The Spiritual Impact of Chess and Checkers

Playing chess and checkers is a practice that Heaven cannot approve because these amusements are condemned for their exciting and detrimental influence on the mind2MCP 736.1+2. While the pursuit of such games opens the door for great evil and can lead to a passion for gambling and dissipation, your entrance into the kingdom of heaven depends on a full surrender to Christ and the relinquishment of all worldly attractions and wrong habitsPaM 247.3+3.

The Nature of These Amusements

• Mental Taxation: Games like chess and checkers excite and weary the brain, unduly taxing the mental forces and hindering the recovery of health1LtMs, Lt 8, 1867, par. 5+3.

• Harmful Tendencies: These plays are not beneficial in their tendency; they produce an exciting influence that can lead to a life of dissipationCH 195.1+2.

• Substitution: Because these plays are condemned, Christians should substitute them with something perfectly harmless, such as light and useful physical laborPaM 247.3+3.

The Requirements for Entering Heaven

• Total Surrender: Being "almost" a Christian but not making an entire surrender of wrong habits means being wholly lostCOL 118.1.

• Following the Path: To share in the glory of heaven, one must follow the path of self-denial and sacrifice, walking the narrow path traveled by JesusDA 391.2.

• The Righteousness of Christ: Our fitness for heaven is found in the righteousness of Christ, but this righteousness must transform the entire characterLDE 283.2+1.

• Obedience to God's Law: Those who persist in "little sins" and refuse the voice of correction are forming characters that will be refused entrance into the kingdom of God7LtMs, Lt 16, 1892, par. 26+1.

The Choice Before You

Heaven is waiting with intense interest to see the result of the struggle in every soul15LtMs, Ms 29, 1900, par. 21. If we desire to be saints in the future home, we must first be saints upon the earthST May 7, 1896, par. 5. The Lord has provided every means for our salvation, but we must choose to separate ourselves from everything that defiles the soul temple 2 Corinthians 6:171T 510.2+1.

"Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" Matthew 7:21. "And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life" Revelation 21:27.