This thread is a response to the cry of a frustrated atheist gambler here who operates by the user name- HardMirror. In his submissions he tried to draw a kind of relationship between gambling and christianity.
I will be responding to his submissions as time permits me so that readers will view his positions from another angle so as not to be deceived.

He started with this

HardMirror:
THE DELUSION OF SPORTS BETTING (GAMBLING), THE DELUSION OF CHRISTIANITY

Have you noticed the popularity of Sports betting in recent times. Have you noticed how every street in Nigeria's major cities are littered with betting shops?

Call the youths and old men patronizing those betting shops fools, they don't care why?


[size=16pt] WHO IS THE FOOL? FOOLISHNESS VS WISDOM[/size]
A non gambler sees gamblers as fools and jobless. You look at them and pity them, why are these people wasting their lives and destines. Wasting their hard earned money on uncertainty. You see foolishness, they see wisdom.
You see waste of time, they see reward. The gambler sees "cheap", quick return on investment. Where 100naira can become 10million naira under a few hours. So who is the real fool? The gambler or those who thing gambling is wrong?
Christians are seen as fools, BUT there are well motivated. There is a reward they think is worth being a fool for.
Where without much effort other than mumble some confessions of Jesus being your savior, you can have good health, riches, success, peace and ever lasting life. Big rewards are the motivation, the reward in pursuit. So are gamblers and christians fools?
Think twice!


[size=16pt] TESTIMONIES NOT JUST PROMISES[/size]
Imagine Nairabet operating for over 10 years and not a single person ever won a Million naira. Do you think people will still be betting?
Absolutely No.

I was at computer village Ikeja about 2 weeks ago and many people were discussing about the "boys" in computer village that have won millions, many more were more determined to keep betting and confident that one day it would be their turn to hit the jackpot and win millions too.
I smiled to myself they did not know that their customer was a professional gambler that had seen it all and could teach them one or two things.

Christians are highly motivated by testimonies. Just like the Betting bookers (Nairabet, Merrybet, Bet360, Williamhill, Bet9ja etc), churches (Redeem, Winners, Love Domain, SCOAN, Lord's Chosen, etc) don't joke with testimonies at all.

When churches do adverts they always try to show that they are getting testimonies, the publish the testimonies, show people falling under amointing of Daddy G.O. Etc.
Sportbetting Bookers also do the same, they make the success stories publicized. People spread the news.

Even none gamblers will be tempted to try it...


[size=16pt] LET ME GIVE IT A TRY[/size]
Yes Chinedu just won 4million naira with 500naira, just 500 naira! Wow! You hate gambling so much but men! 4,000,000 with 500?! I must give it a try!

Mrs Banke has been barren for 20years, she gave birth to triplets after Pastor TB Joshua prayed for her! Wow!
Alhaji Musa hears the story and he decides to give Jesus a try, he has nothing to lose, after waiting for a child for just 5years, the God that Gave Mrs Banke tripplet after 20years should be able to give him just one child.

1. While i agree that some churches fit into the picture you have painted, there are other churches who dont fit into it so the generalization you made by referring to christianity as a whole is an error on your part. If you say 'some churches" then its understandable. Christianity has been growing in popularity right from the time of Jesus till date. Some of the things you wrote here started around the 90s when your fellow gamblers entered the ministry and introduced all sorts of gambling techniques in the church. The core message of Christ our master was LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, REPENTANCE AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Read the bible well and you will see that the message that Christ preached was centered(mark the word CENTERED) on the above mentioned which is different from the picture you painted. If you want to judge Christianity then judge us based on what Jesus preached. Judge us based on what the early church in the bible preached and practiced, not based on what some churches are preaching or doing these days

2. You said christians are highly motivated by testimonies. Again thats an imbalanced postulation. The truth there is that humans are highly motivated with testimonies. Was it not testimonies of your friends that motivated you(an atheist) into gambling? Or were you born a gambler? Again does the testimonies of other atheist not motivate you in your journey in atheism? Testimonies play major role in human. Trying to isolate it to Christianity and gamblers alone shows hypocrisy on your part. Your C.V. is a testimony of you and companies request for the testimony so as to know if you are capable of taking up the position they require to be filled. When companies advertise their product its a form of testimony that they are giving out to the public about their organization. The messages of atheism that you are giving out here from time to time and in other forums are testimonies and you are doing it for the same purpose of winning people's interest to your believe and ideology so dont be hypocritical about this. Everybody engages in one form of testimony or the other at some points in life. Everbody is motivated by testimony.

