Friday, October 10, 2025

Part I

The Spreading Problem of Sports Betting: Sports Betting is a Massive Moral Problem, And Young Men Are Especially Vulnerable

But I want us to look at a problem right here in the United States today, on this Friday. I want us to consider a problem that is really big at the state government level, it’s big at the federal level. It’s big in the large culture, the entire cultural picture around us. It’s also a problem for a lot of young people and for their families. I’m talking about gambling. And what we have right now is a very sinister situation. 

Since the Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that led to the legalization of so much betting, sports betting in all the rest, in all 50 states. And by the way, the Supreme Court of the United States did not reach a decision that gambling should be legal everywhere. The precise question presented to the Supreme Court is whether it was legal, constitutional for Congress to recognize two states, in particular the states of Nevada and New Jersey, as being special cases when it came to forms of legalized betting. And that was clearly an imbalance that could not stand constitutional muster. What we have here is a failure of Congress to legislate in order to bring much of this under control.

Now of course, Christians have longstanding deep moral concerns about gambling, and I think it’s a big problem that a lot of younger Christians today, that includes a lot of younger Christian pastors, I want to say, really don’t understand what is at stake here. And a lot of Christian parents, I think, are singing in the rain on this one. So what I want to do today is I hope awaken some parents, pastors, and listeners at large in this country to what’s at stake here and how some things are happening below the radar and how some things are happening that are just honestly disguised and misrepresented.

Okay. Just this week, The New York Times ran a front page article entitled “Sports Bets, by Another Name, Skirt State Bans.” Okay. So what’s going on here? Well, what you have happening right now is that you have legalized gambling spreading throughout the culture in ways that were, in one sense, predictable, but were not, in another sense, fully expected. And that is another Christian biblical principle. As you have stated in the New Testament, “Sin seizes the opportunity.” That’s exactly what happens. And so even as you say this is where the gambling issue is going, it’s not going to stop where you think and it’s going to show up in different forms than you expect.

So the big issue for The New York Times this week, is the fact that state regulators are coming up against the fact that gambling is going on, but it is being called prediction markets in the investment world. It’s being treated as a legalized commodity, not as a form of gambling. Okay. Now the states that are becoming increasingly dependent upon income from gambling, you know what their concern here is? It’s not a good moral concern. Their concern is we’re losing income that should come to the state by legalized betting because it’s going to these prediction markets. It’s being treated like the stock market, not like sports booking. But you also have concern coming from people in some of these same states saying, “Look, this is pernicious. You have people who have no idea what they’re getting into with these prediction markets.”

And here’s where, especially when you have high tech as we have now, the ability to do these massive computations, you’re not talking about a bookie keeping score with a pad and a pencil on a street corner, you’re talking about massive, massive organized forms of commercialized gambling. And the prediction markets are one form. Prediction markets really didn’t start out related to sports at all. It started out related to events that were more economic. But then it came down to, “Okay, who’s going to be the next pope?” And so there were forms of what were called prediction markets put into effect, and usually with stable shares, as they’re called, and yet what it is, is a form of gambling. It is pretty undisguised. This isn’t as to what’s going to be the future price of wheat in Iowa. I guess Iowans would say let’s talk about corn first.

But it is about who’s going to win the next game in the NFL or in Major League Baseball, or for that matter, the local high school, if people want to establish a market for that. And there’s another insidious part of this. You know what the legal threshold in most states is for sports betting? It’s already too low. It’s 21. Do you know what it is for the prediction markets? All you have to be is an adult. So age 18. One of the big issues we’re going to talk about is the big problem among teenagers, and in particular, teenage boys and young men when it comes to sports betting. And frankly, even to other forms of gambling.

But this story on the front page of The New York Times, I think, is really important. And so you have big questions here. Like who regulates the prediction market? Is it the state gambling regulators or is it the commodities and exchange commission? A setup, I mean, commodities is basically about big things like meat and corn and wheat. You can expand that to other areas of the economy. But now you’re talking about sports games, you’re talking about who’s going to be the next pope. Here’s another principle. Human beings evidently will gamble over anything. And so we’ll even gamble over what’s the next front in gambling. That’s just a very sad sign of how deep this gambling temptation is.

