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The Ten Offenses
Reclaim the blessings of God's eternal truths!
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Pat Robertson
175 books23 followersPat Robertson was an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, political commentator, presidential candidate, and Southern Baptist minister. He served as head of Regent University and of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 19, 2009
Commandments NOT suggestions
July 30, 2017
"God willingly gives us His Spirit if we humble ourselves and ask. By His Spirit He will reform us from within, creating a new people who are free from the law of sin and death...free to obey the laws of God, which give life. He will make us ready for the work that needs to be done in our nation at this crucial hour. (Pat Robertson, The Ten Offences, Page 199)
This book is very applicable to the hour we are living in. Our world is trying to take God out of our schools, our courts, our governments, everywhere! It's time to fight back. Pat Robertson gives us the scoop on the liberal media's plan to dismantle our governments and take God out of the picture and all immorality to reign. Not on the Christians watch! It is imperative that we become armed and fight back.
Pat Robertson goes into detail about his view of what the 10 commandments mean. I particularly liked his writings on the 9th commandment: "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour" (Exodus 20:16). We see this happening in our news lately from where I live to America. Our media are propogating lies based on false sources or made up sources and are not focusing on what really matters to the people's of the country. The real issues that need to be dealt with. Instead are propogating hate and falsehood. Some may say that the media is holding our elected officials accountable, but there is a difference between holding an elected official accountable and proprogating lies based on false sources or bias. I feel a judgment is coming upon lying on the earth and the result is not good, unless these people repent.
"But for the fearful... and ALL LIARS, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone... (Emphasis mine, See Revelation 21:8).
In these last days we must discern between truth and falsehood. Thank God believers have the Holy Spirit who leads and guides us into all truth and helps us to discern between darkness and light.
This book is very applicable to the hour we are living in. Our world is trying to take God out of our schools, our courts, our governments, everywhere! It's time to fight back. Pat Robertson gives us the scoop on the liberal media's plan to dismantle our governments and take God out of the picture and all immorality to reign. Not on the Christians watch! It is imperative that we become armed and fight back.
Pat Robertson goes into detail about his view of what the 10 commandments mean. I particularly liked his writings on the 9th commandment: "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour" (Exodus 20:16). We see this happening in our news lately from where I live to America. Our media are propogating lies based on false sources or made up sources and are not focusing on what really matters to the people's of the country. The real issues that need to be dealt with. Instead are propogating hate and falsehood. Some may say that the media is holding our elected officials accountable, but there is a difference between holding an elected official accountable and proprogating lies based on false sources or bias. I feel a judgment is coming upon lying on the earth and the result is not good, unless these people repent.
"But for the fearful... and ALL LIARS, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone... (Emphasis mine, See Revelation 21:8).
In these last days we must discern between truth and falsehood. Thank God believers have the Holy Spirit who leads and guides us into all truth and helps us to discern between darkness and light.
February 16, 2017
This book was a gift, so if the person who gave it to me ever reads this, I apologize, but I found it awful. The arguments were flawed historically as well as biblically, and the logic was tortured.
The first few chapters set up the argument that America was founded as a Christian nation and then ruined by the Supreme Court, with some help. It is ironic that Robertson accuses others of revisionist history when he ignores so much. Thomas Jefferson is mentioned often here; what is not mentioned is that Jefferson was most certainly not a Christian, rather he was a Deist who believed miracles were impossible and literally cut, with a scissors, all of Jesus' miracles out of the Bible. Other founding Fathers such as Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin were also not Christian, they were Deist. Certainly many of the founding fathers were, but writing as if they all were distorts the story.
Furthermore, Robertson makes this argument without mentioning the prevalence of slavery by our Founding Fathers, a slavery which lasted to the civil war (not to mention segregation after that). Nor does he mention that when the settlers arrived there were already people living here and that the rise of America includes the massacre of the Native American Indians. Are slavery and the murder of entire people groups Christian practices? The fact that Robertson does not even attempt to argue that America is a Christian nation in spite of these errors shows an utter disregard for truth.
