Various Doctrines and Beliefs

In this chapter I will attempt to correct some of the false doctrines and beliefs held by many Christians today.

(1) Why Gambling is A Sin

As strange as it may seem, there are actually many Christians who do not believe it is a sin to gamble, after all, there is no place in the Bible that says “thou shalt not play poker,” or even “thou shalt not gamble.” It has spread like a plague across the country, and it is largely the fault of Christians for not standing up against it. Worse yet, they are directly responsible for it because there were many elections about the lottery or casinos, and those bills could not have passed without “yes” votes from many Christians. A May 2006 Pew Research Center survey said,

. . . 65 percent of adults disagreed with the statement that “it is morally wrong to gamble.” Seventy-five percent of Roman Catholics disagreed with the statement, as did 43 percent of white evangelical Protestants…. Gambling has become so commonplace, so much a part of American life, that Americans have forgotten the older arguments against betting.

It would probably surprise most people today to learn that the old Christian ethic disapproved of gambling not so much because a gambler might lose bets and harm his family, although that was part of it. The larger concern was that he might win bets and harm other families. (Plundering for fun: The moral problem with gambling has as much to do with winning as with losing, by Timothy Lamer. World Magazine, February 24, 2007, Vol. 22, No. 7)

The19th-century theologians Charles Hodge and R. L. Dabney both argued that gambling is a sin. Gambling violates the Eighth Commandment to love your neighbor as yourself because the eighth commandment requires “the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others,” said Dabney (Ibid). Gambling either harms your own finances or that of someone else. Dabney argued that giving up our money voluntarily is still a sin because a gambler’s motive in gambling is “namely: the hope of plundering his rival” (The Practical Philosophy, Quoted in Ibid).

Gambling is like robbery because when you win money from a casino you are really taking it from some other person who lost money moments before. It is not only a sin to gamble, it is even a sin to pretend-gamble.

I came to like playing poker after getting interested in poker by watching The World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel. I then started playing poker with play-money online; I even had thoughts of becoming a professional poker player. After all, poker tournament-players use worthless chips after paying an entrance fee, but God scolded me and did not want me to play any type of poker. So I asked God why I could not even play with fake-money, then I had a dream.

In this dream there were three guys inside a small rundown eatery, a real “greasy spoon,” but it had lots of people buying food through the drive-up window. One of the guys said he would like to eat some human flesh but there was none available, so he said “I will just pretend that this food here is human flesh” and proceeded to eat. When finished he said, “yum, that was good tasting human flesh,” even though it really was not. I then picked up a plate and pretended to eat, and then I said, “this pretend human flesh sure is good.”

I either partly awoke at that point or continued to dream; I asked God what the meaning was, and it came to me that whenever a person wins money in gambling at a casino it is taking money from someone else who had already lost money to the casino. It was not merely taking money from casinos, because they would not have any if they did not take money from millions of people every day. Because winning money gambling is taking money from regular people, it is sort of like eating human flesh. And playing poker or other gambling games with play money is like pretending to eat human flesh, because you are pretending to take money from people.

Gambling has spread not only in America but in England, Australia and many other countries. In 1996 80% of Australians said they had gambled in the previous 12 months, and 1.3 million Australians believed that gambling “had caused troubles for their families or friends” (John Mark Ministries, Australia, http://jmm.aaa.net.au)

Gambling has a long history; it existed in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and for just as long it has caused social problems:

The ancient Greeks considered it detrimental to the order of the State; the ancient Egyptians thought it made men effeminate. Some of the ‘greats’ have been hooked: Dostoevsky’s incentive for writing was often to get money for gambling. (Ibid)

If this information is not enough for you, do a Google search, there are many web sites that detail the Biblical evidence against gambling. No good comes of it, only harm. Bingo is a form of gambling and churches should repent for doing it. Native Americans need to repent of their greed and close their casinos because gambling is the source of much harm to society and individuals. Native Americans are bringing a curse upon themselves and will receive God’s judgment for spreading gambling across America.

(2) Why Drinking Wine is Not a Sin

Like it or not, the Bible clearly condones drinking wine. Those who say otherwise are twisting the Scriptures to support their no-alcohol beliefs. It must be a form of self brainwashing, or willful delusion. I have heard it preached many times that Jesus did not turn the water into wine, but into grape juice, that wine was what they called grape juice. But let us examine with logic and good sense what the Bible actually says on this subject.

First, let us examine the Scripture passage about Jesus’ first miracle, where he turned the water into wine:

9 . . . he called for the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the best wine first, and the cheap kind when people are drunk. But you have kept the best wine until now!” (John 2:9-10) (ISV)

This was not grape juice, people cannot get drunk on grape juice! If drinking wine were a sin then Jesus just gave many gallons of wine to people for them to sin with; nonsense! Would Jesus give someone cocaine today? NEVER!

