Definition of False Teacher: One
who presumes to teach in the Name of the Lord when God has not sent
him.
Mark Siljander’s Deadly Misunderstanding
In December 2008, Paul saw Mark Siljander’s book (A Deadly
Misunderstanding: A Congressman’s Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian
Divide)
at the local library and sent him a note after reading the introduction,
having
seen enough to recognize his deadly error:
Hi Mr. Siljander,
You changed your mind once about Islam. Consider that
you need to change it again. Not going backwards, but forwards, into
another realm altogether,
one of Light and Truth without man’s corrupted thinking and doctrines
(which is where you had been and are now). Read the postings in our Islam selection.
These are not our thoughts only, but according to the Word of God,
the written
Record of the Bible
and the living Lord Jesus Christ, Whom Islam emphatically denies
is the Son of God, crucified on our behalves and raised from the dead.
There is no debate whatsoever about Islam’s stance in this
matter, and I think you already know that. And if Christ is not
raised from
the dead, there is no life for anyone. Any “Christianity” that
honors Muhammad’s lies, the basis of Islam, is self-contradicting
and dead.
Paul Cohen Mark’s reply:
Paul
Shalom. Have you read my book yet? I would doubt it reading your e-mail.
My change of heart is only strategically, not theologically. Perhaps
we have different views of how to approach Islam. I have learned in politics
votes cannot be had by offending a possible voter; but by finding common
ground first, and once trust is achieved, one can discuss differences.
1 Cor 13 suggests we “love” our neighbor, Muslim, Christian
or atheist.
I think there is a “debate:” about whether Jesus
was the “son
of God,” “crucified” and “risen” in
the Qur’an. You are correct how Islamic culture interprets
it, but there is a growing movement in Islam that views Jesus differently
that
the culture of Islam. See a few verses below.
Anyway, until you have
read ADM, I cannot rewrite it in this e-mail. Let me know once
you have read it and if we need to reengage, we
can do so at that time.
Yeshua Bless you; Mark Siljander
www.aDeadlyMisunderstanding.com
Is
Jesus the “son” in the Qur’an?
Conceived supernaturally through a virgin named Mary;
spoken into “being” (fayakun) and by the “breath”,
or
“Spirit of God” (Rouh al-qudis Allah) 2:87, 2:253, 3:47, 3:59,
or “Holy Spirit” 5:110, 19:20+, 21:91, 66:12
Is of Allah’s Spirit (Rouh ana Allah) 19:17, 21:91 & 66:12
A Spirit of/from Allah (Rouh minhu from Allah) 4:171
Isa & Allah are Lord (rab) 9:31
A son pure, without sin (zakiyyah) 3:38 & 19:19
Jesus died & rose in the Qur’an?
Died (mutawafeka, rooted in wafat & amutu) 3:55,
4:159, 5:117, 19:33
Resurrected (“day he was raised”) from the dead
(yum uba’athu) 19:33
Coming back on judgment day (yum al-qiyama) 4:159
43:61 (interpretation or Tafseer indicates
this meaning-Not the literal translation of
the verse) 43:61
Paul’s reply, dated January 30, 2009:
Hi Mark,
Yes, as per your offer, I would like to engage you on the terrible,
self-serving delusion you have bought into and now propagate in your
book. I understand your request that I read the book before we correspond
further, and have complied by doing so.
Often people approach us
on something we have written, when it is obvious they have not red
it, or have carelessly misinterpreted what
they did
read. People see what they want, assume what they will, and respond
with conditioned reflexes.
But there is also an understanding from
God that perceives the essence of the matter, just like an expert wine
taster need not
consume the
entire contents; he can tell much about a wine from only a sip.
By God’s teaching, Spirit, and experience, I did not need
to read your book to see where things are at with you. I could “taste” where
you were coming from by what I had red on your site. What I reported
back to you was accurate and true (please reread after you have
red this letter).
Having now red the entire book, I have the
opportunity to cite and reply to some specific things you have
written, confirming
what I
wrote you previously. My comments could help you understand
what I said at
the first, if by the grace of God, there is any desire on your
part to understand.
In the book, you take the reader with you
on the journey of how your mind was changed about some of the things
you believed
about
your “Christian
faith” and Islam. On page 17, you bring up the realization
you had as the result of a probing question, that there is
no commandment
in the Bible or from God to convert people to Christianity.
That is so true! Jesus Christ has nothing to do with the religion
men call “Christianity” and
the “Christian faith” allied with that. You were
right that He never sent His disciples to convert men to a
religious faith.
