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Are Playing Cards Evil ???

Isabella Lecour

amor aeternus est
FFH, have you concidered that your environment and your personal knowladge of people who have bad money management issues has led to your personal distaste for gambling and playing cards?

Can you recall the very first instance/epiphany of your distaste of gambleing and/or playing cards?

I think your strong distaste is influencing the way you interpert Christian scripture and makes you keen on finding scripture that helps suport your personal position. What do you think?
 

FFH

Veteran Member
FFH, have you concidered that your environment and your personal knowladge of people who have bad money management issues has led to your personal distaste for gambling and playing cards?

Can you recall the very first instance/epiphany of your distaste of gambleing and/or playing cards?

I think your strong distaste is influencing the way you interpert Christian scripture and makes you keen on finding scripture that helps suport your personal position. What do you think?
You know, I had shut the computer off for the night, which is unusual for me at this hour, but couldn't sleep, so I turned it back on and saw your post.

Can you picture Jesus spending time playing with poker cards, gambling or not ????

I can't...

I don't think he wants us to waste time with card playing when there are so many other things he would love for us to do. I feel that constantly...

All is not well in zion...

There is a scripture that goes something like this, when the son of man returns, will he find faith on the earth ???

I'll bring that one up, just a minute..
 

blackout

Violet.
Like I've said before, if you let them be evil, they can be -- just like anything else.

Agreed. Things actually BECOME for us in our reality, what we see them to be.
I find it absolutely FASCINATING to observe the many and varied "meanings, and magicks" people attach to things.
The things we "see" in our realities truly are "SIGNS" of our OWN mindsets.

(and who can be so sure as to know the actual origins of the worlds games?!
and what does it really matter as we each play out the fullness of the hand we are dealt? Or does it.)
 

FFH

Veteran Member
Isabella said:
Can you recall the very first instance/epiphany of your distaste of gambleing and/or playing cards?
While serving an LDS mission in Japan, I saw the devastating affects of Pachinko machines (Japanese form of gambling/slot machines) and felt an extremely evil presence one night while we passed by a Pachinko parlor, in Yokohama, Japan. It hit me so strongly and I literally felt like I was in a type of hell and walking in and through it. A very dark and lonely feeling overwhelmed me, I can't explain it anymore than that. I felt like I was walking through a type of hell, it was weird, complete with pachinko parlor noises in the background...

There are people who died and are stuck with this addiction, not being able to get out of it. It's a powerful addiction that I've seen ruin one owner of the business I work for and two of it's managers.... They couldn't stop...another manager was adicted so much his brother was making his house payment for him. He had two kids....and he made his wife and his kids and everyone around him miserable. He was my boss for about 8 years..
 

Isabella Lecour

amor aeternus est
After serving an LDS mission in Japan, I saw the devastating affects of Pachinko machines(Japanese form of gambling) and felt an evil evil evil presence one night while we passed by a Pachinko parlor. It hit me so strongly and I literally felt like I was in a type of hell and walking in it or through it. A very dark and lonely feeling overwhelmed me, I can't explain it anymore than that. I felt like I was walking in hell, it was weird...Pachinko parlor subtle noises in the background...

There are people who died and are stuck with this addiction, not being able to get out of it. It's a powerful addiction that I've seen ruin one owner of the business I work for and two of it's managers.... They couldn't stop...another manager was adicted so much his brother was making his house payment for him. He had two kids....and he made his wife and his kids and everyone around him miserable. He was my boss for about 8 years..

That sounds like a very powerful experience for you. Thank you for shareing that experience here.

Just saw the Pachinko link. I think those modern machines look creepy. But the older machine remindes me of a childs game but I'm not sure of the name. It will no doubt come to me later.
 

FFH

Veteran Member
This is just a 16 second video, it only takes a minute to download with dial-op.

I've been to Shinjuku several times, I love it there, but there is an extremely dark and depressing side to every culture. This is one of them...

Shinjuku is one, if not the most, densly populated city in the world, in the heart of Tokyo. I lived about 15 minutes from here for about 8 months and we would go into Shinjuku as often as we could get permission, which was like 2 or 3 times in eight months I think..

No LDS missionaries are allowed into Tokyo without obtaining special permission/clearance from the LDS mission president of the Tokyo, Japan mission I was in. Even though it was the Tokyo, Japan mission, there were no missionaries inside tokyo, but we were living literally just a few minutes from the border of Tokyo by bike, though, in Kawasaki, Japan, so we would occasionally go over the border to check things out. No harm in that, they just did not want us to go deep into Tokyo without asking permission and stating our reasons for going.

