So how do you know that God isn’t using you to punish your opponent for his sins by allowing you to take his money?

I'm probably going to quit poker because I think it might be a sin, but God might do this with things all the time.

Isaiah 45:7
King James Version
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

I think it might still be a sin even if God used a person playing poker to punish someone else.

God used a lying spirit to get something done that he wanted done. My guess is that the spirit was going to do it anyways and was trying to bring an accusation against God too, but God knew the spirit was set on doing it so was like "go ahead". God is definitely loving, he tolerates a lot (even tolerates a fallen angel doing something like this), but only tolerates things up to a certain point. I sort of said this before but things are not the way they're supposed to be. God is probably as loving as you would expect him to be and everything else, You would probably not be surprised by him, but he's pretty much in the room with you every day of your life, eventually he might just simply want you dead and to have you thrown forever into a lake of fire. That's literally what we're like to him. He loves us though, so he sent his son to die in our place to take our punishment for us and that sacrifice covers us if we believe in him.

1 Kings 22:19-23
King James Version
19 And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
20 And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
21 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him.
22 And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
23 Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee.

Sometimes the defense is worse than just silence. In my opinion -- regardless of whether one is religious -- is isn't moral to kill every child and fetus on earth, genocide isn't moral, bigotry isn't moral, misogyny isn't moral ... no matter who does it or claims it is. We arrive at this conclusion by thinking for ourselves instead of miming some religious drivel from thousands of years ago written by purely superstitious zealots.

We try to kill every bacteria in our mouth on a daily basis because it interferes with our health, man became so evil that it's every thought of the heart was evil, so God wiped it all out except for the few that weren't. Why is one immoral to you and the other not? God made us and regretted making us and ostensibly even the babies and fetuses would turn out the same way, why couldn't he just kill everyone if he wanted to? The babies and children even went to heaven where they would not be in that condition any longer and would be saved from growing up and inevitably receiving eternal punishment for continuing the way their parents did. God only commanded killing of peoples when they were in similar conditions, why is it immoral for him to do so? I don't know what you mean by bigotry and misogyny.

Seems you are equating the killing of bacteria with the killing of human children. Nice religion. So, tomorrow it is the same for you to kill a bacterium or kill a child?

Isn't it funny that the only 8 moral people on earth were in the same place and in the same family?

Have you read the Bible (most Christians watch television a thousand times for every one they open the Bible). Anyway, it is/was for killing homosexuals, killing "other" races, the subjugation and abuse of women, enslaving of "other" peoples. Have you no idea what bigotry and misogyny are? These ideas are part and parcel of the culture in which the Bible was inspired, and, isn't that odd, their god is the same way.

But let's be clear per your example: killing a bacterium and killing a child are tantamount to the same thing?

I give you lots of credit for candid discussion, but the implications of the defenses of these doctrines, are horrible. AND THEIR ORIGIN IS IN IGNORANT, SUPERSTITIOUS, PRIMITIVE, BARBARIC, MAGIC BELIEVING, RELIGIOUS ZEALOTRY TIMES AND CULTURES.