One of the biggest problems in America, morally speaking, one of the most insidious assaults subverting the family and frankly just economic stability and economic sanity is the spread of so much gambling. And let’s not fool ourselves into thinking this is not a big problem. But even as it just appeared in this way, showing a disguise with the prediction markets and the fact that you have the state regulators coming saying, “Hey, we’re losing out on this.” In other words, that guy over there who’s acting like he’s running a commodities exchange, he’s really just the same as the bookie on the corner, or for that matter, the digital betting platform just a click away.

But what I want to talk about is another big issue related to gambling, and that is the fact that there is a particular risk for gambling when it comes to young people, and in particular, young males. And so there’s a phenomenon, I think Christian pastors, Christian parents, and Christian young people, including those very same boys and young men, we all need to pay attention to what’s going on here because it’s causing real damage in real lives and sometimes with horrifying consequences. One of the things we talked about is the vulnerability of adolescent males, especially boys, teenage boys and young men, college-age young men, and the vulnerability to sextortion.

And the fact is, some of these stories are ending in unspeakable tragedy where young men get into trouble, they don’t know how to get out of it, and they do something horrifying just in their desperation. The same thing is also happening in gambling. And let’s just say that financial disaster can loom when you have a young man or a young person. And by the way, one of the things that shows up in a study that was just released recently by the University of Michigan is, it shocked me the percentage of teenagers who have access to credit card numbers, and in some cases, credit accounts of their own. What could go wrong here?

And so you also have parents who are slow to catch on to the fact they have a problem. As a matter of fact, this University of Michigan Medical Center study came out saying that when they talked adults to parents, one out of six parents said that he or she probably wouldn’t know if the teenager, right down the hall, is involved in organized sports betting. They probably just wouldn’t know. And let me just affirm as loudly and emphatically as I possibly can. Parents, it’s your business to know, and the danger here is really high. So you have reports such as this one out of the University of Michigan. One of the co-directors said, “Teens and young adults may have a difficult time going into a casino unnoticed, but they have easy access to a variety of betting and gambling options.” Later, this, “Although most states restrict online sport and casino betting to 21 years or older.” By the way, that is still a very problematic age. And I’m not saying the morality differs by age. I’m saying the vulnerability does. The article says “There are loopholes and concerns that adolescents and teens may bypass security measures.” 

The same study shows us exactly what they’re doing, and huge numbers of them are doing. It’s not just hypothetical. “Online sports betting is similar to fantasy football leagues and college basketball tournament pools that are popular with sports fans, including high schoolers and even younger kids.” That makes a lot of sense. So in other words, if you have a teenage boy or a young man, college age young man, and they’re very much involved in fantasy football leagues, they’re accustomed to the brackets in the NCAA basketball tournament. It can appear to be a short jump into sports betting. It can appear to be that’s just very similar to this. But of course it is not just similar to that.

And the other thing is, given the privacy of this and the fact that you can have a kid with a computer or a kid with a smartphone and there’s no one else involved on that end, it’s just that kid with that gambling platform, the fact is that the ominous numbers of losses can mount up really fast. It is also true that the lure, the attraction into, say, sports betting, even from fantasy football programs, it’s right there on the screen. Those who are involved in the fantasy football platform find themselves confronted with opportunities real quick, just a click away to put a bet on it. And so it looks like it’s even an extension of the game. It’d be very easy to be seduced into this, very easy to be confused into this, very easy to be lured into this. And very quickly, you can get way into it.

One of the things that is often noted, and let’s just admit this, is that throughout all of human history, after the Fall, Genesis 3 forward, one of the characteristics of the young male is very imperfect risk assessment. Okay, so that’s just a common thing. Regardless of the context, risk assessment and boys and young men, they don’t go together really well. And by the way, I think there are some wives and the mothers out there who would say, with husbands, older, doesn’t always get that much better. But you know what I mean. It is. I had a friend who said years ago, he said, “I think that if moms really understood the world, they would understand that the scariest thing they can hear out the window is, ‘Hey guys, watch this.'” It’s a sign that something just might be about to go wrong. Risk assessment’s difficult.

Well, okay. Let’s be really honest. Let me get back to the father or the grandfather here. Risk assessment when it comes to organized gambling is very difficult. And those who run those platforms are counting on it. They’re counting on the fact that men of age who ought to know better are also bad at risk assessment. That’s what they’re counting on. That’s what casinos are counting on. That’s what lotteries are counting on. That’s what all these betting platforms are counting on. And it just gets even more serious. Now, one of the big issues in the 20th century was the understanding that government has the responsibility to shut down gambling because of the damage gambling brings into individual lives, but more specifically in the family.

