Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Thessalonian 2:11
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion ] Rather sents to them, the present standing for the future by anticipation of the predicted certainty; or better explained as the statement of a principle already at work. What will take place in those deceived by Antichrist, is seen on a smaller scale every day.
For strong delusion read, with R.V., working of error, parallel to “working of Satan,” 2Th 2:9 (see note on working); a superhuman force and fascination is implied, that of Satan’s miraculous working in the Antichrist. “Delusion” is deceit accepted, falsehood taken for truth ( 2Th 2:9-10). And “God sends” this effectual deceit, with the very purpose that they should believe the lie. “O Lord, why dost Thou make us to err from Thy ways?” (Isa 63:17).
2Th 2:11-12, therefore, ascribe to God the great delusion that we have been all along regarding as the masterpiece of Satan. Three things must be borne in mind here: (1) that Satan is never represented in Scripture as an independent power, or rival deity of evil, like the Persian Ahriman. However large the activity allowed to him in this world, it is under Divine control (see Job 1, 2; 1Co 5:5; 1Co 10:13; &c.). (2) St Paul teaches that God makes sin work out its own punishment. In Rom 1:24-25, he represents the loathsome vice of the Pagan world as a Divine chastisement for its long-continued idolatry: “ For this cause God sends eftectual delusion” is parallel to “ For this cause God gave them up to vile passions.” In each case the result is inevitable, and comes about by what we now call a natural law. That persistent rejection of truth destroys the sense of truth and results in fatal error, is an ethical principle and a fact of experience as certain as any in the world. Now he who believes in God as the Moral Ruler of the Universe, knows that its laws are the expression of His will. Since this Satanic delusion is the moral consequence of previous and wilful rejection of the truth, it is manifest that God is here at work; He makes Satan and the Lawless One His instruments in punishing false-hearted men. As they loved lies, God “sends them” lies for their portion. Comp. Eze 14:9, and 1 Kings 22. “Righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the ages!” (Rev 15:3). (3) The advents of Christ and of Antichrist are linked together ( 2Th 2:3 ; 2Th 2:9); they are parts of the same great process and drama of judgement. God sends “the working of error” in the Lawless One, Who will quickly send His Son to be Judge of the lawless and Avenger of His elect.
For “a lie” the Greek reads “ the lie” (same word as falsehood, 2Th 2:9), which probably means here not falsehood in general, but this particular falsehood “the lie” par excellence, in which all previous delusions of Satan are consummated, viz. that the Lawless One is himself God ( 2Th 2:4 ; 2Th 2:9-10). Similarly Idolatry is called “the (great) lie,” in contrast with “the truth of God” (Rom 1:25).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And for this cause – Because they choose error, or their hearts love that more than they do truth. The original reason then of their embracing and adhering to the system was not an arbitrary decree on the part of God, but that they did not love the truth. Hence, he gave them up to this system of error. If a man strongly prefers error to truth, and sin to holiness, it is not wrong to allow him freely to evince his own preference.
God shall send them strong delusion – Greek: energy of deceit; a Hebraism, meaning strong deceit, The agency of God is here distinctly recognised, in accordance with the uniform statements of the Scriptures, respecting evil; compare Exo 7:13; Exo 9:12; Exo 10:1, Exo 10:20, Exo 10:27; Exo 11:10; Exo 14:8. Isa 45:7. On the nature of this agency, see the notes on Joh 12:40. It is not necessary here to suppose that there was any positive influence on the part of God in causing this delusion to come upon them, but all the force of the language will be met, as well as the reasoning of the apostle, by supposing that God withdrew all restraint, and suffered men simply to show that they did not love the truth. God often places people in circumstances to develop their own nature, and it cannot be shown to be wrong that He should do so. If people have no love of the truth, and no desire to be saved, it is not improper that they should be allowed to manifest this. How it happened that they had no love of the truth, is a different question, to which the remarks of the apostle do not appertain; compare Rom 9:17-18, note; Rom 1:24, note.
That they should believe a lie – This does not affirm that God wished them to believe a lie; nor that He would not have preferred that they should believe the truth; nor that He exerted any direct agency to cause them to believe a lie. It means merely that He left them, because they did not love the truth, to believe what was false, and what would end in their destruction. Can anyone doubt that this constantly occurs in the world? People are left to believe impostors; to trust to false guides; to rely on unfounded information; to credit those who live to delude and betray the innocent; and to follow those who lead them to ruin. God does not interpose by direct power to preserve them. Can anyone doubt this? Yet this is not especially the doctrine of revelation. The fact pertains just as much to the infidel as it does to the believer in Christianity, and he is just as much bound to explain it as the Christian is. It belongs to our world – to us all – and it should not be charged on Christianity as a doctrine pertaining especially to that system.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Th 2:11-12
And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie
Judicial infatuation
follows upon wilful perversity and obstinate unbelief.
God sends, not shall send (Authorised Version), still less permits to be sent. It has the full force of the vivid prophetic present, a working of error, i.e., a working in them which issues in the increasing destructive power of error; the hardening of Pharaohs heart is the parallel which suggests itself. It lies in the nature of Gods moral government and in the moral constitution of man, that sin, indulged, weakens the strength of resistance, and so invites and prepares the way for the more frequent and violent assaults of temptation. Thus yielding to sin receives at last its punishment in the slavery of sin. The working of error has its aim in this that they should believe the lie, as opposed to the truth just indicated. Man must believe something–if not the truth, with all the blessings which its reception brings, then the lie of the devil with the doom pronounced upon it. Unlike the Thessalonian believers who had every desire of goodness, who had their pleasure in goodness, and their desires ever reaching forth towards its increase (2Th 1:11), these unbelievers have their pleasure in evil. They have said to it, evil be thou my good. Hence with the son of perdition, whose adherents they are, their end is destruction. (J. Hutchison, D. D.)
Ill-disposed affections naturally and penally the cause of darkness and error
Of all the fatal effects of sin none is so dreadful as that every sin disposes for another and a worse. By gradations sin arrives at maturity; it is the only perpetual motion, and needs nothing but a beginning to keep it going.
I. How the mind of man can believe a lie. There is such a suitableness between truth and the understanding that the latter of itself can no more believe a lie than a correct taste can pronounce bitter to sweet. If a lie is believed it can be only as it carries the appearance of truth. Before there can be an appearance there must be an object and a faculty, and from one of these must spring all falsehood. But the object cannot cause a false appearance of itself, and therefore the difference must rest in the perception. Objects are merely passive. Truth shows itself to be truth, and falsehood falsehood, whether men apprehend them so or no. What, then, are the causes on the believers part which make any object to appear what it is not.
1. An undue distance between the faculty and its object. Approximation is necessary to perception. Distance in space hinders corporeal perception; moral distance hinders spiritual perception of God and His worship.
2. The indisposition of the intellectual faculty which follows from sin. Where the soul has deviated from the eternal rules of right, reason, and morality, it is in darkness, and while in darkness it must necessarily pass false judgments upon most things that come before it. The understanding, like some bodily eyes, is disabled from exact discernment, both by natural weakness and supervening soreness.
II. What is it to receive the love of the truth.
1. To esteem and value it. Truth must first be enthroned in the judgment before it can reign in the desires.
2. To choose it as a thing transcendently good. To esteem is an act of the understanding; to choose of the will. This is the proper and finishing act of love. The great effect of love is to unite us to the thing we love, and the will is the uniting faculty, and choice the uniting act. Till we have made religion our fixed choice it only floats in the imagination; but it is the heart which must appropriate the great truths of Christianity. Then what was before only an opinion passes into reality and experience.
3. This will help us to understand what is rejecting the truth. Not because men think it false, but because it crosses their inclination. The thief hates the day; not but that he loves the light as well as other men, but he dreads that which he knows is the likeliest means of his discovery. The great condemnation that rests upon the world is that men see the light but love darkness, because their deeds are evil.
