Transcript of a published teaching by David K. Bernard, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
Summary · Transcript · Download transcript (.txt)
Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
The two questions, and the defining distinction
- The host's frame, carried from the verbatim layer: two closely related questions, asked together because people ask them for the same reason. Yoga has its roots in Hinduism and Buddhism, and various martial arts have roots in various eastern religions. So, with those connections to non-Christian religions, should Christians participate in yoga or martial arts?
- He was raised in Korea — which was, and still is, a non-Christian nation — so he's well aware of these connections, and he certainly would advise caution. But as with so many things, a lot depends on how you define it. Yoga as a spiritual practice, associated with Hinduism and Buddhism: we should not participate. Many martial arts have a component of meditation and honoring spirits: we should not participate in that.
- But the term yoga is also used in western culture to mean strictly certain forms of exercise, and martial arts can be used in a very secular context simply for self-defense. If you're talking about exercise or self-defense, he does not find those contrary to scripture. The line is spiritual meditation: some yoga practices require you to chant certain things — well, find out what you're chanting. If you're chanting mantras or phrases that are supposed to have spiritual power, obviously we wouldn't want to do that, because we're not being connected to the true God: we'd be connected either to false spirits or to fakery. Either way, we don't want that.
- So: if you're talking about these things as spiritual techniques, or associated with spiritual meditation, Christians should absolutely stay away from them. If you're talking about forms of exercise, or self-defense techniques, he doesn't think it's sinful to participate.
Christian liberty in both directions — and the judo he learned
- Here's where Christian liberty comes in. Somebody might say: I'm absolutely not involved in any kind of spiritual meditation or worship of gods, but I don't want anybody to misunderstand, or to inadvertently endorse something — so I'm not going to participate. That's their liberty. Somebody else may say: I'm just exercising; I'm just learning how to defend myself. Then we shouldn't condemn that person: you're not doing anything spiritually wrong; you are simply learning to defend yourself.
- His own example: he grew up in Korea, and as a teenager he briefly studied judo — in a Christian context, by the way. The first thing they taught him: in any situation of confrontation, rule number one is to escape. If you can run away and diffuse the situation, always do that; never counterattack; leave. The second thing: how to fall without hurting yourself. The third: how to use your opponent's momentum to defeat himself — somebody lunges at you, you sidestep and trip them, they fall down, and you run away; they come at you with their fist, you take their arm and pull them in the natural trajectory of where they're headed, they go flying, and you run away. You're not trying to counterattack and seriously injure that opponent.
- It's hard to say there's anything wrong with that. The way they taught it was to be very respectful of other people, respectful of human life, and to diffuse controversies — the idea of the martial arts person as just violent, always fighting, was not the original intention. It was more self-preservation, self-defense, and even military use; today military personnel are sometimes trained in these techniques. And there's much to be said for a young person, or a woman, having some self-defense techniques that could give them time to get help or to escape, and preserve their life in times of danger.
A judicious approach
- So take a judicious approach. If you're interested in anything like this, study it: make sure that what you're doing will not in any way connect with any false spiritual practices. But if you can do something for the purpose of wholesome exercise — stewardship of the body is a scriptural principle — that's fine.
- And self-defense: God is not in favor of aggression, or hurting someone without cause. Sometimes we get in situations beyond our control, and if we can find the least violent, or least destructive, means to extricate ourselves, he thinks that would also be the will of God for us.
- So we have to consider the whole subject — and really, the answer to the question, to a great extent, depends on what you're defining as the actual practice you're interested in pursuing.
Transcript
That's a good question. And I was raised in Korea, so I'm which was and still is a non-Christian nation. And so I'm well aware of these connections and I certainly would advise caution. But as with so many things a lot depends on how you define it. So yoga as a spiritual practice as you said would be associated with Hinduism and Buddhism.
We should not participate. Uh many martial arts have a component of meditation and honoring spirits and we should not participate. But but yoga that term is all is also used in western culture to mean uh strictly certain forms of exercise. And of course, martial arts can be used in a very secular context uh simply for self-defense. And so if you're talking about exercise or self-defense, I do not find those contrary to scripture. But if you're talking about spiritual meditation, for example, some yoga practices require you to chant certain things. Well, find out what you're chanting. what you're chanting is mantras or um Hebrew or Buddhist phrases that are supposed to have spiritual power.
Well, obviously we wouldn't want to do that because we're not being connected to the true God. We'd be either uh connected to a false spirits or we'd be connected to a fake fakery. And either way, we don't want to do that. So, uh I think there's an area of Christian liberty uh of personal choice. So here's what I would say. If you're talking about these things as spiritual techniques or associated with spiritual meditation, then Christians should absolutely stay away from them. If you are talking about various forms of exercise um or self-defense that derive some some of these examples of years gone by from folklore folk examples then I think that it's not it's not sinful to participate in exercise techniques or self-defense techniques.
Um now where the area of Christian liberty might be somebody might say well I'm absolutely not involved in any kind of uh spiritual meditation. I'm not involved in any kind of spiritual tanting. I'm not involved in any kind of worship of gods but I don't want anybody to misunderstand or I don't want uh to inadvertently may endorse something. Well that's where you'd have Christian liberty to say so therefore I'm not going to participate. But somebody else may say I'm just exercising. I'm just um conducting uh learning how to discip myself. Well, then I don't think we should condemn that person. You're not doing anything spiritually wrong.
You are simply learning to defend yourself. So, for example, as I said, I grew up in Korea. So, as a teenager, I briefly studied and it was in a Christian context, by the way, uh judo. And the first thing they taught me was if there is any situation of confrontation, rule number one is to escape. If you can run away, diffuse the situation, always do that. Never counterattack, leave. That's interesting. Uh the second thing they taught you is how to fall without hurting yourself. Um then the third thing they taught you was how to use your opponent's u momentum to um defeat himself. So, in other words, you're not trying to counterattack and seriously injure that opponent, but let's say somebody lunges at you.
Well, you side step and you uh trip them and they they fall down and then you run away. Or they come at you with their fist and you just take their arm and use their own momentum and just pull them in the natural trajectory of where they're headed and they go flying off of the distance. Then you run away. So, it's hard to say there's anything wrong with that. In in fact, the way I described it, and maybe not all martial arts are that way, but really the way they taught us is to be very respectful of other people, respectful of human life, diffuse controversies, not you know, we sometimes get the idea the martial arts person is just violent, uh, you know, always fighting.
Well, that's not that was not the original intention of these martial arts. it was more of um self-preservation, self-defense and even military use. So um and of course today uh military um personnel are sometimes trained in these techniques. So actually what I learned were some very helpful techniques of diffusing a situation. If you can't diffuse a situation, defend yourself with minimal harm to either you or the other person. uh uh thwarting the person and using their own aggression, their own momentum to work against them uh to buy you time to again escape. So it's hard to say that those specific techniques would be wrong. And in fact, you there's much to be said even for uh a young person or a woman to have some self-defense techniques um that could preserve give them time to get help or to escape, preserve their life in times of danger.
And so I think we should take um a judicious approach to that. If you're if you're interested in anything like this, study it. Make sure that what you're doing will not in any way connect with any false spiritual practices. But if you can do something for the purpose of wholesome exercise, that is a scriptural, you know, stewardship of the body is a scriptural principle. And self-defense, I think uh God is not in favor of aggression or hurting someone without cause. And so sometimes we get in situations beyond our control. If we can find the least uh violent or least destructive means to extricate ourselves, I think that would also be the will of God for us.
So I think uh we have to consider the whole subject and really the answer the question to a great extent depends on what are you defining as the actual practice that you're interested in pursuing.