And so especially during the 20th century, legal reformers were big on pressing states and the federal government, but in particular the states, to clamp down at the level of Congress in terms of all the states, at the level of state by state legislation, we need to protect families because children are going without clothes and food. Their care is being neglected because some of these, dads in particular, being lured into gambling. And the next thing you know, what should be buying milk and meat for the family is simply going to pay gambling debts. It is also, of course, especially when it’s illegal, it becomes a part of the underworld.

And the big reason, let’s just face it, the big reason why gambling has been legalized is because states have wanted the money. And you look at the income that states like Nevada and New Jersey got from casinos. And then you look at the early lotteries that came, especially in the second half of the 20th century with the new lotteries that appeared in the states, other states simply had the argument, “Look, all our money’s going across the border into the state lottery next door.” We’re missing all that money.” And the next thing you know, they also are looking at state government saying, “You know, you legalize the lottery and we’re going to use that money to send kids to college.” And in some cases, they do that. But the reality is, at enormous, unspeakable moral cost. 

The Washington Post ran an editorial on this just a matter of months ago, and one of the things that Washington Post editors pointed out is that a lot of parents think they’re on top of this and they’re fooling themselves. A lot of parents think, “My kid wouldn’t do that, or there’s no way the kid could get around the safety mechanisms and the supposed rules.” But let’s face it. These platforms have everything to gain by making it, let’s just say, not impossible for your teenager below the legal age to get involved in these things.

The editorial, The Washington Post also pointed out that the professional sporting world, was particularly worried about gambling because of the obvious incentives towards corruption, throwing games, the whole thing. And of course we had scandals in Major League Baseball, but now the scandal is Major League Baseball. And it’s not just baseball, it’s also the NFL, it’s all. Even collegiate sports becoming deeply infected with this. All right. So given how important sports are in the culture, and in particular, to young men and boys, and you think about gambling and the susceptibility, I just want to say to Christian parents, you better really be watching what’s going on here. Because there is deep vulnerability here.

There’s not only the corruption that comes into the heart and the soul by gambling itself, there’s also the confusion that comes into this. And then the real risk of getting into a very perilous situation where a boy or a young man’s not going to know exactly how he can get out of this and may be embarrassed to go to you and say, “Hey, I have a problem. I just gambled myself into a problem here.” Again, you just have to wonder, how in the world can this happen that one out of six parents would tell the University of Michigan that they’re not sure they would know if their high schooler, or younger, or for that matter, just a little bit older son was involved in such a thing.

If you know you don’t know, wouldn’t you think you got to know? All right. There will be, unfortunately, further developments on this and we’ll watch it with you. For now, let’s turn to your questions.

Part II

Is It Possible for My 3.5-Year-Old to Confess Saving Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letters From Listeners of The Briefing

All right. The first question is coming from a mom and she’s writing for herself and for her husband about their little girl who’s 3.5 years old. And I was reminded just yesterday, for a child that age, that 0.5 is very important. All right. So this is a three and a half year old little girl and she has told her parents that she wants to profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The mom says, “This morning, she said she wants to believe in Jesus.” Question later, “do you believe that three year olds can be genuinely saved?”

Okay. I love the question. I love the honesty of it. I love the fact that this is a little girl who is so surrounded by Christian truth. And the mom mentions here they use a catechism, they use memory verses, and a storybook Bible. This is really sweet. This is the way it should be. And this three-year-old desires Christ. And I want to tell you, that’s the way it should be. You asked the question of me as a theologian, can a three and a half year old come to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? My answer is, I don’t know. Jonathan Edwards, and I’m going to say he thought a lot about this. He believed that a very, very young child could authentically profess faith in Christ.

But even Edwards recognized that the adult is rather incompetent to recognize whether that’s what’s really happened or not. And I want to say, I think that’s the biggest problem. I don’t think we’re able to read a heart of a three and a half year old, or for that matter, of a very young child of variable ages. That’s one of the reasons why I just want to encourage you, the greatest lesson I ever saw in this came from Dr. W.A. Criswell, who was pastor the first Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. And I happened to be, as a young man, at that church and I saw this happen. I saw Dr. Criswell give the invitation. I saw a very young child come forward. And I saw a wonderful pastor deal with this, I thought, in what at the time I reflected was simply one of the most amazingly faithful things I’d ever seen in terms of a pastor with a child.

