Dr. Dan Reed was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1951. He was saved at the Woodland Avenue Baptist Church in 1973 while studying engineering at Auburn University. Sensing the call to preach in 1973 he enrolled at Tennessee Temple College under the ministry of Dr. Lee Roberson. Finishing his B.A. in December of 1975 he was called to Emden, Missouri , a town of 61, to pastor the Community Baptist Church. Pastor Reed has started two churches and two Christian schools during his 33-year ministry. He is currently the pastor of Harvest Baptist Church of Acworth, Georgia. (Learn more about Dr. Reed HERE)
Is there anything wrong with the lottery? Yes, and Christians should not be a part of it nor a part of any other sort of gambling.
The lottery is spreading gambling fever across the world. Only a few years ago there were no state sponsored lotteries in AMERICA. The first was formed in 1963. America’s first lottery dates back to 1612 and Jamestown, Virginia. The Virginia Company was having trouble staying in business and it was granted permission from the King of England to hold a lottery to raise money. By the 1770’s most of the American colonial governments had begun to hold lotteries. They were used to raise money for churches, schools, public buildings, roads and bridges. The Continental Congress turned to the lottery to help raise money for the War for Independence. In 1798 Alexandria, Virginia held a lottery to help pay for the paving of the streets of the city. But as the number and size of the lotteries increased, so did the fraud. In 1830 a lottery reform movement took place and by 1840 twelve states, mostly in New England, had outlawed lotteries. By 1878 only one state lottery remained and that was in Louisiana. Finally, however, in 1895 the U.S. Congress prohibited interstate commerce in lottery tickets and outlawed the import of lottery material. That was the end until 1963. New Hampshire, suffering from a lack of funds and refusing to enact a state income tax or sales tax, approved a New Hampshire Sweepstakes in 1964. It brought in almost 3 million in the first year. New York was the second state to join ranks. The South (the Bible belt) held out until last but today 37 states and the District of Columbia have legalized the state lottery system.
The money expended on lotteries has exploded! In 1994 $482 BILLION was spent on lottery tickets nationwide (Newsday, “Gambling the New National Pastime,” Dec. 3, 1995). In 1974 it was only $17 billion a year. An estimated one third of all American adults buy lottery tickets. In New York State that figure is two thirds. Americans spend more on lottery games than on movie tickets, plays, and all forms of recorded music combined; and they wager more each year than they spend on national defense.
THE GOVERNMENT ITSELF PAYS FOR ADS WHICH MAKE QUICK RICHES APPEAR TO BE THE SOLUTION TO LIFE’S PROBLEMS. Each year U.S. state governments spend more than $300 million in lottery advertisements. An ad in New York, where the odds of winning the top prize are about one in 12.9 million, depicts “Happy Gary,” a car salesman who wins the lottery, gives away his cars and heads for the Bahamas. Another ad shows a winner floating in a pool outside his new mansion. The New York lottery slogan since 1967 has been “All you need is a dollar and a dream,” and ads depict people daydreaming about being rich. A Washington State ad shows a line of workers punching a time clock. An announcer says, “Nothing satisfies the soul so much as honest toil and seeing through a job well done.” As if to mock this philosophy of life, the man at the end of the line, a lottery winner, takes his time sheet and throws it out the window, and the announcer adds, “Of course, having a whole bunch of money’s not bad either.”
Some researchers believe gambling is the fastest growing addiction among teenagers. The director of the Maryland Council on Compulsive Gambling blamed the lottery for the steep rise in two new classes of compulsive gamblers, women and teenagers (Sword of the Lord, Nov. 20, 1992). A survey among college students revealed that roughly one fourth gamble at least once a week. As noted earlier, an extensive survey completed this year in Canada found that two thirds of young people aged 12‑17 in Alberta are gamblers, and large numbers are in danger of becoming addicted. Jeffrey Devevensky, director of McGill University’s school of applied and child psychology, observed that “this is the first generation of kids who have grown up in a society where gambling has been totally legalized.” What will be the frightful result of this unbridled lust for easy riches?
