Recently I was asked about Gambling, enjoy my rant :-)
I thought that maybe I could just rant a little here as I am the Ranting Reverend, to try to show you a few things. I can’t help it, I am a teacher and a preacher and I love to take on issues like this, this is what I get paid to do (cool job huh?).
First is a proper and improper understanding of sin. The Bible is clear as to what is sin, but it is not always clear on what is not sin. We always, as sinners, like to add our own opinions to the whole question of sin. This was the problem of the Pharisees in the time of Jesus. They had all of their own notions of what is and is not a sin. They had taken God’s laws and re-formed them into their own images. For example they accused Jesus of breaking the 3rd commandment when He healed a person on the Sabbath. He was also accused of that for walking along the road and eating wheat kernels which you would have to peel away before eating (cooking of sorts). Jesus responded with making it clear that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Or in other words, the Sabbath is a gift to man from God, not a law to abide in to earn God’s favor.
The Bible defines what is sin for us already, not people’s opinions. What is clearly sin? The easiest place to start is the 10 commandments (which by the way most Christians do not even know, even though they declare all sorts of things to be sin, which are not).
(Numbered as the Lutherans and Roman Catholics do as there are 2 different numberings )
1. You shall have no other God’s before me.
This means that we should love and fear God above all else. Love Him for His divine mercy and loving forgiveness of our sins for the sake of Jesus’ sufferings and death. Fear Him, because He is so awesome and powerful and no one can stand in His presence and live.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain.
This has 2 meanings, one is that we should not use the name of the Lord to deceive others, to curse others or in a careless way, but the second meaning is simply that we should use His name in right ways, to offer prayer, praise and thanksgiving.
3. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
This means that we should honor God with all our days and gladly hear and learn His Word. Sabbath means rest and everyday is the day where we find rest in the grace and mercy of Christ. Yet we gather together in His name under His Word and sacraments in the church to receive from the hand of God.
4. Honor your father and mother.
This means we should not reject nor despise any in authority over us, but receive them as a gift from God.
5. You shall not murder.
This does not only speak of the physical act of murder, but also hatred of others, we should however protect others in their body and reputation. The bonus here is that if we protect others, they may thus be inclined to protect us and even if they do not, the Lord will.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
This means not only the act of sexual immorality, but also lusting in our hearts after those whom the Lord has not wedded us to. But the plus side is that in marriage; the wedding bed cannot be defiled so have at it.
7. You shall not steal.
This means that we should not only not take that which does not belong to us, but also that we should help others maintain their possessions. Thus the Bible does establish a right to personal property.
8. You shall not bear false witness.
This means that we should not speak evil, gossip nor slander others, but uphold them and speak well of them in all ways. It also means that we should not lie.
The gift to us in this is that we also may keep a good reputation
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s House
This means that we should not scheme to get our neighbors’ home in legal nor non-legal ways, but rather help him and be happy for him.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, manservant, maidservant, ox, donkey … or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
This means that we should do the same as the 9th commandment, but with all our neighbor’s possessions.
Now, all of this is pretty basic stuff and most of us outwardly keep these things, but our hearts are a different story.
Matthew 15:18 "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
Most Christians think that sins are our actions, but to tell the truth, our actions are only a symptom on the sinful heart and no one on this side of the grave will ever be sinless, except Jesus. In short, as we confess in church every week, “I am sinful in thought, word and deed. I have sinned by what I have done and what I have left undone, I have not loved God with my whole heart and have not loved my neighbor as myself.” We also confess in the Divine Service, I John 1:8-9, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We also know the words of Jesus Himself from the “Sermon on the Mount” when He says, Matthew 5:27 " You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
We also know from The Epistle of St. James 2:10 that “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”
We confess that we are completely corrupt and sinful in all our ways for even our good works are tainted with our sins desiring recognition or thinking that we are getting good marks from God. The only truly good works we do are those that we are not aware of and those ONLY flow out of the grace and mercy of Christ.
If we look inward for some sort of goodness, we will only find our evil hearts looking back at us and then we stand accused, if we look only to Christ and His righteousness for us, then we have all we need.
As a Pastor, I am always a little horrified when I hear people say that they have a great faith. When we say we have a great faith, we are usually looking at ourselves and if we do not see a sinner there, we are to be pitied. Yet we are also saints, not for anything we do or can do, but for the sake of Jesus and what He has done for us. So when we confess Jesus and His righteousness for us, that is truly our faith itself speaking, for faith must have its’ object and it confesses the object.
