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Question: 'Should a Christian enter a sweepstakes?'
Answer: A sweepstakes can refer to a lottery or to a race or contest in which the entire prize is awarded to one winner. Sweepstakes may or may not involve gambling, as the winnings can be chosen by random drawing without cost to the winner. The term originated from a Middle English word,

How does God view social gambling between friends? My buddies and I enjoy getting together for a game of poker now and then. Everybody who knows anything about the game understands that it's just not the same if it doesn't include a real risk of some kind, however small. How do you feel about Christians playing games of chance and betting a nickel, a dime, a quarter, maybe a dollar at times? Sep 17, 2014 Gambling is not an act of faith but a game of chance. Paul wrote that “Everything that is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). The Christian life is to be lived in dependence on God to meet all needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Phil. Jesus wouldn’t do it. Jan 02, 2020 Gambling was once the forte of shady characters and the underworld. Fortunes were lost and families were destroyed by the roll of the dice or the toss of a card. Therefore, Christian leaders strongly opposed any venture that even remotely hinted of gambling. Because of their similarity to games of chance, sweepstakes were often included in that ban.

swepestake, which referred to a winner who swept the table of all earnings.
Gambling, and any contest where the monetary outcome is based on chance, has long been condemned by the church, and for good reason. Gambling was once the forte of shady characters and the underworld. Fortunes were lost and families were destroyed by the roll of the dice or the toss of a card. Therefore, Christian leaders strongly opposed any venture that even remotely hinted of gambling. Because of their similarity to games of chance, sweepstakes were often included in that ban.
However, in the last century, contests, lotteries, and sweepstakes have become so commonplace we hardly associate them with the evils of 19th-century gambling. Television game shows have further lowered our resistance. We cheer with the winners who walk away with the prizes. Sweepstakes also abound as a form of advertising. Businesses market their services by offering a chance at a prize in exchange for our contact information. In this type of sweepstakes, the participant has little to lose and, if fully aware of the consequences of entering, suffers no real harm in doing so.
The problem with sweepstakes begins when we pin all our hopes on winning, as if money will solve our problems. We see winning as the answer instead of trusting the Lord. People can get so caught up in the possibilities of winning a sweepstakes that they sacrifice money they don’t have on the altar of chance. When we become focused upon the “what if’s” of winning, money quickly becomes an idol.
The Bible warns us often about the trap of money-loving. First Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Hebrews 13:5 declares, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” The desire for money is nothing new or unique to our culture, and sweepstakes only capitalize on that desire.
While entering sweepstakes is usually innocent fun, we must always consider the cost. Rarely is anything free. Before entering any contest, we should consider some questions:
• What do those operating the sweepstakes stand to gain from my participation?
• Is it a gain I readily condone?
• Am I being used in ways I would never agree to if not for the chance of winning?
• If I could consult Jesus before entering, would He give the “go ahead”?
• Will entering this contest increase my greed or focus upon material things?
When we can give healthy, God-honoring answers to those questions, entering sweepstakes should not be a problem.

Many people who enjoy gambling as a form of entertainment don’t often think about the ethical or moral implications of their pastime.

Twin river casino online slots. However, over the past century, as gambling has become legalized in various places around the world, people have paid more attention to what the world’s great religions have to say regarding gambling.

There was a time in the United States when Christian churches, along with a few Jewish synagogues in more enlightened communities, typically held moral authority in society.

In today’s global society, however, there’s hardly any nation on the face of the planet that has only one faith influencing its common ethics. Thus it’s necessary to look at the world’s five great religions to understand how people approach the question of whether gambling is a sin, and why.

A brief survey of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism finds that rarely does God speak directly about the human practice of gambling. For example, since Buddhists don’t believe in a divine being at all, it’s unlikely that there would be a word from “God” on the subject. https://renewholistic108.weebly.com/blog/compare-microsoft-surface-pro-to-mac-book-pro-2015.

At the other end of the spectrum are the millions of Hindus in the world, some of whom believe in one supreme divine being and many of whom believe in hundreds of gods. Which god would be the authority about gambling?

Hence, it’s advisable to take a look at the beliefs of each major religion to get a sense of how its adherents view the practice of gambling as a social phenomenon. This is particularly important for countries in North America, which has experienced an influx of Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The following exploration takes these faith groups in chronological order, according to their emergence in human society.

Hinduism and Gambling

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According to the website, Die Hard Indian, Hinduism is the world’s only major religion without a specific founder or a single authoritative scripture. As the major religion of India, Hinduism is practiced by approximately 80 percent of the country’s 1-billion-plus citizens. Its roots extend back to practices dating to 1000 BC.

As mentioned earlier, some Hindus believe in a single supreme deity, while others believe in many gods. The concept of “sin” in Hinduism is bound up in the idea known as “karma.”

Most Westerners can understand karma as “what goes around, comes around.” In other words, Hindus believe that one lives a virtuous life in order to escape the cycle of reincarnation, in which one’s deeds in a previous life determine one’s status in the next, until one becomes so virtuous as to achieve nirvana, or spiritual oblivion. Those who suffer in the current life are suffering to make amends for their past misdeeds.

One ironic outcome of karma is that until recently, there was little charity to the less fortunate, because to assist someone in a destitute condition was seen as interfering with that person’s karma, thus endangering one’s own.

However, over the past century, the compassion of the great spiritual leader, Mahatma Gandhi, for the lowest classes of Indian society both Hindu and Muslim, has lifted the virtuous status charity for others.

Hinduism’s view of gambling thus is conditioned by the ideas of karma and reincarnation. Gambling is specifically forbidden according to the most ascetic Hindu practices, while less stringent sects tend to look at the motivations and outcomes of gambling to determine its morality. In general, gambling for entertainment would be frowned upon.

Buddhism and Gambling

Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism traced to its founder, Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, “The Enlightened One.” The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. His teachings spread throughout Asia and evolved into two main sects, with many different subcategories practiced by today’s 500 million adherents.

In general, Buddhism does not believe in the existence of a supreme divine being, so there is no “god” in Buddhism

Gambling And The Christian Faith