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• What Is A Wager

Question: 'What is Pascal’s Wager?'
Answer:

Wager definition is - something (such as a sum of money) risked on an uncertain event: stake. How to use wager in a sentence.

Pascal’s Wager is named after 17th-century French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal. One of Pascal’s most famous works was the Pensées (“Thoughts”), which was published posthumously in 1670. It is in this work that we find what is known as Pascal’s Wager.
The gist of the Wager is that, according to Pascal, one cannot come to the knowledge of God’s existence through reason alone, so the wise thing to do is to live your life as if God does exist because such a life has everything to gain and nothing to lose. If we live as though God exists, and He does indeed exist, we have gained heaven. If He doesn’t exist, we have lost nothing. If, on the other hand, we live as though God does not exist and He really does exist, we have gained hell and punishment and have lost heaven and bliss. If one weighs the options, clearly the rational choice to live as if God exists is the better of the possible choices. Pascal even suggested that some may not, at the time, have the ability to believe in God. In such a case, one should live as if he had faith anyway. Perhaps living as if one had faith may lead one to actually come to faith.
Now there have been criticisms over the years from various camps. For example, there is the argument from inconsistent revelations. This argument critiques Pascal’s Wager on the basis that there is no reason to limit the choices to the Christian God. Since there have been many religions throughout human history, there can be many potential gods. Another critique comes from atheist circles. Richard Dawkins postulated the possibility of a god that might reward honest disbelief and punish blind or feigned faith.
Be that as it may, what should concern us is whether or not Pascal’s Wager can be squared with Scripture. The Wager fails on a number of counts. First and foremost, it doesn’t take into account the apostle Paul’s argument in Romans 1 that the knowledge of God is evident to all so that we are without excuse (Romans 1:19-20). Reason alone can bring us to the knowledge of God’s existence. It will be an incomplete knowledge of God, but it is the knowledge of God nonetheless. Furthermore, the knowledge of God is enough to render us all without excuse before God’s judgment. We are all under God’s wrath for suppressing the truth of God in unrighteousness.
Second, there is no mention of the cost involved in following Jesus. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus twice warns us to count the costs of becoming His disciple (Luke 9:57-62; 14:25-33). There is a cost to following Jesus, and it is not an easy price to pay. Jesus told His disciples that they would have to lose their lives in order to save them (Matthew 10:39). Following Jesus brings with it the hatred of the world (John 15:19). Pascal’s Wager makes no mention of any of this. As such, it reduces faith in Christ to mere credulity.
Third, it completely misrepresents the depravity of human nature. The natural man—one who has not been born again by the Holy Spirit (John 3:3)—cannot be persuaded to a saving faith in Jesus Christ by a cost-benefit analysis such as Pascal’s Wager. Faith is a result of being born again and that is a divine work of the Holy Spirit. This is not to say that one cannot assent to the facts of the gospel or even be outwardly obedient to the law of God. One of the points from Jesus’ parable of the soils (Matthew 13) is that false conversions are going to be a fact of life until the time Christ returns. However, the sign of true saving faith is the fruit it produces (Matthew 7:16-20). Paul makes the argument that the natural man cannot understand the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). Why? Because they are spiritually discerned. Pascal’s Wager makes no mention of the necessary preliminary work of the Spirit to come to the knowledge of saving faith.
Fourth and finally, as an apologetic/evangelistic tool (which is what the Wager was intended to be), it seems focused on a risk/reward outlook, which is not consistent to a true saving faith relationship in Christ. Jesus placed obedience to His commands as an evidence of love for Christ (John 14:23). According to Pascal’s Wager, one is choosing to believe and obey God on the basis of receiving heaven as a reward. This is not to diminish the fact that heaven is a reward and that it is something we should hope for and desire. But if our obedience is solely, or primarily, motivated by wanting to get into heaven and avoid hell, then faith and obedience become a means of achieving what we want rather than the result of a heart that has been reborn in Christ and expresses faith and obedience out of love of Christ.
In conclusion, Pascal’s Wager, while an interesting piece of philosophical thought, should have no place in a Christian’s evangelistic and apologetic repertoire. Christians are to share and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone is the “power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

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wa·ger

(wā′jər)n.1. v.tr.

wager

(ˈweɪdʒə) nvb

wa•ger

(ˈweɪ dʒər)
n. v.t.

