Agreed, translations from Hebrew to Greek to English are not perfect, neither are interpretations of history ex post facto.
However, this is essentially my point (perhaps better explained in my response @Puremuscle), if you take every word or even every sentence from the bible for its literal meaning, you will end up with some very conflicting passages and overall message.
Its better to take the overall meaning behind the entire text as a whole. - in my humble opinion.
Now for the OP: âThe lot is cast in the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.â - sounds like them apostles were taking a punt! or gamblingâŚ
Oh and the good book does not mention gambling explicitly anywhere in the text. It is our interpretation of scripture that suggests easy money, and the goal of money is is bad, whereas been poor is good.
Personally, I have yet to find any âeasyâ money trading forexâŚ
If you think forex trading is sinful, why would Jesus Himself told a parable about trading gold? Matthew 25:14-30. Gold was a currency in those days though.
Interesting question!
Just right for poor old Simple Simon!
I donât think the idea behind this tale is that the servants would take the money (gold) and speculate with it in a casino type environment.
It this sense, âtradingâ meant using the assets with the skills that the servant possessed in order to achieve a gain with it through doing business with them. The gold was distributed to each servant in an amount equal to their relative skills and abilities.
Naturally, this is really a parable about how people should use the gifts and talents that have been âgivenâ in order to go and do the work of the âownerâ of these assets.
But we can equally apply the same lesson to our own trading. There are certainly skills and experience that we develop as we go and we should only be trading within the scope of those skills. To do anything else would be paramount to gambling and risking losses on behalf of the owner of those assetsâŚi.e. ourselves!
Matthew 25: 26-27
26 âHis master replied, âYou wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
I think one has to be careful in drawing conclusions from bible text that one always looks at the context and not just the literal sense.
In particular, Jesus apparently often used parables to illustrate an underlying concept. He did this because he was talking to simple, mostly illiterate, folk with only a narrow experience of life. Therefore he drew pictures using analogies with matters familiar to these people such as vineyards, cattle, fig trees and so on.
He was not actually, literally, talking about investing/trading, he was talking to his disciples about carrying out his spiritual work on his behalf while he, himself, would be away. But he uses an analogy of earthly wealth being utilised for gain in preference to being just âplaced under the mattressâ because this is something that everyday people could relate to - and one method of utilising surplus wealth in those days, and it still is, was to place it on loan and gain interest on it.
To stretch this parable so far as to claim it also justifies trading in our sense of the word requires quite a lot of mental strength!
For one thing, the servant is using his masterâs funds and not his own money.
Also, it is clear the master is referring to the equivalent risk of a bank deposit where a return is relatively certain, albeit modest. (although I doubt if the security of deposits with money-lenders in those times was as secure as banks nowadays!)
So, although the parable refers to investing it is not actually about investing and I really donât think it stretches to speculative trading where the entire sum could be blown away!
I canât help wondering what the master would have replied if the last servant had said, âMaster I bet the entire sum on a risky venture. I could have made a thousand times return but instead I lost it allâ
Maybe the master may have replied something like, âYou should have just buried my money in the ground instead, at least I would still have my capital!â
If we use this parable to justify speculative trading then maybe the phrase, âgive to Ceasar what is Ceaserâsâ can equally be used to justify tax-havens and offshore centres to minimise tax liabilities and reduce government revenues, even within those countries where profits have originally been made - in spite of any ethical or moral considerations?
Oh, and one more thing, if one looks at the same story in Luke 11-27, should we also take literally the command given in v.27 regarding anyone who opposes trading?
For me, just an interesting change from the usual grind of broker issues, failure rates, trading with peanuts, and personal ego trips
Whether anyone actually seriously relates this to a faith issue is another matter, but I am sure there are those who do - for example, the issue of interest earnings?
Afterall the two main issues to guarantee emotive discussion are surely money and religion! âŚbut putting the two together in one thread? hmm I expect to see nonchalence rather than an âalmightyâ explosion!!!
Well, Iâm not taking the verse literally. Far from taking forex trading as a âbusiness recommendationâ by Jesus Himself. Thatâs too much. I know itâs a parable. It is just, if trading forex is a sin, then Jesus wouldnât even take it as a parablein comparison with the Kingdom of Heaven. That is something big though. The whole Bible itself talks about the Kingdom of Heaven. Why would Jesus takes trading gold as parable to something crucial if it is a sin?
