“And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie…”
And for this reason
Because people did not love the truth that God might save them (2:10), God sends them a “strong delusion.” God will not send them a “strong delusion” until they make it clear that they have gone into negative volition toward the gospel. The choice of error over truth is serious business because it leads to deep delusion.
God will send them strong delusion,
The word “delusion” means wandering. These people wander off the right path of truth into paths of religious invention. The people led astray roam all over the place in religion.
“Delusion” is stronger than deception. Deception means that a person can be fooled about something. Delusion is a way of life in which one is perpetually deceived. People under delusion harden their hearts permanently.
The word “strong” is the same word we found in 2:9 in the phrase “the working of Satan.” The New Testament always uses this word for supernatural working.
that they should believe the lie
When people “believe the lie,” God consigns them to a state of delusion. This is the lie of verse 4 that the man of lawlessness is God. People in the Tribulation cannot take a neutral stand. Either they believe God, or they believe the lie. God will ultimately give people in the Tribulation exactly what they want–to believe the lie. “The lie” is the opposite of the truth of Jesus and His death on the cross.
Principle:
Ultimately, God will give non-believers what they want.
Application:
People given over to lies will enter strong delusion. God will give them over to their volition, their heart’s desire to believe the lies of Satan. People say they want the truth, but they really want Satan’s lies. They have a vested interest in believing lies.
God gave Pharaoh what he wanted (Exodus 7:14; 9:12). God will give us over to what we truly want (Romans 1:18-32). If we truly want hell, God will give it to us.
Thanks. This was helpful.
Thank you Greg.
What else can God do? He is not a dictator Well, it is according to one's choice. Thanks Grant, God Continually bless you with His divine grace, peace and wisdom in Christ Jesus.
Great analysis…
this has really enlightened me.
thank you brother.
This is the big question at the back of my mind, why God give strong delusions instead of enlightenment.
"God will not send them a “strong delusion” until they make it clear that they have gone into negative volition toward the gospel."
Thanks Greg.
This is the big question at the back of my mind, why God give strong delusions instead of enlightenment.
"God will not send them a “strong delusion” until they make it clear that they have gone into negative volition toward the gospel."
Thanks Grant 🙂
God is all-powerful (Luke 1:37), so he could instill in the minds of unbelievers the knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of his truths, if he wished to, right? Why cause them to believe a lie, or allow them to believe it, when he has the power to save them from hell? He loves ALL his children, right?
Joseph, you confuse the idea of the character of God with your assumptions. God is not only a God of love but He is also a God of justice.
God, who can do anything, has the power to cause anyone, even the worst sinning unbeliever, to know the error of their ways, and thereby become all that God could ever wish for them. Instead, he chooses to make them believe EVEN MORE untruths, evidently because he then would have even more justification for casting them into the fiery pit. (Continued below.)
Couldn't God at least have sent them to Hell based only on the false teaching they chose ON THEIR OWN to belive, without God making them believe even more lies?
Where is the "justice" you speak of in THAT behavior?
Joseph, God is not the capricious god you try to make Him out to be. God in biblical terms is absolute. He is always perfectly consistent with His own character. He did not form automatons or robots like you would have Him to do. This particular passage deals with protracted negative volition toward the end of time when mankind has had many changes to respond to the gospel. A creature to have the freedom to love must have free agency or will in order to do so. There is no love in a mechanized creation.
Would you agree that ordering the murder of blameless babies is "perfectly consistent with his own character"?
"Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and INFANTS." (1 Samuel 3:15)
~~Joseph, I presume you reference 1 Samuel 15:3. This passage deals with a principle of national entity. The Old Testament especially concerns itself with the corruption of national morally. In this case the Amalekites had reached a place of charum (Hebrew word for the “cursed thing,” or something that reached a point of moral non-irretrievableness). This, in fact, is the Hebrew word in verse three (translated differently in different versions). The Amalekites had come to a place of irretrievable negative volition toward God. Nations at this time were burying babies alive to appease the gods of the nation. This is only one indication of their national degeneracy. Once the Amalekites reached a place that they were not going to repent or change their direction of degradation, then God had to judge the nation as a whole. This is consistent with His character. An example of national generational degradation is the Amorites (who had not quite come to charum) in Genesis 15:16 where their “iniquity” was not yet complete: “And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” God is always true to Himself and His character.
Do you agree that God ordered his warriors to kill all of the Amalekite babies? Yes, or no, please.
Joseph, that is what the passage says. The entire nation had to be wiped out because their corruption would have been passed to succeeding generations. That is the principle of charum.
Terrorism was the only principle involved here. God said nothing about future generations being corrupted if babies are allowed to live; he ordered the killings as punishment for what the Amalekites did to Israel.
