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How do you view gaming? As a Christian act or one of the Devil?

I admit that I love to game, CoD, WoW, CS:S. However, what gets me is what my parents do. They don't want me to game, since they think its the Devil's work. Sometimes I contradict myself and ask if what I do is right.

Just wanna hear your thoughts about this. :)
 
Jesus doesn't say playing video games is a sin. Therefore it is not inherently a sin.

However, the Bible tells us a few other things. First, honor thy father and mother. If you don't, you're sinning. If mom and dad tell you to stay away from video games, then that's what you have to do. Second, if what you do causes others to sin, then that is a sin too. Third, anything not done by faith is a sin. If you don't have complete faith that playing video games is okay, then that's a sin. If you have convictions that playing games is not right for you and you don't follow them, that's not right.
 
This topic comes up from time to time. Try this link to a pervious discussion and see if it helps: http://www.cgalliance.org/forums/showthread.php?t=26998

THe only other thing I would say is depending on your situation etc it maybe that your parents have a legitimate concern in this case i would say that the advice you get here should only be considered as general advice not specific to your situation. I would suggest that it would be highly inappropriate for any of us here to speak to your situation specifically. Sometimes you just gotta trust that your parents know you better than you do and hope that as you get more latitude in your decisions you will make the right ones.
 
Read my sig :)

I grew up in a home where my father believed whole-heartedly that video games were nothing but a total waste of time, and that my mother (due to bad teaching) believed were tools of the devil to take over your souls.

Video games are not tools of the devil to take over your souls because, as notorious Christian rock star Alice Cooper says in his autobiography, "My God is so much more powerful than yours that it's laughable." The Apostle Paul makes it explicitly clear in this block of text which is Romans 2:29-39 (NLT, My emphasis added):
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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I should be explicitly clear about this, however, because it is rather true: Nothing, not anything, ever, can sneak up and pull you out of God's hands. But it is true that you can walk away from God through outright rebellion.

Rebellion from your parents is not a safe place to be. "But John," you say, "you beat Mortal Kombat II while living under your parent's roof -- and they wouldn't even let you play The Legend of Zelda III: Link to the Past at the time." Yeah, I'm a hypocrite. I rebelled against my parents a lot. So much so that I'm having one heck of a time conquering my 13-year-long pornography habit that started at the same time as I was skirting around behind my parents' backs playing Mortal Kombat, The Legend of Zelda, and Tyrian. I got into it because I decided that my parents didn't know jack about what was right and what was wrong about computers. Turned out I was only half right. Paul again:
1 Cor 6:12 NLT (Punctuation surpressed.) said:
Everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me but I will not be mastered by anything.
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This quotation is dealing with sexual immorality (lust, pornography, using prostitutes,) but can easily be used to apply to video games. If video games master you (I spent 2 hours playing a bejeweled knockoff on www.addictinggames.com and then remembered why I never go to that site during a school semester,) maybe you should consider them to be just as bad as pornography.

My story does end with a happy note, but it took about 16 years for my parents to come around. My dad no longer sees games as perfectly useless. He realizes that games can be used as a medium to spread stories and ideas around. My mother has learned that God is much more powerful than evil and so, even if a game was underwritten by the Evil League of Evil, it still doesn't have a chance at destroying souls. This means that my parents are no longer staunch anti-video gamers. But understand that it took a lot of time and a lot of work and at some point I had to confess to God that I was a hypocrite and a rebel for playing all those games along the years behind my parents' backs.
 
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Thanks for making this clear. I mean my parents grew up without video games or TV's, so its hard for them to understand what our generation is going through.

I suppose I can only wait, pray and see what God has in store for me in the future, might it be in the gaming sect or the medical field.

Thanks for your comments. :D
 
Okay first off, the time when the Bible was written was a different time all together I'm sure. And no sarcasm meant when I say this, but video games were not invented during the age when Moses was given the ten commandments. Heck, video games weren't even around when Rome was in control of Isreal. So honor your parents, I think some people are taking it out of text in the same way that the pharisees took the Sabbath out of text.

Here is what I think it means, it means that you must show your mother and father respect, and not hate them like they were your enemy and treat them in the way that they deserve. If you would like to play video games, then it's your choice.

You see, video games are a brand new field of entertainment for Christians. We simply don't know how to bring biblical texts into the equation when it comes to video games.

Despite what some might say around here, it's not really a sin to disagree with your parents or refuse to be treated like a doormat. I'm going to be sorry for disrespecting my parents, but I will NOT be sorry and be afraid that I sinned simply because I did something they didn't want want me to do, such as voting for somebody else, eating something my parents don't want me to eat, etc.
 
macromaster said:
Okay first off, the time when the Bible was written was a different time all together I'm sure. And no sarcasm meant when I say this, but video games were not invented during the age when Moses was given the ten commandments. Heck, video games weren't even around when Rome was in control of Isreal. So honor your parents, I think some people are taking it out of text in the same way that the pharisees took the Sabbath out of text.

Here is what I think it means, it means that you must show your mother and father respect, and not hate them like they were your enemy and treat them in the way that they deserve. If you would like to play video games, then it's your choice.
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For me it is not so much a case of the commandments but rather we are not your parents. I don't claim to know anything about your situation but it stands to reason to note that you are your parents responsibility and it is not our role here to contridict that. It would be remiss of us to suggest you ignore your parents as: 1. we dont know how old you are. 2. we dont know what games you are playing and 3. we dont know the particular circumstances you are in.

I agree with others that i have no personal problem with gaming but I know my circumstances and what I can deal with. In essence I would consider the reposnse here as general and take and leave what applies to you. Just remember parents are not always as stupid as they might appear. They may as some have suggested here have a misguided view of the scriptures and see gaming as wrong when it is nothing but. On the other hand they may know you better than you do and not want you to play for a ligit reason. I agree that you are responsible for you but sometimes it is useful to use that responsibility to submit to your parents wishes untill you are free to make your own. This way it is your choice to submit rather than being forced to submit which makes a nice little distinction.

As I have said though it really depends on your situation you need to be wise. Maybe you need to take some of what is said here to talk to your parents. Maybe you are old enough to have responsibility for yourself. Or maybe you just have to respect your parents wishes. I would only suggest that you deal with things as they are not as you want them to be or think they should be.
 
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