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.
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)
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.
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