One False Fact Unites All Muslims

Islam and Islamism Versus fitna

Islamism is the word that has been used to capture the politicizing of the sincere religion of Islam so that this religion that the Prophet Muhammad founded has been hijacked by pirates pretending to be Muslims. They have added an ism to Islam. They have also added a distorted, many times killer intent to their political agenda so that their Islamist agenda does not represent true Islam though it deceives many Muslims into thinking that it is a pure movement within Islam.

Then along comes Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz and Chalabi to help Islamism be a much worse threat to every nation of the Middle East than it ever was. Before the Iraq conflagration and these four men's insistence upon using bombs, bullets and democracy in their foolish attempt to quickly democratize the entire Middle East, Islamism along with its vital connection with relatively powerful but also deceptive and clever Iran, did not begin to be the threat to each Middle Eastern nation that these four men have caused Islamism to now be.

First, Bush's supposed promotion of Democracy in Iraq and his forcing early elections there brought to power leadership with strong ties to Shiite Iran.

Next, Bush's clumsy, destructive effort to democratize Palestine has led to a terrible situation for the exploited, manipulated Palestinians. Bush's reckless efforts greatly assisted Iran in strengthening an Islamist Shiite government in Gaza. This does not bode well for the future of all Palestinians but does help Iran and probably helps Israel.

Additionally, Bush's forced democratic elections in Lebanon powerfully assisted Iran to strengthen Hezbollah who is Iran's proxy in Lebanon. The Hezbollah was originally resisting Israeli injustice but those original purposes have been diverted because of Bush's pushing the Shiites of Iran to bond more closely with the Shiites of Lebanon. These Shiites have in turn assisted the Hezbollah in undermining the potential of the Palestinians to ever having anything resembling a true independent sovereign Palestinian state.

Also, Bush has strengthened the Iran-Syria axis resulting in Hamas controlling Gaza. Thus it was Bush who assisted Iran to virtually destroy the Saudi sponsored Mecca agreement which was designed to help Palestinians find more justice and hopefully establish their own state. So Bush also succeeded in sabotaging the Israeli - Palestinian peace process as well as destroying the Mecca Agreement.

Ma'moun Fandy, a commentator writing in Egypt's influential Al-Sharq Al-Awsat sounded the alarm proclaiming that now every Muslim country is at risk. According to his opinion stated in 7/13/07, The Week magazine,

"The Hamas emirate is a model that the Islamists aim to implant in all Muslim lands."

He stated that the Arab countries are "riding two horses at once, one leg on the nationalist horse and one on the Islamist." He said that the time is coming when the horse will go in different directions and "the Arab country will split apart," similar to how Gaza was split from the West Bank. His ominous conclusion was that each country must destroy Islamism before Islamism destroys the entire region.

If the oppression of Islamism is not aggressively spoken out against, according to Tim Rutten of the L.A. Times quoted in The Week, "a terrible silence will fall over much of the world – a silence in which the only permissible sounds are the prayers of the killers and the cries of their victims."

Thank you Ma'moun Fandy and Tim Rutten for trying to wake us all up to the imminent danger for the entire Middle East as well as for the world if the oppression of Islamism is not aggressively opposed and publicly condemned as an evil force.

An Nisa's Two Mighty Verses

It may seem exceptionally simplistic to most Muslims and to others but I am absolutely convinced that the dangers posed by the oppression and violence emanating from Islamism cannot and will not be solved or even adequately addressed until the wrong understanding of the true meaning of two key verses in the Holy Quran are openly acknowledged and seriously addressed. I may be only one voice crying in the wilderness, shouting as loud as I am able. But I will continue to shout that there is a direct link between Islam's totally wrong rejection of ALLAH's Messiah's death and resurrection that two profound verses from the Holy Quran do affirm to have occurred when these two verses are understood correctly. So I sincerely submit that the main problem and the main solution for the vulnerable Middle East are contained in these two profound verses found in An Nisa, chapter four of the Holy Quran. I am overwhelmingly convinced that when a thoughtful, fair minded approach is taken to the wonderful truth from ALLAH that are contained in these two magnificent verses, a green bush (Bush) will be uprooted from the Straight Path of Islam and a dark cloud of dread will be blown away from the Middle East by a fresh breeze of Truth and Insight from ALLAH and the Holy Quran. But it will take patience from you the reader as I sincerely but somewhat awkwardly attempt to expose the leader mandated wrong understanding of these two profound verses which has significantly interfered with Islam and all Muslims vital relationship with ALLAH.

The Destructive Misunderstanding

Due to leaders within Islam refusing to understand the true intent of the following two profound (not simplistic) verses from the Holy Quran, these sincerely wrong political and religious leaders have unintentionally shoved Islam and Muslims into a deep, deep canyon that they do not even realize that Muslims are now trapped in. But they do not need to remain trapped in this fruitless canyon if they are willing to accept available help from ALLAH to find the path that will lead to their rescue. The wrong turn which leaders of Islam have taken that have led them to be trapped in a barren canyon has been a profound strategic mistake. In fact, this mistake has far more profound consequences than the strategic blunder made by Gamal Abdul Nasser that directly led to the awful loss by Arabs of so much strategically and religiously important land in the 1967 Six Day War with Israel.

The Two Profound Verses

"And because of their disbelief and because of their speaking against Mary/Maryam a mighty slander; and because of their saying; ‘We killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, ALLAH's messenger – They killed him not nor crucified him, it appeared so unto them; and lo! Those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; except pursuit of a conjecture; they killed him not for certain. (157) But ALLAH took him up unto Himself. ALLAH was ever Mighty, Wise." (158) (Al Quran, An Nisa 4:157, 158)

Today's Islam is universally united by one false premise that has many unfruitful branches. I am convinced that this one false foundational teaching is 100% displeasing and 100% disappointing to ALLAH and to His courageous, still alive, Risen Messiah. Not only have leaders in Islam inadvertently chosen to unite every Muslim in the world around one false fact. But the significant false fact that they have unintentionally chosen to unite around is the most displeasing circumstance to the Compassionate that Islam could have come up with in order to maximize both ALLAH's displeasure and Islam's loss.

