Ergun Caner's Arrogant Dismissal of His Own Falsehoods

Ergun Caner's False Testimony and the Evangelical Cover-Up

On September 25, 2010, a man by the name of David McGehee, as I recall, writing for the Media General News Service, published an article wherein he reported on a recent presentation given by Dr. Ergin Canner at the Bristol's 12th Annual Prayer Breakfast to around 500 people.

When I first read this article, I was simply shocked. Jamin Hubner had linked to it, and it was one of the saddest things that I had read in the entirety of this debacle of the Ergin Canner scandal and then the great evangelical cover-up headed by Norman Geisler and others.

I've heard a lot of sad things in this situation. I have sat with former Muslims who have expressed their anger because of Ergin's lies and the fact that he has puffed up his testimony. He has, in essence, slapped them in the face that they have just a regular testimony of being a nominal Muslim that came to know Christ, but obviously, from Ergin Canner's experience, that's not good enough.

It's not good enough to have grown up in Columbus, Ohio and had one parent that was a Muslim and have come to know Christ. That's not good enough. You have to pretend that you actually lived in Turkey and pretend that you were trained in Madrasas and Cairo and Beirut and Istanbul to make it all sound really jihadi and all the rest of this stuff.

And that's obviously sad. The disrespect that Ergin Canner has shown to Muslims who truly have converted out of those types of backgrounds, but they weren't jihadists, they were radicals or anything like that.

Discernment Ministries, Politics, and Silence

It's obviously extremely sad to see quote-unquote discernment ministries demonstrating that they haven't a clue what discernment means. They will go out and do discernment conferences, and yet, because of politics and money and the power of certain individuals, specifically Norman Geisler, they refuse to speak up.

They refuse to say what they know is true. There isn't a question anymore about these issues. The mountain of video, audio, court documents that has been produced, there's no question any longer here.

And people know it, if they will just take the time to look at it. And yet there's this massive silence, and it's extremely sad to think of the state of evangelicalism that you have so many who are much more concerned about politics, much more concerned about the invitation to the next large conference, than they are in doing what's right in defending the pulpit and the Christian gospel against a man who is clearly a deceiver and a liar, and is banking on the continued gullibility of so many Christians, specifically Ergin Kanner and those aiding and abetting him.

Ergun Caner's Denial, Minimizing Critics, and Persecution Claims

But what is so sad here is to see a man who, though he knows, and we have enough contacts inside Liberty and other places to know, that Ergin Kanner knows the nature of the evidence against him. He knows that we're talking about videotapes, which have not just come from Mohammed Khan, by the way.

Mohammed Khan has done a lot of legwork, but Mohammed Khan didn't find the Marine videos. Mohammed Khan didn't find the court documents. And while he has done much of this work, the reality is that sources from over here and sources from over here, they're all saying the same thing.

And so these materials have come together, and Ergin Kanner knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that what we're saying is true. He knows he's been caught red-handed. And yet when you read this article, you find a man who is even described by the writers as controversial professor and evangelical, Mr. Ergin Kanner, was unapologetic Friday, defending his record while criticizing Islam, his critics, and the media.

He was unapologetic. This is not a man, we've been told by his defenders, oh, he's sorry and he's repented. This is not a repentant man. This is an arrogant man. This is a man thumbing his nose at everyone who has tried to call him to repentance.

And it's starting to make me wonder, maybe we've been going about this all the wrong.

Way.

Because we've been talking about confession, repentance, and restoration. Restoration assumes someone going back to a position they once had. I have to seriously start wondering, in light of this man's behavior now, if we should just be talking about initial confession and repentance for the first time.

Because a man who will continue to lie, having been caught in his lies already, showing no repentance whatsoever, thumbing his nose at the church, continuing to collect his paycheck. That really makes you wonder.

It really makes you wonder. Listen to what he says, quote, we saw it, the controversy, coming. My brothers and I have been dealing with it for years. This just happened to bounce big, and I paid no attention.

News means little to me, and the web is, well, bloggers, for the most part, are just frustrated people in their basements, end quote, Kanner said after the program. Now we know, we very well know, that he didn't just ignore this, that he paid no attention.

And he knows that too. But once you've been lying for 10 years, why not just continue? It seems the man's an inveterate liar. He cannot stop lying. He cannot stop telling untruths. And the fact of the matter is, this didn't just happen to bounce big.