I think the meaning of taking profit at the expense of another is more like being a Market Maker broker. We all know our losses are market makerâs profit if youâre trading with them.
But that is the whole point here - he is not talking about âtrading forexâ, he is taking about depositing someone elseâs money into a passive, interest-bearing depository, which is an entirely different thing. And in that sense I would agree that JC had nothing against the principle of a banking system.
But this parable is irrelevant as a specific comment about trading forex with your own money as a speculative business. (I am not commenting here on whether trading is Christian or not, just that this parable is not relevant to that particular issue.)
Edit: Just had a thought here (a bit tongue in cheek, though!):
The point behind this parable is really all about missionary work, where some (the workers) sow the seed and the master reaps the harvest.
So if we wish to relate that to the world of trading, we could say that the brokers are indeed on the right side since they use the capital that their lenders and shareholders have entrusted to them to make them profits from the traders that they have recruited. And if the brokers are ok then surely their customers are as well!!!
What a prejudice. What does it matter which religion are you, you either trade on Forex or you donât. You can make it or not reall but that absolutely doesnât depend on your religion. Unless some religion prohibits to speculate the currencey at all.
Am not here to argue or to tell anyone that this is bad or that is goodâŚto begin with what is truth and error is thatâŚam a Christian and a son of Prophet T.B. Joshua, firstly, am a good forex trader and as a good forex trader, i can express my own life for this just to tell anyone that forex trading is not a gamble or betting or as the writer says ârelocation of fundsâ forex simply means foreign exchange, if forex is truly gambling or betting, then you will agree with me that those who change dollar to euro or pounds physically are also gamblers and bettersâŚanyone who trades forex and makes living with it will strongly agrees with me that there are rules in forex and if u abide by those rules you will smile to the bank and if you donât abide by those rulesâŚone will cry to the bank, now forex trading can either profit you or make you loose money depending on how you control the wheel and how this often leads to the greediness many has for quick money schemes which eventually makes them to loose their earnings/capital, when you trade with cautions and minimizes risk to the lowest, you will make a living although this may take awhile but if you are not patient enough to learn what it takes to trade in the most dangerous markets in the world, its most likely one will loose and starts looking for alternative business.
Bottom line is that, when you trade with no caution, minimizes risk, know what you are trading and the risked involved, knowing the fundamentals and analyzing then its most likely one is gambling and when you loose money, never complain or paint the business black when its not black, every forex brokers warns of great risk and many usually ignore this warnings until they loose money.
my life is forex, i have built my house with forex money, buy cars with forex money, these money i didnât carry gun and collect it from someone, i simply fished for these money with a lot of tools which i know many are not patient enough to learn, God bless the day i was introduced to forex.
Donât find difficult to leave if you are being touched as myself it did to me. This is not God way, let us God what is best for us to make living.
Thanks in Advance
HI @Augustinoi.
It is always refreshing to hear a different slant on our industry, but I must admit I would have preferred to read it in your own words, from your heart (which was touched by this). But never mind, the thoughts in the links are, I guess, what you wish to share anyway!
It is never a bad thing for us to stand back and reflect on what and why we are doing what we do!
One question I would throw at you now regarding the issue of speculation v. investment. I have assumed that you are saying that speculation is wrong but investment is ok, Is that so?
If so, then letâs assume I put $10000 into a trading account and start day-trading on margin. This is bad according to your links because I am speculating, right?
OK, so I decide to approach this in a different way and investment my $10000 into a PAMM account or such like and leave the day-trading to someone else to do on my behalf - and I earn a regular income from that. Is this still bad even though it is now an investment from my point of view?
We all hope one day to receive a guaranteed and regular pension to take care of ourselves and our loved ones once we are no longer able to work for ourselves. But those pension funds that take care of our pension contributions use a number of approaches to both optimise and protect our funds - some of these approaches are speculative - which bits are bad and which are good?
And if we feel that our pension is unlikely to be sufficient to take care of our families for whatever reason, is it then wrong to build oneâs own capital via trading to supplement a poor pension that would otherwise make us dependent on others to carry us instead ?
Is not the issue more a question of money for moneyâs sake v. money for the sake of love?
I am glad I am not the only one who thinks this way. I am young. Female (22) and I announce my belief in the Righteous Lord christ Jesus and The father Elohim.
âLove not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John Chapter 2 Verse 15-17â
God Bless you for saying this. May Elohimâs will continue to be done In your life.