III. How the not receiving the truth into the will and affections disposes the understanding to delusion.
1. By drawing off the understanding from fixing its contemplation upon an offensive truth. For though it is not in the power of the will when the understanding apprehends a truth to countermand its assent, yet it is able to hinder it from taking that truth into full consideration. If a man has affections averse to the purity of the truth they will not suffer his thoughts to dwell upon it, but will divert them to some object that he is more enamoured with; and so the mind lies open to the treacherous inroads of imposture.
2. By prejudicing the understanding against the truth–the understanding in that case being like the eye which views a white thing through a red glass. This was how the Jews rejected the Saviour. They saw His miracles and heard His words through the medium of, Is not this the carpenter? Can any good come out of Nazareth?
3. By darkening the mind, which is the peculiar malignity of every vice. When wise men become vicious their wisdom leaves them. The ferment of a vicious inclination lodged in the affections is like an intoxicating liquor received into the stomach, from whence it will be continually sending thick clouds and noisome steams up to the brain.
IV. How God can be properly said to send men delusions. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all; and what is not in Him cannot proceed from Him. But God may be said to send delusions.
1. By withdrawing His enlightening influence from the understanding. The soul is not otherwise able to exert its intellectual acts than by a light flowing in upon it from the fountain of light. How reasonable, then, that God, provoked by gross sins, should deliver the soul to infatuation by a suspension of this light.
2. By commissioning the spirit of falsehood to seduce the sinner (1Ki 22:22; 2Co 4:4). How dreadfully did God consign over the heathen world to a perpetual slavery to His deceits! And the truth is where men under the gospel will grow heathens in practice, it is but just with God to suffer them to grow heathens in their delusions.
3. By a providential disposing of men into such circumstances as have an efficacy to delude. He may place them under an heterodox ministry or in atheistical company, throw pestilent books in their way, all which, falling in with an ill-inclined judgment, and worse ordered morals, will recommend the worst of errors. And, therefore, as we find it expressed of him who kills a man unwittingly, that God delivers that man into his hands (Exo 21:13), so when a man, by such ways as these, is drawn into false belief, it may be affirmed that God sends that man a delusion (2Sa 17:11-12; 2Sa 17:14; Eze 14:9).
4. By His permission of lying wonders. Thus when Pharoah hardened his heart against the will of God, God permitted him to be confirmed in his delusion by the enchantments of the magicians. And so with the lying wonders of the Church of Rome, which confirm the legends imposed for truth upon her deluded members.
V. Wherein the greatness of this judgment consists.
1. In itself.
(1) That it is spiritual, and so directly affects the soul. The judgments affecting the body are insignificant in comparison.
(2) It blasts the peculiar perfection of mans nature, his understanding; for ignorance and delusion are the disease of the mind, and the utmost dishonour of reason; there being no sort of reproach which a man resents with so just an indignation as the charge of folly. If slavery be that which all noble spirits abhor, and to lose the choicest of natures freeholds, the reason, be the worst of slaveries, surely the most inglorious condition that can befall a rational creature is to be governed by a delusion (Joh 8:32). And, besides this, it has a peculiar malignity to bind the shackles faster on it by a strange unaccountable love, for no man entertains an error but he is enamoured of it.
2. In its effects.
(1) It renders the conscience useless. A blind watchman is a nuisance and an impertinence, and a deluded conscience is a counsellor who cannot advise, and a guide who cannot direct (Mat 6:23).
(2) It ends in total destruction. Every error is in its tendency destructive. Hell is a deep place, and there are many steps of descent to it; but as surely as the first gloom of evening tends to and ends in the thickest darkness, so every delusion persisted in will lodge the sinner in the blackest regions of damnation.
VI. What deductions may be made from the whole.
1. That since the belief of a lie is a sin it is not inconsistent with Divine holiness to punish one sin with another (Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26), and no punishment is comparable to this.
2. That the best way to confirm our faith in the truths of religion is to love and acknowledge them.
3. That hereby we may be able to find out the true cause of–
(1) Atheism.
(2) Fanaticism. (R. South, D. D.)
God and error
Sceptics never tire in quoting this text, to prove, if they can, that God sends delusions to deceive mankind, and that men are doomed to everlasting perdition for what they could not avoid, simply because the Almighty so willed it. But the infidels interpretation of the passage has been read into it by himself. Its real teaching is eternally true. There are four points in it to be considered by us.
I. The class of men referred to.
1. They believed not the truth. There is a rejection of the truth which arises from ignorance, and some excuse is to be made for it. But there is also a wilful rejection of the truth. Men close there eyes to the light, and grope in the darkness by their own free choice. Reason is made blind to give eyes to prejudice and passion, and excuses are invented, not so much to justify their conduct to others, as to salve their own consciences. In this way they smother the truth, until they come thoroughly to reject it.
2. They had pleasure in unrighteousness; or, better rendered, were well pleased in the unrighteousness. They not only practised unrighteous acts, but they took pleasure in doing them. Regardless of the law of God, which is the standard of righteousness and the basis of morality, they revelled in sinful delights.
II. The delusion to which they were subject. The Greek term translated delusion is literally the inworking of error. The expression is a very important one, and shows the source and mode of operation of the error. The whole thing is internal, and is opposed to the inworking of the Holy Spirit. Men pursue an evil course until they come to believe it to be right. Look at that fine boy who is just leaving his home for the workshop or the college. He has been brought up in a pure family, surrounded by all that is good and pious. But the first day in his new surroundings words fall on his ears which horrify him; these, or similar, he will hear again and again, until they cease to affect him. Then, and at a later stage, he will himself indulge in coarseness and profanity with the rest, and perhaps become the very blackest of all that black company. The inworking of sin and error will destroy conscience, and that most fearful of all states be reached in which no remorse be experienced, but rather pride in sin. Man very largely moulds his own character, and with it his beliefs; and very often, alas if he comes to believe a lie, and his doing so is entirely his own fault.
III. This delusion, or inworking of error, is sent by God. Does error, then, come from God? No; but He abandons men to it when they have wilfully and persistently broken the law of righteousness, just as they fall into disease of body when a natural law has been violated.
IV. The purpose of the inworking of error. That they might be damned. This seems a most terrible doctrine, and hundreds have cavilled at it to the danger of their own souls. Condemned is certainly a milder word, but with very much the same meaning. – He that believeth not is condemned already. But the original word is better rendered in the Revised Version–judged. The Judge of all the earth will do right; but that very right may involve most fearful consequences. If the inworking of error goes on till the judgment comes, it will be an awful calamity to that man in whom it occurs. When the Divine judgment is passed there can be no dissentient voice, no sympathizers with the condemned, and even the heart of the criminal himself will bear testimony to the righteousness of the sentence. (G. Sexton, LL. D.)
Gods logic of sin
1. Every one who takes pleasure in unrighteousness is under a strong delusion.
2. Every one who is under a strong delusion believes a lie.
3. Every one who believes a lie has rejected the truth.
4. Every one who rejects the truth will be judged by God.
5. Every one who shall be judged by God shall be damned.
6. Therefore every one who receives the truth as it is in Jesus shall be saved (2Th 2:13). (J. T. Wightman.)
The infatuation of the followers of Antichrist
I. The author. God is not and cannot be the cause of evil. The avenger of sin cannot be the author of it. With sin as sin God has nothing to do, but with sin as a punishment of sin God has to do.
1. To understand this concurrence we must not say–
(1) Too much, lest we leave a stain on the Divine glory. He infuses no sin, and conveys no deceit; these belong not to God but to man or Satan.