Throughout these first chapters, Robertson fails to make Biblical arguments for most anything. For example, he spends a few paragraphs on the reasons for the American Revolution (taxation without representation). While the revolution was a just cause, from the British perspective the colonists were ignoring the commands of Romans 13 to submit to governing authorities. For the most part, Britain was a Christian nation!
Robertson is unclear in his writing on the First Amendment. He says the intent was for there to be no state church where ministers draw salaries from the government and people are taxed to support churches. Yet he gives numerous examples of government money used to buy Bibles and other Christian activities. I am unclear how this is not forming a state church? How is a government favoring Christianity not forming a state church?
The chapters on the actual Ten Commandments have some good points, but are overall bad, not to mention the gospel is absent and they border on legalism (obey the commandments and good things will happen). Throughout the book Robertson uses no footnotes whatsoever. All that is at the end of the book is a short bibliography. But this is entirely unacceptable. Often he cites a study or a story, but gives the reader absolutely no reference to confirm this. How is the reader who desires to learn more supposed to? How can sources be checked? For the skeptical reader who disagrees with Robertson, whether Christian or not, such references are necessary.
Each chapter could be analyzed, but I'll just mention the Sabbath chapter. Robertson recognizes that the Sabbath was the seventh day, Saturday, for the Jews, but Christians worshipped on Sunday. Without much argument, he presumes Sunday as the only acceptable Sabbath throughout the chapter. But many of the first Christians who were Jews worshipped Jesus on Sunday while keeping Saturday Sabbath. Sunday was a workday in the Roman world, so the early Christians worshipped on Sunday and then went to work! Robertson points out that by Jesus' time "narrow-minded religious leaders" had developed numerous rules for Sabbath. Obviously this is bad, but Robertson then spends the rest of the chapter seeming to advocate making rules for people to observe the Sabbath. Later in the chapter Robertson tells of a time he and his wife headed to a restaurant on a Sunday evening, surprised to find it empty until he learned it was Super Bowl Sunday. He then complains of so many sports happening on Sunday. But it does not help his argument, at worst it makes him a hypocrite, to speak of visiting a restaurant on a Sunday in the middle a chapter lamenting loss of Sunday Sabbath observance in our culture! If its that important to him, why go somewhere to eat! By going, he is contributing to the business, causing the place to stay open, and forcing people to work!
Finally, in the final chapter he discusses coveting - desiring things that are not yours. He speaks of Saddam and Hitler and how their coveting led to their downfall. He then speaks of how all empires throughout history were built on coveting - from Alexander to Napolean they all wanted more. This shows how short-sighted his view is: when anyone else does it, it is coveting and breaking God's law, but when the American settlers took the land from the people already on it, they are fulfilling God's plan?
Overall, this book is for an audience already predisposed to agree with the views presented. Any book that tells you that you should be angry on the dust jacket is not interested in convincing argument. Perhaps this explains lack of footnotes. But what we find is a view that has so conflated Christianity with American culture that the two are one. Yet every empire thinks God is on its side. Jesus critiqued this view and his followers must do the same. This is not to say you can't be proud of your country (I am); it is simply to recognize no country is perfect, especially when compared to God's standards. A balanced view would recognize this and point out both the good and bad of America in the past and the present. Unfortunately, this book builds America as the near perfect Christian nation in the past by ignoring many facts and then laments America in the present. In this book, a balanced view is nowhere nearby. I hate writing such a negative review of a book by a fellow Christian, but I found this book most unhelpful.
The first few chapters set up the argument that America was founded as a Christian nation and then ruined by the Supreme Court, with some help. It is ironic that Robertson accuses others of revisionist history when he ignores so much. Thomas Jefferson is mentioned often here; what is not mentioned is that Jefferson was most certainly not a Christian, rather he was a Deist who believed miracles were impossible and literally cut, with a scissors, all of Jesus' miracles out of the Bible. Other founding Fathers such as Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin were also not Christian, they were Deist. Certainly many of the founding fathers were, but writing as if they all were distorts the story.