Was God also worried about the cattle, sheep, donkeys, and camels corrupting future generations? Is that why he ordered all of them killed, too?
Was God also worried about future generations of donkeys,sheep, cattle, and camel corrupting future generations? Is that why he ordered them killed, too? Does the Principle of Charum apply to animals? What about other living things, such as plants, grass, and trees?
The Principle of Charum must apply to the plants, too, because when he flooded the earth, he killed every living thing on it. Can plants reach a point of moral irretrievableness? If not, why did God kill all of them in the flood?
You're probably as tired of this thread as I am, so I will end my participation with this last post and will not respond to further comments comments.
This study that I researched. Was AWESOME. I actually never knew the difference between delusion & DECEPTION. Thk. U for ur time that u put in for helping the children of God. I always remember. Hosea. 4:6….read it….I gabble or devour the word of God. I love GODS WORD & yield to JESUS to do a work in me so my soul will prosper. & To B more like JESUS. God bless u. JULIE
“Because people did not love the truth that God might save them (2:10), God sends them a “strong delusion.”
Not only they do not love the truth anymore, they also cannot endure sound doctrine anymore and purposefully heap to themselves teachers that satisfy their lusts:
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Tim 4:3-4)
And that can already be seen in the church today. People don’t want a salvation by faith alone, but want instead a salvation by a MIXTURE of faith + works, as is Christ sacrifice were not enough. For example: a mixture of faith + baptism. That is the Babylon spirit – sacrifice by works – that already existed at the time of Cain who “brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD” (Gen 4:3).
That’s why Babylon has to be punished DOUBLE according to her works. Why DOUBLE? Because half of her mixture (faith) is right, while the other half (Works) is wrong. Since only 50% is wrong, then God has to DOUBLE that 50% to make the judgment complete (DOUBLE of 50% = 100% completeness):
“Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.” (Rev. 18:6)
That Babylon is also the 666 beast:
“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” (Rev. 13:18)
1Ki 10:14-17
14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,
15 Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffic of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.
16 And King Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target.
17 And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
We are saved by faith alone – the shield of faith – :
“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Eph 6:16)
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” (Rom 3:28)
But instead of a shield of faith, Salomon made a shield from a MIXTURE from his 666 talents of gold – Arab means INTERMIX, TRAFFIC – like in the babylon of Rev 18.
Arab:
H6148
ערב
‛ârab
aw-rab’
A primitive root; to braid, that is, INTERMIX; technically to TRAFFIC (as if by barter); also to give or be security (as a kind of exchange): – engage, (inter-) meddle (with), mingle (self), mortgage, occupy, give pledges, be (-come, put in) surety, undertake.
H6154
ערב ערב
‛êreb ‛ereb
ay’-reb, eh’-reb
The second form used in 1Ki_10:15 with the article prefixed); from H6148; the web (or transverse threads of cloth); also a MIXTURE, (or mongrel race): – Arabia, mingled people, MIXED (multitude), woof.
Comparing 1 King 10:14-17 with the Babylon of revelation:
1 King 10: 15 “Beside that he had of the MERCHANTMEN, and of the TRAFFIC of the SPICES MERCHANTS, and of all the KINGS of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.”
Rev 18:3:
“…and the KINGS of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the MERCHANTS of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Even the SPICES are listed in Rev 18 (as cinnamon in verse 13).
Rev 18:3
“And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee”
According to this verse “no more” means that before there was a time when the candle still shined and the voice of the bridegroom still was heard, but now no more. No doubt, like it or not, but Babylon has always been a RELIGIOUS babylon that now has developped in the form of the end-time CHURCH! The actual den of thieves church, “the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird” that use demonic rock and pop music as hymns, believing the lie that this disgusting noise please the Lord!
Because the church left their first love, God has removed the candlestick (the holy Spirit) out of his place (Rev: 2:5), and because the place has become spiritually empty, the devil has now entered into the church. That’s why the true believers are now asked to come out of her:
“Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Energeian Planes. Planes means delusion or wandering. It is the same root for planetes, wandering stars. Planets. Might the strong delusion be the disbelief of Genesis? The round Earth instead of the flat Earth.
late comment, the Bible does not teach a flat earth. It is important to use good hermeneutics to interpret Scripture. This verse must be taken in context of the entire argument of the book of 2 Thessalonians (see Introduction). The point here is that many people will come under the delusion of false teaching at some point.
Amen, Grant. You nailed it.
Strictly All Biblical. Praise The lord!
Ty you for putting this straightforward for me…..wow!. Joseph please carefully read your word my friend
I am so grateful I found this site! Your explanation helped me understand – Thank you so much! GOD Bless you!
Thank you very much for this excellent explanation.