WHAT IS WRONG WITH LOTTERY

Part III

What is the opinion of the world about lottery? I read in “The Canadian” of Febr. 12, 1977: “For the moment, however, we’ll leave the statistics and draw your attention to a few other perils attached to buying lottery tickets. As a responsible consumer’s guide, we must explain that lotteries may lead to moral degeneracy, mental decay and the lunacy of helping governments lift a little more money from your overtaxed income.”

It was the success of the first lottery that prompted a group of Ontario churchmen to issue a statement that claimed: “Lotteries, like other forms of gambling, encourage the notion that you can get something for nothing, and that contributes directly to violence, alienation and anti-human tendencies.

It seems that at least the federal penitentiary service shares this view: Prisoners are forbidden to buy tickets…

Other critics are hard on lotteries for medical rather than moral reasons. U.S. psychiatrist Edmund Bergler is on record as saying that lottery ticket buyers are “psychic masochists”, trying to punish themselves for some crime they’d rather not think about.

A killjoy colleague of Dr. Bergler, a Dr. Iago Galston, complains that regular lottery ticket buyers are displaying immaturity; they simply haven’t outgrown their childhood belief in magic and miracles. This is only a few of the many objections outside of God’s Word.

God’s Word speaks of casting the lot, as an extraordinary religious act, whereby we call upon the Lord for his Divine decision in matters, which we cannot solve. When we misuse the lot in the lottery then it is an unjustified, a wicked calling upon the Name of the Lord. This is one of the reasons why the lottery always is condemned in the Reformed Ethics as a moral evil, as sin agianst the third commandment, but also against the fourth and tenth commandments.

The lottery is always said to be dominated by chance or luck. The unbeliever thinks of a supernatural, mysterious power, which governs all things. The words fate or destiny and fortune or chance say enough. Many people think of fate; they believe in unchangeable laws of nature which govern all things; this makes the Lord dependent on this law of nature, and deprives Him of His Omnipotence. If the Lord would be dependent on this, then He is not the only true God, Who created heaven and earth and to Whom all things are subjected.

Others believe in fortune. The name of a Roman Goddess was Fortuna. She is pictured with the helm in her hand, a horn of abundance in her arm and standing on the globe. The helm points to her power over mankind, that she rules over all things. The horn of abundance tells, that she can give abundance according to her pleasure, while she stands on the round globe, which tells the inconstancy; today here, tomorrow somewhere else, there will be abundance.

We condemn this thought of fate and fortune, because we believe that the Lord reigns over all things, small and great. Even the hairs of our head are numbered.

When we expect it from chance or fortune, then we sin against the third commandment, which commands us to honor the Lord and forbids the use of the Name of the Lord in vain. In Matthew 4 we read: “Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.” When we realize this, then there is no place for lottery in our life and family, but then we must also fight against it in our society. When the people buy a lottery ticket, then it is to win.

We may say that Reformed people do not expect it of fate, fortune or the devil, but they believe that the Lord reigns. So also in our lottery we entrust the outcome to the Lord, because the lot must be cast with a calling upon the Name of the Lord; but this is something for which we may not ask the Lord, this is wicked, this is against his Law. How do you reconcile this with each-other? This is impossible and sinful!

Let us not forget:

1) The holy character of the lot. In the lot we ask the Lord in important things to show the way to us. But this request is lack of reverence for God, it is lack of piety to ask the Lord for a game; the holy thing is debased to a game.

2) The seriousness of the lot. In important things we may ask the Lord, with reverence in our heart, for His guidance. But this is not the state of mind of the gambler. He thinks only of himself! He doesn’t care about God at all.

3) The consequence of the lottery. This is greater than we imagine, because it is coupled with a burning desire for a favorable outcome. If a person does not win, that fills him with indignation against fortune, God and his neighbour, who was more lucky than he was.

Lottery is a game with a dangerous passion, as we can see in the gambling houses, where the people spend all their money, and if they lose it, often commit suicide. This is also one of the great objections against lottery, because it develops a dangerous passion in man.

It is also a waste of time, while the Lord says, that we must obtain our possessions by legal means, which is faithful labor: “six days shall thou labor and do all thy work.” This means that we sin not only against the third, but also against the fourth commandment, which commands us to labour for our daily bread.

And then last, but not least, we may not forget the tenth commandment: “Thou shalt not covet.” This we do, when we wait for that fortune: we covet money to do or to buy certain things. We long for money, which we will not get in the right way.

The form of the Lord’s Supper says very clear that usurers (gamblers) will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Then all that money, which we can get in this dishonest way, can not be compared with what we will loose, if we are lost, because for usurers there is no hope, if they continue to the end in their sin.

We may not forget, that the happiness, which we expect can be a great disillusionment too. We can give many examples, that it did not bring any happiness at all, but much sorrow. A man won a new car, but soon it was a total loss in an accident. Another won the $1,000,000; he died after two weeks of a heart attack. A family got a first prize from a big lottery; they had no rest anymore, because frequently some men tried to kidnap their children, to get a ransom. The last example is of a man, who got his money in the above mentioned way, who became rich, but lost it all and was buried by the parish.

The blessing of the Lord does not rest upon it! When we recall the history of the lot, then we find that it is used often under the Old Testament to know the will of God. After Pentecost it is not used anymore, at least it is not mentioned anymore. Is this not a sign for us to be careful with the use of it?

We know that the modernist appeals to the Christian freedom, but that is not at stake here. Christian freedom exists in being freed of sin and being prepared to the service of God under the government of the Lord. In John 8:36 we read: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” We can never speak of freedom, without being delivered of sin, in beginning, in our life. So also this last objection, which was in a pious garment, we must reject as being unscriptural.

So many people long for worldly possessions, they think that it will give true happiness. But a round world can never fill the triangular heart. Our poverty is in our life, that we lost the Lord and his image. We are without God in the world, and this is our misery. The greatest good we can possess is God. Thereof Paul says in 2 Cor. 6:10: “Having nothing and possessing all things.” This is the language of faith. And when may we have the Lord? When we are reconciled with God through Jesus Christ. That is the Way wherein the sinner becomes the property of God and God the property of the sinner, for his reckoning for time and eternity. This is no chance, but and unmovable surety.

We close with the catechism: “What is thine only comfort in life and death? That I with soul and body both in life and death am not my own, but belong unto my faithfuly Savior Jesus Christ.”

Norwich

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