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To: Don'tMessWithTexas
Using your own logic, there cannot be because there is no scriptural reference to molestation, porn or heroin

Wrong.

Molestation and porn are both covered in the plain meaning of the Greek word "porneia" which the KJV translates, rather inadequately, as fornication. The NIV does better with this term: "sexual immorality."

Overuse of any drug causes harm to one's body disguised as pleasure, which is directly forbidden.

My spending a dollar or two that I can afford on a lottery ticket (and I don't buy them but suppose I did) need not sin. Most of what I spend goes to the government treasury (which reduces the amount of taxes that have to be otherwise raised) and a little of it goes to the winner.

192 posted on 12/28/2002 8:17:12 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HiTech RedNeck
There is another aspect of gambling which is equally reprehensible. The outcome of any gamble is largely dependent on "chance". But what is "chance?" Is there really such a thing? In man’s estimation, "chance" is an occurrence which has no recognisable design or discoverable cause.

Such a view is discounted by the Scriptures. In Proverbs 16: 33, we read "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord." What people call "chance", therefore, is an element in God’s Providence. He controls every event. When a coin is tossed, it is not "chance" but God who decides whether the outcome is "heads" or "tails". When a dice is thrown, the particular number which comes up does not depend on "chance", but was decided by God in the counsels of eternity, The same is true of raffles and lotteries.

Gambling, therefore, in whatever form, is most irreverent and an insult to God, in that it attributes to "chance" what is actually the Providence of God, This is a violation of the third commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." As the Westminster Shorter Catechism states, this command forbids "all profaning or abusing of any thing whereby God maketh himself known" (Q. 55).

Since God’s Providence is one of the means by which God reveals Himself, to make it the basis of a "lottery" or "raffle" is a gross misuse and abuse of it.

Thus, those who gamble are guilty either of "atheism" or "profanity." If they believe the outcome of any gamble is dependent on mere "chance", they are guilty of atheism.

On the other hand, if they believe that the outcome depends solely on God, they are guilty of trying to use God’s Providence to enable them to gain at other people’s expense.

This is nothing more than an attempt to use God, and to harness His power for sinful purposes. By so doing man seeks to make God his servant.

Christians, on the other hand, have consecrated their lives to God, acknowledging Him as Lord and Master, and promising to be His servants. To seek to do otherwise is sinful, and to make oneself liable to God’s judgement: "the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

195 posted on 12/28/2002 8:35:27 AM PST by Don'tMessWithTexas
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To: HiTech RedNeck; Don'tMessWithTexas
Most of what I spend goes to the government treasury (which reduces the amount of taxes that have to be otherwise raised)

keep dreaming - it augments already confiscatory tax levels

and a little of it goes to the winner.

I'll agree there

203 posted on 12/28/2002 10:24:03 AM PST by Revelation 911
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