Furthermore, Robertson makes this argument without mentioning the prevalence of slavery by our Founding Fathers, a slavery which lasted to the civil war (not to mention segregation after that). Nor does he mention that when the settlers arrived there were already people living here and that the rise of America includes the massacre of the Native American Indians. Are slavery and the murder of entire people groups Christian practices? The fact that Robertson does not even attempt to argue that America is a Christian nation in spite of these errors shows an utter disregard for truth.
Throughout these first chapters, Robertson fails to make Biblical arguments for most anything. For example, he spends a few paragraphs on the reasons for the American Revolution (taxation without representation). While the revolution was a just cause, from the British perspective the colonists were ignoring the commands of Romans 13 to submit to governing authorities. For the most part, Britain was a Christian nation!
Robertson is unclear in his writing on the First Amendment. He says the intent was for there to be no state church where ministers draw salaries from the government and people are taxed to support churches. Yet he gives numerous examples of government money used to buy Bibles and other Christian activities. I am unclear how this is not forming a state church? How is a government favoring Christianity not forming a state church?
The chapters on the actual Ten Commandments have some good points, but are overall bad, not to mention the gospel is absent and they border on legalism (obey the commandments and good things will happen). Throughout the book Robertson uses no footnotes whatsoever. All that is at the end of the book is a short bibliography. But this is entirely unacceptable. Often he cites a study or a story, but gives the reader absolutely no reference to confirm this. How is the reader who desires to learn more supposed to? How can sources be checked? For the skeptical reader who disagrees with Robertson, whether Christian or not, such references are necessary.
Each chapter could be analyzed, but I'll just mention the Sabbath chapter. Robertson recognizes that the Sabbath was the seventh day, Saturday, for the Jews, but Christians worshipped on Sunday. Without much argument, he presumes Sunday as the only acceptable Sabbath throughout the chapter. But many of the first Christians who were Jews worshipped Jesus on Sunday while keeping Saturday Sabbath. Sunday was a workday in the Roman world, so the early Christians worshipped on Sunday and then went to work! Robertson points out that by Jesus' time "narrow-minded religious leaders" had developed numerous rules for Sabbath. Obviously this is bad, but Robertson then spends the rest of the chapter seeming to advocate making rules for people to observe the Sabbath. Later in the chapter Robertson tells of a time he and his wife headed to a restaurant on a Sunday evening, surprised to find it empty until he learned it was Super Bowl Sunday. He then complains of so many sports happening on Sunday. But it does not help his argument, at worst it makes him a hypocrite, to speak of visiting a restaurant on a Sunday in the middle a chapter lamenting loss of Sunday Sabbath observance in our culture! If its that important to him, why go somewhere to eat! By going, he is contributing to the business, causing the place to stay open, and forcing people to work!
Finally, in the final chapter he discusses coveting - desiring things that are not yours. He speaks of Saddam and Hitler and how their coveting led to their downfall. He then speaks of how all empires throughout history were built on coveting - from Alexander to Napolean they all wanted more. This shows how short-sighted his view is: when anyone else does it, it is coveting and breaking God's law, but when the American settlers took the land from the people already on it, they are fulfilling God's plan?
Overall, this book is for an audience already predisposed to agree with the views presented. Any book that tells you that you should be angry on the dust jacket is not interested in convincing argument. Perhaps this explains lack of footnotes. But what we find is a view that has so conflated Christianity with American culture that the two are one. Yet every empire thinks God is on its side. Jesus critiqued this view and his followers must do the same. This is not to say you can't be proud of your country (I am); it is simply to recognize no country is perfect, especially when compared to God's standards. A balanced view would recognize this and point out both the good and bad of America in the past and the present. Unfortunately, this book builds America as the near perfect Christian nation in the past by ignoring many facts and then laments America in the present. In this book, a balanced view is nowhere nearby. I hate writing such a negative review of a book by a fellow Christian, but I found this book most unhelpful.
March 6, 2026
Even though this was written in 2004 the Ten Commandments are timeless. What Pat Robinson points out for his day in relationship to today only emphasises how much worse it has gotten. We must begin in our own lives and then try to pass on the need for all to return to God's guidance inevery phase of life in these United States.
