Home Topics Index Download
Transcript 147B — Worldly Entertainment and the Christian
CALLER: Brother Camping, is there anything wrong with going to an entertainment place where gambling is offered if you just go to see a show and don't go into the gambling establishment? I could use the example that even though you go to a grocery store where they sell liquor you don't have to buy the liquor. Is that the devil's way of telling me that it's all right to do it?
HC: The question is raised concerning going to an entertainment place where there is gambling in order to see a show. As long as I don't gamble, is this what a Christian ought to do?
Well, I think I might put that question in this kind of a context. What is the role of the believer? Do we live as close to the world as we possibly can, without sinning? Or do we live as close to Christ as possible? That's really the question, isn't it?
Now Nevada, a state in the United States that has wide open gambling, and therefore along with this are all of the shows, and so on, from the Hollywood stars, is the place where the world goes in order to find its entertainment, in order to find its joy, in order to get its kicks. The world has no joy in Christ. The world has no security. It has no hope. And so desperately the world goes here and goes there and does this and does the other thing, looking for something.
Now what would a born again believer want to be doing there? Why would he want to be watching one of those shows? Why would he want to be part of that kind of an environment? Could you really say that in this you are glorifying God? The Bible says, "Whether you eat or whether you drink, do everything to the glory of God." Can you really say now that that is a God-glorifying place to be? Gambling going on all around, people eating and drinking (and I'm not talking about just drinking water), and there you sit, because you want to see one of these shows.
I really don't think that's the place where a born again believer ought to be, unless you can really find out in your heart and from the Scriptures how you can call that a God-glorifying experience.