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[lemon10]

That large scale gambling (aka, buying 2-3 lottery tickets every day, going to casinos, ect) is stupid and a detriment to society, but betting 10 bucks or whatever on a game of poker with your friends is fine.

[Orange Wizard]

Yeah, pretty much that. Admittedly, that money could be spent on better things, but for the purposes of fun/entertainment, I don't see any real problem.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

As long as you're not gambling away a bunch of money

So ya, part of your fun/entertainment is fine

[BlindKitty]

Also, why the hell would Joseph go to Bethlehem? Because of his (supposed) great great great great great great....etc. grandfather living there? Hardly seems like something a Census would care about.

They twisted facts to conform to the prophecy of Micah.

I would find and link you an article about Censuses (Censii?) in Roman-controlled Palestine and why Joseph had to go Bethlehem, but I only read it in Polish and in old-school printed magazine, so it would be probably pointless. But it was an exempt from a book, and it might be available in English, so I might go on and try to find the reference later on; anyway, it wasn't because his great^n grandfather lived here, but because he had land somewhere around there or something similar. That he actually had the land there, and not in some other part of Palestine, might be why he and Mary were guided in such a way to meet each other, thus leading to Christ being born in Bethlehem.

[Graknorke]

That large scale gambling (aka, buying 2-3 lottery tickets every day, going to casinos, ect) is stupid and a detriment to society, but betting 10 bucks or whatever on a game of poker with your friends is fine.

Is this personal views or Bible views?

[tahujdt]

I'm assuming it's the latter.

Most sects, regardless of views otherwise, will say that if gambling is ruining your life, it's a Bad Thing.

[Orange Wizard]

AFAIK the Bible doesn't really have much to say on the matter, so I'm just going on principle.

...

There are verses in the NT along the same lines as the drunkenness ones, so I suppose it's roughly the same thing.

[lemon10]

That large scale gambling (aka, buying 2-3 lottery tickets every day, going to casinos, ect) is stupid and a detriment to society, but betting 10 bucks or whatever on a game of poker with your friends is fine.

Is this personal views or Bible views?

It's my personal view. After looking it up over about 15 seconds, the bible apparently says nothing explicitly about gambling (although there are some verses about money, greed and excess that are very slightly relevant), but I suspect that views on gambling differ by sect. After thinking about it a moment, my view is probably the average christian view as well.

[Helgoland]

My view: I don't gamble, but I guess it's okay as long as you don't ruin your life - or, even worse, gamble away your family's future and well-being.

[scrdest]

I view gambling as, essentially, an old-school version of arcades. You are, by default, throwing your money away in exchange of having fun, and you should treat it like that - the same way as you would, for example, buy a book for entertainment, or, as mentioned before, throw a coin into an arcade machine.

The fact that you might end up with a surplus of money due to others losing is a bonus, not the point. And if you're blowing all of your budget on fun, it's exactly as irresponsible as you would if you made your family starve for a new car or a new Xbox.

[penguinofhonor]

The Gospels were given unto Man in different areas, for different communities, and at different times. The four Gospels are different because it was necessary in the early days to deliver different parts of the story of Jesus in such a way that more people would enter into the new Church. Matthew includes the Magi and their visit to Jesus and excludes the shepherds because it appealed to a particular group, and by contrast Luke does the exact opposite; the point of the Gospels is to attract everyone to Christ. Once the Church was united, unification of the Gospels, and the rest of Scripture became necessary.

As for your "contradictions," if you have anything pressing, feel welcome to post them; I will see what I can do with them.

This conversation kind of died again, but I've got a few.

Matthew 21 says that Jesus asked his disciples to bring him two donkeys and then says he somehow managed to ride both donkeys simultaneously into Jerusalem. He then cites a prophecy from Zechariah this apparently fulfilled. The other three gospels all describe a similar scene, but with one donkey. They don't mention any prophecies.

John 19 says the Last Supper was on the day before Passover and Jesus was crucified on the first day. The other three gospels disagree, saying the Last Supper happened on the first day of Passover.

The Bible says Jesus was born during the reign of Herod. We know he died in 4 BC. It also says he was born after Joseph moved for the census, but we know that happened from 6-7 AD.

[tahujdt]

Jesus might have been born a few years earlier than 1 A.D., at least as early as 6 B.C.. The guy who formulated the Anno Domini concept, Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the Short [really]), miscalculated a little bit.

[Descan]

He could have been born in 10 000 BC for all that matters, the point isn't the date, the point is that two events that were supposed to be occurring* at his birth were instead 10+ years apart.

*Well, technically the king dying wasn't occurring when he was born, but it's a tad hard to order the (unreported in history) deaths of every child when you yourself are dead 10+ years, so whatever.

[penguinofhonor]

Jesus might have been born a few years earlier than 1 A.D., at least as early as 6 B.C.. The guy who formulated the Anno Domini concept, Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the Short [really]), miscalculated a little bit.

Yeah, I know there's some wiggle room. Jesus' birth would make sense during either of those. My point was that it can't be both.

[Orange Wizard]

It's worth noting that the AD/BC concept doesn't exist in the Bible, so it's kind of irrelevant.