The reason that this came to the level of attention that it did, is because it came into the Christian blogosphere. And the very people that do the things Ergin Kanner has pretended to be doing for 10 years are the ones that were saying, hey, there's a problem here.

The fantasy persona he created for himself, lying about all these debates, lying about doing debates in mosques in Arabic, when the man doesn't speak or understand Arabic, his mother tongue is Swedish, for crying out loud.

That's not called bouncing big. That's called being exposed by people who know better. By the people who actually do the things you pretend to do, but have never done. But to say that it's just frustrated people in their basements is very clearly an attempt on Kanner's part, and this has been going on from the beginning, to minimize the people who have been asking for honesty on his part.

The Lie About Dates, Debates, and Arabic Credentials

Now that works when you're talking again to gullible people who do not check out the facts. And unfortunately, that's a large portion of people. And evidently, the idea is, just keep going this direction and count on having a majority of gullible people so you can keep speaking at your conferences and keep teaching your classes and keep writing your books.

That seems to be the plan here. It is obviously deeply disrespectful to those who have sought to do what is right in this situation, but no one's going to be complaining about that. He goes on to say, he said, Muslims who renounce their faith are considered murtad, or deviated from Islam and subject to attacks, verbal or physical, by other Muslims.

In other words, he's continuing the persecution card. This is just a matter of being persecuted for his faith, which is just another lie on.

His part.

You learn to live with adversity, he said. You learn through adversity, and it takes more than edited videos to knock me down, Kanner said. Edited videos. Well, obviously, every video that's been posted online has been edited because no one has posted from beginning to end, so he can get away with making that kind of claim, but you and I both know what it is he is attempting to communicate at this point.

He's attempting to say that all this material, him speaking gibberish and pretending it's Arabic over and over again, all the quote-unquote misstatements, his claiming his father was a polygamist and brought multiple wives to the United States, and using Hadith citations that no one can actually find, and Ramadan 40 days long, and now the new material from Mohammed Khan's videos where it was just posted where he's talking about how if you die, if your husband dies as a Muslim woman, then you have to marry your brother-in-law, or then your uncle, and then your nephews, and all the rest of this just absurdity on Ergin Kanner's part.

Well, it's just two things. It's edited videos and misstatements. They're lies. That's all they are, but that's why he says this. Quote, the school said, what do you want to do? And I said, fine, investigate me, but the controversy alone, you pay the price of the controversy.

You pay the price of the attention and the bad publicity, Kanner said. Then listen to this. Every pastor in America, ask them if you can go through 200 odd hours of your sermons, would they find where you said your kids' names wrong or dates wrong?

Yeah, of course. You just smile and move on. It is a level of personal self-deception that is indicative of someone who doesn't know the truth that can allow someone to say something like this. He knows what the evidence against him is.

He knows this is not getting your kids' names wrong, though I don't know how to have ever done that, or dates wrong.

He knows this.

He said over and over again, he came here in 1978 or 1979.

He didn't.

He came in 1969. He came before his third birthday.

That's a fact.

He cannot dispute it. But that's not what he told people. For a decade, he lied about this. It was in print. It was on his websites. That's not the same thing as getting a date wrong in a sermon over 200 and some odd hours of speaking.

It's not the same thing, and he knows that, and everybody watching this video knows that. Well, I guess there might be some extremely deceived individuals who can't see the obvious facts in front of them, but these are really not things that are disputable any longer.

Are they?

Having on your website that you've engaged in debates with Muslim imams in Arabic in mosques is not the same thing as getting a date wrong. I've given you an example where I got a date wrong. I got a date stuck in my head about a Greek text I now own, the 1550 Stephanos text, but I said many times, even in the King James only controversy, 1555, I got the date stuck in my mind.

That's not the same thing as knowing you came here in 1969. He knew that because he told a Turkish paper that, he told the AP that, but he was already telling people he came here in 1978 and 1979. That's called lying, folks.

That's not missing a date. And Eric Encantor knows it. So he's been quiet for a while. It seems a date has passed. He started back on Twitter, and now he's doing things like this. Maybe there was a certain amount of time that Liberty said, no, you be quiet now for the next three months.

Yeah, it is almost exactly three months, isn't it, 90 days since Liberty took its action, which they never bothered to explain fully enough to actually end this controversy. Maybe that's what's going on.