(2) Nor too little as that Gods judgments of blindness of mind (Joh 12:39-40), and hardness of heart (Exo 4:21), are simply said to be so because foreseen, or inevitable, or barely permitted. Besides all this there is a judicial sentence which is seconded by an active providence.
2. Gods concurrence may be thus stated.
(1) His withdrawal of the light and direction of His Spirit (Deu 29:4). A greyhound held in by a slip runneth violently after the hare when it is in sight; as soon as the slip is taken away the restraint is gone, and his unbred disposition carries him. So men that are greedy of worldly things are powerfully drawn into errors countenanced by the world, when God takes off the restraint of His grace. In this God is not to be blamed. Voluntary blindness brings penal blindness; and because men will not see they shall not.
(2) His delivering them up to the power of Satan (2Co 4:4) as the executioner of His curse (1Ch 21:1, cf. 2Sa 24:1). Temptations come from the devil, but they are governed by God for holy ends (1Ki 22:22).
(3) His raising up such instruments and objects as meeting with a naughty heart do blind it.
(a) Instruments (Job 12:16; Eze 14:9). For mans ingratitude God raises up false prophets to seduce them that delight in lies rather than in the truths of God.
(b) Objects (Jer 6:21). If we will find the sin, God will find the occasion. If Judas will sell his Master, he shall not want chapmen to bargain with him.
II. The degree or kind of punishment. Strong delusion, the prevalency of which is seen in–
1. The absurdity of the errors.
(1) Adoration of images (Psa 115:8; Isa 44:9-20).
(2) The invocation of saints, a thing against reason, because they are out of the reach of our commerce, and against Scripture which always directs us to God by one Mediator, Christ.
(3) Works of supererogation (Luk 17:10).
2. The obstinacy wherewith they cleave to them. In spite of Scripture, reason, and evidence of truth, they still cry the opinion of the Church and their forefathers; like the Jews, who denied the clearest matter of fact (Joh 8:33; Jer 44:16-19).
3. The efficacy of the causes.
(1) The withholding of Scripture.
(2) Gain and ambition (Act 16:19-21; Act 16:25).
(3) Pride and prejudice which will not disavow a welcome error or acknowledge an unwelcome truth.
III. The effect. The belief of a lie.
1. The object: a lie, that is either–
(1) False doctrines (1Ti 4:2).
(2) False miracles in their legends.
(3) False calumnies against Protestants.
2. The act: given up to believe a lie. Some are doubtful, some almost persuaded, some espouse the common prevailing opinions, some adhere to them with much false zeal and superstition.
IV. The uses.
1. Information.
(1) To show us the reason why so many learned men are captivated by Antichrist–the delusions of Satan. Four causes may be given.
(a) Self-confidence. God will show the folly of those who depend on the strength of their own wit (Pro 3:5-6; 1Co 1:19).
(b) Prejudice. The priests and scribes could readily tell that Christ was to be born in Bethlehem (Mat 2:4-6), yet who more obstinate against Him who was born there?
(c) Pride. Many Jews believed on Christ, but would not profess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue (Joh 12:42-43).
(d) The judgment of God. (Luk 19:41-42).
(2) To show us that the prevalency of this wicked one is no blemish to providence; for permission of Him is one of Gods dreadful dispensations. Hereby God would show us–
(a) That there are deceits and errors as well as truth in the world, much of choice, not chance.
(b) That although it is a great evil to be deceivers, it will not excuse us if we are deceived (Mat 15:14).
(c) What need there is to pray not to be led into temptation.
(d) To fear to slight the grace offered (Deu 28:28).
2. Of caution to take heed of spiritual infatuation that this judgment fall not on us. Take heed–
(1) Of sinning against the light (Jam 4:17).
(2) Of hypocrisy in the profession of the truth (Pro 26:26).
(3) Of pride and carnal self-sufficiency (2Ch 32:31).
(4) Of following the rabble (Joh 4:20; Pro 24:13-14). (T. Manton, D. D.)
Choice influences belief
This believing a lie does not necessarily denote intellectual, or what are called speculative errors, but perhaps refers more particularly to moral questions. And yet intellectual belief is not to be excluded. The inworking of error is potent here also. Much nonsense is talked in these days about irresponsibility for opinions. A man always believes according to evidence, it is said. So he may, and yet it may be his own fault that more evidence was not obtained. In one of the numerous debates that I have held with leading sceptics, my opponent said that God could not be just if He punished him for his opinions, because he had used every means in his power to arrive at the truth. Then said I, You are the first man in this world who ever did. I am sure no man can say before God that he has let no opportunity go by for learning the truth; that he has left no available evidence unexamined; that he has allowed no chance to escape him which might have been used to profit. Belief is largely influenced by the will. Dont let us forget that. Man very largely moulds his own character, and with it his beliefs. Every man has a free will, and by his voluntary choice he makes habits which become permanent. These constitute his character. In the end he comes to believe a lie, and his doing so is entirely his own fault. (G. Sexton.)
Natural law in the spiritual world
God shall send, or more correctly rendered, God sendeth–that is, He is ever sending. Spiritual laws are as certain in their operation as those which regulate material things. Indeed, material things and the laws of matter are but symbols of the deeper and more abiding spiritual realities. Does error come from God? No, but He abandons men to it when they have wilfully and persistently broken the law of righteousness, just as they fall into disease of body when a natural law has been violated. There is no help for this. It is in accordance with the eternal truth and righteousness of God. Why do our bodies suffer, if we commit acts of excess? Not because God wills that we should so suffer, but because the suffering is a necessary consequence of the violation of His laws. It is His means of directing us aright, and, if we fail to obey Him, the consequences must fall upon our own heads. The laws of nature are inexorable, and cannot be broken with impunity. Let a man ruin his constitution by dissipation, and, although God may forgive him for the sin, he will carry his diseased and enfeebled body to a premature grave. The pardon does not undo the consequences of the wrongdoing. The inworking of error necessarily carries with it its own penalty–a penalty stamped on it by God. Thus God does not directly send the delusion, but the inworking of error is as much one of His laws as gravitation. A man may close his eyes to the natural light, or live for years in darkness, and the result in the end will be blindness. Does God send the blindness? Directly, no. Indirectly, yes; for it is the violation of His law that caused it. So if we close our eyes to the spiritual light, we shall become spiritually blind, and live in darkness, mistaking the spiritual things that surround us; in other words, we shall be deluded. God sends this delusion, that is, it follows the evil course of doing what He has prohibited, and not doing what He has commanded. (G. Sexton.)
Punishment according to law
I have a clock, as very many have, which was made to meet certain exigencies of the future. It has a calendar which points out the day of the month, the hand moving one figure each day. If the month has 31 days, it moves from that to the 1 for the next month; but if the month has but 30 days, the hand jumps over the 31, and on February it moves from 28 over the 29, 30, and 31 to the 1 of March. But once in four years it stops at February 29, and then moves over two figures to the 1. Now, we do not have to run to the maker when these changes are needed, and ask him to come and move the hands. He knew the exigences would arise, and arranged for doing the work at the time he made the machinery. So the Lord has arranged His laws of the earth in such a way that they punish certain sins. The punishment is from the Lord, but He need work no miracle to bring it. Men defy the laws of health and cleanliness, and a pestilence breaks out, or contagious diseases rage. Men oppress their workmen, or kings rule with hard and selfish power, and rebellions and insurrections break out, and the oppressors lose far more than they seemed to gain. (H. W. Beecher.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. God shall send them strong delusion] For this very cause, that they would not receive the love of the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness, therefore God permits strong delusion to occupy their minds; so that they believe a lie rather than the truth, prefer false apostles and their erroneous doctrines to the pure truths of the Gospel, brought to them by the well-accredited messengers of God; being ever ready to receive any false Messiah, while they systematically and virulently reject the true one.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion: we had account in the former verse of such as are deceived by the man of sin, of their sin, and here of their punishment. They were first deluded, which was their sin; and God sends them strong delusion, and that is their punishment. They did not receive the truth in the love of it, which was their sin; and therefore are given up to believe a lie, which is their punishment. Had they received the truth aright, they might have been saved; but not receiving it, they are damned. And they were said to be such as perish, and their perishing is here called damnation. So that though God is not the author of sin or falsehood: Deus non est auctor cujus est ultor, Fulgent.; yet he may in justice give men up to them, which the apostle here calls Gods sending, &c.; which imports either:
1. Tradition, delivering men to Satan to tempt and deceive.
2. Desertion, withholding or withdrawing that grace that might preserve them.
3. A judicial permission, God purposing not to hinder men to fall into that sin or delusion which he seeth their own hearts incline them to.