Of course Islam is united around ALLAH being One, and Muhammad being His Prophet as well as Islam's veneration for the Holy Quran. But, following these three foundational beliefs is this one additional uniting factor for all of Islam, That is, that all Muslims are required to believe that there was no illegal execution of ALLAH's Messiah by hostile Jewish leaders. Therefore, ALLAH virtually wasted his Wisdom and Might by sneaking the Messiah away from his planned execution and instead used His glorious Wisdom and Might to force a resistant, coerced substitute Messiah to be executed instead of him. So the magnificent verse of triumph of An Nisa 4:158 which strongly appears to victoriously proclaim that ALLAH uses His glorious Wisdom and Might to raise up His Messiah from death receives a distasteful, lethal and damaging spin from unwise Islamic leaders. They shamelessly corrupt the intended meaning of this wonderful verse to convince all Muslims that it means that ALLAH not only used His Wisdom and Might to sneak the true Messiah away but he also wasted His Wisdom and Might on forcefully modifying the appearance of the reluctant and resistant substitute. Thus, these Muslim leaders brazenly rob ALLAH of His rightful authority to use His Wisdom and Might to raise His Messiah up from the chains of death into His own glorious presence.

"But ALLAH raised him up unto Himself. ALLAH is ever Mighty, Wise."

In my intermittent traveling to several different countries in the Middle East over the last thirty-four years, I have been in many conversations with both Christian and Muslim Arabic speakers. (All my conversations have been in English because my own Arabic is virtually limited to greetings and a few very common phrases.) But I cannot remember ever speaking with any Muslim or Christian about the verse, An Nisa 4:157, which has the phrases in it about the Messiah not being killed or crucified, when the person was unable to recite from memory at least the main part of this key verse in Arabic.

Furthermore, with only the exception of certain generals I had the privilege of having four or five over one hour long discussions with in Saudi Arabia about this verse, each of the persons, whether Muslim or Christian, has assumed that these particular phrases in this one verse out of all the thousands of verses in the entire Quran, both begins and ends the matter about what all Muslims are absolutely required to believe about whether ALLAH's Messiah historically died and was later raised from death. Except for one or two of the five or six generals that I met in Saudi Arabia, each person with whom I have talked appears to have the following general conviction. That is: since this one verse, even though it is only one of the several thousand verses in the Holy Quran, contains these clear emphatic statements that the Messiah was not killed or crucified, that definitely means that the Messiah did not die. Therefore, that is the end of the matter. No discussion is either needed and would be considered irrelevant.

Thus, these statements in this one isolated from its context verse, eliminate all reason for further considerations. No other evidence, no matter how compelling, is allowed to influence this one supposed fact, that the Messiah was not crucified. Therefore, as their reasoning goes, he obviously did not die and so he had no need of a glorious resurrection which the Quran appears to proclaim that he had. Yes, the very next verse inconveniently makes a clear, joyful, triumphant declaration of him being raised by ALLAH.

But the supposed incontrovertible fact that he was not killed is considered untouchable and unchallengeable and cannot be affected by something as trivial as the next verse stating emphatically that "ALLAH raised him up." So the obvious joy filled resurrection reference in the very next verse must be explained away if the literal, word for word interpretation of phrases in verse 157 is to hold together and stand up to close inspection. So this next verse inconveniently being there necessities a Carl Rove like spin that superficially makes all the contradicting factors appear to fit together. Regrettably, the spin that is decided upon makes ALLAH look like a deceptive secret agent working for the CIA or the Israeli Mossad. But Muslim leaders are hoping no one will notice their highly unflattering characterization of the exalted ALMIGHTY by the amazing Carl Rove like myth their spin invents.

ALLAH's Wisdom and Might Wasted

So the spin or cover story is that ALLAH deceptively and secretly raised up His live Messiah who was about to be killed. Then He surreptitiously snuck him off to heaven to permanently hide him there. (He has not been heard from since.) Though it is understood that he is now over 2000 years old, he has remained totally silent.

But one deceptive act by ALLAH to secretly sneak His compliant Messiah off to hide him in heaven was not enough. Their myth gives us more deception for the pure ALMIGHTY to be involved in on that one dark day in Jerusalem. Since the Messiah was no longer available for his own execution, ALLAH also had to supervise a change of feature procedure on the compliant substitute Messiah who was to be given both the features and the voice of the authentic Messiah so that he appeared to be him to each person who was closely observing him. So ALLAH was required to be involved in two major CIA type deceptions on the same busy day if the present explanation by Muslim leaders of An Nisa 4:157 and 158 is continued to be accepted as accurate and plausible.

Furthermore, the wonderful tone of celebration in An Nisa 4:158 where ALLAH's Wisdom and ALLAH's Might are given the credit for raising the Messiah up alive, actually becomes quite a hollow non-celebration if the resurrection is wrongly and foolishly cancelled. For how can it be that the ALMIGHTY who created both heaven and earth, should have His Wisdom and Might praised for successfully pulling off something that is so blatantly deceptive, relatively insignificant and even comical if it were not so serious with such long term devastating consequences for Islam. These well intentioned Muslim leaders have made it appear as if the Creator of the Universe was pretending to be "Double 07" or a CIA or Mossad agent who was on special assignment to sneak the Messiah away while He also modified the appearance of another man and probably drugged him so that the kidnapped man would not complain while being crucified in the true Messiah's place. Would such obviously contrived melodrama be joyfully praised in the Holy Quran which is the Holy Book which is respected and revered by well over a billion people? No, it would not be. And there was no ridiculous Carl Rove/CIA like scenario when 4:157 and 158 are thoughtfully analyzed and understood for what they truly are teaching.

ALLAH will soon make it obvious to a thinking Muslim that An Nisa 4:158 is celebrating the fact that it only appeared that the Jews pulled off a true killing and a true crucifixion. Because true crucifixions and true killings leave a man truly and permanently dead. And since ALLAH used His Wisdom and Might to raise him up alive, it was as though he had never been truly killed or had never been truly crucified just as the verse states. Now that is truly a reason to truly celebrate.