3. While some of the testimonies you see being advertised by some churches are fake and masterminded by your fellow gamblers who are in the ministry to deceive people, others are genuine testimonies. Of course we cant get the world rid of fake products. In almost every field of life there are fake and original. In the medical field we have fake doctors. In engineering we have the fake ones. There are fake policemen, fake army officers, fake christians fake atheists etc. Its everywhere so dont isolate the picture to christianity alone.

Let me stop here for now and attend to some other things. As i earlier said, I will be responding to the rest of your submissions later as time permits.

Churches today Still looks like betting to me.

Christ gave a parable about the sower and seed falling on rocks and fertile ground which signifies the heart of man.

He word he gave was the seed and the only way to bear fruit was if your heart is fertile.

Fast forward to 2016, the Pastor says the only way for the word to work for you is if you sow a seed and give a resounding Amen to every declaration.
And you only give what is worth. Pastors says you will see open doors and you drop N1k to claim the blessing. Take for instance the prayer works and something good happens, it means your N1k investment has paid off, if it doesn't then your faith was not strong enough

What's the difference between this and betting

you wrote this

HardMirror:
YOU NEED TO BE WITH THE RIGHT CHURCH/FORECASTER[/size]

FORECASTERS are "experts" at telling you what to expect as the outcome of a Football match, tennis match, basketball or any sport they are experts in. Many gamblers rely on these forecasters to get the right games to bet on so they can win. Forecasters claim to be "special" they tell you how successful they are in predicting match outcomes. They tell you have not won millions because you have not been their client. They tell you to subscribe for their predictions and they will make you a millionaire in your gambling quest.

Why has your prayers been unanswered for so many years? Why?! Because you are in the wrong church! Yes! There is no Power in Redeem! Come to the Lord's chosen, that is where God is answering prayers. No! Come to MOuntain of Fire ministries, No! It is in Winners! No! It is Redeem again, one dead man came back to life in redeem church.


]

Yea the bolded are what you hear from some people around but not what Christ taught so it cant be used as a standard for christianity.
Jesus taught us about faith in God when we pray, not jumping from one church to another. Jesus also taught us that when we come to offer our prayer before God and remember that we have an issue to settle with somebody that we should go first and settle with the person before coming to God. Obviously your gambling has no comparison with Jesus standard. I tell you, a lot of Christians prefer the Jesus standard more than what you wrote up there.
There are some other things that we are told in the scriptures concerning our prayers and these are the things that matters in christianity not what some persons around you say.

HardMirror:
YOU NEED TO BE WITH THE RIGHT CHURCH/FORECASTER[/size]

[size=16pt] SUCCESS COMES AT A COST! PAYUP TO GET RESULTS[/size]
Are you ready for serious gambling? You have not started until you begin to pay for fixed matches, sure games, pay professional forecasters to give you sure games. Free games are for those who will remain poor you will be told!

You don't pay your tithe, you don't pay your first fruit offering, you don't give "Pastor's Offering", you don't pay "Sacrificial Seed" and you expect God to bless you? You are not yet serious. Pay up and enroll for sure blessing.


[size=32pt] TO Be continued, I will tell you my story as a gambler and lessons a learned even after hitting it big gambling and how I relate it to my life as a christian[/size]

Again the bolded is not the standard of christianity rather your fellow gamblers who invaded the ministry are the ones using all forms of gambling skills to make money for themselves and their families and its quite a shame. You dont coerce people into giving God. The scripture says we should give out of our own mind. The early churches in the bible made a willing offering which was collected when they meet for worship on the first day of the week. After they have made their contributions at the feet of the apostles, the contributions will now be shared according to every man's need. The scripture said that no man lacked anything among them. This is how christianity should be and that is the basis you should use to judge christianity.
Quite unfortunate that the gamblers in the ministry whose god is money are stockpiling today's church offerings in their personal accounts, riding expensive cars, buying expensive houses and private jets while the congregation are suffering. They build schools with the contribution of church members then turn around to take the school beyond the reach of these members. Its quite a shame and runs contrary to what christianity should be as recorded in the scripture so you shouldnt use it to judge christianity.
Yet the truth remains that there are churches in our time that are not crazy about money, they dont practice the greed that we see in some other churches. in such churches, their leaders live a modest life and have no free access to church fund.

