The Ten Offenses: Reclaim the Blessings of Eternal Truths

By Pat Robertson

The Ten Commandments are a gift from God, intended to protect and bless His people. Yet there is so much confusion and misunderstanding regarding these ten timeless truths. How could something so good be so offensive? In this book, Pat Robertson takes a fresh, penetrating look at the benefits of honoring the Ten Commandments--both personally and as a nation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Feb 25, 2004
• ISBN: 9781418560126

Pat Robertson

Pat Roberson ha logrado el reconocimiento nacional e internacional en el campo de la teledifusión religiosa y como filántropo, educador, líder religioso, estadista, hombre de negocios y autor. En 1988 lo nominaron como candidato republicano para la presidencia de los Estados Unidos. Es autor de catorce libros, muchos de los cuales han sido éxitos nacionales. Tiene un doctorado de la escuela de leyes de la Universidad Yale y se especializó en divinidad en el Seminario Teológico de Nueva York. Él y Dede, su esposa, tienen cuatro hijos y catorce nietos.

Book preview

THE

TEN

OFFENSES

THE

TEN

OFFENSES

PAT ROBERTSON

10OffensesFinalpages_0003_001

THE TEN OFFENSES

Copyright © 2004 by Pat Robertson.

Published by Integrity Publishers, a division of Integrity Media, Inc., 5250 Virginia Way, Suite 110, Brentwood, TN 37027.

HELPING PEOPLE WORLDWIDE EXPERIENCE the MANIFEST PRESENCE of GOD.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means— electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois. All rights reserved.

ISBN 1-59145-126-4

Printed in the United States of America

04 05 06 07 08 BVG 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Prologue

1. Founding a Christian Nation

2. Undermining a Nation’s Foundation

3. Supreme Court v. Ten Commandments

4. Worship the One True God

5. Avoid Worshiping Idols

6. Honor God’s Name

7. Observe a Sabbath Rest

8. Honor Your Parents

9. Respect Human Life

10. Maintain Sexual Purity

11. Respect Others’ Property

12. Tell the Truth

13. Be Content with What You Have

Epilogue

Appendix

Selected Bibliography

Now all has been heard;

Here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear God and keep his commandments,

for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment,

including every hidden thing,

whether it is good or evil.

—ECCLESIASTES 12:13–14

PROLOGUE

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness.

-President George Washington

in his farewell address (1796)

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is by every measure the richest, most powerful, most charitable, and most blessed nation that has ever existed in the history of the world. The empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome pale in significance when compared to the United States. We must exercise great care that we do not destroy the foundations that have made us what we are.

Importantly, this nation has become a beacon of hope for people from all over the world. Our Christian culture has opened its arms to Jews from Eastern Europe, Muslims from the Middle East, Hindus from India, and immigrants from Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the islands of the seas. This magnificent land offers everyone who comes here freedom and opportunity to achieve great success in science, medicine, education, business, government, the arts, and much more.

As we will see in the chapters that follow, history shows that those who founded the United States consciously intended America to be a Christian nation, guided above all else by the truths of the Bible. The fundamental principles for the laws and liberties of this new nation were found in the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament and the Sermon on the Mount of the New Testament.

Revisionist historians have tried to blur the facts of history, but the documented evidence of our origins is too powerful to suppress. It was a Christian America that opened its arms to the world and guaranteed what we now pledge as liberty and justice for all. It was the spiritual, moral, and ethical teaching of Christianity that brought about our unparalleled prosperity as a nation.

From 1607, when the first English-speaking settlers planted a cross on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia, until the days following World War II, the American people assented to two foundational principles: first, that the God of the Bible exists and we are one nation under Him; and second, that the Holy Bible is the ultimate guide for our nation and for our lives. During this time, Americans readily affirmed the words of George Washington, our first president, who said in his farewell address, Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness. We believed the sentiments of Daniel Webster, who said, If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our nation will go on prospering. And we said a hearty amen to the words of French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote of the primary role of religion in American life.

THE TYRANNY OF ESTABLISHED RELIGION

I was born during the Depression in a small Virginia university town. My father spent his entire life in public service. He went to the United States Senate in 1956 to fill the term of the late Senator Carter Glass. He, along with men like Richard Russell, Harry Byrd, John Stennis, Sam Irwin, and Lyndon Johnson, made up the group of senior southern Democrats who, as committee chairmen, played a dominant role in the United States Senate. My early life was steeped in Virginia politics and the philosophies of men such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson.

My family was Baptist, and I learned from my father the accounts of the jailings, the beatings, and the exorbitant fines that the established Anglican Church in Virginia exacted on my Baptist ancestors. Baptists were taxed to support Anglican clergy and fined if they did not attend Anglican Sunday services. They were fined if they attempted marriage outside the Anglican Church. They were jailed and whipped if they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. Virginia Baptists urged James Madison to present Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom to the Virginia legislature. Without a doubt, my father and I understood what James Madison was thinking when he wrote the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, forbidding an establishment of religion. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and my ancestors in Virginia had experienced the tyranny of an established religion, and they did not like it.