Ten Apparently Irrelevant Realities

The following are ten apparently irrelevant realities which must be ignored in order to continue to believe the fallacious, even wild interpretation of An Nisa 4:157, 158 that requires us to believe that ALLAH's Messiah never died and so was not later victoriously raised from his tomb by ALLAH's Wisdom and Might.

If there are certain factors within the verse itself that would suggest that the phrases must not be meant to be taken literally, that those important factors must be considered irrelevant.

If there are other verses before and after this verse which should influence how this verse should be understood, those other verses must not be considered as relevant factors even though the other verses do obviously affect the context.

If there are other verses in the Quran that clearly speak of the Messiah's death and even his resurrection, those other important verses must not be considered as relevant factors because they would interfere with how Muslims are commanded to believe.

If it is mentioned that hyperbole or exaggeration is often used in Arab culture in order to emphasize a point such as a person saying to a friend, "I'll kill you," when there are good feelings and no bodily harm is intended, the possibility of overstatement in this verse in order to emphasize an important point must not be considered as a relevant factor.

When it is pointed out that in its context the verse was intended to ridicule certain Messiah hating Jewish leaders for assuming that they had permanently killed the Messiah, but that was a false appearance because ALLAH brought him back to life, that obvious intent of deserved ridicule must not be considered to be a relevant factor because it does not fit with the false scenario that certain confused Muslim leaders are determined to push.

When you mention that the recognized and respected Jewish historian, Josephus, cites the crucifixion of Jesus in his historical writings, that historical evidence is not allowed to be a relevant factor.

When you mention that Yunus 10:94 in the Quran instructs even the Prophet Mohammad to go to those who had the Scriptures before him for confirmation of what is true or not true, that is not allowed to be considered a relevant factor even though those were the instructions given to the Prophet of all of Islam on how to settle such questions.

When it is pointed out that the Quran consistently teaches that its own teachings are intended to confirm the teachings of the previous Scriptures, and those Scriptures repeatedly emphasize the death and resurrection of ALLAH's Messiah, that is not allowed to be a relevant factor because Muslim teachers falsely claim that the Quran says that the Jews changed those Scriptures even though the Quran does not make this false claim.

When it is shown that the Quran definitely does not teach that the previous written Scriptures have been changed but that the Jews changed the meaning of particular Scriptures with their tongues and not with their pens, that must be considered to be irrelevant. (It seems that so many Muslims have for so many years believed that the Scriptures have been changed when the Quran does not teach that, it has become as if the Quran does actually teach that. Otherwise, how would Muslims believe that it does teach that the previous Scriptures have been changed, even though the Quran does not teach or even mention that false fact.)

10. When it is pointed out that it is a very, very serious mistake that seriously hurts the cause of all of Islam to reject the Wise and Mighty act of ALLAH Himself to raise His Messiah from death, because if His Messiah did not die the wonderful work of ALLAH to raise him up is arbitrarily and automatically cancelled, they quickly point back to An Nisa 4:157 and away from 4:158. They insist that there is no legitimate reason to doubt what the phrases in this one verse states about the Messiah not being killed or crucified no matter how much evidence there is that it is more logical to interpret this profound verse spiritually and figuratively rather than literally and simplistically. But even if it is harmful to Islam and also offends ALLAH to do so, An Nisa 4:157 must always be interpreted literally without taking into consideration any other factors such as the fact that to reject the truth of the death and resurrection is to be in active rebellion against ALLAH.

So the bottom line is that it is the Will of Muslims, not the Will of ALLAH, to reject all evidence that 4:157 is a wonderfully profound verse that is not intended to be understood literally and simplistically. So the Bush/Cheney truism of "Don't confuse us with facts because our minds are made up," triumphs over common sence and evidence. Also, the truism of Mark Twain's saying, "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still," reveals that until Muslim leadership's Will changes, no facts will dislodge their unbelief regarding ALLAH raising His own Bethlehem man from death by His Wisdom and Might even if it is self destructive for Muslims to continue to deny facts.

Nevertheless, despite all the odds against my having any success in what I am attempting to expose, since I am convinced that ALLAH's truth will ultimately triumph because of who ALLAH is, and because He has a history of showing His strength through very weak people, I know that my labor for ALLAH and for truth will not be in vain. Therefore, I am willing to try to lay out and expose some painful and self destructive false premises which I am convinced are greatly hurting all Muslims and are greatly contributing to Islamism's extremely counter-productive and destructive extremism. If I am maligned or even if I die for presenting what I am convinced is true, thousands have been coerced and manipulated to sacrifice their lives in Iraq for the twin idols of democracy and oil. To die for presenting truth from ALLAH is much more precious than being forced to die for the bloody idols of democracy and oil.

Twenty-seven Self Destructive

False Premises

This totally false premise (F.P.) that virtually all Muslims believe is that the above cited An Nisa 4:157 teaches a supposed fact that neither this verse nor any other verse in the Holy Quran actually teaches when this verse is understood correctly in its context and in its correct relationship to other verses in the Quran.

This F.P. dogmatically demands that all Muslims believe that ALLAH's own Messiah did not die and later be raised from death as the next verse states that he was raised by the Wisdom and Might of ALLAH.

This F.P. teaches that the Jews of the Messiah's time were unable to manipulate their Roman occupiers to wickedly and cruelly crucify the son of Maryam/Mary when actually the Jewish leaders were totally successful in their evil manipulation.

This F.P. teaches that both ALLAH and his trustworthy Messiah not only agreed together to deceive Jewish leaders but also agreed to deceive those friends of Isa standing near the cross including deceiving Jesus' own mother. Supposedly they were all deceptively tricked to believe that they were looking at the Messiah who was cruelly nailed to the cross when it actually was a cleverly substituted look-alike who appeared to be him (shubbiihalahum) who their eyes were observing his agonized facial expression as he hung there on the Roman cross. So it was not him because supposedly he had already been secretly raised up to heaven to be there for at least for 2000 years with ALLAH as the words in the next verse are distorted to mean. So for several hours they closely watched a supposedly strange unknown man whose face they recognized as the face of Jesus and whose voice they also recognized as being the voice of the man the Quran eleven times calls, "Messiah."

