Gambling

Then firing a weapon is a sin, since it's illegal to fire a weapon in some places. A husband and wife having sex is a sin, since it's illegal in some places. RV's are a sin, since they're illegal in some places. Flying is a sin, since it's illegal in some places.

You're caiming that gambling is scripturally wrong, and a sin. But you fail to provide scripture for your claim. Therefore, by making the claim, you're adding to scripture.

 

Yes I believe that gambling is wrong. I spent a lot of time with a friend of mine in the 60's who was a professional gambler. I never got the urge myself, I guess I was afraid of losing. But what I am telling you I learned from traveling several states with him and have seen him with as much as $100,000 in his clothes and two weeks later he would be waiting on me when I got to work wanting to get $2 to eat breakfast with. This happened more then once.I saw a man start out with $500 and have as much as $150,000 in front of him during the game and in the end cash out 2 chips worth a dollar each. That Christmas the local church had him on the list to take a food basket by for his wife and children. Like the Naked City there are a lot more similar stories.
Where you have gambling (easy money)you always find prostitution and alcohol. Group the three together and that spells CRIME. If you don't believe it ask the good people of Tunica, Mississippi or along the gulf coast.
Just as most addicts started with marijuna, most people hooked on gambling started with "charity" bingo or a lottery ticket purchased at a covenience store.

 

Most churches and pastors take a stand against the lottery and gambling. Yet is not unusual for them to hold a raffle in order to raise money for a youth program, etc. The only difference between the raffle and the lottery is the size of the prize of the winning ticket.

 

Salamander, We're waiting...

 

I didn't see how the Romans 14:4 related to gambling, but as you continued your dialogue, I figured it out. Thanks for following up.

 

Then, entering contests and sweepstakes is wrong, because it's an attempt to get something for nothing, while most people lose.

It's quite the stretch to say that this equates to a biblical ban on gambling.

That would make any form of competition wrong. Sorry, it doesn't hold water scripturally.

Again, that means any drawing or contest is wrong. Sorry, scripture doesn't appear to say what you're implying.

Yet another stretch to make this verse be a ban on gambling.

 

Indeed, if one is engaging in selfishness, greed, or covetousness, then by all means, refrain from gambling. If, otoh, you enjoy playing blackjack, poker, etc, for fun and not for greed, then it's perfectly permissible. You don't exactly get "rich" or get a "jackpot" off of these games.

Obviously, that man was an abuser. Abuse of anything, including gambling, is clearly and abundantly condemned in scripture as a sin.

 

Then we should all be refraining from contributing to the fast food industry, the sports industry, the scrapbooking industry, and the retail housing industry.

Again, attempted correlation of this concept as a scriptural ban on gambling fails.

 

Tell me how that verse makes playing a hand of blackjack a sin, but does not make a cake walk, dunk tank, church raffle, or entering the publisher's clering house swepstakes a sin.

Buckster, so far in this thread, every argument you've brought up to make a case for gambling being a categorical scriptural sin has been adequately refuted, and you so far have not responded to any of those points I've brought up.

At best, you make a case for abuse of gambling being a sin (and no one disagrees with that point). But your case for making gambling, in and of itself, a sin, has failed.