October 2, 2018
I think Pat did a good job laying out the history of the founding of our country and the intent of the supreme court. I think it is an easy read and recommend it for anyone concerned about abusive actions taken by the high court and how to correct.
November 8, 2013
I'm reading through this wonderful little gem for the second time.With a couple of years in-between the first and second read.I think it's a great little book and a very easy to read book for anyone that is interested in all the changes as well as the challenges that we Americans are facing on a daily basis.Pat Robertson offers a solution for the decline that many of us believe that we are in.
Above the title is written: On August 5, 2003, an order was issued to remove the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court. What God Intended For Good, Is Now Seen By Many As...THE TEN OFFENCES.As a thinking man, an evangelical Christian who tries to live and do what Jesus commands and who realizes that I'm blessed to live in the United States...Pat Robertson has got my attention.
Pat Robertson holds a juris doctor degree from Yale University Law School as well as a master of divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary.He is a very knowledgeable person.He knows his Bible.He's aware that a person isn't saved by keeping the Ten Commandments or any other part of the Mosaic Law that God gave to the Jewish people to obey ....For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God..Eph.2:8.But that's not what this book is about.What this precious elderly saint does show us, in a way that most anybody who can read and understand,is the benefits of honoring God's laws, both personally and as a nation ,as well as the dangers if we break them.For those of us who have ears to hear and who really desire to know the truth about what's happening in our country,Pat Robertson shows how our courts ,fueled by secular allies, are eroding America's spiritual foundations." The Supreme Court's recent interpretation of 'separation of Church and State' would have been unthinkable to our Founders in 1607 and 1620, because for them their Christian faith and their civic government were as one." A bold declaration that this compassionate and caring Christian man backs up with plenty of proof.
I personally don't agree with everything that Pat Robertson writes here.And I am aware that we differ in some of the non-essentials as far as our theology is concerned.But I'm not going to "throw out the baby with the bathwater". The Ten Offences is a book that should be read by every Christian,as well as the people who really love and are concerned about America and of course by anyone else who feels like reading it.
If I had to grade this book as a teacher, it would get an A+ ,and in my opinion, that would still be too low of a grade for a book of this caliber.
Above the title is written: On August 5, 2003, an order was issued to remove the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court. What God Intended For Good, Is Now Seen By Many As...THE TEN OFFENCES.As a thinking man, an evangelical Christian who tries to live and do what Jesus commands and who realizes that I'm blessed to live in the United States...Pat Robertson has got my attention.
Pat Robertson holds a juris doctor degree from Yale University Law School as well as a master of divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary.He is a very knowledgeable person.He knows his Bible.He's aware that a person isn't saved by keeping the Ten Commandments or any other part of the Mosaic Law that God gave to the Jewish people to obey ....For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God..Eph.2:8.But that's not what this book is about.What this precious elderly saint does show us, in a way that most anybody who can read and understand,is the benefits of honoring God's laws, both personally and as a nation ,as well as the dangers if we break them.For those of us who have ears to hear and who really desire to know the truth about what's happening in our country,Pat Robertson shows how our courts ,fueled by secular allies, are eroding America's spiritual foundations." The Supreme Court's recent interpretation of 'separation of Church and State' would have been unthinkable to our Founders in 1607 and 1620, because for them their Christian faith and their civic government were as one." A bold declaration that this compassionate and caring Christian man backs up with plenty of proof.
I personally don't agree with everything that Pat Robertson writes here.And I am aware that we differ in some of the non-essentials as far as our theology is concerned.But I'm not going to "throw out the baby with the bathwater". The Ten Offences is a book that should be read by every Christian,as well as the people who really love and are concerned about America and of course by anyone else who feels like reading it.
If I had to grade this book as a teacher, it would get an A+ ,and in my opinion, that would still be too low of a grade for a book of this caliber.
November 3, 2015
I would imagine that some people would read this and just be confused. There is a lot of information in this smallish book. I learned a lot about the history of our nation and how that collides with God's design for us all. I already held fim to most of the beliefs he edifies in thos book. His outlook on a few things gave me some food for thought. O would encourage you to pick up thos book amd think for yourself on the things discussed within its pages.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews