Is gambling a sin?

I agree with post-it.

Playing the stock market is a gamble.

You purchase a stock in the hope that the company will be successful and give you a return-on-investment.

One buys a horse race ticket in the hope that the horse will be successful and give you a return-on-investment.

There is no difference. In each case, a person is trying to make money without work. If one is a sin so is the other. If one is OK so is the other.

IMO, The ultimate test is "the just shall live by faith" and "that which is not of faith is sin".

Again IMO, The question then becomes not - Is gambling a sin? but Does your faith allow you to buy a lottery ticket without self condemnation?

A related side issue: The fact that one needs to ask "Is ***** a sin? may very well mean that for the one who asks , it is.

HankD

[ June 03, 2002, 02:14 PM: Message edited by: HankD ]

 

Agreed, and this makes sin is part of the life of every Christian. Sin is not something that can be stopped, we must examine it to determine which are acceptable and which are not. Many of the minor ones are on an individual bases. Stock Market investing, lottery, homosexuality, telling your wife she is beautiful (lie), eating your favorite desert.

 

Funny, I never find a "minor" sin in Scripture.


Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

 

Telling my wife she is beautiful is never a lie.

 

Telling my wife she is beautiful is never a lie.</font>[/QUOTE]Me niether, but have you seen some of those Jehova Witness wives? Someone has to be lying.

On your point of not seeing any as minor sin in the Bible. That is correct, but neither do we see doctrine clearly explained and we must arrive at it from a summary of facts from scripture.

 

Investing in the stock market is not gambling. Say I purchase a stock for $50 a share. I own 1 share of such and such stock. Today its worth $50.00. Tomorrow comes along and its value decreases by $1.00. The share is now worth $49.00! Now, the share is still mine. Only its worth one dollar less than yesterday. But the share is still mine. Alway will be mine to the day I decide to sell it!

I don't care who you are--you put $1.00 in the slot, or $5.00 on the card table and your number doesn't come up(which you stand a better chance of being struck by lightning than having your number come up!)--that dollar is not yours any longer!

As Gomer Pyle would say, "Wasteful, Andy! Just wasteful, wasteful!"

 

This is only partially true. There is much doctrine which is crystal clear, and didactically taught. On the less than clear issues, we use the analogy of faith, Scripture interpreting Scripture, the clear interpreting the less clear, to arrive at correct doctrine. Gambling falls into the second instance.