This false premise teaches that ALLAH's own otherwise courageous and trustworthy Messiah chose to escape from death rather than to defeat death by enduring for a few hours the severe agonies of crucifixion even though he knew that after three days of death he would be raised to new life by the Wisdom and Might of ALLAH. In fact, before his execution on three separate occasions as recorded in Mark, chapters 8, 9, and 10, he had told his disciples that he would be raised from death three days after he was killed.

This F.P. teaches that it is not the correct understanding of An Nisa 4:157 to understand the phrase, "it appeared so unto them," (shubbiihalahum), that it actually had appeared to them (the Jews) that when he was crucified that they had indeed ended his life forever as they intended to accomplish when they successfully manipulated the Roman occupying force to illegally crucify him.

This F.P. teaches that it is not right to suggest that the Quran was intentionally showing that the Messiah had truly not been technically crucified because by his not being technically crucified means that he would not have been permanently dead. And truly he was not permanently dead because the next verse reveals that ALLAH, by His Wisdom and Might, raised him up alive.

Muslim leaders are operating under a false premise and are also showing a lack of appreciation for the depth and complexity of this non simplistic verse when they do not acknowledge that this profound, not superficial verse, recognizes the important difference between actual reality and technical reality.

Muslim leaders refuse to recognize that in its profundity, this profound, not simplistic verse, is intentionally ridiculing the Jews who slandered the Messiah's virgin mother and who themselves had ridiculed ALLAH's Messiah when they intentionally boasted that they had ended his life forever when they had only temporarily killed him.

Muslim leaders fail to grasp that this profound verse actually ridicules the Jews for being utter failures in their attempt to end the Messiah's life permanently, because ALLAH, in His Wisdom and Might, swiftly erased their evil, futile efforts when He raised His Messiah up alive as the next verse victoriously and triumphantly proclaims. So technically, it was absolutely correct to have proclaimed that ALLAH's Messiah had neither been killed nor crucified because a truly killed or crucified person cannot be still alive three days after he had been killed and crucified.

This false premise teaches that it is not legitimate for the Quran to teach that he was not truly crucified because they are unable to grasp the reality that ALLAH is able to raise up a person to new life who was actually but not technically crucified and who was actually but not technically killed.

This false promise would have us believe that it is not okay for the Quran to use the term, "they killed him not" and actually intend that phrase to mean that though it appeared to the Jews that he was permanently killed, he was not permanently killed because ALLAH, using His Wisdom and Might, raised his submitted Messiah to new life.

This F.P. would have us believe that the Merciful and Just ALLAH would resort to tricky deception so that people would falsely believe that ALLAH' Messiah had been illegally crucified when it was supposedly not him who had been crucified. Thus, these superficial, confused teachers insist that the always Just and consistently Merciful ALLAH virtually sadistically coerced another person to be deceptively crucified instead of His own anointed Messiah.

This F.P demands that we believe that the Holy Quran receives more honor and respect when the Prophet it speaks of eleven times as Messiah, is the Messiah who deceptively escaped from death rather than the Messiah who courageously endured the suffering so that he could triumphantly defeat death. Significantly, he was defeating death in behalf of all of ALLAH's beloved people including all the Muslims who the Prophet Muhammad had faithfully led to the One ALLAH.

This F.P. would have us believe that ALLAH considered the Messiah too good a man to be killed by certain wicked Jews even though verses just before An Nisa 4:157 proclaim that these Jews had definitely previously killed respected Prophets. Furthermore, the Quran emphasizes that Isa was one of ALLAH's prophets who was not different from the other Prophets who the Quran itself only a couple of verses before had clearly stated that prophets had been killed by the Jews.

So Muslims believe the false premise that their Prophet Jesus/Isa was not killed because he was too good to be killed or crucified by the rebellious Jews, yet the Quran also emphasizes that one of the major sins of the Jews was killing ALLAH's Prophets so that the son of Maryam/Mary being killed by the Jews was totally consistent with the Quran's own teaching. Therefore, it was totally consistent with the Quran's own teaching that the Messiah Isa would be killed because the Quran tells us that often happens to prophets even though they are good men.

Thus, Muslims believe their own false premise that ALLAH would not allow this particular Prophet to be killed because of his goodness while simultaneously proclaiming that he was not different from the other Prophets who were also killed despite their being good.

All Muslims appear to believe the false premise that it pleases ALLAH the most for Muslims to decide to be committed to the most superficial understanding of the Holy Quran's obviously profound verse that definitely contain hidden treasures within it rather than to do some serious non defensive thinking in order to discover the Quran's hidden treasures revealed in this one profound, not simplistic verse.

It appears that Muslim leaders premise of interpreting An Nisa 4:157 in the narrowest, most superficial way in order to be able to continue to insist that the Messiah did not die and therefore did not rise from death, even though other verses in the Quran definitely teach that he did indeed die and also mention his resurrection.

Muslims appear to be convinced that they must follow the following ridiculous demand: that when they encounter an exciting verse such as An Nisa 19:33, "And Peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die and the day I shall be raised alive. Such is Jesus, son of Maryam, a statement of truth about which they doubt or dispute," that they must twist and deny its obvious intended meaning of emphasizing his death and resurrection so they can continue to be loyal to their wrong ideology rather than being loyal to logic, truth and wisdom.

It appears Muslim leaders follow and modify the true false precept of considering it as not immoral to change the intended meaning of a verse so that they can conveniently deny the victorious death and glorious resurrection of ALLAH's own Messiah as their ideology demands that they do. Thus, these confused leaders believe that this blatant, immoral denial of truth about his marvelous victory over death and victory over the evil plans of the Jews to crucify him so that they would forever be rid of the light of His Messiah, was really no big deal to ALLAH, because ALLAH considers these leaders' immorality regarding truth as no big deal.

Muslim leaders appear to follow the false precept that they are justified in doing all of the twisting and distorting of the meaning of the verses in their own Quran so that they can immorally stay with their false assertion that other verses in the Quran do not contradict their strategically distorted, anti-historical interpretation of 4:157 that the Messiah did not die nor did ALLAH raise him from death.