Not to belabor the point, but consider this, to say I have faith that a chair will hold me up is not truly faith, but to simply sit, that is faith in the chair. To talk about my faith in Christ is about me, to simply live in His mercy and forgiveness is to have faith for when we have nowhere to run except into the arms of Christ, we have a sure Jesus who we know will never fail us.
Now I have gone far a field off the whole issue of gambling, but it all comes around in a minute so bear with me.
The Bible is clear about what is sin, but in matters where the Bible is silent, so we should remain silent for it is not given to us to speak as we already have more to contend with in the Bible than we could ever fulfill.
In Christian liberty we may either participate or not according to our own desires for they are called “adiophora” which means “neither commanded nor condemned.” In matters of adiophora, we are free to do as we will.
So here is my understanding, given a Biblical model, as I understand it from my training to interpret Scripture.
First of all, I have done several searches in the Bible for the word “gamble” and in the 7 translations I have, none of them have the word. In all of my Greek and Hebrew training I have do not think that I have even seen a word used for it.
So this being the case, the closest thing that I can think of is “casting lots,” which is similar to rolling dice, which is indeed gambling. There are about 20 verses in the Bible that use this term in both the Hebrew and the Greek, and they speak of all sorts of things from determining who an offender is, to getting a job, to getting property and possessions to the dividing up of Jesus’ garments at the cross.
They are as follows…
Leviticus 16:8 "Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.
Joshua 18:6 "You shall therefore survey the land in seven parts and bring the survey here to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the LORD our God.
Joshua 18:8 Then the men arose to go away; and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land, saying, "Go, walk through the land, survey it, and come back to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the LORD in Shiloh."
Joshua 18:10 Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD, and there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.
1 Samuel 14:42 And Saul said, "Cast lots between my son Jonathan and me." So Jonathan was taken.
1 Chronicles 24:31 These also cast lots just as their brothers the sons of Aaron did, in the presence of King David, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the priests and Levites. The chief fathers did just as their younger brethren.
1 Chronicles 25:8 And they cast lots for their duty, the small as well as the great, the teacher with the student.
1 Chronicles 26:13 And they cast lots for each gate, the small as well as the great, according to their father's house.
1 Chronicles 26:14 The lot for the East Gate fell to Shelemiah. Then they cast lots for his son Zechariah, a wise counselor, and his lot came out for the North Gate;
Nehemiah 11:1 Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem; the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine-tenths were to dwell in other cities.
Psalm 22:18 They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.
Joel 3:3 They have cast lots for My people, Have given a boy as payment for a harlot, And sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
Obadiah 1:11 In the day that you stood on the other side -- In the day that strangers carried captive his forces, When foreigners entered his gates And cast lots for Jerusalem -- Even you were as one of them.
Jonah 1:7 And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
Nahum 3:10 Yet she was carried away, She went into captivity; Her young children also were dashed to pieces At the head of every street; They cast lots for her honorable men, And all her great men were bound in chains.
Matthew 27:35 Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: "They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots."
Luke 23:34 Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." And they divided His garments and cast lots.
John 19:24 They said therefore among themselves, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be," that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: "They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots." Therefore the soldiers did these things.
Acts 1:26 And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
So, here is where the rubber meets the road (as they say).
1) The Bible does not condemn gambling
2) God has used gambling for His holy purposes
3) The abuse of ANYTHING falls under the 1st commandment, if not the 7th, 9th and 10th.
4) No matter what we do, we need the forgiveness of Christ for we cannot ever within ourselves find a righteousness worth anything to God since the Bible does tell us that we are sinful above all else. (Romans 3 and much more)
5) We are perfectly righteous before God ONLY for the sake of the imputed (covering) righteousness of Jesus.
All of this said, we may partake of anything that is not clearly forbidden in Scripture as long as we do not become obsessed with them and put them before the one true God in addiction, greed, or covetousness.
My personal goals for gambling are ONLY for recreation. If I won big, I would count it a blessing from God and try to use the proceeds to His glory, or at least buy some fun toys.
Now, I leave you with this thought, if one is opposed to gambling, one should also be opposed to investing in the stock market for the goal there is even more to increase your money as much as possible and as quickly as possible with the risk of personal loss and the loss of others.
Okay – end of this rant.