An established church was one thing, but belief in God and the Bible was entirely different. In fact, the founders considered belief in God a vital thing. They were convinced that the Ten Commandments were basic to all our laws and public morality. Never would my father and his contemporaries have imagined that Jefferson, Madison, or Washington thought the acknowledgment of a Supreme Being constituted an establishment of religion.

ERODING AMERICA’ S SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION

For decades, certain elites in America have been hard at work to banish the God of the Bible from all discussion and debate concerning our most important national issues—issues that are, in fact, matters of life and death. Because this war between the spiritual and secular vision for America is long and slow, and the battles are fought in distant courtrooms, most Americans are only vaguely aware of the alarmingly serious threat to our nation’s foundation and Christian heritage. We have failed to recognize the relentless, ongoing war for America’s soul.

Never would any of us have dreamed that one day in 1980 the Supreme Court would deny to schoolchildren across America the privilege of learning God’s basic principles of human conduct found in the Ten Commandments. And who could have imagined that in August of 2003 a U.S. district court judge would order a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments to be removed from the Alabama Supreme Court building’s central rotunda?

Most Americans embrace these commandments as an indispensable part of our nation’s moral heritage. Consider this. The Commandments are on the floor of the National Archives building. A bronze statue of Moses is in the Library of Congress. In the Supreme Court, Moses stands at the center on the east portico, as well as on a frieze inside the courtroom. The Ten Commandments are carved on the wooden doors leading to the Supreme Court. The marble relief of the face of Moses is placed directly opposite the Speaker’s chair in the House of Representatives. In the Capitol Rotunda is a depiction of the sister ship of the Mayflower, the Speedwell, where the Bible is open on the chaplain’s lap and the pilgrim motto In God we trust, God with us is plainly visible on the ship’s sails.

In my anger, I join the majority of people across this land who protest the removal of the Ten Commandments from the public square. Opinion polls clearly show that the majority of the American people want children to pray in school, want to say the Pledge of Allegiance (which includes the words one nation under God), and want to allow the display of the Ten Commandments, as was intended by our founders.

The incident in Alabama is just one small piece of the greater erosion of Judeo-Christian morality that is occurring all around us. As those who oppose God’s standards continue to win ground in both courts and culture, none of us is safe from the devastating consequences. And what we are about to see, if we do not stand against the erosion of our spiritual foundation, is a virtual earthquake of violence, immorality, and untold suffering.

If that were not bad enough, also at stake is nothing less than our personal freedom. The fundamental freedom recognized in democracies is the right of the people to govern themselves. If that right is taken away by agenda-driven judges bent on emasculating the duly elected Congress and state legislatures, freedom will be transferred from the majority to an elite, secular minority—a new class that will be more authoritarian than any of us can imagine.

Many Americans in education, law, medicine, psychology, the arts, and the media seem to have an agenda to erase God and biblical morality from our nation. Why are they offended by the Ten Commandments? The answer is painfully obvious: They perceive any system of moral absolutes that defines or restrains their choices as antiquated and oppressive, dangerously limiting their rights. Simply put, the Ten Commandments represent absolute truth, and that cramps their style. But to those who understand their deeper meaning, the Ten Commandments are unbelievable blessings that provide safety, security, peace of mind, and a life free from many troubles.

During the past two hundred years, oppressed Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Jews have flooded into America because our Christian culture respects their individual liberties and offers endless opportunities, just as our founders intended. What other culture in the world shows such respect for each individual’s rights? Why allow liberal court justices, unthinking legislatures, and fiercely secular organizations to destroy our nation’s greatest and most compelling fundamental treasure—our spiritual foundation? Pluralism thrives in America as a result of our Christian heritage, not in spite of it.

THE PURPOSE OF THE TEN OFFENSES

My purpose in this book is to provide a healthy understanding of what the Ten Commandments mean, why they are an offense to some, and how obedience to them can bless our lives and our country. The first chapter reveals startling facts about the founding of this nation. Chapter 2 details appalling evidence drawn from actual cases that show the unchecked power grab by the Supreme Court and the unwillingness of Congress to use its constitutional privileges to restrain the Court. Chapter 3 details the vendetta of the Court and its allies against the Ten Commandments. In chapters 4 through 13, the Ten Commandments—and our nation’s observance of them— are held up to scrutiny. And the appendix clearly shows the spiritual foundation upon which all fifty state governments were established.

It is time for America to return to its spiritual foundation. God gave us the Ten Commandments as a rich source of blessing for our nation and for every citizen, regardless of his or her religious heritage. God’s laws do not issue from the heart of an oppressor. They come from a loving Father, and they are meant for our good and our protection.

We must stand strong. I have come to the conclusion that if we are to check the rapid erosion of our society, we who believe in the God of the Bible must insist that the Ten Commandments be honored in the public square. It’s my prayer that a deeper understanding of each commandment will draw you closer to God so that your life will be enriched and abundantly blessed.

ONE

Founding a Christian Nation

We, . . . Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do . . . solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick . . .

-Mayflower Compact (1620)

IT WAS A SLIGHTLY CHILLY APRIL DAY in the year 1607 when three tiny boats, scarcely bigger than twenty-first-century cabin cruisers, appeared on the horizon of the Atlantic Ocean and sailed toward the coastline of North America, where they dropped anchor in deep water just offshore. One hundred twenty bone-weary English travelers then took their turns climbing down into long boats that deposited them onto the sandy beach.

After an agonizingly long journey during which the travelers had been packed into their tiny vessels, they were intoxicated with the feel of land under their feet and the scent of woods and flowers. They scrambled up the adjoining sand dunes in search of wild berries, fresh water, and firewood. The next three days were spent in exploration and profuse apologies to one another for the contemptible attitudes many had displayed during their most trying voyage. But they had come to settle a continent, not to beachcomb on this point of land they named Cape Henry, after Henry, the son of King James I of England.

On April 29, 1607, their spiritual leader, Reverend Robert Hunt, suggested they memorialize their landing in this New World. He directed that the seven-foot oak cross they had brought from England be carried from one of the ships and planted firmly in the sand of what years later became the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia. These brave pioneer men and women then knelt in prayer around the rough-hewn cross and claimed this new land for the glory of God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Centuries later, in the 1930s, an official monument was erected at this site (although, regrettably, it is no longer there) with a stone cross and the following inscription:

Act One, Scene One of the unfolding drama that became the United States of America.

Having begun this new land with a prayer meeting, these first permanent English settlers to America reboarded their boats and sailed up a large river that they named the James. In a protected harbor on the northeast bank some fifteen miles upstream, they founded a settlement called Jamestown, so named in honor of their king, James of England.

The central and largest building constructed for the tiny settlement was a church where all of the settlers worshiped God, observed the sacraments of their Christian faith, and were taught to obey the commandments of God. The concept of separation of church and state would have been unthinkable to them because their Christian faith and their civic government were as one. Their concepts of life, freedom, and ordered liberty were framed principally by the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament and the Sermon on the Mount of the New Testament.

Without dispute, the United States of America began as a nation of Christians and as a Christian nation framed by the commandments of God.

THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT

Thirteen years later, another band of English settlers sailed on a boat called the Mayflower and reached Cape Cod on the Atlantic coastline of what later became the state of Massachusetts. After coming ashore in November of 1620, they drafted a foundational document known as the Mayflower Compact, which historians tell us was the first formal document for self-government drafted in America. Here is what it said (emphases added):

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, . . . Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; and by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620.

Again, contemporary political correctness and revisionist history notwithstanding, the founders of the United States of America did so to advance the Christian faith and bring glory to God. Some today may not like that fact, but it is true nonetheless.

It would have been unthinkable that the teaching of the Holy Bible, which laid out the concepts of Christianity and, in turn, the views of just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, would be denied to children in their schools or stripped from the public square by court orders in subsequent years.

THE CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY

To underscore their clear intentions, these Mayflower settlers, and those who came later, set forth the full scope of their concept of government—including a governor, legislature, and various courts —in what was called the Charter of Massachusetts Bay. In this charter, they included these words, " . . . whereby our said people, inhabitants there, may be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed, as their good life and orderly conversation may win and incite the natives of country, to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Savior of mankind and the Christian faith"(emphasis added).

This new nation was not polytheistic, multicultural, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, animist, or atheistic. It was a Christian nation intended to be governed by religious people who were guided by the precepts of the Holy Bible.

In 1663, the Charter for Rhode Island and Providence described their founders as people who were "pursuing with peaceable and loyal minds, their sober, serious and religious intentions, of godly edifying themselves, and one another, in the holy Christian faith and worship as they were persuaded" (emphasis added).

Written ninety-four years after the founding of Jamestown, the Delaware Charter of 1701 expressly states: "Almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience, Father of Lights and Spirits; and the Author as well as object of all divine Knowledge, Faith, and Worship, who only doth enlighten the Minds, and persuade and convenience the Understandings of People . . . And that all persons who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, shall be capable . . . to serve this government in any capacity, both legislatively and executively . . . " (emphasis added).

THIRTEEN COLONIE SBASED ON FAITH

From 1607 until 1776, thirteen colonies came into being in this new land. By 1776, there were an estimated three million inhabitants of the thirteen colonial states, of which some 2,500 were Jewish (according to the World Jewish Congress), a handful were atheists and agnostics, and the remainder were primarily Protestant Christians.

Although the colonies’ leaders had studied the writings of contemporary European philosophers as well as the sages of Greece and

Reviews for The Ten Offenses

[stevenhperry · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book is horribly written. Even if one agrees with every thought in the book, the book is barely readable.The thesis of the book is clear enough and most of the book supports this central theme, but it is not done in a logical, consistent, fluid manner. Some subheadings have nothing to do with the chapter, and some sections don't even fit the title of the subheading! Some times the point is made and the chapter should be over, but the author continues rambling on some new unrelated subject that should go somewhere else in his book.