I already wrote what I wrote, I'm not going to bother remaking the same point. I see no problem with God killing evil people if that's what he wants to do. It's obviously wrong for a human being to go around killing people though. I'm familiar with maybe some of the things you're referring to, I see no problem with any of it, but I'm only vaguely familiar with those things. God is holy and righteous. If you view sin differently than him your moral outlook is going to be skewed compared to what is holy and righteous because his standard is what is actually correct. Blasphemy and homosexuality were punishable by death in ancient Israel if I'm not mistaken, along with other things possibly. I don't know what you mean when you're referring to the subjugation and abuse of women. God literally wants you to die and spend an eternity in a lake of fire for committing one sin, but also at the same time sent his own son to take the entire punishment on himself so you don't have to face any of it, that's how holy and loving and righteous he is. Before Christ if I'm not somehow mistaken someone could be saved with some manner of belief, but there were death penalties for sins such as blasphemy and homosexuality. God is holy and righteous though, I see no problem with him wanting to punish people who commit sins that might be more grievous to him than others. It doesn't contradict his holiness or righteousness at all. If you don't view those things as sinful, you're probably going to see a problem with it. I have natural predispositions that I know are wrong that I can chalk up to my sinful nature and whatever predisposed me to those things, but I can't ignore that acting on those predispositions would be wrong. I can empathize with someone who identifies as homosexual because of what I know things are like for me, but it doesn't make it ok to actually go ahead and sin. Some people are more inclined to steal or murder or etc. but it doesn't absolve them of any guilt for actually doing it. There is a standard and we fall short of it fundamentally because of our nature and if my life is any indicator we're all basically walking down this big hallway where we continually do things that are wrong going one thing to the next without giving much a second thought, basically just doing what we want. In retrospect I can see how wrong it all was, but in the moment I was just doing thing after thing. I know what I did was wrong, I believe in Jesus, I'm not going to argue with what I know from the Bible that says homosexuality is wrong. I might not understand it like someone who practices it, but I know enough from my own life when the Bible crosses into something I don't understand that I can trust it. I know though that God desires people to be forgiven and to be saved from his judgment or he wouldn't have sent his son. If you don't believe any of it, you might have a huge problem with it, but I do believe it and have experienced things in my life that lead me to believe that it's true, and I have no problem reconciling any of it with my own morals. This is taking for granted that you probably don't believe the Bible, but if there were no initial rebellion in heaven and no temptation in the garden and everything on earth went as God would have wanted it to it's likely that the whole planet would have been filled with loving families loving communities loving towns loving cities loving countries loving businesses basically everything being as perfect as it could be if how things are now is any model for how things would have gone should things have gone the right way. Imagine walking into a world where basically everything was perfect and loving, I don't think I would fit in at all, but I would probably be in awe of it. I think this is what God wanted. It makes sense to me how much he hates anything that strays from that and is sin. God actually is love, so I can sort of understand why he sees sinful things the way he does. From an intellectual perspective how else would love treat those things? I haven't found any contradiction of God's character from my reading of the Bible. Paul wrote in Ephesians that we are by nature children of wrath, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, it's not a pretty picture, but I think it's true. The Bible explains the human condition perfectly in that I think, all my flesh and mind wanted me to do were things that I can intellectually identify as wrong. If I tried hard enough I could probably see the slant towards wrong in almost everything I ever did.

Casting pearls before a swine

If the swine is the one who says, "Yeah, killing all the children on earth is cool with me because it says so in a legendary book. Bigotry is holy, misogyny is holy, rape is allowed and a black mark against the woman, slavery is allowed, genocide is a good strategy for spreading the word, infectious disease is caused by demons ... etc." It's all in there.

The swine sacrifices their mind, agency and morality to a primitive, barbaric, ignorant tall tale penned by a magic believing superstitious culture of thousands of years ago. It couldn't possibly be more clear that it was not informed by an omniscient god, but simply the morality and understanding of a primitive society. I mean the Bible could have easily said that leprosy is caused by a bacterium, and here is the formula for the antibiotic to cure it. But that is not in there, is it? And the reason just could not be more obvious.

Get this: the apple/fruit story of Genesis isn't allegorical, the talking animal stories in the Bible are not fables, the supernatural and miracle claims are not from religion designing. Nope. All of it is literal. We stand reality on its ear to claim allegories aren't allegories, fables aren't fables, and miracle claims are not inherent to competing religions. And we have faith that this is so, that is, we have faith that reality is not a thing where religion is concerned. We have the writings of ancient magic believing cultures to verify that reality does not matter in religion or morality.

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But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

And one needs to learn that spiritual discernment is not about quoting mass murder mythological texts of ancients as holy gospel. We all need that baseline, and then spiritual discernment is a possibility.