God concurs to evil, not positive, but privative; not efficienter, but deficienter; Schoolmen. God in Scripture is often said to do that which he permits to be done; as in the case of Josephs selling unto Egypt, Gen 45:7, Davids numbering the people, 2Sa 24:1, compared with 1Ch 21:1; and the ten kings giving their power to the beast, by Gods putting it into their hearts, Rev 17:17; and it is not a bare permission, for what evil God permits, he decreed to permit it; and he decreed the circumstances attending it, and the end to which he would order and dispose it, and the degree to which it should break forth. They were deceived into error, and God gave them up to it. And it did work with great efficacy; which either relates to the man of sin, that did lead them strongly into it, or to them that were led by him. When error doth vitiate the life, and one error begets another, and makes men violent against the truth, then it is the efficacy of error. And thus God doth judicially punish sin with sin, and delusion with delusion; and then they are always most operative, and most incurable. But men fall not presently under these judicial acts; men first refitse to see, before God sends blindness, and first harden their own hearts, before God hardens them. These in the text first refused to receive the truth, before they were given up to believe a lie: see Rom 1:24. So that both God and this man of sin, and themselves also, are concerned in these evils; but they sinfully and unrighteously, but God judicially and in righteousness.
That they should believe a lie: and the lie they were given up to believe, is a doctrinal lie: false speaking is a lie in words, hypocrisy is a lie in fact, and error is a lie in doctrine, Hos 11:12; Act 5:3. Some by lie here suppose is meant the lying wonders before mentioned; and this sense need not be excluded, but I rather interpret it of false doctrine, as that which stands opposite to the truth before mentioned, and again mentioned in this verse. Sometimes idols are called lies, Isa 44:20; sometimes, the things of the world, Psa 4:2; sometimes, the great men of the world, Psa 62:9; sometimes, false divinations, Eze 22:28; Zec 10:2; sometimes, false prophesyings and predictions, Jer 14:14; 23:25,26; and sometimes, false doctrines, as 1Ti 4:1,2, where we read of false prophets, who shall arise in the last time, and speak lies in hypocrisy, & c. And false apostles are said to be liars upon that account, Rev 2:2. And such are many popish doctrines, which the apostle here probably refers to. What is transubstantiation but a lie? Purgatory, infallibility of the church, mediation of saints, their opus operatum, & c.? Men must be strongly deluded to believe such doctrines, and it is mentioned as a great judgment of God upon them to believe such lies, as it is a great mercy to believe the truth, especially if we consider what follows upon it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. for this causebecause”they received not the love of the truth.” The bestsafeguard against error is “the love of the truth.”
shall sendGreek,“sends,” or “is sending”; the “delusion”is already beginning. God judicially sends hardness of heart on thosewho have rejected the truth, and gives them up in righteous judgmentto Satan’s delusions (Isa 6:9;Isa 6:10; Rom 1:24-26;Rom 1:28). They first cast offthe love of the truth, then God gives them up to Satan’s delusions,then they settle down into “believing the lie”: an awfulclimax (1Ki 22:22; 1Ki 22:23;Eze 14:9; Job 12:16;Mat 24:5; Mat 24:11;1Ti 4:1).
strong delusionGreek,“the powerful working of error,” answering to theenergizing “working of Satan” (2Th2:9); the same expression as is applied to the Holy Ghost’soperation in believers: “powerful” or “effectual(energizing) working” (Eph1:19).
believe a lierather,”the lie” which Antichrist tells them, appealing tohis miracles as proofs of it . . . (2Th2:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion,…. Or “efficacy of error”, which God may be said to send; and the Alexandrian copy reads, “does send”; because it is not a bare permission but a voluntary one; or it is his will that error should be that truth may be tried, and be illustrated by its contrary, and shine the more through the force of opposition to it; and that those which are on the side of it might be made manifest, as well as that the rejecters of the Gospel might be punished; for the efficacy of error is not to be considered as a sin, of which God cannot be the author, but as a punishment for sin, and to which men are given up, and fall under the power of, because they receive not the love of the truth, which is the reason here given: and this comes to pass partly through God’s denying his grace, or withholding that light and knowledge, by which error may be discovered and detected; and by taking from men the knowledge and conscience of things they had, see Ro 1:28. So that they call evil good, and good evil, and do not appear to have the common sense and reason of mankind, at least do not act according to it; and by giving them up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart, and to the god of this world, to blind their minds; and without this it is not to be accounted for, that the followers of antichrist should give into such senseless notions as those of transubstantiation, works of supererogation, c., or into such stupid practices as worshipping of images, praying to saints departed, and paying such a respect to the pretended relics of saints, c., as they do but a spirit of slumber is given them, and eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, because of their rejection of the Gospel: and
that they should believe a lie that the pope is Christ’s vicar on earth, and has power to forgive sins; that the bread and wine in the Lord’s supper are transubstantiated into the very body and blood of Christ; with other lying tenets spoken in hypocrisy concerning good works, merit, pardon, penance; c. with a multitude of lying wonders and false miracles, of which their legends are full and this is the first and more near end of strong delusion or efficacious error being sent them; the more remote and ultimate one follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And for this reason God sendeth them ( ). Futuristic (prophetic) present of the time when the lawless one is revealed. Here is the definite judicial act of God (Milligan) who gives the wicked over to the evil which they have deliberately chosen (Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28).
A working of error ( ). Terrible result of wilful rejection of the truth of God.
That they should believe a lie ( ). Note again and (the lie, the falsehood already described), a contemplated result. Note Ro 1:25 “who changed the truth of God into the lie.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Strong delusion [ ] . Rev., literally and correctly, a working of error. See on working ver. 9. The phrase is unique in N. T. It means an active power of misleading. For planh error which shows itself in action, see on 1Th 2:3.
A lie [ ] . Properly, the lie. The article gives the generic sense, falsehood in all its forms. Comp. Joh 8:44; Rom 1:25; Eph 4:25. Comp. the contrast of truth and unrighteousness in ver. 12. All wrongdoing has an element of falsity.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And for this cause” (kai dia touto) and therefore”, as a consequence of this, on account of this, their voluntary rejection of the “love of the truth”; none is finally lost in hell, except those who have rejected the love of God, the call of the Holy Spirit, and of Jesus, to salvation, Mat 11:28; Rom 10:13; Joh 6:37.
2) “God shall send them strong delusion” (pempei autois ho theos) “God sends (present tense) to them”, when they reject the “love of the, truth”, (energeian planes) “an operation of error”, a blindness of folly, for voluntarily rejecting the “love of the truth”, Pro 27:11, Pro 29:1; Pro 1:22-30; Heb 3:7-8; Heb 4:7.