Wagering Calculator

v.i. wage, wager - Wage once meant 'pledge, security' and wager was defined as 'solemn pledge' or 'undertaking,' from French wagier, 'to pledge.'

wager

Past participle: wagered
Gerund: wagering

Imperative
wager
wager

Present
I wager
you wager
he/she/it wagers
we wager
you wager
they wager

Preterite
I wagered
you wagered
he/she/it wagered
we wagered
you wagered
they wagered

Present Continuous
I am wagering
you are wagering
he/she/it is wagering
we are wagering
you are wagering
they are wagering

Present Perfect
I have wagered
you have wagered
he/she/it has wagered
we have wagered
you have wagered
they have wagered

Past Continuous
I was wagering
you were wagering
he/she/it was wagering
we were wagering
you were wagering
they were wagering

Past Perfect
I had wagered
you had wagered
he/she/it had wagered
we had wagered
you had wagered
they had wagered

Future
I will wager
you will wager
he/she/it will wager
we will wager
you will wager
they will wager

Future Perfect
I will have wagered
you will have wagered
he/she/it will have wagered
we will have wagered
you will have wagered
they will have wagered

Future Continuous
I will be wagering
you will be wagering
he/she/it will be wagering
we will be wagering
you will be wagering
they will be wagering

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been wagering
you have been wagering
he/she/it has been wagering
we have been wagering
you have been wagering
they have been wagering

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been wagering
you will have been wagering
he/she/it will have been wagering
we will have been wagering
you will have been wagering
they will have been wagering

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been wagering
you had been wagering
he/she/it had been wagering
we had been wagering
you had been wagering
they had been wagering

Conditional
I would wager
you would wager
he/she/it would wager
we would wager
you would wager
they would wager

Past Conditional
I would have wagered
you would have wagered
he/she/it would have wagered
we would have wagered
you would have wagered
they would have wagered

Noun	1.	wager - the act of gambling; 'he did it on a bet' gambling, gaming, play - the act of playing for stakes in the hope of winning (including the payment of a price for a chance to win a prize); 'his gambling cost him a fortune'; 'there was heavy play at the blackjack table' daily double - a single bet on two horse races in the same day exacta, perfecta - a bet that you can pick the first and second finishers in the right order parimutuel - betting where winners share the total amount wagered parlay - a series of wagers in which the winnings from one wager are used as a stake for the subsequent wagers place bet - a bet that a horse will finish a race no worse than second superfecta - a bet that you can pick the first four finishers in a race in the right order
2.	wager - the money risked on a gamble gamble - money that is risked for possible monetary gain jackpot, kitty, pot - the cumulative amount involved in a game (such as poker) ante - (poker) the initial contribution that each player makes to the pot pool - any communal combination of funds; 'everyone contributed to the pool'
Verb	1.	wager - stake on the outcome of an issue; 'I bet $100 on that new horse'; 'She played all her money on the dark horse' gamble - play games for money bet on, gage, game, stake, punt, back - place a bet on; 'Which horse are you backing?'; 'I'm betting on the new horse' play - make bets; 'Play the races'; 'play the casinos in Trouville' see - match or meet; 'I saw the bet of one of my fellow players'
2.	wager - maintain with or as if with a bet; 'I bet she will be there!' forebode, predict, prognosticate, foretell, promise, anticipate, call - make a prediction about; tell in advance; 'Call the outcome of an election'

wager

verbnoun

wager

nounverb1. To put up as a stake in a game or speculation:2. To make a bet:

wager

[ˈweɪdʒəʳ]

wager

[ˈweɪdʒə^r]

What Is A Wager Amount

wager

What Is A Wager

wager

[ˈweɪdʒəʳ]

wager

(ˈweidʒə) noun verb
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