For when one sees the folly of formulaic dueling religions, accepting one over another based on their upbringing and just swallowing it, mistaking this default for discernment ... one has taken a step into spirituality. A step out of ancient myths and dogmas, and towards discernment. But the "my religion is better than yours, mine is the real one" (based on little other than where I was born and what they told me in Sunday School) is the complete absence of discernment.

Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

Well "Christianity" has a historical basis and is based around belief in Jesus and one's faith I guess as a way to put it can be informed by one's own understanding of their life, actions, the world around them, and history, not to mention the things that lead to them believing in Jesus in the first place, which might be unbelievable and incredible to someone else if they were told. I've read the Quran and about Buddhism and Taoism if I'm not mistaken, reading texts from both of those religions again if I'm not mistaken. Taoism honestly seems similar to what my attempt might be if I made up a religion and started writing wisdom for it, Buddhism I don't believe (I believe in Jesus) and I have an extremely limited understanding of it, but I've played Morrowind and I've read some of the books in Morrowind and I think someone could have just made up Buddhist texts the same way books were made for Morrowind, except they were actually being serious about starting a religion. Islam is a dishonest attempt at continuing what's in the Bible, as best as I can put it.

John 6:44 (KJV)
“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Unless I'm mistaken it's not even possible for someone to believe in Jesus unless the Father draws him, so I can sort of understand why people refuse to do so (or don't, I think it's maybe refusal though mixed with initial unbelief).

I don't really know much about other religions.

You just took the religion handed to you. If you were introduced to some other one first, then that would be your baseline and all the other ones would be in the category of "just made up." You don't think the stories in the Bible can be made up? That's a rhetorical question: the answer is "yes, they could have easily been made up."

You don't know religious rhetoric when you read it. What you quote is beautiful, imaginative, brilliant religious rhetoric.

No. You turn it upside down by blindly accepting a supernatural creed, in so doing rejecting reality, then running all evaluations through that supernatural belief to adjudge their veracity. You turned your world upside down by faith in the unreal.

No I didn't. I actually started researching Islam and Buddhism before I believed in Jesus. Islam is a massive delusion, a cursory reading of the New Testament and then reading of the Quran while keeping in mind that there is no basis for Muslim apologists insisting that the Bible was corrupted and that the New Testament texts are as they describe them shows that. Reading the Quran in English is also a task in mental endurance, I don't believe it, but there is no way that those words were inspired by God, I honestly find them sort of stupid. Buddhism like I said could just be made up like anything else based on what little I know from a video game. I've read extremely little of its texts (I'm not sure if I've even read any of it because the websites I've been to are extremely hard to navigate and understand), but yeah, I am not impressed with what I've read, and again, I don't believe it. It's just attempts at wisdom from what I can understand. Taoism like I wrote before reads like something I could have made up. I might sound extremely critical, but these are my legitimate observations. I think a lot of people are somewhat familiar with the Bible and assume other religious texts must be the same, from what I've observed (it's possible I've read small things from religions outside of what I've mentioned) they definitely are not. I'm also kind of reserved about talking about it but there were significant things that happened in my life that lead me to believing in Jesus which includes seeing things hearing things and having dreams. I have no reason to think anything in the Bible is untrue being familiar with evolution and scientific theories that would seemingly contradict it. From a neutral objective perspective there is too little known for me to accept evolution or an old earth or abiogenesis as something that could be true in place of the Bible, and what I know in the Bible is confirmed through my life experiences, including Jesus' existence, so yeah.

Well I tried reading some Buddhist texts just to be more fair to the quality of writing, and some of what I read is evocative but only because it keeps focusing on the mind and things to do with it.

Just came here to say the same thing, brother.

As to the OP, I was conflicted on this and met with my pastor. I explained that I only play two or three times per year in a tournament setting. He said there is freedom in Christ so as long as it isn’t running our lives, interfering with our responsibilities, and isn’t taking the place of God and/or becoming an idol, we should be good to go.

That being said, I still feel conflicted. Even though they are tournaments I play in and not cash games, it still feels as though I’m not being a good steward of the resources blessed to me.