Muslim leaders attempt to hide behind the false argument that since there is a somewhat similar verse about Yahya (John the Baptist – 19:15) being born, dying and rising, this means that this 19:33 does not imply that the Messiah died and rose. But this conclusion should be just the opposite since 19:15 confirms 19:33, rather than undermining it because 19:15 confirms that John the Baptist did die while 19:33 speaks of Jesus' death. But despite those facts they still say that in the similar verse about Jesus that he did not die. So if 19:15 states that John died and he did die, it also must mean that when 19:33 says that Jesus died, he did die. Also, there is the following 19:34 verse that states there would be much controversy over Jesus' death and resurrection. This controversy is exactly what has occurred. But there is no similar statement regarding controversy in Yahya's (John's) verse about death because there was absolutely no controversy about Yahya's death.

Muslim leaders falsely deny that Al Imran, 3:58 speaks of the death of the Messiah when it uses the verb mutawaffika which means to "cause to die" when speaking of Jesus.

Again, Muslim leaders deliberately ignore or falsely deny that Al Ma'idah 5:117 uses another form of the verb "to cause to die" in speaking of Jesus further affirming that 4:157 was truly intending to teach that Jesus did actually die and not to teach that he did not die, even though that is what the verse first appears to teach when Muslims read it and interpret it superficially.

Muslims constantly and consistently hide behind the false premise that the Scriptures before the Quran have all been changed when it is pointed out that the Quran consistently states that the teachings of the Quran confirm the earlier Scriptures; the Old and New Testaments. The true fact is that there is not one verse in the entire Quran that even suggests that the pervious written Scriptures have been changed. Rather, Al Imran 3:178 which is the verse that is cited as stating that the previous Scriptures were changed, does not say that they were changed. Rather, this verse actually states that they (the Jews) "distorted the Book with their tongues" Never, no never does the Quran refer to the previous written Scriptures as being changed although that excuse is constantly cited by Muslims for why they can't believe the previous Scriptures about their accounts of the death and resurrection of the Messiah. Distorting the meaning of Scriptures with their tongues is very different than changing the written Scriptures with their ink pens.

Further exposing the very false premise that the previous Scriptures were changed by the Jews is this reality. If the Jews actually changed the previous Scriptures which they did not, would they not have removed from those Scriptures all of the very ugly references to the Jews eating their own children? Of course they would have eliminated all those humiliating Scriptures if the Jews had truly changed the Scriptures. (See Deuteronomy 28:53, Jeremiah 19:19, Lamentation 4:10, Ezekiel 5:10, 16:20, 23:29 about Jews eating their own children during the punishment they experienced when other nations were allowed to cut off Jerusalem's food supply because the leaders and people had blatantly ignored and disobeyed GOD's commandments.)

Muslims make the false assumption that when contemporary Muslim leadership demands that all Muslims be loyal to an archaic, out of date, incorrect, superficial understanding of these two profound verses from the Holy Quran, they may think that they are pleasing ALLAH by keeping His Messiah from being potentially more important than the Prophet Muhammad if they acknowledge the Messiah's resurrection since the Prophet had no resurrection. But this is not the case at all and there's absolutely no competition between these two sincere servants of ALLAH. The Messiah had a totally different calling than the Prophet and both men were obedient to GOD's specific calling for them.

There are also thousands of Muslims who also wrongly think that they are pleasing ALLAH and being obedient to him when they as shia, murder their Sunni Muslim brothers or when they as Sunni, murder their shia Muslim brothers. Among the Palestinians this kind of pleasing of ALLAH by the murder of Muslim brothers is also thought to be okay when Fatah Muslim brothers murder Hamas Muslim brothers or when Hamas Muslim brothers murder Fatah Muslim brothers. But neither the wrong belief about what An Nisa 4:157 is actually intended to teach, nor the wrong belief about it being right to murder Muslim brothers, pleases ALLAH. In fact, both sets of wrong actions greatly displease ALLAH.

So the reality of what actually pleases ALLAH is much different than what many Muslims have convinced themselves to be true. But certain Muslims are definitely not the only ones to be extremely confused about the vast difference between what pleases ALLAH and what totally disgusts ALLAH. For you need not look any further than two men in the U.S. White House and especially at Dick Cheney for vivid examples of men who are exceptionally confused about what pleases ALLAH and what ALLAH hates. Additionally, there are millions of supposedly Christian voters who support White House policies regarding a lack of respect for the lives of Iraqi Muslims and Iraqi Christians. So these U.S. Christians who voted a second time for Bush and Cheney are also very mixed up about what ALLAH/GOD loves and what He hates, what He accepts and what He rejects, whom He will praise and Whom He will punish.

We will now focus on how displeasing it is to ALLAH that His most significant gift to man that has ever been given throughout history, the death and resurrection of His Messiah, has been inadvertently but decisively rejected by one fifth of the precious people inhabiting His earth; the entire world's Islamic Community, Islam's Umma.

How Did This Total Rejection Occur?

When the Prophet Muhammad observed how the people of Mecca had changed the truth of the One Almighty ALLAH into a family affair of multiple gods, he knew that he must unequivocally emphasize the absolute Oneness of GOD. There were certainly not families of gods or even as the Christians appeared to emphasize, one family of gods with the Father apparently having some interaction with the pure virgin Maryam/Mary which produced their son, who came to be known as Jesus/Isa with the title of the anointed Messiah. Understandably, this combination of three was perceived to be a trinity of gods by those Arabs living in the general area of Mecca and Medina at the time. Furthermore, to add to the appearance of Christians potentially worshipping a trinity of gods rather than worshipping and serving the One true GOD/ALLAH, there were also those who had a catholic affiliation who greatly added to the motivation for Islam to desire to distance itself from Christian theology about the Messiah. The Catholics were showing a disproportionate amount of adoration of Mary, the virgin mother of the Messiah. They even referred to her as the "Mother of God." Also, it appeared that sometimes she was virtually worshipped the way only the One GOD is to be worshipped.