But He did send them to preach the gospel to all the
world, bringing those whom He choose into His faith:
“And He said to them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of
men” (Matthew
4:19 MKJV).
He sent those who knew Him, who had His Spirit,
to tell others about Who He is, what He has done for us, and what
He requires
of those
who believe in order to have life.
None of that has anything
to do with going to church or following a religion. Jesus Christ came
to do away
with
self-serving
forms of righteousness
expressed by the observance of religious customs and
men justifying themselves by mutual agreement in doctrinal
knowledge. That
is all dead religion. And that is where you came from
and
are yet
ensconced,
only in a new form. You were right that this is not
what believing in Jesus Christ is about.
But you have yet to discover
what believing in Him is about.
It is certainly not about your campaign to reconcile
false Christianity with
diabolical Islam. All you did was go from the frying
pan to the fire by embracing Islam, including it
with any unclean
thing
that mentions
His Name, as do the many cults of men (Catholicism,
Protestantism, etc.).
Not knowing Him about Whom
the Scriptures speak, you now pay honor to the Koran, citing and
appealing to
it as if
it has
validity. It is a rip-off, mocking the Bible
and true religion in a demonically-inspired
text that is worthless as a source of anything
true or good.
I hope I am not being too vague. What I am saying,
Mark, is that the Koran has not a single ounce
of credibility as a source
of
Truth. It
comes from the pits of Hell, not from God. The
only thing
we can use it for is to contrast Light to darkness,
as we do on
our site
at the
link I supplied you (Islam).
Muhammad never heard from Jesus Christ. But Jesus
said, “My sheep
hear My Voice.” Muhammad was not the Lord’s
sheep.
Now, we know that Jesus Christ is God:
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up into glory” (1
Timothy 3:16 KJV).
Muhammad never heard from
God. Instead, he claimed to have heard from the angel Gabriel. But
he did not hear
the gospel
that was
revealed to Paul from this alleged source.
Here is the gospel that Paul, inspired
by God, gave to us: “Remember that Jesus
Christ of the seed of David was raised from
the dead according to my gospel” (2
Timothy 2:8 MKJV).
And: “For I delivered
to you first of all that which I also received,
that Christ died for our sins, according
to the Scriptures, and that
He was buried, and that He rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4
MKJV).
Of the fact that Muhammad did not vigorously
affirm these things, but preached something
altogether different (in
the Name of
God), Paul
said:
“But though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we have preached unto
you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any
man preach any other
gospel unto you than that ye have received,
let him be accursed” (Galatians
1:8-9 KJV).
There is no peace upon Muhammad. To act or say otherwise, as Siljander
does, is to lie and call God a liar. Does God send liars
to preach the gospel? I don’t think so.
Look at Stephen, and look at what he said
to the Jews about the evils they committed,
for
which
they murdered
him!
Look at Peter,
standing
up to speak before the Jews at Pentecost.
Did he congratulate them on believing in
one God?
No,
he told them they
had murdered the
Messiah by wicked hands.
Yet three thousand
were cut to the heart and repented,
being converted that day to Jesus
Christ (not a religion). No, Mark,
only the Truth will
suffice. Only the Truth
sets men free.
Subterfuge
is the game men play, but not men of God. You quote a Muslim friend, Abdel, who says of his friendship with you:
“Had Mark and I met twenty years ago, when
I first came to America, I would not have crossed
the street to spit on an infidel like him.”
You are friends
now, not because he has received the faith of Christ (not some religion,
but
the actual faith that
resides in Jesus
Christ), but because you have become “open-minded” to
Islam. You are the proverbial frog placed
in water, slowly heated from tepid to
boiling, unaware of the danger until it
is too late.
You have bought the Muslim
line that war
has been waged on it by the West, letting
the Muslims
off
the hook
for their
pursuit
of
conquest in the name of their god, which
they have done by using both passive
and active aggression over the centuries.
I am not saying the West is innocent, far from it. The West has not
been righteous.
The West
has been
given
over to pleasures
and self-seeking
decadence. The religious West has been
hypocritical, preaching God while living
worldly lives.
These are the reasons for
various evils
that are now happening, among them The
Muslim Scourge.
On page 171, you
set forth a Muslim argument for equivalence, “one
man’s terrorist is another
man’s freedom fighter.” According
to this argument, Hezbollah is no different
from Menachem Begin. This is the typical
dualistic mindset
of Islam, which operates by the morality
of expediency. If it is expedient for
Muhammad (the Muslim), it is sanctioned
by God.