Tokyo is like no city on earth..

Pachinko parlor in Shinjuku

There are two other cites that make up what is known as Tokyo.

Shibuya is nearly as densly populated as Shinjuko. We went here a couple of times also

Again this is only like 15 seconds long.

Pachinko Parlor in Shibuya


Pachinko parlor in Tokyo

Akihabara, also in the heart of Tokyo, was an electronic lovers paradise, as densly populated as these other cities, which made up a big part of what attracts people to Tokyo...
 

FFH

Veteran Member
Gambling, in any of it's forms, is a quick entrance into the lobby of hell, in my opinion (that's the only way I can describe the experience I had), which leads to much darker sins, and poker cards represent that door/entrance to me..
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
While serving an LDS mission in Japan, I saw the devastating affects of Pachinko machines (Japanese form of gambling/slot machines) and felt an extremely evil presence one night while we passed by a Pachinko parlor, in Yokohama, Japan. It hit me so strongly and I literally felt like I was in a type of hell and walking in and through it. A very dark and lonely feeling overwhelmed me, I can't explain it anymore than that. I felt like I was walking through a type of hell, it was weird, complete with pachinko parlor noises in the background...

There are people who died and are stuck with this addiction, not being able to get out of it. It's a powerful addiction that I've seen ruin one owner of the business I work for and two of it's managers.... They couldn't stop...another manager was adicted so much his brother was making his house payment for him. He had two kids....and he made his wife and his kids and everyone around him miserable. He was my boss for about 8 years..
I assume, then, that you've removed ball bearings and all things that use them from your life, right? ;)

There is a difference between use and abuse. If you had experienced someone abusing prescription drugs, for example, would that be sufficient reason for you to stop taking medication?

Just because something is negative when taken to an unhealthy extreme does not mean that it isn't benign or even positive in moderation.
 

FFH

Veteran Member
I assume, then, that you've removed ball bearings and all things that use them from your life, right? ;)
:D

There is a difference between use and abuse. If you had experienced someone abusing prescription drugs, for example, would that be sufficient reason for you to stop taking medication?
Yes, it's ruined my mother's life...to the point where she was taken into custody under the suspicion that she was on illegal drugs and she's never done any illegal drugs, but is so doped up by my dad, because he thinks she's unstable, so he prescribes all sorts of upper and downers, since he's a social worker, blah, makes me sick. She's a wreck and it kills me to see her that way, he only makes her more messed up. I hate the drug industry, it does no good...

If I have problems, mentally or physically, I tuff it out until I get better, it works every time.. The body can adjust to trauma, physical and mental, given a little time...it toughens up. Drugs are a crutch...I don't need any crutches, the Lord takes care of me just fine, he created me he can fix me, it's his responsibility, if I do my partk, what I can at least....

I save a boat load of money by doing this... I'm a day trader in addition to working 60 hours a week...6 days a week. I have a high threshold for stress and pain now, nothing gets to me easily...

Just because something is negative when taken to an unhealthy extreme does not mean that it isn't benign or even positive in moderation.
Not true, poker cards, alcohol, illegal and many/most legal drugs are negative, even in the smallest degrees used...
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
If I have problems, mentally or physically, I tuff it out until I get better, it works every time.. The body can adjust to trauma, physical and mental, given a little time...it toughens up. Drugs are a crutch...I don't need any crutches, the Lord takes care of me just fine, he created me he can fix me, it's his responsibility, if I do my partk, what I can at least....
Isn't demanding that God and God alone "fix" you a form of putting Him to the test? I thought the Bible said something about that, but I might be mistaken.

And many drugs are not a "crutch". There's nothing weak about going through chemotherapy, for example.

I save a boat load of money by doing this... I'm a day trader in addition to working 60 hours a week...6 days a week. I have a high threshold for stress and pain now, nothing gets to me easily...

If drugs help a person heal faster and get back to work sooner, then saving their cost would be false economy.

BTW: you don't consider day trading to be gambling?
 

FFH

Veteran Member
Isn't demanding that God and God alone "fix" you a form of putting Him to the test? I thought the Bible said something about that, but I might be mistaken.
Again, drifting off topic...but will answer. I know plenty of people who have licked cancer by juicing, and what I mean by that is drinking strait carrot juice freshly made at home, with the skin on, that's a powerful cancer killer along with raw garlic, grape juice, beet juice and any other vegatable or fruit juice freshly juiced at home in a high power juicer... Stage four cancers (where they send you home to die), can be cured by doing this.... No need to die of cancer. My father and uncle currently have cancer, my grandmother has gone blind, my wife's mother died within months of discovering she had cancer, her father died of smoking when she was three, my mother is a wreck because of legal drugs, shall I go on, it's devastated many whom I know and have known. I remember shaking hands with a strong robust neighbor just a month or two before he died of cancer. No one knew it was that bad and that strong of a killer...he was the toughest guy I knew. He would crush your hand when he shook it, but a body that tough cannot handle white bread, white sugar, hydgrogenated oils and other man made and processed unwhole.unhealthy foods. It simply gives up and dies at a certain point, prematurely...

Many others in my last neighborhood died quick cancer deaths, those that seemed fine months before. I saw it happen to my wife's mother. I see bald headed ladies in church on a regular basis. A fulfillment of scripture prophecy. "Instead of well set hair, baldness" in the last days, that's the prophecy I'm thinking of...

And many drugs are not a "crutch". There's nothing weak about going through chemotherapy, for example.
It's a crutch, there's a better way...chemotherapy devastates the body, it's never the same after those treatments. My mother in law went through chemo and still died, it only made it worse for her and she said enough, let me die, and she did quickly, it was too far advanced, but it could have been avoided, we tried to get her to juice carrots years earlier, before she ever had cancer, she refused and just ate junk food, it's no good.. My father is the same way, drank coke all his life now he's dying before his time...his gall bladder is all but gone and he has prostate cancer. There is a cause and affect directly related to eating unhealthy...

If drugs help a person heal faster and get back to work sooner, then saving their cost would be false economy.
Eating whole foods is a permanent fix, not a temporary cure... Take the drugs, you will still die prematurely if you don't eat right. Drugs postpone premature death, that's all. Take the drugs and you will still die prematurely... Take the chemo, you'll still die before your time if you don't change your lifestyle, for example eating habits and sedentary life....

BTW: you don't consider day trading to be gambling?
No, I control my wins and losses. Trades can be made on the up or down side and stops but above or below a trade to stop losses and maximize gains.. It's not rocket science...

I trade on the up and the down side, depending on which way the market is going. It's a rush and it's all moral and legal and I am in control, not the dealer...

I decide what happens...
 

Bishka

Veteran Member
.

No, I control my wins and losses. Trades can be made on the up or down side and stops but above or below a trade to stop losses and maximize gains.. It's not rocket science...

I trade on the up and the down side, depending on which way the market is going. It's a rush and it's all moral and legal and I am in control, not the dealer...

Justifying your choices, eh? :rolleyes:
 

FFH

Veteran Member
Isn't demanding that God and God alone "fix" you a form of putting Him to the test? I thought the Bible said something about that, but I might be mistaken.
The context of that scripture is; Jesus was lifted onto a high pinnacle of the temple and Satan asked him to jump, claiming God and his angels would save him. That's being stupid and putting God to the test unnecessarily and that will get you killed of course..
 

w00t

Active Member
The context of that scripture is; Jesus was lifted onto a high pinnacle of the temple and Satan asked him to jump, claiming God and his angels would save him. That's being stupid and putting God to the test unnecessarily and that will get you killed of course..

And what is wrong with putting God to the test? He should put up or shut up as the saying goes!
 

FFH

Veteran Member
Justifying your choices, eh? :rolleyes:
Nothing morally wrong with day trading, I've discussed it with my current Bishop just to make sure and with plenty of other good LDS members in the past....

If trading stocks is immoral, which it isn't, then everyone needs to liquidate their retirements, since they are all tied up in the stock market, as are home mortgages...

Dump your 401K's everybody, Becky says stock trading is immoral....
 

gnomon

Well-Known Member
Do I need to read all 400+ posts to state that playing cards are not evil. They are cards. An inanimate object.
 

FFH

Veteran Member
When the Qwest phone repairman came to fix the phone line he said he had over 200,000 dollars in US West (now Qwest) and he watched his 401K drop from 200,000 dollars to 20,000 dollars in about a year.

Which is smarter, for me to be in control of my losses or a broker...

I put in a "stop loss" if I feel it's in my best interest...

I'm in total control of my money, not a poker dealer, stock broker, or another financial adviser..
 

Popeyesays

Well-Known Member
And what is wrong with putting God to the test? He should put up or shut up as the saying goes!

That is the intellectual equivalent of sticking one's thumbs in one ears and wagg;ling fingers while pronouncing the great magic charm "PLFLPLFPELFPFL" which is as close as I can come to spelling a "Bronx Cheer" or "Raspberry".

One would expect God to respond?

Regards,
Scott
 
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