Phil Robertson: 10 lies the devil is using to 'destroy' America
“Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson has come out with a new book that aims to “blow the lid off the lies that are destroying” America.
The conservative Christian reality TV star spoke with The Christian Post to talk about the book and how coming to Christ at age 28 helped him leave his sinful life in the past.
The 72-year-old patriarch of A&E's hit reality series and the co-owner of the Duck Commander Company released his new title The Theft of America’s Soul on Tuesday.
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The book purports to expose what he says are 10 essential deceptions and schemes being used by the devil to “steal, kill and destroy America’s soul.” The new book also shares what Robertson calls 10 counter-truths to those lies.
In the interview, Robertson explained that he was inspired to write the book after witnessing how prevalent issues of drug addiction and sexually transmitted diseases are in today’s American society.
Robertson said he fears that United States — as it backs away from its founding on “Judeo-Christian principles”— will one day dissolve because God could leave the country to wallow in its own wickedness.
“I hope America won’t be like the Roman Empire,” Robertson said as he proceeded to quote Romans 1:28: “Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done.”
Robertson said the idea of the book is simple: to get people to embrace living a godly life and to get them to love God and love their neighbor.
“You go out and get a job and you work and you feed your family. You are the father and you have a mother and you raise your children and you teach them, correct them and rebuke and them and train them,” said Robertson after noting how millions of Americans are suffering from some type of drug addiction that has left them hopeless.
“We have lost that in America across the board and we are looking at the results of it. I am just trying to remind people that if we keep this up, this whole things is going to fall down upon us.”
The 10 “lies” being used to “destroy” America that Robertson highlighted in the book are:
-God is dead
-There is no devil
-The truth is relative
-God did not create life
-Sex is for self-gratification
-Virtue is outdated
-Laws can be ignored or changed if they are inconvenient
-Unity is not possible
-Church participation and day-to-day life should be kept separate
-Christians should shut their traps
When asked about the lie of sex being for self-gratification, Robertson noted that the Centers for Disease Control has reported that there are as many as 110 million sexually transmitted infections in the United States.
As STD rates continue to rise to record levels, Robertson believes that this is because too many people are not following God’s design for their lives.
“I am just trying to gear people toward the safe way of one-man-one-woman [marriage]. We are not going to sleep around and we are going to keep our sex between each other and no one will ever catch a sexually transmitted disease from that formation,” Robertson contended. “Why is it that sexually transmitted diseases follow immoral conduct? Well, the writer of Romans, the Apostle Paul, said that it's God’s wrath. He is saying to you, ‘Don't do that.’”
Robertson was also critical of the many Christians who feel like their faith can be lived out just by going to church on Sundays.
Robertson, who has baptized hundreds of people in a river near his Louisiana home, asserts that Christians are not to keep their mouths shut in the public square but rather are supposed to live out their faith in a 24/7 fashion.
“They misunderstand Christianity. The American model is build a [church] building and everybody goes up there at least one time a week,” he said.
However, Romans 12 says something different.
“If you think about it, the biblical outline of worship is ‘in view of God’s mercy, offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual act of worship,” Robertson paraphrased.
“Biblically, [faith is more than just] going to church one day a week and calling it a wrap and worship is over. There is 168 hours a week. So if you went to church for a couple hours [on Sunday], there is another 166 hours of what are you doing? It has to be a 24/7-type thing.”
Robertson admits, however, that he was not always a professing Christian and didn’t always follow God’s design for his life. In fact, he said, there was a time he could barely tell Jesus apart from a “billy goat.”
“I used to get drunk, get high, get laid,” Robertson admitted. “I was immoral.”
Robertson said he began “investigating” God at the age of 28 in the mid-1970s.
“When I read about him, I said, ‘Goodness, there is a way out of here alive,’” Robertson recalled. “I repented and since that time, as amazing as it sounds, now here I am as a multimillionaire if that means anything. How in the world did you go from a nobody and do what you do now? I put my faith in God and I did not waver and I left my life of sin and good things came out. It was either luck or what God said all along.”
Robertson said he was driven to look for a deeper purpose in life because, at the time, he felt as if he was as “dog chasing his tail.”
“So I repented and got on my knees before God for the first time. I am 72, so I have been at this for about 44 years now,” he said. “The more I have studied about God and the more I read my Bible, I realized that this is true and really happening. There is a way out of here alive.”
Robertson’s book has drawn some criticism. Publisher’s Weekly criticized Robertson for what was deemed “excessive use of religious rhetoric.” In its review, the outlet argued that the book suffered from a “lack of nuance [that] will turn off many readers.”
At the time Robertson responded in a statement saying the review was what he “hoped for.”
“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It is the one in them, the evil one were the friction comes,” Robertson told CP when asked about the review. “The Bible says repeatedly, ‘everyone who lives a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’ So Jesus said to jump for joy and be happy when people hate you, when they exclude you or insult you or reject your name as evil because of Him. We can take a little flak from time to time. We just smile and we love them and we go on.”
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