How can you expect otherwise when
Muhammad rejects the Lord Jesus Christ,
and explains Him away as a prophet lower in stature than himself? Is
that not the height of presumption and arrogance? You do not recognize
the man of sin, because the man of sin in you, not Jesus Christ, sits
on the throne of God.
Mark, you have had nothing to do with Jesus Christ,
ever. You had a phony religious conversion, and what you have discovered,
but not recognized,
is that you were not founded on the only Rock and Cornerstone laid
for men by God. Your realization has been, in truth, that an unconverted
false Christian and a Muslim are essentially no different, part of
the same tree.
Now you preach, unabashedly, an ecumenicalism that
embraces all religion that mentions Christ, including Islam. That such
a joining is impossible,
due to the internal contradictions each poses to the other, not
only in doctrine, but in the opinionated and unsubmissive nature of the
flesh, does not occur to you, being in that nature yourself. Whereas
the Lord Jesus says the way to life is narrow, you insist on the
broad road, where you are busy working and installing signposts.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is
the ways of death” (Proverbs 16:25 MKJV).
Now you are only
too happy to endorse that lying murderer, Muhammad, to all your
colleagues in the West. For what? Money? Sense of
self-worth and validation before men? Those are the wrong reasons
before Christ.
You need to repent and die to those things, publically, by
His cross. Then you will enter into the knowledge of Him, the living
God, and
you will have life for the first time.
You are deceived, if
not acting as an outright liar and deceiver. I will give you the benefit
of a doubt that you are sincerely
deluded, but it does not matter either way, Mark. You need
to repent. I
am preaching
the Gospel of Christ to you, which you need to hear in order
to turn from the error and darkness of your ways to the Light
of all
men.
You need to be converted, changed from a
carnal fallen creature, who serves the kingdoms of men
and Satan.
You are yet alienated
from God
by your wicked works, but hear what those who believe have
in Him:
Colossians 1:13-23 MKJV
(13) For He has delivered us from the power of darkness
and has translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son;
(14) in Whom we have redemption through His blood, the
remission of sins.
(15) Who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born
of all creation.
(16) For all things were created in Him, the things in
the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible
and the
invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all
things were created through Him and for Him.
(17) And He is before all things, and by Him all things
consist.
(18) And He is the Head of the Body, the Church, Who
is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that
He may
be pre-eminent
in all
things.
(19) For it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness
should dwell.
(20) And through Him having made peace through the blood
of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all
things to
Himself
through
Him, whether the things on earth or the things in Heaven.
(21) And you, who were once alienated and enemies in
your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
(22) in the body of His flesh through death, to present
you holy and without blemish, and without charge in His
sight,
(23) if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and
settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the
gospel, which
you have heard
and which was proclaimed in all the creation under Heaven,
of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Getting back to Hezbollah
and the comparison with Menachem Begin: Hezbollah means “The
Party of God.” That
is a lie from the pit of hell. They are the party of
devils. Begin did not give himself or his
organizations blasphemous names. He did what he did as
a Jew fighting for his people, facing very real perils
and opposition, whereas Hezbollah
fights because of their aggression and hatred towards
Jews and anyone who does not honor their gods. They are
the aggressors and provocateurs.
That is the simple, but profound, Truth, which you fail
to see or grasp because your eye is not single.
You write: “To
the Muslim East, Christianity was not a true faith but
a faith that had
been corrupted and hijacked
to serve our imperialistic
ways.”
There is obviously some truth in
this statement, as applied to the Catholic Church and
other blasphemous organizations
that
falsely take the Name of Christ. But who are these infidels
to speak knowledgeably
about the true faith of which they know nothing? The
Muslims have nothing
of God and are hypocrites to condemn the West for imperialism,
when
they transcend all in their acquisitive blood-lusting
ways, repressing and murdering as presently demonstrated
in Africa,
the Middle
East, the Far East, and even Europe and the Americas
- wherever they spread their venom.
You write on page 172:
“Unfortunately, though, a handful of demagogues
and radical clerics have hijacked the genuine faith of
Islam and engaged us in a war of
ideology, amplified by hateful Western condemnation of
Islam, the Qur’an,
and the prophet Muhammad – and the escalating rhetoric
on both sides of the battle threatens to turn their worst
scenarios into self-fulfilling
prophecies.”