Jesus taught us to give to th poor. At one point, a rich man came to him and Jesus told him to go and sell all that he has and give to the poor. The christianity Jesus brought for us says we should give to the poor. Give to people. He showed example by feeding thousands of people that came to listen to him. He didnt collect the one they had. Church offerings are to be used like the early churches, to minister to the need of brethren. This is christianity and has no comparison with your gambling.
IF greed was part of christianity Jesus wouldnt have commended the widow who made the least offering(refereed to as widow's mite today), he would ve commended the money bags who gave large sum of money. Dont use the greed of today's church as christianity standard.

In continuation of my response to your posts.

You wrote this

HardMirror:
[size=16pt] My Story: Continuation[/size]
This guy would tell me how he is winning 11,000 with just N200 and such stories and he kept saying he wished he had big money to gamble.
I am a contractor and most times I just hang around at home doing nothing waiting for the next contract while spending the proceeds of the last contracts "chopping life" in peace.
Most times I don't get more than 2 or 3 jobs a year and the proceeds are enough for me and my family to settle all bills and flex life until luck comes my way again. Goodluck Johnathan's era was a great year with lots of contract unlike now that government passed budget and I don't know anyone benefiting from the budget.

Then one day another guy I was not close to came to use my internet service to browse, he even came with his friend. Now note: unlike the other jobless guy, this ones were cool guys, sons of very wealthy parents. "Big boys"
I was shocked! So big boys also play sports betting?
Wow!
Honestly I got interested.

(This was how many also became christians, when you see educated men rolling on the ground for Jesus, you begin to get seriously interested in this jesus that big men are rolling on the floor for)

For the first time ever my perspective of gamblers change. I started asking them questions, they laughed and told me that even their own rich parents also play sports betting, told me of their uncles who are bank managers and oil company workers who play with big money some even gamble a million naira a single day. I was shocked!

I asked them what they were playing that day and they said they only needed 3 or 2 odds and they are ok! For real? 3odds? Unlike that other guy that is broke that always looking for 1000odds that will turn 100 naira to 100,000 naira.

My mind started calculating. If I can get just 3 odds on saturday and another 3 odds on sunday I could be making cool cash everyweek instead of just saving my money in bank

Again you lied in the bolded. People seek to be born again when they hear the word of God and are convinced by it. And of course something motivates you to do anything you are doing. Its normal about we human so you dont need to engage in the wayo you tried to play here with your statement In one of your thread here you said you were a secret atheist until you read Seun's post then you started being open. Here you tried to isolate what you said in the bolded to christianity alone whereas it is a general human characteristics which you are also guily of. Seun's post motivated you to become an athest, are you not guilty of what you accused christians of doing? You made it appear like a christian thing whereas Its happening everywhere. Any hair style that a celebrity makes starts reigning across the society, no matter how awkward or crazy it may look. Their fashion style are copied whereas a nobody has worn that style of cloth before without anybody noticing it. When a celebrity wears that style people embrace it. People like to talk like celebrities, act like them and copy them in so many things. Human beings have things that motivate them to do one thing or the other so trying to isolate it to christianity alone when it even reigns much more in the secular world is hypocritical of you.

it doesn't matter they all Fit

We are all in this together. You atheist also have put your faith in one blief system which is their is no God. So you are not different from other religion. The end will justify. Let's wait till we die and we will know who is telling the truth.

EyeHateGod:
it doesn't matter they all Fit

A real gambler wouldnt stick to one religion out of the many like christians do so your meme is not right. Maybe you need to go through HardMirror's thread again to understand gambling skills. You answered like someone who didnt read all of it.

As for your "it doesnt matter" response, you are just being hypocritical. When you take something that is general to human and present it as if it is peculiar to christians alone thats hypocrisy so it matters in this case. Stop being insincere.

HardMirror:
[size=16pt] My Story: Continuation[/size]
I recall playing 2 matches within that week, guess what. I lost the 2 games, both real madrid and Barcelona lost their games. Zap! N7,000 was gone, just like that!
I was shocked. I regretted ever playing. Why did I even consider this rubbish in the first place?
But I was smiling, I was with my friends and I did not want to look like a weakling.
They were encouraging me not to give up that it's like that, you win some you lose some. Even sure teams like barcelona and real madrid can be beaten.
I was shocked!
But I was also well encouraged by those I watched the last match with. It was terrible.
Celta Vigo dealt with Barcelona as if they were secondary school boys.