I think this is a Romans 14:14 type of situation. If you feel convicted, best to abstain. But don’t judge our brothers and sisters who may not share that same conviction.

To the poster “Fella”, your anger, vitriol, hostility, and dishonest distorted view of our Lord and Savior has caused me to block you. I don’t mind debating people open to debate but I do not tolerate blatant lies and distortions such as what you spew in an attempt to bully and intimidate others. Your posts are abusive and toxic and I will not be responding to anything you say to my posts. I pray your heart is softened and you come around to His truth.

I think not playing cash games might be a really good decision. You're basically just trying to win other people's money and considering the implications of that, I guess namely, how it might affect the other person and you, I don't know how it could be a good thing. With tournaments you are sort of playing poker in a more "game-like" situation and if you truly enjoy poker then it might be alright for there to be a buy-in and a prize involved, but there still might be negative consequences worth considering, it will still affect you and other people. I played HUSNGs up until rather recently and was actually one of the biggest winners on SharkScope for the year early on this year, but I don't know if I'll ever play another one ever again because of the possible negative consequences of it.

This dude is cowardly in his dealing with me. He refuses to do what his religion demands when confronted with non-believers, because he know the points are too good to rebuke. He can't produce any lies I've told; he himself is bearing false witness in regards to me. I'm more open easily proven than any of the true believers of any particular religion. I'm not anti any believer but merely the apologizing for the obscenely immoral. I don't have enmity toward believers or toward the "Lord and Savior," but for the religion designing from which these stories originate and blind allegiance to them.

I put the Christian religion in with all the rest of the religions, for very obvious reasons. For reasons that are so inarguable, that most believers won't try to debate it. So if you try to get into the personal revelations part of it as justification for belief they just to a person will not reveal the great secrets there, one suspects, strongly, that they realize that publishing them will only reveal that the thing is a fanciful narrative and cannot remotely stand up any scrutiny as supernatural.

So I guess if I, or one, says that the religious supermen are archetypes and symbols, not literal beings, that is some kind of hostile lie. To that I say that the main problem with religion is when it aborts entry into real and natural versions of spirituality via its insistent hostility toward its doctrine being symbolic, poetic, false.

What are the reasons you think that, unlike any of the others, you're preferred religion is true and literal? NOT why do you think it is better than the others, as all might be based on fiction. So what are the reasons you think that they aren't stories but are historical facts in this one religion? If a story says a guy was born of a virgin (like so many other renditions that turned out to be false), if a story says touching his robe heals this or that, if a story says tombs broke open and rose from the dead and danced in the streets, if a story says snakes spoke, if a story says a couple of fish fed the multitudes, if a story says he walked on water (a popular magic trick claim of the era), if a story says he calmed the wind.... what reason do you have for thinking these are historical facts instead of the religious stories that they are EVERYWHERE ELSE THAT THEY EXIST?

When the "Source of All" is personified, it is given names like Brahman, Allah, Yahweh. To take these dueling personifications literal is a vanity and a chasing after the wind. Worshiping them is not spiritual, but religious. They are a delimited vision of a much wider principle. The characters in these religions are archetypes, symbols … not actual living beings/gods.

It is in the releasing of theses supernatural doctrines that a very natural, scientific, and provable version of spirituality can be uncovered. The human spirit is actually a facet of the very natural human consciousness, not a supernatural thing. Those that get their panties in a twist over my arguments on this would be surprised to learn that in atheist circles I'm considered a woo spiritualist. The atheists make that leap because their skepticism often amounts to pseudo-skepticism, and they have no grounding in the subject, no more than the cult believing true believer who eschews understanding in favor of something else, be it faith or anti-faith.