No doubt you would count us
as part of the “hateful
Western condemnation,” but
we speak the truth in Christ and hate no one, Muslims
included. We hate what they do, and we tell them the truth
about it and about their
faith in Muhammad as the prophet of God that has led
them into destruction. Muslims are the number one victims
of Muslims, yet the victims go on
supporting their murderers and the dreadful lies they
tell (whether because of fear or of being deceived, it
does not matter - they will be called into account). By
Muhammad’s
influence, they slay each other. It is madness.
The genuine
faith of Islam is to do exactly what your demagogues and
radical clerics are doing. Who was the
greatest demagogue
of all, if
not Muhammad? Are you not aware of what he did in his
life, even as recorded by him and his followers? It is
not prejudiced
outsiders
or
victims of his deceitful and conniving ways who have
reported these things, but his proselytes and venerators.
If his
wickedness is
obvious when presented by such, how truly disturbing
is the actual reality?
If your eyes were opened, you would plainly see.
You
are on the fool’s errand of trying to convince
a viper that, in reality, its true nature is not to
attack and inject its victims
with poison, while also trying to convince those who
might be potential victims that the creature in front
of them is not really a viper that
would attack them. All your strategy insures, should
it be successful, is more victims.
The Koran does say
what the radicals say it says, because without the
resurrected Prince
of Peace
(Who is not to be found in the
Koran),
there is no peace, but endless war and conflicts. On
page 212 you write, as an answer to the “radical” Muslims:
“No, I’m sorry, the Qur’an does
not say that. This is a text that more than one billion people say
is the word of God – and
you are misinterpreting and twisting it. You’re
wrong, and we can prove it to you by reading the original
language.”
Over one billion people are
wrong (many of whom agree with your “radicals,” by
the way, whether overtly or tacitly). Your problem
is you are a man-pleaser, choosing to believe men rather
than God. He and His Word say the Koran
is not His Word, but is instead a diabolical mixture
of lies and superstition, presented with a stitch of
truth. Because God says that, is He a hater
of men and lover of war? Or do men choose war because
they hate and despise Him, the Truth?
Mark, you are
right: The answer is not that Muslims become Westerners.
The answer is that everyone, beginning
with
you, East and West,
turns to the Prince of Peace, coming under submission
to Him as Lord of
all.
Now, will you read the section I gave you (Islam)
for further proof and instruction in what I am telling
you? Here we answer all the verses
you provided me for proof that Islam honors Jesus Christ.
Those are no proof at all. As it is written:
“You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons
believe and tremble” (James 2:19 MKJV).
And: “For
such ones are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ.
Did not even Satan marvelously
transform himself into an angel of light?” (2
Corinthians 11:13-14 MKJV)
Paul Cohen
Mark Siljander never replied.
What can possibly be said in defense
of his position? And what would his publisher have to say if he were
to admit the error he has publicly disseminated?
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, Truly I say to you that a
rich man will with great difficulty enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
And
again I say to you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God” (Matthew
19:23-24 MKJV).
Little does he know the harm he does with his error, and little does
he know the reward he would receive were
he to recant in acknowledgment of the truth.
And if he were to recant of faith in Christ (which he never
had), would true Christians
destroy him? But let him be a Muslim and recant of Islam; watch
him, in violent death, join "infidels" in their graves,
according to the demands of Muhammad and his devout followers.
October 2010 Update:
Mark Siljander was formally accused of accepting stolen
funds to lobby on behalf of a Muslim charity with ties to terrorism.
In July 2010, he pleaded guilty to two charges - obstruction of justice
and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
Mark finally admitted to shilling for Muslims in his
book, A Deadly Misunderstanding. His effort to “bridge
the gap” between
Muslims and Christians was in fact a front for Islamic jihad against
the West. Muhammad and his religious invention, Islam, profess peace
and mutual respect with “people of the Book” as a ruse to
bide their time until they can gain the upper hand wherever and whenever
possible.
The amazing thing is that after being exposed as a liar, confirmed by
his own plea in court, Mr. Siljander’s “Christian” friends,
like Rebecca Shank, remain steadfast in their blindness and denial.
“We know that Christians will be persecuted
in the end times,” she
says. “I grieve greatly for him and his family.”
Thus march on The Muslim
Scourge and other judgments of God on the
great hypocrisy and evil done in His Name by nominal Christendom and
other atheists in the West.
For more information in the news:
Pity, Disbelief Expressed for Mark Siljander: Former Southwest Michigan
Congressman Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges
Paul Cohen | 
