“Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.” Job 40:16
Which is best, to stand on Asian marital arts, and all that means, and pull Christian principles into that art, re-explaining the Asian concepts with Christian explainations; or to stand wholly apart from the Asian pulling only the technique mastery into a wholly Bibliocentric concept?

What Catholicism has done for centuries is adapt pagan worship systems by just changing their pagan names to Christian names and concepts. That is where halos, “Mother of God” and other such concepts came from. Is this what Christian self defense artists should be doing?

Why not stand where the Lord stands, solely in the truth, and question every “little” thing that does not pass through the filter of the Holy Scriptures? If Christian martial arts did this there would be no Chi/Ki in their arts. Not in those terms at least. It would not filter. It does not filter. Rather than trying to re-explain Chi/Ki into Biblical concepts, and mostly retaining its Asian meaning, why not debunk the whole idea and search the Scriptures for its doctrine of “loin strength” and use this Biblcial concept rather than the Asian terminology?

Deuternomy 33:11 “...smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again.” Here is the true source of “natural” force. Go created man and gave him this natural “seat” of strength. Why do Christian martian artists need to be intimitated? Why do we need their explainations of what Jehovah formed? Why now seek explainations from the creator Himself and use His terminology? Why not magnify His power in true Bibliocentric self defense?

It seems that for a few decades I have been challenged by Pastors concerning the seeming occultic influence in Karate and Karate-like self defense arts, so much so that we all know there are those in the Christian world who cannot believe any Asian seated self defense can be of God. Some of the problem might even be our fault you know. We use Asian martial arts terms, we mimic their systems, titles and language as though it holds some “magic”. If we were to prove ourselves excellent in self defense and our practioners were skilled, why would they not respect our separate Western system of defense? I think they would. However, it does not matter to me if they did or do or not. “I have decided to follow Jesus” and what pagans or the heathen, as God calls the nations, think is wholly irrelevant to me. I do care what My Lord Jesus Christ thinks and i preferr to be Bible based, even to giving God all the credit for my natural and practiced force.

“As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.” Joshua 14:11 It takes strength to fight. Tapping into our natural and supernatural strength is what combat training is all about. “He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.” (1 Samuel 2:9) No one who truly relys solely on his natural strength though will be guarenteed to win. However, to rely on TRUE strength there is promise. “God is my strength and power:...” (2 Samuel 22:33) “For thou hast girded me with strength to battle: them that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me.” (2 Samuel 22:40)
“Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.” (1 Chron 16:11)

Instead of bowing before the altars of pagan ideology, why not bow at the Face of God and search for pure truth out of the Word of God? “Will he esteem...all the forces of strength.” (Job 36:19) The answer is no. So why worship or wonder at the doctrines ad teachings of pagans? Why feel we have to explain their concepts that if any truth is in them it came from God, for God is truth! Pagans have used TRUTH and perverted it to their own likening, why should we take perverted things and try to reconstruct them when we have the uncorrupted truth in our Scriptures? Why, the very thought just does not make any sense to me. Why not talk of our force and strength as divine, using Biblical terms and references and cause the pagans to come and study to find that our God is the true sourse of all power. They need to know that it is not in their “body liturgy” or “focus rituals” or “inner minds” which is to connect to demons. Why talk in our practice as if pagan methodology is truth and give the idea that we are playing catch-up? We study pagan methodology, psychology (spirit study) of defense, ideologies (ideas) as though they have merit. Let me suggest the following “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;...” (2 Corinthians 6:17) Why not focus the world toward such that is of God?
Just a thought.

Ron Tottingham, PhD, LitD
Theologian & Grandmaster 9˚
Chapalin, Brigadier General, US Corp of Chaplains