3) “That they should believe a lie” (eis to pisteusai autous to pseudei) “for to the end that they should trust a lie”, from the Father of lies or the lie” Joh 8:44; as the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes rejected Jesus Christ, believed a lie, that he was not the Messiah; God gave them and their race over to destruction, abandonment, so will God give over to the followers of the anti-Christ, the man of sin, an abandonment of their chosen doom of earthly and eternal consequences in judgment and hell. When they follow the sensational signs, wonders, miracles, and do obeisance to, fall down like cowed dogs to worship the anti-Christ their doom is sealed with his, Rev 13:4; Rev 13:12-18; Rev 19:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
11 The working of delusion. He means that errors will not merely have a place, but the wicked will be blinded, so that they will rush forward to ruin without consideration. For as God enlightens us inwardly by his Spirit, that his doctrine may be efficacious in us, and opens our eyes and hearts, that it may make its way thither, so by a righteous judgment he delivers over to a reprobate mind (Rom 1:28) those whom he has appointed to destruction, that with closed eyes and a senseless mind, they may, as if bewitched, deliver themselves over to Satan and his ministers to be deceived. And assuredly we have a notable specimen of this in the Papacy. No words can express how monstrous a sink of errors (682) there is there, how gross and shameful an absurdity of superstitions there is, and what delusions at variance with common sense. None that have even a moderate taste of sound doctrine, can think of such monstrous things without the greatest horror. How, then, could the whole world be lost in astonishment at them, were it not that men have been struck with blindness by the Lord, and converted, as it were, into stumps?
(682) “ Quel monstrueux et horrible retrait d’erreurs;” — “What a monstrous and horrible nest of errors.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Text (2Th. 2:11-12)
11 And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: 12 that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Translation and Paraphrase
11.
And on account of this (attitude) God sends to them (through the working of Satan some) activity of error to cause them to believe the lie (that what the man of sin says is true, and many other lies also).
12.
(And thus being led to believe the lie that they actually wanted to believe, things are worked out) so that they all may be condemned, (those dissatisfied souls) who did not believe the truth, but (on the contrary) were well pleased with unrighteousness.
Notes (2Th. 2:11-12)
1.
This thought may astound some people, but the Scriptures actually teach that when men refuse to accept what God plainly says, that God sends delusion to them, that they may believe a lie and be condemned.
2.
There are numerous examples of this in the Bible.
(1)
God hardened Pharaohs heart and caused him to suffer many plagues, because Pharaoh first hardened his own heart. Exo. 3:19; Exo. 5:1-2; Exo. 7:3; Exo. 7:13.
(2)
God hardened the hearts of the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, so that they would fight Joshua and be destroyed. Jos. 11:20.
(3)
God sent a lying spirit to the prophets of Ahab, so that Ahab would go into battle and be killed. 1Ki. 22:19-23. (Of course, Ahab had long before rejected Jehovah.)
(4)
God turned the Gentiles who refused to honor Him as God, over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which were horribly evil and self-destructive. Rom. 1:28.
(5)
Likewise now the lie of the man of sin comes to those who will not receive the love of the truth. Beware.
3.
These verses bring out the point that when people believe a lie, they will be damned. How then can anyone dare to say, It makes no difference what you believe as long as you are sincere?
4.
Those who reject the gospel of Christ, His miracles, and His coming, often end by adopting superstition and believing some strange and unproven system of doctrine. He who refuses to receive the truth will at last believe lies. This is an unalterable reality. Almost any minister can tell of cases in his own experience where people rejected the gospel, and then later were taken in by some cult or sect.
5.
The exceeding wickedness of sin is often not appreciated by the sincere child of God. He judges the feelings of others by his own nature which has been sanctified by the Spirit of God. But we must not permit ourselves to live in a dream world. Sin is very ugly, and very strong, and very deeply rooted. What it can do to the nature of a man is astounding.
The practice of sin even causes men to take pleasure in unrighteousness. They are proud to be wicked. Their glory is in their shame. Such people deserve to be damned.
They refuse to have God in their knowledge and try to suppress Gods truth by unrighteousness. They know the judgment of God, that people who do such things are worthy of death. But they not only do those things, but take pleasure in associating with others who do them, and in encouraging others to practice them. Rom. 1:18; Rom. 1:28; Rom. 1:32.
6.
One group of men who refused to believe the truth was the Jews. They could never refute Pauls preaching, but they refused to obey it, and even forbade Paul to preach to the Gentiles so that they might be saved. 1Th. 2:16.
Paul told Timothy that men would turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned unto fables. 2Ti. 4:4. Such people often end up following some strange doctrine.
7.
While sinners may have pleasure in unrighteousness, love rejoices not in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. 1Co. 13:6. Christians are ruled by love.
STUDY SUGGESTION
Turn ahead now to the Did You Learn? questions following the notes on this chapter [see Chapter Comments], and see if you can answer questions 1 to 45.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(11) And for this causei.e., because they did not care whether things were true or not. This verse is not a mere repetition of 2Th. 2:9-10. There we were told of external dangers which would attend Antichrists coming for them that perish: because they had not cared for truth, therefore the presence of the Man of Sin, which could not even imperil the truth-lovers, would for them be full of special marvels and frauds by which they might be misled. Here is set forth the effect upon their own selves of refusing to accept Gods gift of love of truth: God takes from them (by His natural law) their power of discerning the true from the false, and thus (as it were) actually deceives them. Every wilful sin does this double mischief: it strengthens the power of the temptation without; it weakens the power to resist within. For an illustration, see 2Ch. 18:7; 2Ch. 18:22 : Ahab cares only for the pleasant, not the true, and the Lord requites him by sending forth a lying spirit to entice him.
Shall send.The Greek has sendeth: so is in 2Th. 2:9 : St. Paul sees it all going on before his eyes. A strong delusion should be an effectual inward working of errorno longer a mere indifference to truth, but a real influence of error upon their hearts. This inward work of error is sent with a view to their believing the lie (the Greek has the definite article)the lie (that is) which Antichrist would have them believe. A terrible combination when God and Satan are agreed to deceive a man! Yet what an encouragement to see God using Satan for His own purposes.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. For this cause Namely, that they first hated and rejected the love of the truth.
Shall send Rather, present tense, sends; or, as the mischief was already working while St. Paul was writing, is sending.
Strong delusion Greek, a working of deception, that is, the deceiving operations of the man of sin. God, as God of providence, sends these deceptive operations as part of our probation; not to make us sinful, but to afford us means of trial, triumph, and salvation. St. Paul is full and formal in tracing their perdition and their being deceived to their own previous volitional and responsible act, and their mental state in consequence of that act. But for that state and act the delusion would have been no delusion. But, for those who hate the truth, the events sent by the providence of God will furnish ample grounds for being deluded, if they please. Note, Rom 8:11.
That they should believe a lie Greek, to the result that they believe the lie. Men may infer, but the words do not say, that it was the divine intention that they should believe falsehood. It states only a result, a result which the believers were fully, as free agents, able to avoid. We reject the absurd statement of Alford, “whatever God permits, he ordains.” The non-prevention by God of the voluntary sin of a free agent is not the ordaining of it. All that St. Paul affirms here is, that God sends a working of deception (by its own will already existing) to these persons, who are voluntarily predisposed to it. One set of sinners gratifies the willingness to be damned of another set.
A lie Rather, THE lie. The stupendous systematic lie of the “man of sin.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And for this cause God sends them a working of error that they should believe the lie, that they all might be judged who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.’
When men spurn God’s Spirit the alternative is error. That was so in Gen 6:2, and is always so. When Pharaoh hardened his heart, God also began to harden his heart, for on one who was hardened His activity could only produce hardness. The same is true here. They did not want truth, so when God continued to work in them turning their thoughts to spiritual things, it could only produce error. And instead of believing the truth, their perverted minds believed ‘the lie’, the opposite of ‘the truth’, teaching suffused with error presented by the man of sin.
This will be contrasted in 2Th 2:13 with God’s working of truth in the hearts of those who are His. Both are His sovereign work. He will make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand unto glory, and endures with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction (Rom 9:22-23).