State sponsored lotteries have unleashed a gambling fever which is expanding in other directions. There are more than 500 CASINOS in America today, and casino gambling is allowed in 23 states. Minnesota has more casinos than Atlantic City. “In Mississippi, more money was gambled in casinos in 1994 than was spent on all taxable retail goods” (Newsday, Dec. 3, 1995).
One of the newest gambling rages is VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS (VLT), which, because of their extremely addictive character, have been called the “crack cocaine of gambling.” Robert Goodman calls VLT “McGambling ‑‑ gambling’s fast food equivalent.” These are extremely popular among young people who have grown up with video games. The VLTs are similar to slot machines, in that the customer feeds coins into the terminal and looks for matches on the numbers or cards or cherries which spin at the drop of the coin. In St. John’s, Newfoundland, a province with 20% unemployment, many of the bars are filled with patrons seven days a week, and one of the big draws are the VLTs. There “is hope that a loonie or two plugged into one of the ubiquitous video lottery terminals will return a jackpot. It is that hope that keeps machines everywhere blinking in four‑color neon and eating coin after coin, quietly humming a siren song that draws the poor to their promise everywhere in Canada” (Calgary Herald, “VLT Gambling Terminal Disease for Canada’s Unemployed,” June 3, 1996). (The above info is taken from David O. Cloud & Rus Walton’s material on gambling)
New York spent $41 million on such ads in 1995. The lottery commission purchased more than 16,000 radio spots in New York City alone. A billboard, erected in an impoverished section of Chicago’s West Side, advertised the Illinois lottery with these words: “How to get from Washington Boulevard to Easy Street ‑‑ Play the Illinois lottery.”
The ads work. Describing the gambling frenzy in Arizona when the lotto jackpot reached $23 million, a newspaper said, “People are buying (tickets) all over the state. It’s crazy everywhere.” The frenzy is even higher at times in England, where 90% of adults purchased a lottery ticket in the first week of January (Ian Cotton, Unreality Bites, p. 33).
Not only are the state governments addicting their citizens to gambling, THE GOVERNMENTS THEMSELVES HAVE BECOME ADDICTED TO GAMBLING INCOME. New York raked in more than $3 billion in 1994. It is usually claimed that the revenue goes to fund education and other endeavors, but many states put the income into the general budget. In some states, taxes have been raised for education in spite of the promise that lottery revenue would meet the need. New York raised $1.24 billion in 1994, but this did nothing to increase the amount spent on education. “The State Legislature simply puts that much less from the general fund into the education budget.” A national study shows that states that earmark some or all of their gambling revenues for education, less than 4 percent of the education budget goes towards schools (Paul Scianna, Missouri Family Policy Center, Straight Talk, Family Research Council, Jan. 17, 1996).
THE RESULT OF THE GAMBLING EXPLOSION HAS BEEN PREDICTABLE. The number of Gamblers Anonymous groups in the U.S. has doubled since 1980, to 1,200. There were 40,000 calls to the Council on Compulsive Gambling’s national hotline in 1994. Gambling researcher Rachel Volberg, in a 1991 study in Connecticut, found that pathological gamblers were costing the state nearly $200 million more than it received from legal gambling. Gambling is resulting in increased family breakup, suicide, crime, and overwhelming personal debt. In a warning to government leaders in Ontario, which is phasing in video lottery terminals this year, Robert Goodman predicted that the province must “expect an increase in embezzlement, insurance and credit card fraud, theft, bad cheques, family problems and domestic violence” (Windsor Star, “Author Spells out Video Gaming Danger, July 9, 1996). “A survey of compulsive gamblers by University of Illinois researcher Henry Lesieur found that 22 percent became divorced because of gambling, 40 percent lost a job, 49 percent stole from their employers to cover debts and 79 percent said they wanted to die. Two thirds of compulsive gamblers commit other crimes to pay for their habit, several studies have found” (William Falk, “Gambling the New National Pastime,” Newsday, Dec. 3, 1995). Compulsive gamblers have an average gambling debt of $43,000, and 85 percent of them have stolen from their employers in an attempt to pay their debts.