Consider this fact, grape juice must be refrigerated or it will ruin, only by allowing it to ferment into wine will it last for more than a few days. Can you imagine growing many grapes and harvesting them only to drink the juice for a day or two and throw out the rest? Ridiculous! Since grape juice will ruin, it was always turned into wine. Jesus even gave an illustration where he equated wine with the Holy Spirit!

“Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” (Mat 9:17) (ESV)

When grape juice ferments into wine it gives off a gas which expands the wineskins, also called leather bottles, but new leather will stretch. It is near blasphemy to call drinking wine a sin because Jesus likens it to the Holy Spirit. He would have been a real dumb-nut to have done so if drinking wine were a sin. That would be like saying something really good for us that we should have is like poison or the devil or demons; ridiculous! Grape juice in the Bible is referred to as new wine, and after it ages and has fermented it becomes old wine, or just wine.

No one who has been drinking old wine wants new wine, for he says, ‘The old is excellent!’” (Luke 5:39) (ISV)

Wow, Jesus actually states that real wine is better than grape juice; this proves that Jesus drank wine! Yet fundamentalist Christians have the audacity to condemn people who drink wine.

Paul told Timothy to drink wine for his stomach (1Ti 5:23). He did not say to drink grape juice. In fact, grape juice is acidic and drinking a lot of it will actually cause stomach problems. Just ask people who have stomach problems if they can drink grape juice, they will say no, but they can drink wine. Also, Paul said not to be get drunk on wine:

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, (Eph 5:18) (NIV)

Again, how can a person get drunk on grape juice? Why didn’t he just say don’t ever drink wine, but he did not, he said do not get drunk on it. Just as we are not supposed to over-eat, thereby becoming a glutton, so also we are not supposed to drink until we get drunk. But this does not mean that you must never drink wine, that is nonsense. Paul also spoke about the qualifications for being a minister of the Gospel, “He must not drink excessively or be a violent person, but instead be gentle. He must not be argumentative or a lover of money” (1 Tim. 3:3) (ISV).

Later in the same chapter Paul says the same about deacons: “not given to much wine, not greedy for money” (1 Timothy 3:8) (NIV). If it is true that “wine” in the New Testament actually refers to grape juice, then this passage does not make good sense, because it has Paul requiring deacons to not drink much grape juice! No, it refers to real wine. This willful blindness is one of the reasons why so much truth has not been known to us before now. Barnes Notes about 1 Timothy 3:3 says:

Then it denotes, as it does here, one who sits “by” wine; that is, who is in the habit of drinking it. It cannot be inferred, from the use of the word here, that wine was absolutely and entirely prohibited; for the word does not properly express that idea. It means that one who is in the habit of drinking wine, or who is accustomed to sit with those who indulge in it, should not be admitted to the ministry. The way in which the apostle mentions the subject here would lead us fairly to suppose that he did not mean to commend its use in any sense; that he regarded its use as dangerous, and that he would wish the ministers of religion to avoid it altogether. . . .

There is much more evidence that drinking wine is not a sin and that Jesus drank real wine, but many people will continue to believe what they want to believe. Protestant Christians have historically drunk wine and other alcoholic beverages, and Orthodox Christians have historically owned liquor stores. It is only in recent centuries that some fundamentalist Christians have rejected it because so many of the unsaved population were abusing it. Drinking a little wine each day has long been proven to be healthy for your heart and new studies show that people who drink it have better cognitive ability in their old age.

Are there verses in the Old Testament that say not to drink wine or strong drink? Yes, and in several other places it says you can drink wine and strong drink. It all depends on the situation. Here are a few samples showing both for and against:

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1) (ESV)

Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; (Proverbs 31:6) (ESV)

Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them! (Isa. 5:11) (ESV)

In the Holy Place you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the LORD. (Num 28:7) (ESV)

It appears from these passages that it is not a sin to drink wine or strong drink, but it is wrong to drink to excess. Notice that last verse; if the Old Testament priests were commanded to pour out an offering of strong drink to God, then it surely cannot be a sin.

In spite of this evidence, some people will still insist that we should never drink alcohol, but that is just not supported by the facts of Scripture. If you cannot drink without becoming drunk, then of course you should not drink, but that does not mean all people should be saddled with that restriction. Are we going to ban ice-cream and cake because some people eat too much and become over-weight? No, it is all about personal restraint, which we can do with God’s help.

(3) Divorce and Remarriage

the rest of this chapter will not be available for some time, it is 50 pages long with lots of great information, but will not be included here.