I just thought of that. That's interesting. Maybe it was a 90-day moratorium. Who knows? But he's talking again, and the man can't stop lying. There's been no repentance. There's been no confession. There's been no restoration, just a continuation of the same lies that he's been telling all.

Why Evangelical Enablers Keep the Controversy Alive

Along.

Sadly, the primary reason he's able to thumb his nose at everyone who sought to do what's right in this situation, who sought to defend the integrity of the gospel and ministry to Muslims and everything else, the reason he's able to get away with this is because he's been enabled.

He realizes that there are people who are going to defend him, and they're going to keep inviting him to conferences and keep allowing him to speak, no matter what the evidence against him is. And they have their various reasons.

But he realizes he can get away with it, and so he's going to keep doing the same thing. What can be done about it? Well, not much. Benny Hinn's out there, and he keeps making his millions, and Joel Olsteen's out there making his millions, and Ergon Kanner may not be making his millions, but he's making.

His living.

But isn't it interesting, the very people who criticize Joel Olsteen and Benny Hinn, these discernment ministries, now when it comes to one in their own ranks, have no discernment.

At all.

Zip. Zero.

Nada.

Nothing. That's political. It's power. There's no question as to what the motivations here are on the part of certain people. You might be saying, well, what can we do? Well, if you're a believer, you don't go to anything where Ergon Kanner is speaking.

If you were going to go, you contact the people and say, I would love to come, but you have a well-documented liar speaking at your conference. And you don't go to schools that support the man who continues to lie.

That's the best you can do. You pray that God will grant the man repentance and break his heart, because right now it's not broken. Right now, he just seems to be, well, you all gave it your best shot and I survived.

That.

Boy, the gullibility factor is even higher than I thought it was. Somehow, the man needs to be brought to repentance. But as long as there are Christians who are willing to go, hey, come on, you know, go ahead and speak, it doesn't matter.

Let's just all get together.

Hey, as long as you're speaking against Islam, folks, the only thing that will be effective against Islam is the truth. The truth, my friends, not numbers, not how many people go to Liberty or how many people go to Veritas or how many people go here.

That's not the power of the gospel. The gospel is its truth, not how many people pretend to confess it. And so, you keep speaking the truth, you keep doing the work of the gospel, and yeah, we have yet another obstacle to overcome.

The fact that someone can make the very good argument, hey, all these people who call themselves Christians don't seem to care much about the truth, well, that's nothing new. But we have to remain faithful despite all these things.

Patient Endurance in Defending the Gospel

And so, there's the article, amazing behavior on the part of a man who's already been removed from his position as president of a seminary, but he realizes that was primarily political. And since Liberty didn't do the right thing, did not come out and say what the results their findings were and say, you know, you're right.

Here on our own website, it said he came here in 1979, it was a lie. He can't back this up, he can't back that up. Since they tried to take the political way out, it just continues on. And he's seen it, and he realizes it.

Will it ever end?

I don't know.

But the reality is that for many evangelicals, it's like, I just, I don't want to hear about it anymore, stop talking about it. What does that accomplish? What does that accomplish? Over the past month, I've engaged in six debates.

Six debates. And in that process, I've defended the gospel against atheists, Roman Catholics, and just recently a Muslim. Now, I haven't stopped doing the work of the ministry because of Arrogant Cantor, nor will.

I.

But I don't understand the mindset of so many evangelicals today, who while they agree, yeah, the guys lied, but let's just not worry about it. Let's let them stand behind pulpits, let's let them stand in schools, let's let them just continue doing this stuff because I'm just tired of this, folks.

I imagine the Apostle Paul was quite tired of many of the opponents that he had inside and outside of the church. But you don't honor the truth by having a three month long attention span. I think we're seeing the results of the internet right now in the church.

And that is, people just want to move on someplace else, move on someplace else, move on someplace.

Else.

Attention spans are this long. Endurance in defense of the truth is a Christian virtue. Now, this has not become the only thing I do. This is the first video I've done on this in quite some time. But the reality is that we can't take our eye off the ball and we cannot allow this blight upon the body of Christ to go unchallenged.

The truth of the gospel requires patient endurance in its defense. And I hope that many of you will continue to pray that God will bring closure and conclusion and repentance to Erickon Cantor and repentance to those who are aiding him in his deception.

Thanks for watching.