Those are fair questions, man. I'm not trying to be rude by saying this, but think what you want about this. There was a period of maybe 3 months where I was regularly seeing things and hearing voices. Including as best as I can describe what would be God's voice, along with other voices. I still hear voices and see things sometimes including that voice I would best identify as God's voice, but during the "initial period" it was happening a lot. There has been a seeming consistent theme through what I've experienced of leading me to Jesus Christ. I've been hospitalized before for sort of disorganized thinking, which is mainly the reason I went into the hospital and have seen things for a long time. One time it was like something entered into me and I was sort of thinking thoughts about some type of God and other things, I'm not exactly sure what was going on, but when the thoughts were progressing I very clearly saw a sharp point which was then covered by a scroll that stopped me dead in my tracks. I identified this image with Jesus but I don't know if I really believed in him at that point. If I opened a Bible I might not have believed in the person I was reading about. Maybe 2-3 years later I was in my room and kind of in an experience I was having did something really bad and I clearly heard a voice that I would identify as God's voice say "You're not my son". It was unmistakable. I experienced things for years maybe on and off, then this possible three month period happened. A lot of things happened during it, it wasn't just some disorganized crazy experience, it was meaningful. Often it was like someone I would best identify as God was spending time with me along with someone else also along with someone else who I would best describe as possibly being the Holy Spirit. At one point the figure I would identify as God sat on the couch opposite of me in the living room in my townhouse and covering his face it said "The Fear Of The Lord" possibly in all capital letters. At another point I very clearly saw the names "Emmanuel and underneath it my name" it was probably the friendliest thing I've ever experienced. I wasn't having like conversations or anything it was like thing after thing happened and in retrospect it all makes sense and I can't see anything wrong about what happened, I've probably learned a lot from it. I also started having REALLY vivid dreams during this period. They were incredible. In one someone was talking to me and it was like something I had never experienced before, maybe that's what Jesus is like. I honestly think I might have been visited by Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Something similar happened to Paul. There is no Biblical reason to think this isn't what happened.

Matthew 11:25-30
King James Version
25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
26 Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.
27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

It's not like God just started talking to me, the experience with the sharp point and scroll might have happened first, so as best as I can understand what I've experienced doesn't contradict what it says here. Also during the possible three month period who I would best identify as God was accompanied by the other person who might have been Jesus and the other "person" who might have been the Holy Spirit.

John 6:44
“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

During these experiences I'm not sure I even believed in Jesus even though they were happening. Jesus spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus while he was still persecuting Christians, so it makes sense to me I could have had all these experiences with Jesus without even believing in him. Recently I was in my room and I very clearly felt drawn to the Bible, also recently I was in my kitchen and I was drawn towards a figure of Jesus.

1 John 4:8
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

The figure that I would identify as God doesn't contradict this.

These were what might be described as experiences, there weren't physical people talking to me, but during this time things did happen to me that would have been observable to other people. While I was riding the bus someone approached me that I felt like was the Devil, the way he was talking to me and how he acted, it's just what it was like. I also had experiences with what seemed like other people that it would make sense to me if they were devils or possibly the Devil (but maybe not the Devil). I was also walking on the sidewalk one time sort of by myself and what looked like a woman walked by me who was wearing an open veil and unless I'm somehow mistaken her face was missing sort of in an indented way like someone poured acid on it. At the time I walked by her without really looking at her sort of like I was walking by someone with some extreme disability, I guess maybe instinctually not wanting her to feel uncomfortable. But time has passed and my naivete might have worn off and I think that might have been a devil because I guess I'm sort of not sure how someone could be alive with their face like that. She was breathing in a manner that would indicate that I wasn't wrong about what I saw. I saw other things too, including if my memory serves me correctly a sauce packet for some instant noodles sort of warp, though it was such a thing I saw I'm not entirely sure I saw it and it's not my mind just playing a trick on me like I'm remembering something that didn't happen.

In all my experiences certainly testify that the Bible is true, though I might not be able to clearly explain why, nor have I really explained the content of the experiences. They were not like walking down a path and having a feeling, they were experiences similar to what Paul experienced on the road to Damascus. They are I guess a personal thing though and might have been given to me if that's the right way to put it so that I could believe in Jesus and maybe for them to serve as a testimony, but maybe they were meant for me only, in a sense.