I. Scripture condemns covetousness and easy wealth
A. Gambling encourages covetousness and greed which is clearly forbidden
Gambling entices people to want more and not to be satisfied with what is being provided by legitimate means of income. Remember, God never tempts any man to do evil (James 1:13)! Gambling cannot be from the Lord!
G. Campbell Morgan, a renowned Bible scholar, pointed out that the urge to gamble goes far beyond the desire for amusement or entertainment; it involves an inordinate (and often uncontrolled) appetite that is covetousness. The apostle Paul used the terms “lust” and “concupiscence” to describe covetousness (I Thess. 4:5); he urged Christians to “mortify” these desires (Col. 3:1-6). Covetousness is also called “idolatry” (Col. 3:5).
B. Gambling encourages a wrong emphasis to life.
Matthew 6:19-21 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth… but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…”
C. Gambling promotes “easy money”
“Easy money” is not one of God’s plans to gain wealth. In fact, work is God’s method which produces not only wealth but character. “Easy money” promotes laziness and a concentration of pleasure and ease.
Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the ground…” Eccl. 5:10-12 “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver…the sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.” Proverbs 6:6-9 “Go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise…”
Common sense would tell most people from the information regarding lotteries and gambling in general that it would not be wise to ever get started. But to us as Christians, we want to know what scripture says.
II. Gambling’s addictive nature makes it forbidden by scripture to any Christian.
I Cor. 6:12,13 “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both it and them.” Note the little phrase Paul uses, “I will not be brought under the power of any.” No one or no thing should control us but the Lord and His Word! Gambling definitely has an addictive, controlling nature to it. This is particularly true for certain types of people. It really is not a matter of whether or not someone has the money to gamble, it is matter of who is controlling me! (See also Romans 6:16-19)
II Peter 2:14 “Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin.” (a mark of a false prophet is one who “cannot cease from sin…an heart they have exercised with covetous practices”) Note also the phrase “an heart they have exercised with covetous practices.” All of us have a wicked heart prone to covetousness but we must not exercise that sinful practice for if we do it becomes a habit very difficult to break!
III. Gambling violates God’s principles of stewardship.
Luke 16:10,11 “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” Mammon speaks of money. God has given us our money, we are but stewards of what He has given us. Deut. 8:18 “It is God that giveth thee power to get wealth.”, Psalm 24:1″The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” I do not have the right to spend God’s money on that which is forbidden. It is His money, I am but the manager or steward of it.
IV. Gambling is an unscriptural way of earning wealth.
The Bible talks about “unjust gain” and “dishonest gain” — wrong ways of getting money. What are God’s ordained ways of acquiring wealth?
Labor- II Thess. 3:10 “If any would not work, neither should he eat.”, Gen. 3:19 “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”, Eph. 4:28 “Let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”
Inheritances and gifts- Pro. 19:14 “House and riches are the inheritance of fathers…”, II Cor. 12:14 “The children ought not to lay up for the parents but the parents for the children.”, Gen. 23:1-11, Eph. 4:28 “that he may have to give.”
Proper investments- Luke 19:15 “And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.”
Savings- Proverbs 21:20 “There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.”
Gambling, which includes the lottery, should be a definite “no” for the Christian committed to obeying God’s Word!
Added Commentary:
Would you consider purchasing this book?
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Seven Snares of the Enemy By Erwin W. Lutzer / Moody Publishers |
There are many “modern” sins ensnaring more and more people everyday. Some are blatant, but many are secret, quickly seducing the participant into behavior that separates them from God. In Seven Snares of the Enemy, Pastor and author Erwin Lutzer exposes Satan’s seven most common “traps,” warning readers and giving them hope for liberation from these forms of bondage. Addressing greed, gambling, alcoholism, pornography, sexual freedom, pleasure, and occultism, Lutzer takes on tough and sensitive issues with great compassion and clarity.