Of course, with this designation of Mary being the Mother of God, this meant that her son was definitely viewed as God. Consequently, there was no way that the Prophet Muhammad who had worked so hard to bring the new Muslim believers out of polytheism in their new Arab religion of Islam which emphasized ALLAH's Oneness, would allow these new vulnerable Muslims to be too closely aligned with an established large religion that worshipped a father who is GOD, who worshipped his son who supposedly is also GOD and worshipped the virgin mother of the son who is potentially herself GOD, because she is the mother of GOD. So the Prophet proclaimed a loud "No" to this potential polytheism which was the apparent worship of three distinct persons who were also simultaneously three potential GODs.

To add extra confusion, the three members of the so-called Trinity were referred to by the term, "persons" because that is the term the official Church Fathers used to describe their trinity. Consequently, the Prophet decided that there was no compelling reason to try to have continual dialogue with those who would try to explain and justify a complicated formula that explains how Christians truly believe while they insist that GOD is composed of three persona or persons. They said that this One GOD was simultaneously Father, Son and Spirit. They explained that Mary or Maryam is really not part of the official trinity even though she is the mother of GOD because the Christians said the son to whom she gave birth is GOD. Yes, as far as the Prophet was concerned, he strongly wanted his people to be distanced from the apparent confusion about who the One GOD is that was being defended and justified by especially Catholic Christians.

Then there were two more phenomena which were occurring among the Jews of the region that also deeply offended the heart and mind of the sensitive Prophet beyond the issues that appeared to detract from GOD being One. The first phenomenon was that the region's Jews, instead of respecting the virgin mother of ALLAH's Messiah, were blatantly accusing her of having been promiscuous and suggested that she became pregnant as a direct result of sleeping with a number of different men before she married Yusef/Joseph. So their claim was that she was definitely not a virgin but instead was a very loose young woman. So this "grave false charge" (See Quran, An Nisa 4:156) that they were viciously circulating, in practicality made ALLAH's anointed Messiah actually a bastard rather than an anointed Messiah sent from ALLAH.

In their attempt to even heap additional disgrace on ALLAH and on His Messiah, these amoral Jews, according to the Quran, (An Nisa 4:154-157), actually had the audacity to give their own ancestors credit for having ended the Messiah's life permanently. They stated or even boasted:

"We killed Messiah Isa/Jesus, son of Mary/Maryam the Messenger of ALLAH." (An Nisa 4:157)

The English version of the verse from the Quran adds that they made this statement about their having killed him "in boast."

Then, in addition to these two serious infractions against both the Messiah and his mother by the Jews of that time, in previous verses the Prophet had listed other serious charges against the Jews.

The Jews worked on the Sabbath.

They broke their covenant.

They rejected the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs and revelations) of ALLAH.

They killed the Prophets unjustly.

They said "Our hearts are wrapped," implying that they did not understand what the messengers say.

ALLAH had set a seal on their hearts because of their unbelief.

So these latter six serious charges that are listed were all listed in the Quran previous to the Quran's statement about the even two more serious charges of blatantly attacking the reputation of the Messiah's mother in addition to boasting about having killed the Messiah, the very messenger of ALLAH.

So after having individually listed each of these total of eight crimes the Quran consecutively lists, there is an important and magnificently significant point in An Nisa 4:157 that for years has been misunderstood throughout Islam causing Islam a great, great loss.

An Nisa 4:157 is not literally making the point that a killing and a crucifixion did not take place. Rather, in the light of these eight other crimes the Quran lists against the Jews, not against the Christians, the Quran is emphasizing the reality of what killing and crucifixion truly mean in regard to ending a life forever or permanently ending a life. So the Quran emphasizes that the Jews had definitely not killed or crucified ALLAH's Messiah. Rather, it only appeared to them (shubbiihalahum) that they had accomplished their purpose of ending his life forever for that is what killing and crucifying literally means. So literally it was only conjecture on their part that he had in fact been killed and crucified.

Thus, the very next verse shouts its emphasis and celebration that the killing and the crucifixion had only had temporary results and therefore could not be classified as a true killing or as a true crucifixion. Because if killing and crucifying were to be considered in this literal sence of the life being permanently snuffed out like the flame of a candle, then the next verse could not emphasize and celebrate that ALLAH in his Wisdom and Might could raise the Messiah up alive unto Himself. That is because killing and crucifying technically mean permanent death, and since ALLAH raised him up to new life, this has to mean that he had not been permanently dead, so he had not been killed or crucified.

I am personally convinced that the way I have explained these verses is approximately the way that the Prophet understood the meaning of these verses. However, there was an exceptionally compelling reason why the Prophet did not make that understanding clear to Muslims at that time.

The Reason

The reason the Prophet did not explain all of this at that time to the new Muslims was this: The Prophet realized Christianity was an already established religion which could easily absorb new Muslims into it if such dynamic events as the death and resurrection of the Messiah received emphatic attention at that time. This would be a serious mistake in the Prophet's line of reasoning because the Muslims would be too closely associated with the Christians lack of solidarity with the absolute Oneness of ALLAH. So in the Prophet's mind, at that time of vulnerability, focus on the Oneness of GOD had priority over belief in the Messiah's death and resurrection.

So he quite likely reasoned that GOD would bring the more correct understanding of the meaning of An Nisa 4:157 and 158 at a later time when the Muslims were stronger and less vulnerable. So at that future time there would not be a risk of losing a large number of the region's people from the new religion of Islam to the established religion of Christianity. Therefore, if at that early time in Islam, the relatively new Muslims were to realize that An Nisa 4:157, 158 should be understood to teach in its context, in compatibility with other verses in the Quran as well as in compatibility with the Scriptures before the Quran that the Messiah did die but was raised from death by ALLAH, there could be a serious problem for the New Muslim believers. For a belief at that vulnerable time in the powerful death and victorious resurrection of ALLAH's Messiah could cause the Muslims to be too close to the belief of the Christians which could cause them to be too vulnerable to being influenced by the Christians apparent lack of faithfulness to the Oneness of ALLAH even if they did not get absorbed by Christianity. Therefore, it was quite probable that the Prophet reasoned that there would be a later time when Islam was much stronger and it had gained more momentum as an independent Monotheistic religion, that it would be more appropriate for Muslims to understand the intent of these verses more correctly and in a way that is more satisfying to ALLAH and to His anointed Messiah. Then, at a later time a dynamic belief in the victorious death and triumphant resurrection would be much less likely to jeopardize their relatively new belief in the all important Oneness of ALLAH. And that time has emphatically now arrived.

