii.
33. The Prophets Conference (http://www.greatmystery.org).
34. David Perlmutter, Alberto Villoldo, Power Up Your Brain, op. cit., p. xxi.
35. Ibid., p. 154.
36. Mark Hyman, The UltraMind Solution, op. cit., p. 403.
37. Ainslie MacLeod, The Transformation, op. cit., About the Author, p. 327.
38. Omega Institute (http://www.eomega.org).
39. Donald O’Mathuna, Ph.D. and Walt Larimore, M.D., Alternative Medicine: The Christian Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001, 2007), p. 9.
40. Ibid., p. 123.
To order copies of Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan, click here.