But what basically is ‘believing the lie’. It is to have the wrong attitude towards, and understanding of, God (Rom 1:25). To ignore the clear message of creation. It is to see that which is anti-God as being God, and to see God in what is merely part of this world. It is to listen to the whispering of Satan, as man first did in the Garden of Eden. And it leads to the worship of Nature and bestial lives (Rom 1:18-32).
But the result can only be that they will finally come under judgment, the judgment that is to follow the appearance of the man of sin. And that judgment will reveal that it was because they had pleasure in unrighteousness (‘delighted in wrongdoing’) that they did not believe the truth, and because they continued not to believe the truth that they continued to have pleasure in unrighteousness. The two go together. Not believing the truth will always result in having pleasure in unrighteousness, and having pleasure in unrighteousness will always result in not believing the truth. And it is because men have pleasure in unrighteousness that they will follow the man of sin until the inevitable day when they will be judged.
This principle is very important. When a man begins to lose his faith ask him in what way he wants to misbehave. Soon you will discover that his problem is not a rational one but a moral one.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2Th 2:11 . ] and on this account , refers to , 2Th 2:10 , and serves to bring forward the reciprocal relation between cause and effect.
] the present is chosen, because according to 2Th 2:7 the beginnings of lawlessness even now appeared. But the verbal idea is not, with Theodoret, John Damascenus, Theodore Mopsuestius, p. 148, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Pelagius, Nicolas de Lyra, Hunnius, Justinian, Wolf, Turretin, Whitby, Moldenhauer, Koppe, Heydenreich, Flatt, and others, to be weakened into the idea of the divine permission , but must be taken in its proper sense. For according to the Pauline view it is a holy ordinance of God that the wicked by their wickedness should lose themselves always the more in wickedness, and thus sin is punished by sin. But what is an ordinance of God is also accomplished by God Himself . See Meyer on Rom 1:24 .
] active power of seduction . On , see on 1Th 2:3 .
. . .] not a statement of the consequence (Macknight and others), but of the design of God . In a forced manner, Hofmann: belongs to .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2213
PROGRESS OF UNBELIEF
2Th 2:11-12. For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
THE Apostles, even as our Lord himself had done, spake of the day of judgment as near at hand. To individual souls it was so; because at the instant of our death our state is irrevocably and eternally fixed. But, as it respects the world at large, it was, and still is, far distant; there being many prophecies yet to be accomplished, previous to its arrival. The Thessalonian converts, interpreting too literally some expressions in St. Pauls former epistle, had formed an expectation that the day of judgment was almost instantly to appear: the Apostle therefore, in this epistle, rectifies the mistake; and informs them that before that time there would be a most grievous apostasy in the Church, which would issue most fatally to the souls of all who should bear a part in it. It would originate in unbelief, and terminate in perdition.
The words which I have just read will lead me to trace the progress of unbelief; from its commencement, in the rejection of the Gospel, to its termination, in the destruction of the soul. When suffered to prevail, it leads to,
I.
A wilful rejection of Gods mercy in Christ
It is not from a want of evidence that men reject the Gospel
[There is in the Gospel evidence enough to satisfy any candid inquirer. But men have an aversion to the truth. The Gospel requires of them a humiliation of soul, a renunciation of self-dependence, and a sanctity of heart and life, to which they are utterly indisposed. They love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil [Note: Joh 3:19.] ]
Their rejection of it arises altogether from an evil heart of unbelief [Note: Heb 3:12.]
[The Gospel offers salvation, salvation with eternal glory. But, however desirous men may be of happiness, they will not accept it on the terms proposed. The truth is offensive to their pride, their worldliness, their carnal inclinations; and therefore they hate it and will not receive it, even though, if received ill the love of it, it would save them [Note: ver. 10.].]
As the just punishment of this unfaithfulness, they are often left to experience,
II.
A dereliction of God to judicial blindness
Men, from love of error, often persuade themselves that it is truth
[There are no persons more confident than those who reject the Gospel. some will pour contempt upon it, as foolishness: others will make it a stumbling-block, as opposing some opinions which they are determined to maintain. And so resolutely will both the one and the other exclude all light from their minds, that they will not only hold fast their delusions, but will really believe their own lie ]
To this delusion God himself will often give them up
[His Spirit shall not alway strive with man. Both under the; Jewish and Christian dispensation, he has given over to a reprobate mind those who shut their eyes against the truth, and did not like to retain him in their knowledge [Note: Psa 81:11-12. Rom 1:28. Joh 12:39-40.]. Nor can there be any thing more just, than that, if we determinately join ourselves to idols, he should say, Let them alone [Note: Hos 4:17.].]
This sentence once passed, the obstinate unbeliever suffers,
III.
A final abandonment to everlasting damnation
The very thought of damnation is terrible in the extreme
[Who can contemplate what is implied in that judgment, and not tremble at it? ]
Yet, to that shall the unbeliever be finally consigned
[Plainly is this declared [Note: Joh 3:36.]: and our blessed Lord commanded all his servants to declare it to the whole world [Note: Mar 16:16.]. In truth, this is no other than the necessary consequence of unbelief: for the Gospel is the only remedy for the salvation of fallen man; and they who reject it have no other alternative than this. There is no medium between the salvation of the soul and its eternal condemnation: they who, through love of unrighteousness, disregard the one, must inevitably and eternally endure the other.]
Inquire then, I pray you,
1.
What is your disposition towards the Gospel?
[Do not too hastily conclude that you love it: for if you love it, you cannot but hate and abhor every kind of unrighteousness; yea, and Christ himself must be precious to your souls. Examine yourselves by such tests as these, before you persuade yourselves that you are in the faith: and remember, that there is nothing more fatal, or indeed more common, than an ungrounded confidence. Many are given over to a strong delusion; and so believe their own lie, that they will never admit a fear of damnation, till they are left to endure it without a remedy.]
2.
What are your prospects in the eternal world?
[If they who reject the Gospel are given over to damnation, need I say, what is the happy state of those who receive the Gospel? But, if I had the tongue of an angel, I could not adequately declare what salvation is. This however I can declare, that it is yours, it is yours infallibly, if you believe in Christ, and cast yourselves altogether on him. Nothing have you to fear, if He be yours: for in him you have both righteousness and strength; righteousness, to justify you before God; and strength, to fulfil his holy will. Look then to the Saviour, and you may regard heaven as yours. Look to the Saviour; and, as from Pisgahs top, you may survey the promised land, and live in the sweet anticipation of all its blessedness and glory.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
Ver. 11. Strong delusion ] Gr. the efficacy of error. As in those at Genoa, that show the ass’s tail whereupon our Saviour rode, for a holy relic, and perform divine worship to it. (Wolph. Mem. Lect.) And in those that wear out the marble crosses graven in the pavements of their churches, with their often kissing them. (Spec. Europ.) The crucifix which is in the city of Burgos, the priests show to great personages, as if it were Christ himself; telling them that his hair and nails do grow miraculously, which they cut and pare monthly, and give to noblemen, as holy relics. The Jesuits confess that the legend of miracles of their saints is for the most part false; but it was made for good intention: and herein, that it is lawful and meritorious to lie, and write such things, to the end the common people might with greater zeal serve God and his saints; and especially to draw the women to good order, being by nature facile and credulous, addicted to novelties and miracles. (Spanish Pilgr.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11 .] And on this account (because they did not receive, &c.) God is sending to them (not, as E.V., following rec., ‘ shall send :’ the verb is present , because the mystery of iniquity is already working. must not for a moment be understood of permissiveness only on God’s part He is the judicial sender and doer it is He who hardens the heart which has chosen the evil way. All such distinctions are the merest folly: whatever God permits , He ordains ) the working of error (is causing these seducing influences to work among them. The E. V. has weakened, indeed almost stultified the sentence, by rendering . ‘ a strong delusion ,’ i.e. the passive state resulting, instead of the active cause), in order that they should believe the falsehood (which the mystery of sin is working among them. It is better here to take definite, referring to what has gone before, than abstract), that (the higher or ultimate purpose of God) all might be judged (i.e. here ‘ condemned ,’ by the context) who did not (looking back over their time of probation) believe the truth, but found pleasure in iniquity .
