Should Christians Play the Lottery?
August 27th, 2008
(By John MacArthur)
Today’s post is adapted from a transcript of a Q&A session held a number of years ago at Grace Community Church.
Personally, I don’t see gambling as a legitimate expression of my stewardship of what God has given to me.
There is no verse in the Bible that explicitly says, “Do not gamble.” (Somebody always says [referring to Acts 1], “Well, I mean, even the disciples cast lots.” Right. That was a means by which they were able to determine the will of God because God spoke through that method — that’s a little different.)
But I do not believe that the Bible legitimizes gambling (including the Lottery) as a means of stewardship. I also feel on the social end of it that the Lottery is a disaster and I will tell you why. The people who buy the tickets are the people who can least afford to buy the tickets. An already poor populace are literally consuming those things. It plays into the hands of the people who need to learn how to work productively and not hope against hope. It is another expression of “They that would be rich fall into many snares and hurtful lusts.”
The Bible advocates gaining money by inheritance, by hard work, and by wise investment, but it never advocates getting rich by gambling or fast money. The Lottery is not a legitimate way to make a living or invest for the future, nor is it a good form of stewardship; and it is certainly not a legitimate way to fund education at the expense of already poor people who are going to waste their subsistence on that.
There is something to be said for good stewardship.
Years ago, when my son was about 7 or 8, he asked why it was that poor people who smoke and drink cheap beer seemed to be the only ones buying lotto tickets. He thought it odd that those who could least afford it were the ones who seemed to play it more often.
Generalization to be sure. But he had a point.
Spot on!
If a Christian was to win the lottery they would bear the burden of defrauding the poor, the widow, and the orphan. Lots of lottery tickets have been purchased using dollars that should have been spent on milk, school clothes, etc., making the lottery one of the great evils of our day.
We should differentiate between sin and acting unwisely. Even though unwise decisions could be sinful also.
Regarding to gambling we should consider exactly if it is a sin or a wisdom issue. In some cases it could be just be entertaiment (let me say here I don’t gamble at all).
We have the tendency to want to single out gambling as bad stewardship. But if there a difference between spending $100 a month (or whatever ammount) in movies, going out, expensive clothing, expensive cars, vacations, cable tv, or high speed internet? Yes I know, we would like to say that there is a difference. But form the good stewardship position perhaps there isn’t.
What is the answer? Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12).
I agree with your assessment of lottery tickets. However, if we’re defining “gambling” as games of chance (which the lottery would fall into), would not then bingo be considered the same (I believe it should)? It seems to me that the lottery and bingo are based much more on chance than even poker. Yet, I know of no church that would actively condone poker in its midst, but many have bingo and raffles/lotteries.
Patrick
http://www.theologyofomaha.com
I’ve thought about this a lot, because my state has been pushing to have a lottery for years. There is those who say, “It doesn’t hurt anyone, they are just playing a game” or “It’s just a dollar”. I came up with some of the same reasons you did, but there is one other thing that came to mind. The lottery incites greed in those who play it; wanting to “win big”. The lottery is just one more temptation in this world to covet things.
Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”
(Luke 12:15 NASB)
But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
(Ephesians 5:3 NASB)
While I agree with the author, I did have one young man approach the question this way. “If I had a choice between spending $1.00 on a candy bar with a guarantee of no return on my investment, and $1.00 on a lottery ticket with at least the possibility that I might get some money back; why would I not play the lottery? What is the worse example of stewardship?” I post this not to disagree with Dr. MacArthur’s answer, but to provoke some thought to the discussion.
John:
Your friend’s argument is flawed. He is trying to limit the idea of “return on investment” to just money, which is an inaccurate premise. This idea can easily be reduced to absurdity — if the value of spending money is only the money you might get back, it would make more sense to spend all of your money on lottery tickets and none on food or clothing or shelter.
Another reason his argument doesn’t work is because money only has value when you exchange it for goods or services, such as candy bars. In other words, assume you just kept accumulating money and never spending it (because spending it wouldn’t be a wise investment). This will help you make a fortune, but it would be completely useless.
But there is value outside money. Money is only a convenience to allow us to much more easily exchange things of real value, such as food and work and even entertainment. Once you recognize this, you can see that the candy bar is probably a wiser choice. If you choose wisely, the candy bar will be delicious and enjoyable. You will be savoring one of the blessings of God’s good creation, and hopefully you will praise our Creator for it.