Anyway I will keep trying as those guys had advised.

(This is exactly how christians behave, you pray and fast, no answers, only disappointments, yet they tell you to increase your faith, they tell you to keep praying. Increase which faith again? Faith as small as mustard seed can move mount everest and cast it into the sea, yet it cannot get me a job, or provide for my immediate needs? Disappointments upon disappointments yet all you have to do is keep praying.)

In the bible we are told about faith. We are also told about trials and temptation, about persecutions and tribulations that will come our way.Any of these factors could be the reason for prayers being unanswered.
Paul had a particular health issue worrying him, he prayed severally about it but God refused to heal him and told him that his grace was sufficient for him.
Christianity as presented in the scriptures is not all bed of roses so your encounter with those who kept asking you to increase your faith remains your business with them and does not reflect the principles of christianity.

HardMirror:

[size=28pt] MY STORY: Continuation. Most important part of this thread [/size]


THE BIG WIN?
This is the most important part of this whole thread. My inspiration.

June- July 2016 we had the UEFA EURO tournament. A tournament I had prepared well for.
I don't just play bets, I plan ahead. This was the time I was 100% sure I would hit it big.

Well it did not happen. What happened? A week after the tournament, there were lots of friendly games, but something interesting happened during the EURO2016 matches and I will get back to that later.

The day was just one of those ordinary days, nothing special. Friendly matches abounded. I chose 6 games out of the 28 matches I analyzed that day.

I played them. Was expecting 900k+ from one ticket and about 350,000 from another ticket.
I played it and waited as usual.

Well some time around 9pm that day I was with friends having drinks and eating fish barbecue courtesy of a friend that just returned from the UK after his masters program, so we were spending the few Pounds Sterling he brought thanks to high exchange rate.

I opened scorecover.com to check the scores of the matches I played. All games I played that day were over 2.5goals. So I was waiting for Olympiakos friendly match. To my surprise. They had scored about 5 goals.

I jumped up, not believing my luck. When I told my friends what happened they could not believe it just like that?

I was trilled. At last I hit a million naira. 1.3million to be precise.

LESSONS I LEARNT AFTERWARDS

1. Success makes people see you as superhuman.

You need to see how people started collecting my phone number. I mean people I don't know. Men were leaving their drinks and coming to our table to ask for my phone number.

"sir please help me, nairabet has eaten all my money. Please help me give me games let me also win. " Someone I have never met just came to ask me to help him when he heard us celebrating the money I won

That night people were just calling me, Bros/ oga/ sir, don't forget us, give us games.

It was weird.

let one big "Miracle" happen in a church, all of a sudden that church becomes the Church were God is. People start rushing there and begging to be helped, begging to get a miracle also.

[size=32pt] The big problem is people don't ask questions! They don't know the details of the "miracle" [/size]

People did not even know the details of the bet I played!

I played those 2 tickets with 50,000 naira each!
They must have thought I played with N100 or N1,000

That is just one secret.

The second secret?
(Now I don't care if you believe me or not) I had spent 700,000 betting on the EURO 2016 and I lost all the money!

I did not tell a single soul, I have NEVER told anyone. It was my worst secret.
All thanks to the secrecy of online betting and ease of crediting your betting account with atm.

It was terrible 700,000 gone within the month of EURO2016 just like that.

I kept thinking of the things I could have done with the money instead of betting

These people did not know I was rejoicing because I had recovered my terrible lose.

[size=25pt] TESTIMONIES ARE MOSTLY GLORIFIED LIES
[/size]
Yes you read that right.

"Praise God I got admission I did not deserve" he won't tell you he was the VC's candidate and they helped him. He won't tell you how he and his mum were kneeling down to beg the VC to help them.

"Praise God I got a job I did not qualify for!" She won't tell you how she slept with the CEO to get the job.


"Praise God I got healed of HIV" he won't tell you he was misdiagnosed and was given a wrong result.

"Praise God I got a child after 20 years of barrenness" they won't tell you how they traveled out to meet a specialist for artificial insemination or other medical solutions the specialist applied.
Even an athlete that uses performance enhancing drugs would dedicate the Gold medal to GOD.



More on what happened next...

You are partly right and partly wrong here. There are some fabricated testimonies and there are genuine ones. I have already said it earlier that the issue of fake and genuine products/people are everywhere, not only in christianity.
There are people who get this miracles you mentioned genuinely the way you said it.