The Crucial Question

Did the Prophet Muhammad know for certain that the two verses, An Nisa 4:157, 158 actually should be understood to teach that ALLAH's Messiah indeed did die on the Roman cross and then rise to new life as history confirms, as other verses in the Quran confirm and as the previous unchanged Scriptures confirm?

Yes, I personally am absolutely convinced that he did realize these verses true teaching and true meaning. And he also clearly realized that when the Quran listed 8 different crimes of the Jews, it was the Jews and not the Christians who were being exposed and that there was absolutely no intention by the Quran to cancel an important Christian belief. But for the reasons I have just enumerated, he did not encourage the full truth of the meaning of the verses to be known by all Muslims at that time. But it would neither be fair or legitimate for me to insist that that was definitely the situation. For perhaps my analysis is incorrect or only partially correct. So I will present another possible alternate explanation of why ALLAH has allowed this misunderstanding to continue until now if the Prophet himself was always himself unaware of the true meaning of these two profound verses.

New Light Shines Over Fading Light

There can be little argument with the conclusion that under the virtually blind leadership of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney with the support of amoral men who have minds preoccupied with killer weapons, and "might makes right," that U.S. Christianity has suffered a serious set back from which it may never recover. Making matters even worse has been the sexual predators in especially the Catholic Church which that Church had employed as Priests to serve their vulnerable youth. But the Church has now sincerely attempted to repair the damage these sexual predators brought to the lives of so many youth who are now adults. (The Church has paid out billions of dollars to families across the U.S. in law suits.) But the damage that Bush, the Neo-conservatives and the far Christian right have brought to worldwide U.S. Christian leadership will take years to repair or it may never fully recover from the damage inflicted upon Christianity by certain calloused Bush gangsters.

So an important point to be aware of is this. Up to this present time, repentance for supposed Christians who have taken the leadership in initiating the killing of foreign Arabs, mostly Muslim Iraqis, has not even begun. For the vast majority of the extreme Right Wing "Killing supporters" (better known by the euphemism, war supporters) do not even realize that before God they are complicit in a monstrous crime. They still wrongly see Iraq as the nation that is responsible for the carnage in their own nation because of Iraq's supposed role in attacking the U.S. on 9/11. So the only thing that these right wing Christians can admit doing wrong is supporting an inept occupation plan.

Of course, the Middle East's Islam also has a serious case of denial that must be repented of before God for its not decisively and vigorously condemning Islamism's extremists who have brought death and extreme suffering to so many. So Islam also has dirty laundry to be repented of as does U.S. Christianity.

But if Islam were soon to be aggressive about condemning and eliminating or at least totally marginalizing those who aggressively kill innocents under the umbrella of Islam with much of Islam's present passive consent, then Islam's role in faithfully serving ALLAH would become much more significant and strategic than if that reigning in and aggressively condemning terrorist types does not occur. Though there is a small percentage of Muslims who practice anti-ALLAH extremism, there are vast uncountable numbers of sincere Muslims who have a thirst for ALLAH and who will soon be faithful emissaries for His Risen Messiah. This will occur once multitudes of Muslims more fully comprehend the role that ALLAH has for His Risen Messiah in their lives and in this broken world.

Therefore, what I am suggesting that is about to happen is this. At the very time that the effectiveness and faithfulness of Christianity continues to rapidly fade especially among Western Christians, the role of Islam in lifting up ALLAH's anointed Risen Messiah will begin to accelerate, first in the Middle East and then in regions beyond. So I have an alternative theory of what has occurred and what will occur, if the Prophet himself did not realize the fact that the Messiah did die and rise again.

GOD's foreknowledge had most certainly told Him that in the 21st century their would be an evil idolization of the power of weapons to kill and to use to control foreigners, which would drain the vitality and integrity from U.S. Christianity. Therefore GOD was preparing a new people to honor and serve His Risen Messiah to replace the vacuum left by idolatrous U.S. Christian leadership. But if these Muslims would have come into their new appreciation of the Living Christ when the power of U.S. Christianity was at its zenith in the U.S. and the Roman Catholic Church had not yet been discredited, then either U.S. Christianity or the Roman Catholics could have had an absorbing effect on Muslims who had responded to ALLAH's Risen man from Bethlehem. So it truly appears that now is ALLAH's special chosen time for this wonderful enlightenment to occur. So now sincere belief in ALLAH' anointed Risen Messiah will begin to accelerate, first in the Middle East, and then in regions beyond such as India and Japan and numerous other nations.

Wise Islamic Leadership

Page 65 of the October 13, 2007 Economist magazine contained a thrilling account of the initiative taken by wise Muslim scholars" In their own words these leaders realize that "The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake."

So these men have taken the initiative to reach out for understanding dialogue with world Christian leaders by emphasizing their strong agreement with Jesus Christ's statements on love of GOD and neighbor in contrast to Pope Benedict's relatively recent inflammatory statement about Islam's only innovation was to propagate violence. These concerned men's initiatives took the form of a letter from a large number of notable Muslim scholars (138) sending a letter to a large number of notable "Christian leaders appealing for a sort of strategic dialogue."

According to the article, what was "striking was the starkness of the warning it gave about the consequences of a breakdown between the two largest monotheistic faiths."

While I am totally encouraged that Muslims scholars are emphasizing the harsh reality that "the very survival of the world is at stake," I totally disagree that formal dialogue between leaders of Islam and leaders of Christianity will make a major contribution to helping the world survive.