On the other hand, if your friend wanted to get a good monetary “return on investment” from his dollar, it would statistically be a wiser choice to put it in the bank until you have saved enough dollars to invest them in stocks or bonds, or even to put that dollar into a retirement account.
Today is my anniversary. I was thinking about what to do.
1. Flowers? No. $80 a dozen. Bad stewardship
2. Jewelry? No. Worse than flowers and is vain
3. Dinning out? No. That is real poor stewardship.
4. Movie/Entertaiment? No. more bad stewardship.
I guess I won’t do anything for my wonderful wife of 25 yrs. Now, that is good stewardship. But not sure how wise it is.
John
Both the chocolate bar and lottery ticket are related to wants not needs.
However, with the chocolate bar you get $1.00 worth of chocolate bar for your $1.00 investment. That’s a 100% return on your want fulfillment.
With the $1.00 lottery ticket you get a worthless paper idol that you purchased over trusting in the provision of God. Anyone who trusts in an idol over God can expect a negative return on their investment whether they win or not.
‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.’~ 1 Timothy 6:10
The Bible does give specific verses about not gambling. It is called filthy lucre. Sometimes it is called, “dishonest gain.” The word, “gamble” means to take a risk. It is foolish to risk what God gives us. Gambling is certainly sinful.
Thanks John, a very sound answer. I think this verse really sums it up, “They that would be rich fall into many snares and hurtful lusts.” I’ve always said to people who tell me they play the lottery because it gives money for good causes, “If they were to take away the prize money would you continue to pay each week…?” They don’t have much to say at this point.
Great point, James.
I sometimes wonder how matter this figures into so many other things I see so-called Christians doing these days, from playing poker to fantasy football leagues.
I think another aspect is that of our Christian example in a lost and dying world. It may be true that some matters fall into a “gray area” but then how do we stand out as different if we excuse our practices because they’re not explicit in Scripture and thus we are doing the very same things the lost do?
Last week on the new radio, the announcer called a pastor “the dumbest pastor of all time” because that pastor refused $600,000 in lottery winnings from a member of the church.
Personally, I think that was a wise pastor.
Phil Johnson has done a really good message on gambling called “Is Gambling Ok? Don’t Bet on It!”. You can find it here: http://www.thegracelifepulpit.com/philsermons.htm.
Search for “gambling” on the page (Ctrl-F to find it).
Well lets see. With the standard banking practices being that they only have to keep 10% of your actual money on hand at any one time and can loan out or invest the rest of it. (hold that thought) Example. You deposit 100.00 dollars into the bank. They are only required to keep 10.00 of it on hand. Then they can loan out your other 90.00 to someone that wants to borrow it and is willing to pay an additional intrest rate on it. When Y2K was coming. I was in a mens bible study with a banker that asked for prayers on this situation because he said they did not have but a small fraction of peoples money in the bank vault and they were concerned that if everyone panics and wants to come in and remove their money at once. They did not have the money on hand to do this.
When you deposit your money into a bank. You are in a certain form of gambling. You are gambling that you will get all of your money back plus a small intrest when you decide to take it out. It might not be there to take out. This is gambling and people don’t even know it.
Back to my thoughts. This real life example above is dishonest gain or usery. So using the examples in some of the posts above that say instead of gambling on winning the lottery. This is sinful because the money indorses and promotes poor people to spend money they don’t have to spend. Well isn’t it just as sinful giving the banks your money knowing they are using it for dishonest gain?
I use banks because of convienience. I don’t worry about if it will be gone tomorrow or not.
I believe that the REASON behind playing the lottery is the sinful versus non-sinful behavier. If your heart is greedy and looks for a lottery to satisfy that greed. That is sinful. If you play the lottery just for entertainment like playing crossword puzzles (Which you have to buy sometimes)or bingo. Then that is entertainment.
The argument can be made both for and against playing the lottery.
How about people that buy lottery tickets to give to people at Christmas time for gifts because they cannot figure out what to get them. In someone’s eyes it would be very sinful because it promotes gambling. But what about the billions of Christians each year that buy worthless, rediculous gifts and give them to others at Christmas time and in reality, They have squandered good money that could of been used for God’s purpose.