And so the child came forward. The child was a little boy. He said he wanted to profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what did Dr. Criswell say? He said to the congregation, “This little boy,” and he named him, “has just taken a step toward Jesus. He loves Jesus. He wants to follow Jesus. And we want to encourage him in that.” Let me tell you what Dr. Criswell didn’t say. He said, “What you have here is a newborn transformed sinner saved by grace, who is knowledgeably coming forward to confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” He didn’t speak of it in those terms, but he spoke of it in such grace-filled terms. This is a wonderful thing. What a wonderful thing that a three and half year old little girl speaks to her parents saying that she desires Christ.

And you know what? You want that child to desire Christ, and not only that, but to profess with her lips the truth about Jesus Christ. I would just say, as a theologian and having served as a pastor, being involved in the local church, having to think about this year after year after year, I will tell you that I’m absolutely certain that I don’t know exactly how to read a child’s heart. I do know it’s absolutely right to encourage that child’s heart towards faith and belief and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe that this is really up to parents over a period of time. To state this emphatically, I wouldn’t baptize a three and a half year old. But I shouldn’t fail to baptize. I believe, as a Baptist, I shouldn’t fail to baptize what I believe one who has clearly professed Christ.

So that means that it’s a matter of judgment, it’s a matter of judgment for the congregation, it’s a matter of judgment for parents to an extent, of course, also. And so I would just say, number one, I want to make a distinction. And I’m not sure the distinction is as clear in your question and that’s why I want to say, you want your three and a half year old to love Christ, desire Christ, and to profess faith in Christ. What that means in terms of salvation is something that you’re going to have to watch as parents, as no doubt you as Christian parents are watching very carefully, working with your child, working that little child’s heart, confronting that child with the gospel constantly and in every way possible, until that day when you feel like I really can say, and the church can say, “We really can confirm that this child has come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I am very clearly not saying that can’t happen at three and a half. I’m saying I don’t think we can know that it’s happened at three and a half.

Part III

Why is Antisemitism Prevalent Among Some Young Men? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letters From Listeners of The Briefing

I want to take a question from a parent who wrote in with a college-age son, indeed evidently with several of them. And one of them is currently at a university. And this son feels very much like he stands out from his friends because he cannot join in their antisemitism. And this mom is writing in, this parent’s writing in to say, “Is this is a growing phenomenon? Is this something that is so dramatically present in other places where a lot of young men are, and that includes some Christian young men?”

And the answer, I regret to say, is “yes.” The virus of antisemitism is never far from hand. The virus of antisemitism is one of the most insidious that is found among humanity, going back, you might say, to Abraham, and continuing until the present. Murderously, horrifyingly, genocidally in the 20th century, but it is still very present. I also want to speak specifically. I’m very concerned about the rise of antisemitism in some sectors of what has to be called the right, where there are people who are confusing conservative principles and even being anti-woke with a certain kind of antisemitism.

There are also some people who are trying to misuse Christian theology in order, I think, to further the aims of antisemitism. And I think those of us who love the gospel, we know we’re also, by Scripture, obligated to love the Jewish people. We’re also obligated to have a very careful theology of understanding the relationship between the Jewish people and Christians, between the Old Covenant and the New. Both in terms of continuity and discontinuity, we are to look with respect and gratitude to Judaism even as we understand the necessity of the new covenant, as the fulfillment of the Old Covenant in every conceivable way, bringing even deeper and more enduring promises. But we have a responsibility to oppose antisemitism, whatever it’s form and wherever it’s found.

And I have to tell you, I’m very concerned about some of the things I’m hearing even in the conservative media sphere where I think some very, very dangerous things are being said. And it’s particularly problematic in the year 2025 because we can’t say we don’t know where these things lead. I think it’s also important because we can’t say we don’t know where these things come from. And so I’m glad the question’s asked. And I think with college-age young men, okay, this is a diagnostic test. We are told here we have a problem. And I want to say I’m thankful for this son of this mother who is unwilling to go along with antisemitism. And I think we have to call it out for what it is.

And I think there are some really strong important Christian leaders who are speaking out and I’m very thankful for that. Obviously, we need to give more attention to this in coming days. And this is a reminder that that’s exactly what we’re going to have to do. I guess one final thing I want to say here, and we’ll come back to this, is I think it should be seen as implausible, impossible, that you can love Jesus Christ and hate the Jewish people, or take on any form of antisemitism. I just think that’s incompatible with Christ and with the gospel. All right. Let’s call out evil wherever we find it, whatever its name.