In contrast, I sincerely submit that such dialogue, although constructive, will not be the true key. It is my conviction that unless Muslim scholars and leaders make up their own minds to have dialogue with ALLAH and not with man about one key issue, there will be no important progress. Muslims can dialogue with Christians until the earth gets so cold that Muslims and Christians are able to ice skate together on the frozen Dead Sea and there will still be no significant progress. That progress on preventing the further deterioration of world conditions will not come until multitudes of Muslims are able to acknowledge to themselves and to ALLAH that they have ordered all Muslims to believe the wrong thing about the true meaning of the Holy Quran's An Nisa 4:157, 158; that ALLAH definitely did use His Wisdom and Might to raise the Messiah up from death even though it appeared to the Jews (shubbiihalahum) that they had permanently killed him.

However, human nature being resistant to accepting a new perspective from an outsider will make it extremely difficult for many Muslim leaders to accept this new perspective from the pen of a westerner who is not an official Muslim. In fact, though 132 Muslim scholars are concerned about the survival of the world itself, I am afraid that many of these scholars would rather risk the destruction of the world as we know it, then to risk admitting the following unusual circumstance.

For many Muslims to acknowledge that ALLAH Himself helped to work out the complicated logistics for a western father and mother of five to take their entire family to Saudi Arabia for two and one half years so that ALLAH could reveal to the father the preferred and more realistic way to understand these two profound verses from An Nisa in the Holy Quran would be quite difficult. Then after he gained that important insight, that ALLAH would even help his servant to share this important good news with wise, open minded, ALLAH loving responsible Muslims will also be difficult. So quite possibly, it will also be exceptionally difficult for many Muslims to believe that even ALLAH would be able to use a non Muslim, non Arabic speaking person to deliver a useful message to sincere Arabic fluent Muslims about what two verses in the Holy Quran actually are intended to mean.

My Personal fitna Dream

I do not speak Arabic nor do I understand Arabic conversations. I only know a number of isolated Arabic words. Before the night of December 13, 2006, shortly before my wife had returned from Jordan, I was unexpectedly first introduced to the Arabic word of "fitna" that occurred when I experienced a surprising end to a dream that I can't even recall what the majority of the dream was about. Suddenly, without warning, a person whom I could not recognize and who was standing several meters away, began jumping up and down, waving his arms excitedly. (I think it could have been President Ahmedinejad of Iran because I had just written him a letter about our Risen Messiah the day before but I had not yet mailed the letter. But the person was slightly small of stature like both Iran's President as well as similar to myself. But it was not his excitedly waving his arms that immediately arrested my full attention. Rather, it was his shouting the word "fitna" simultaneously with his jumping and waving his arms. He shouted this new word that I had never before heard, very clearly about five to seven times so that it was burned into my mind in such a way that there was no chance that I would forget this new word.

The next day I called an Arab friend to ask about the word, "fitna" and he defined it as a "great disturbance". Then, a few days later I was talking with a Persian friend and his wife. He had become a dedicated follower of ALLAH's Messiah as a direct result of prayer being offered in the name of Jesus that had totally cured him of persistent pain in his back that Doctors had been unable to successfully treat. When I mentioned to the man and his wife the "fitna" word, they also defined it the exact same way as my Arab friend; a great disturbance. They said that either Arabic had borrowed it from Persian or Persian had borrowed the fitna word from Arabic.

Then amazingly, while I was in Jordan about six months later and walking on a lonely road a couple of miles from Salt, I was alternating between praying about ALLAH's risen Messiah being more fully revealed to especially the Gulf nations and joyfully singing songs of praise. As I walked about forty meters from a home set back from the road, a woman walked down to the quiet road. Though she was still about thirty meters from me, I could see that she appeared to be enjoying my enthusiastic singing.

When she invited me to have some fruit with her daughter and sister-in-law on the veranda of their home, I soon discovered that she was quite knowledgeable about the Bible. When I mentioned my unusual experience with the word "fitna", she explained that in the Arabic Bible, that this word was used in the book of Acts. So after some exploration we found that in her version of the Arabic New Testament, "fitna" was the Arabic word used in Acts 17:6 to refer to the trouble that the Apostle Paul was accused of starting "all over the world" after the Jews opposed his preaching about the Risen Messiah in Thessalonica.

Then in Acts 19:40 when the same Apostle was in the City of Ephasus, this Arabic word was used again. This time the Apostle was being accused by a large crowd that a group of silver smiths who earned their living making silver idols, had stirred up to oppose his preaching of the Risen Christ. The city clerk while he was trying to disperse the crowd used the word fitna for the trouble that the crowd had caused in response to Paul's preaching of the Risen Messiah.

Finally, in Acts 24:5, a Jewish lawyer named Tertullus used the fitna word before Governor Felix in Caesarea. Here the word was used to speak of the rioting Paul was accused of starting among "Jews all over the world."

The Significance

To me it was actually an encouragement that an Arabic and Persian word that I had never before heard of and which my own subconscious could have had no record of, was given to me from five to seven times in a dream to potentially prepare me for getting into similar trouble. My trouble would be in the Middle East as the Apostle Paul had been in trouble while traveling in the regions of Greece and once near Jerusalem for his presentations of the Living Christ similar to how I now try to present the Risen Messiah on my website. Because I know that since Muslims are a people sincerely seeking to worship ALLAH in truth, potentially large numbers of Muslims will be willing to see disagreements come if this is the necessary path to travel in determining ALLAH's truth about his Risen Messiah.

The fact that the word "fitna" came to me in a way that would seem to suggest that my presentation of the Risen Messiah through my website will eventually lead to some similar resistance as ALLAH's Apostle Paul experienced almost two thousand years ago has been an encouragement. For even open resistance, when ALLAH's truth is presented, will ultimately lead to a positive response from those who are sincerely seeking truth.

Significantly, I have no other alternative but to think that it was GOD who was communicating with me by using the word "fitna" in my dream, a new word to me that even my subconscious had no way of knowing. That it was used in a way that is quite parallel to the way that this word was used three times in the Book of Acts when it described the resistance that was experienced by a servant of GOD, I find to be exciting for this old man. So when Bethlehem's risen Man truly begins to be openly considered, multitudes in Islam will rejoice. But many who have turned to Islamism will also realize that they have been putting their efforts into a broken basket with many large holes. Then they will return to true Islam and to their Risen Bethlehem man.