Heres my reason for not playing the lottery even though I have recieved lottery tickets as gifts in the past and even have bought a few over the years.
Just like drinking that can or cannot be sinful. It’s the example we give to others that make the difference. If a young teenager sees a Christian drinking and even smoking for that matter. He sees it’s OK to do it also.
When people see Christians buying lottery tickets and acting like it is what they live for. This also gives false hope to non believers or even fellow believers.
I don’t want to give that influence to others.
In short, people don’t want us telling them what to do or not to do. They want to see how we live our lives and then they are more apt to follow these actions rather than words. 1st John 3:16 and following
Tim
I don’t but lotto tickets or gamble either. I think the best point made was that we are a witness for Christ, and therefore have to think about every action we take, and ask ourselves what impression of us in any situation, that gives others, whether we see it as wrong or not.
“1 Corinthians 8:12-13 And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.”
That being said, let me address some issues already brought up, with a thought too ponder.
Is not investing our money gambling? You risk losing it all, and we ask these companies to make higher returns for us. We look to invest in those that have the best returns don’t we? Do you think they accomplish this by treating their workers better, or sharing the profits?? Don’t fool yourselves. So is that really good stewardship?
It is always easy to condemn what the other guy is doing, but do we really think about what we oursleves are doing?
In California it is not gambling but an Education Tax. In that case if the poor are more likely to play it, that seems to balance the taxes. In Colorado it is an environmental tax, again, if the poor play it, who is the most benefitted? (just kidding)
As has been said, until the SBC does something about their fat bellies, Lexus’, and ten bedroom homes multi-million dollar homes for 3.5 children, and the enormous outlay on assundry entertainments within and without the church, then really the next post has a clear teaching on just whose prayer will be answered.
Surely, it isn’t the finger licking Falwell’s Fried Chicken types.
This brings us to the question: Isn’t there something more enterprising than centering on such a banal issue as gambling. If it is addiction, that is another matter. But, playing the lottery is much like drinking alcohol. If you can’t do it without a dirty conscience then don’t, but be careful that what you are feeling is not the quilt heaped upon you by Pharisaical pietists who will spend thousands on golf clubs so as to get an advantage on the pastor in the next city at the next pastors tourney when beside the clubs there will be airlines tickets, hotels, rental cars, and fine dining. Maybe a motor-cycle collection? Maybe guns, hunting for sport and not supply, sports, vacations and all manners of entertainments not employed for life or the furtherance of the Gospel.
Why not, rather than keeping a laundry list of other people’s sins, the word taught in its fulness. Sure, you can label TV, or videos, or video games, with the same distain as inbibing anything to excess. You can make everything sin, if you want. But what a waste of time. Now that is a sin for which we will all give an account.
And actually Tim, people who want to see how our lives look are looking at the wrong thing, and if that is the means you use to evangelize, be assured your sin will find its way to their ears and eyes because those who look for such things are not looking for reasons to believe but to doubt your message. And, unless you are perfect, your outward man will always provide the ammunition to shoot down your testimony. If it is the outward appearance and not the inward man that you have been made to be, you present yourself and not Christ crucified because of the sin you still manifest. Preach Christ, and not yourself, or just become a Mormon, for their message is the works of the flesh and how good they look validates their message. Some how, we have got to get away from the results orientation. Even among the Reformed, the pietistic bent is as deadly to the Message of Christ crucified as any Arminian school.
What if you wanted to win the lottery to help people? Like you had this dream to build a christian crisis center
for troubled teens and young adults(for free or very very lo costs ). You wanted to help people and give some lost individuals the choice to make the best relationship in life (in Christ). But you only had 2 bricks and a heart full of love, not nearly close enough to reach this goal.
I just want people to experience the love of the Lord and how He changes our lives. Makes the baddest of the baddest the best of the best.
K
I have read a lot of the replies, What might make some, think different is the correct denfinition of Stewardship.
Good stewardships is simpling asking God he would have us to do. Examples a church need new carpet they get 2 bids for the carpet. The first bid is for $12.00 per yard, the Second bid is for $24.00 per yard. Normaly we would say that’s easy let purchase the carpet at $12.00 per yard that would save money “That’s good Stewardship”, is it really? No ! What would be good stewardship is asking God which carpet to buy, its his money to begin with. God is in the business of great things, He walks on street of gold.