The religious origins of martial arts.
Recently, I reshared an article I authored last September (2023) revealing the spiritual dangers of practicing yoga for Christians. In my article, I expose the original intentions of yoga, sharing how the name yoga comes from the Sanskrit root word “yug,” which means to yoke or unite. This union was designed for each yoga pose to create a yug (yoke or union) of the person who practices yoga with three distinct Hindu gods: brahma, shiva, and vishnu, the Hindu version of the holy trinity. Since writing the yoga article, many have asked if practicing any style of martial arts exposes the “martial artist” to the same measure of spiritual dangers as yoga. In short, the answer is an emphatic yes because of the religious origins of almost all martial arts.
Growing up, like many Asian adolescents, I was obsessed with martial arts. I loved Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan. I began studying and practicing its disciplines from the tender age of seven and renouncing its practice immediately after becoming Christian at age twenty-four. I sought the prestige and power of the “sport” while loving the discipline, its cultural history from Asia, and embracing its spiritual roots in Buddhism. Before becoming a Christian, I was a radical Buddhist who, in addition to practicing martial arts, also practiced and taught many other occult practices, from meditation to astral projection to the opening and utilizing the third eye—all to obtain inner peace, enlightenment, nirvana, power, and prestige.
After publishing the “Holy Yoga” post, I wasn’t surprised to receive much hate and see many “Christians” justify practicing yoga and their rebranded “Christianized” version of it with the misappropriation of scripture. The sad truth is that with martial arts and yoga, many will defend their right to practice them with more zeal and passion than they will defend their relationship with Jesus and living holy and righteous before God.
THE SPIRIT OF CHI
Those who practice martial arts are eventually exposed to Chi (Chi Gong) through meditation or meditative breathing practices.
In martial arts, Chi is taught to be the life force “energy” or “bioelectrical energy” inherent in the human body. Chi literally translates as “air” or “breath,” but it’s also used to represent “energy,” “vital essence,” and “life force.” At its fundamental basis, Chi is taught to be the spiritual “energy” transmitted through the human body and the environment. But in the spiritual realm, Chi is an unclean spirit that possesses or oppresses the martial artist who, through channeling, invites the spirit to yoke (unify) with them in hopes of gaining spiritual empowerment to accomplish physical and supernatural things far beyond normal human abilities.
However, also in the spiritual realm is the word pneuma, an ancient Greek word that means “breath,” “spirit,” or “unseen force.” The word pneuma can refer to any spirit, but in the Bible, it’s often used in Greek translations of the Hebrew word ruach, which also means “breath,” “wind,” or “spirit.” Both words, pneuma, and ruach, are explained as invisible forces, used to refer to the Spirit of God, and are difficult to interpret without considering their usage in context. In martial arts, you are not empowered by the pneuma or ruach of God (The Holy Spirit). Still, instead, you are channeling the spirit of Chi, a serpent spirit, similar to the kundalini spirit in yoga, to be unified with your soul and body. I hope this explains the spiritual aspects of martial arts in more clarity.
In an article titled “Religion and Martial Arts: Are They Inseparable?” published in Black Belt Magazine, a secular media source, Dr. Larry Dossey stated that “In the martial arts, religion has an equally important role. It was crucial in the historical development of many arts, and it continues to dictate the ways in which many students think and act during practice sessions … martial art grew from that spiritual tradition.”
However, the Black Belt Magazine article eventually states that the physical and spiritual can be separated. I am telling you, as an expert, that the two cannot be separated. As someone who has over seventeen years of experience practicing and mastering Wing Chun (Yongchun), a style of kung-fu, a person who sparred and defeated many who practiced Karate and Taekwondo who were held third-, fourth-, and fifth-degree black belts, and as someone who was steeped deep in Buddhism, I can inform you without a doubt that that practice of martial arts is unequivocally a religious practice and, like yoga, it is impossible to separate the two.
No matter how this article is received. Know this truth … People love to defend their mixture in the church.
From martial arts and yoga to meditation and crystals, anything not originating from God to glorify God is evil. Everyone should not be “kung-fu fighting.”
Ezekiel 44:23 NASB
Moreover, they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean (defiled) and the clean (pure).
2 Corinthians 6:17 NASB
“Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you.”
Matthew 23:25-26 NASB
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”
James 4:4 NASB
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
For video content about this topic others, please subscribe to our YouTube:
https://youtube.com/@godmanifest
BLACK BELT MAGAZINE ARTICLE
https://www.godmanifest.com/religion-and-martial-arts-are-they-inseparable/
#jesus #yoga #christianyoga #holyyoga #witchcraft #astralprojection #thirdeye #brahma #shiva #vishnu #karate #wingchun #kungfu #taekwondo #blackbelt #brucelee #jetli #jackiechan #chi #chigong
Comments are closed