I have above given the rendering of this important passage. For the history and criticism of its interpretation, see the Prolegomena, v.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Th 2:11 . An echo of the primitive Semitic view (still extant, cf. Curtis’s Prim. Sem. Religion To-Day , pp. 69 f.), that God may deliberately lead men astray, or permit them to be fatally infatuated, as a penal discipline ( cf. Ps. Sol. 8:15; Test. XII. Patr. Dan. ix.). A modern would view the same phenomenon as wilful scepticism issuing in superstition, or in inability to distinguish truth from falsehood. Delusions of this kind cannot befall believers ( cf. Mar 13:22 ; Test. Issach. iii.). In Test. Napht. iii. 3, idols are ( cf. Test. Levi. iii. 3, etc.).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
for this cause = because of (App-104. 2Th 2:2) this.
send. App-174.
strong delusion = a working (2Th 2:9) of error (Greek. plane, as Rom 1:27).
believe. App-150.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
11.] And on this account (because they did not receive, &c.) God is sending to them (not, as E.V., following rec., shall send: the verb is present, because the mystery of iniquity is already working. must not for a moment be understood of permissiveness only on Gods part-He is the judicial sender and doer-it is He who hardens the heart which has chosen the evil way. All such distinctions are the merest folly: whatever God permits, He ordains) the working of error (is causing these seducing influences to work among them. The E. V. has weakened, indeed almost stultified the sentence, by rendering . a strong delusion, i.e. the passive state resulting, instead of the active cause), in order that they should believe the falsehood (which the mystery of sin is working among them. It is better here to take definite, referring to what has gone before, than abstract),-that (the higher or ultimate purpose of God) all might be judged (i.e. here condemned, by the context) who did not (looking back over their time of probation) believe the truth, but found pleasure in iniquity.
I have above given the rendering of this important passage. For the history and criticism of its interpretation, see the Prolegomena, v.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Th 2:11. , of error) [Engl. Vers. , strong delusion,] which is in Antichrist.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Th 2:11
And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie:-When one knows the truth and refuses to obey it. he is a fit subject for following any delusion that sweeps over the land. The prophet teaches the same thing: Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations: I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I delighted not. (Isa 66:3-4.) This teaches plainly that when men know the truth, refuse to receive it in the love of it, refuse to obey it, they hold it in unrighteousness, and God sends strong delusions upon them that they should believe a lie.
[Of all fatal effects of sin, none looks so dreadfully, none strikes so just an horror into considering minds as that every sinful action a man does naturally disposes him to do anything so ill, that it does not prove a preparative and introduction to the doing of something worse.]
The number of men who are willing to work on either side of a question that will pay would be surprising to those not in position to know and who have not become accustomed to such things. It is the discouraging feature about the work of the churches today. So few men are willing to stand to their convictions-nay are willing to have convictions on any subject that will interfere with their worldly success. But truth can never be maintained, save by those who are willing to honor their own convictions, cherish a keen sense of right, are afraid of the least participation in that which is wrong, and will honor and maintain the truth, let it cost what it may of popularity or private prosperity. Let us, then, drink deeply of the essence of the spirit of Christ. Without it the Christian religion cannot exist,
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
for: Psa 81:11, Psa 81:12, Psa 109:17, Isa 29:9-14, Joh 12:39-43, Rom 1:21-25, Rom 1:28
God: 1Ki 22:18-22, 2Ch 18:18-22, Isa 6:9, Isa 6:10, Eze 14:9
that: Isa 44:20, Isa 66:4, Jer 27:10, Eze 21:29, Mat 24:5, Mat 24:11, 1Ti 4:1
Reciprocal: Gen 20:6 – sinning Gen 39:19 – heard Exo 10:20 – General Lev 13:29 – General Deu 13:3 – proveth Jdg 9:23 – God 1Sa 18:10 – and he prophesied 2Sa 24:1 – moved 2Ch 18:19 – Who shall entice Psa 69:27 – Add Isa 19:14 – hath mingled Isa 30:28 – causing Isa 63:17 – why Eze 12:2 – which Eze 13:6 – made Eze 20:39 – Go ye Hos 5:4 – They will not frame their doings Hos 10:2 – Their heart is divided Mic 2:11 – he shall Mat 13:15 – their eyes Act 19:35 – and of 2Ti 3:13 – being
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Th 2:11-12. And for this cause. Because of the conditions just described, these people who are devoted to the pope and his system, will receive some deserved punishmnet. Strong delusion. This phrase is rendered “a working of error” by the Englishman’s Greek New Testament. A correct and short term would be “active errors.” The word that is a poor translation for it is from EIS, and that word has the idea of “unto” or “to the end that” or “with the result that.” It is a statement of what results from the thing spoken of, and not intended as a term to show any motive on the part of God. Also, God sends things in other ways than by direct force; sometimes it is done merely by suffering a thing to happen. In Rom 11:8 it is stated that “God hath given them the spirit of slumber,” yet we know it only means that He had given them over to their own determination to be blind to the truth. So in our passage it is preceded by the statement “they received not the love of the truth.” For that reason God determined to “let them have their own determined way,” and in so doing He sent them these errors that were so active that it resulted in their believing the lies of the leaders of the pope’s system; this agrees also with verse 12. It does not say that they all would be damned because God had arbitrarily decreed it so, but it was because they “believed not the truth, and had pleasure in unrighteousness.” That is the principle upon which God has always dealt with mankind. The Bible in no place teaches that God ever forces a man to sin, then punishes him for the wrong-doing. Neither does He compel man against his will to do right, but has always offered him proper inducements for righteous conduct, then left it to his own responsibility to decide what he will do about it.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The sin of those who are seduced by Antichrist was mentioned in the foregoing verse, the judgment of such is here declared in these verses, which is twofold, delusion in this world, and damnation in the next.
1. Delusion in this world.
Here note, 1. The author of this judgment, God shall send them strong delusions; as it is a sin, God has no hand in it; but as it is a punishment, God has to do in it; there is a judicial traduction or delivering them up to a spirit of error, who do not receive the truth in the love of it, and this without the least shadow of unrighteousness, punishing sin with sin.
Note, 2. The degree or nature of the punishment: delusions, strong delusions: given up to the efficacy of error, which is discovered by the absurdity of those errors which they cleave unto, and by the obstinacy wherewith they cleave unto them.
Learn hence, (1.) That strong delusions may be, and sometimes are, of God’s own sending.
(2.) That by God’s just judgment there is an infatuation upon the followers and abettors of Antichrist, that they swallow the grossest errors, and believe the strongest delusions, to their own destruction.
Note, 3. The issue and result of this punishment, That they should believe a lie; false doctrines are often called a lie in scripture: all the doctrine of the man of sin, with which he hath deceived the world, under the notion of truth, is one great lie; but beside this, he approves and applauds the doctrine of equivocation, and teaches, that in many cases it is necessary, and in some very lawful, to lie; these they call pious frauds, but they are indeed diabolical forgeries.
Observe, 2. Their dreadful punishment in the other world, That they all might be damned, &c.
Where mark, the punishment itself, damnation, for filling up the measure of their obduration, together with the justice and equity of it; expressed negatively, they believed not the truth, received it not with simplicity of mind, to be instructed and directed by it; positively, they had pleasure in unrighteousness, in unrighteous doctrines and practices.
Learn hence, 1. That errors in judgment, as well as sins in practice, may bring damnation upon the soul’s of men. Error is as damnable as vice, for it is as contrary to the law of God as vice is.
Learn, 2. That though all errors may bring damnation upon men’s souls, yet some may be said more especially than others to be damning errors; such are the errors of Antichrist, the man of sin.
Oh, how dangerous then it is to be found amongst his followers! To be sharers with them in their sins, will render us partakers of their plagues.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
2Th 2:11-12. For this cause God shall send them That is, shall judicially permit to come upon them; strong delusion The strong working of error in their hearts. From this we learn that, as a punishment of their sins, God suffers wicked men to fall into greater sins; and as the sin of the persons described in this passage consisted in their not loving the truth, what could be more just or proper than to punish them, by suffering them to fall into the belief of the greatest errors and lies? Thus the heathen, mentioned Rom 1:24, were punished by Gods giving them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts; that they should believe a lie Or, as the words may be translated, so that they will believe a lie. The lie here intended by the Spirit of God, Macknight thinks, is the monstrous lie of transubstantiation, or of the conversion of the bread and wine in the Lords supper into the real identical body and blood of Christ, through the will of the priest accompanying his pronouncing the words of institution; notwithstanding there is no change whatever produced in the accidents or sensible qualities of these substances. This impudent fiction is not only a palpable contradiction to the senses and reason of mankind, but a most pernicious falsehood, being the chief foundation of that fictitious power of pardoning sin, and of saving or damning men according to their own pleasure, which the Romish ecclesiastics have blasphemously arrogated to themselves, and by which they make men utterly negligent of holiness, and of all the ordinary duties of life. That they all might be damned , might be judged, or condemned; that is, the consequence of which will be, that, having filled up the measure of their iniquity, they will at length fall into just condemnation; who believed not the truth Received not the gospel in faith, love, and obedience; but had pleasure in unrighteousness In corrupt passions and vicious practices. The original expression, signifies both to take pleasure in a thing, and to approve of it. From this we learn that it is not the simple ignorance of truth which exposes men to damnation. In many cases this may be no fault in the ignorant. But it is mens refusing to believe, through their taking pleasure in unrighteousness, which will prove fatal to them; for a disposition of that sort renders the wicked altogether incurable. Such is the interpretation which Bishop Newton, in his admirable work on the Prophecies, Dr. Macknight, and many other approved commentators, have given of this famous prophecy; an interpretation which applies with great ease to all the facts and circumstances mentioned in it, and is perfectly consistent in all its parts, which no other interpretation invented by learned men can be shown to be. The passage is evidently a prediction, as the above-mentioned divines have fully proved, of the corruptions of Christianity, which began to be introduced into the church in the apostles days, and wrought secretly all the time the heathen magistrates persecuted the Christians, but which showed themselves more openly after the empire received the faith of Christ, A.D. 312, and by a gradual progress ended in the monstrous errors and usurpations of the bishops of Rome, when the restraining power of the emperors was taken out of the way, by the incursions of the barbarous nations, and the breaking of the empire into the ten kingdoms prefigured by the ten horns of Daniels fourth beast. To be convinced of this, the reader need only compare the rise and progress of the Papal tyranny with the descriptions of the man of sin, and of the mystery of iniquity here given, and with the prophecies of Daniel. In the bishops of Rome all the characters and actions ascribed by Daniel to the little horn, and by Paul to the lawless one, are clearly united. For, according to the strong working of Satan, with all power and signs, and miracles of falsehood, they have opposed Christ, and exalted themselves above all that is called God, or an object of worship; and have long sat in the temple of God as God, showing themselves that they are God; that is, they exercise the power and prerogatives of God. And seeing, in the acquisition and exercise of their spiritual tyranny, they have trampled upon all laws, human and divine, and have encouraged their votaries in the most enormous acts of wickedness, the Spirit of God hath, with the greatest propriety, given them the appellations of the man of sin, the son of perdition, and the lawless one. Further, as it is said that the man of sin was to be revealed in his season, there can be little doubt that the dark ages, in which all learning was overturned by the irruption of the northern barbarians, were the season allotted to the man of sin for revealing himself. Accordingly we know that in these ages the corruptions of Christianity, and the usurpations of the clergy, were carried to the greatest height. In short, the annals of the world cannot produce persons and events, to which the things written in this passage can be applied with so much fitness, as to the bishops of Rome. Why then should we be in any doubt concerning the interpretation and application of this famous prophecy? Macknight.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error [the threefold working of error mentioned in verse 9], that they should believe a lie:
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 11
Send them strong delusion; open before them the way of delusion and sin,–since they desired and sought it. There has been a great deal of discussion, and a great variety of opinions, in regard to the person or power intended by is prediction. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-12.) Some commentators understand it to refer to pagan persecutions that were to occur in those days, and to precede the destruction of Jerusalem, which they suppose to have been intended by the coming of Christ. (2 Thessalonians 2:2.) Protestant commentators have very extensively applied the description to the Roman hierarchy, to the usurpations and abuses of which the particulars of the description in many respects correspond. Others have considered it as referring to a malignant influence against the cause of God, yet to be developed.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:11 And for this cause God shall send them {n} strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
(n) A most mighty working to deceive them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Thousands of people, but only a small proportion of the entire population, will place their faith in Jesus Christ during the Tribulation (Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:4; Rev 7:9-17; et al.). Some interpreters have concluded from these verses (2Th 2:11-12) that no one who has heard the gospel and rejected it before the Rapture will be able to be saved during the Tribulation. This view rests on taking the antecedents of "them" and "they" as being "those who perish" (2Th 2:10) and interpreting "those who perish" as those who heard but rejected the gospel before the Rapture. However it seems more likely that 2Th 2:10 describes all unbelievers in the Tribulation, not just those who heard and rejected the gospel before the Rapture. Satan’s power, signs, wonders, and evil deception (2Th 2:9-10) will impress all people living on the earth during the Tribulation. Paul could say that those people do not receive "the love of the truth so as to be saved" (2Th 2:10) and they "did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness" (2Th 2:12). He could do so since these phrases describe all unbelievers, not just those who hear the gospel and willfully rejected it before the Rapture (cf. Joh 3:19, Rom 1:24-32). [Note: See Larry R. Thornton, "Salvation in the Tribulation in Light of God’s ’Working unto Delusion’," Calvary Baptist Theological Journal 3:2 (Fall 1987):26-49.]
"By ’the lie ["what is false"]’ is apparently meant the denial of the fundamental truth that God is God; it is the rejection of his self-revelation as Creator and Savior, righteous and merciful Judge of all, which leads to the worship due to him alone being offered to another, such as the ’man of lawlessness.’" [Note: Bruce, p. 174.]
"It is a solemn thought that when men begin by rejecting the good they inevitably end by forwarding evil." [Note: Morris, The Epistles . . ., p. 134.]
If Paul wanted to correct the Thessalonians’ erroneous conclusion that they were in the day of the Lord, why did he not just tell them that the Rapture had not yet taken place? Evidently he did not do so because he wanted to reemphasize the order of events resulting in the culmination and destruction of lawlessness in the world. Lawlessness was their concern.
Paul’s readers could, therefore, be confident that the day of the Lord had not yet begun. The tribulations they were experiencing were not those of the day of the Lord about which Paul had taught them while he was with them. Furthermore three prerequisite events had not yet taken place. These were the departure from the Word of God by many (2Th 2:3), the removal of the restrainer at the Rapture (2Th 2:7), and the revelation of the man of lawlessness, Antichrist (2Th 2:3). This is the chronological order of these events. [Note: For a helpful summary of posttribulational interpretations of these verses, see John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, chapter 10: "Is the Tribulation Before the Rapture in 2 Thessalonians?"]