BLOG

Second Thessalonians, part 8, The Delusion

2 Thessalonians 2:11 says,

¹¹ For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.

“Deluding influence” is energeian planes, “an operation of error” or “an effective working of delusion.”

This is judicial rather than arbitrary. God does not first prevent sincere truth-seekers from believing and then punish them. Jeremiah 29:13 tells us,

¹³ You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Verse 10 gives the cause: they refused the love of the truth. God then gives them over to the consequences of their choice. Any time a person rejects a portion of the word of God, he/she becomes blind in that area. A person who continually rejects truth eventually loses the ability to distinguish truth from the preferred lie. The delusion becomes punishment because it places the person under the power of his own falsehood.

This resembles Romans 1:24, “God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts.” Divine judgment causes hidden motives to mature and become visible.

The Lie

The Greek text says tō pseudei, which may be translated “the lie,” not merely “a lie.” The lie is a specific falsehood that one believes while rejecting the plain word of God. The man of lawlessness embodies that lie by usurping the place of Christ and seizing the throne in God’s temple, presenting himself as possessing divine authority. This is “the antichrist,” but many Christians are unaware of the antichrist precedent in Absalom. Hence, they misinterpret antichrist in the New Testament.

Then by rejecting the law, they become blind to the prophetic revelation of the law and fail to understand properly the difference between the two covenants. Hence, they are deluded into supporting the antichrist and even justify his lawless ways. Those who follow or support the usurper and reject the truth of Christ become blind to the truth and suffer the consequences.

2 Thessalonians 2:12 continues,

¹² In order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

Their judgment rests upon two related choices: they did not believe the truth, and they took pleasure in wickedness. The second explains the first. Their unbelief was not purely intellectual. They preferred a falsehood that justified the desires of the flesh. This is always the root problem. Paul himself confronted it in Romans 7:22, 23,

²² For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, ²³ but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

This was a conflict between the old man of flesh and the new man begotten by the Spirit. The flesh follows “the law of sin,” which is “lawlessness” (1 John 3:4), while the spiritual man concurs with the law of God. Those who teach that the law of God has been put away are following the commands of the law of sin.

“Took pleasure” translates eudokeō, to approve, delight in, or consent to something. They do not merely commit unrighteousness reluctantly; they give it their approval.

This principle applies especially to religious and governmental systems. People may accept obvious injustice when it benefits their group, confirms their tradition, or preserves their authority. Having ceased to love truth impartially, they become convinced that their favored system represents God. That, in fact, is the “delusion.”

This process was already visible in the first century. Judas was called “the son of destruction”; Caiaphas used temple authority to condemn Christ; the chief priests chose Caesar; and the Judaizers sought to place believers back under the fleshly Old Covenant order. Yet Paul’s language allows that mystery to develop into a broader religious-political system before its final exposure at the end of the age.

The central issue is competing authority. The lawless one claims God’s seat through deception, but Christ possesses the throne by divine appointment. When Christ’s presence is unveiled—in His word, Spirit, saints, and ultimately His open rule—the counterfeit authority is exposed and deprived of power.

Chosen for Salvation

In contrast to those blinded by lawless delusion, 2 Thessalonians 2:13 says,

¹³ But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

“But” marks a sharp contrast with verses 10–12. He now turns to the Thessalonian believers and gives thanks because their response has been the opposite: they believed the truth, received the gospel, and were being sanctified by the Spirit.

Paul calls them “brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord.” The word isēgapēmenoi, a perfect passive participle: they had been loved and continued in the condition of being loved. This is an important reassurance after Paul’s description of persecution and deception. Their suffering did not indicate divine rejection or judgment. They were New Covenant believers and were not lawless. They were loved by Christ even while the world treated them as outcasts.

From the Beginning

“We should” translates opheilomen, “we owe” or “we are obligated.” Paul used the same expression in 2 Thessalonians 1:3. He considered thanksgiving a debt owed to God because the Thessalonians’ faith was evidence of God’s work in them. Paul did not congratulate himself for having persuaded them. He thanked God for opening their hearts to the truth.

Some manuscripts read ap’ archēs — “from the beginning.” Other early manuscripts read aparchēn — “as firstfruits.” The NASB traditionally follows “from the beginning,” while some modern critical editions and translations favor “as firstfruits.”

The difference in Greek is small, which probably explains the manuscript variation. Ivan Panin’s Numeric English New Testament established the correct (inspired) Greek text according to the underlying numeric pattern as ap’ archēs — “from the beginning.”

If the reading is “from the beginning,” Paul means that God’s purpose preceded their response. Their salvation was not an emergency measure devised after they believed; it belonged to God’s prior plan. This recalls Ephesians 1:4, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”

God “Chose” Them

“Chosen” translates haireomai, meaning to choose or select for oneself. It emphasizes deliberate selection. God chose them “for salvation.” The Greek preposition eis expresses direction toward a purpose or goal. Their election was not merely to enjoy private privilege; it was directed toward salvation and participation in Christ’s glory.

Election in Scripture normally carries responsibility. God chooses some earlier than others so that they may serve His larger purpose. Abraham’s children were chosen to bless all nations, so it was assumed that the Israelites as a whole were “chosen.” But this view had to be modified after most of the Israelites themselves failed to fulfill the Abrahamic calling. So Jesus said in Matthew 22:14, “many are called, but few are chosen.” Paul limited Abraham’s children to those having genuine faith in Christ (Galatians 3:7, 29).

Paul later explained this in greater detail in Romans 11:1-7. In verse 7 Paul concludes that “those who were chosen obtained it [the calling], and the rest were hardened.” Hence, the “chosen” ones were not those who were biological Israelites but those who were part of the tiny remnant of grace. The basis of “election” is God’s choice, which in turn is based not on the law of biogenesis but upon “the law of faith” (Romans 3:27).

To claim that a particular genealogical group is “chosen” on account of their biology is part of the delusion that violates the law of faith and the mind of God itself.

Sanctification by the Spirit

God’s choice reaches its purpose through “sanctification of/by the Spirit.” Hagiasmos means consecration, holiness, or the process of being set apart for God. Salvation is not merely a legal declaration concerning the believer; it includes an inward work by which the Spirit conforms the believer to Christ. In fact, the inward work of the Spirit gives evidence of being chosen.

The Spirit separates people from the world’s lawless order and dedicates them to divine service. This sanctification develops progressively as the Spirit writes God’s law upon the heart, allowing them to teach and judge others by the standard of God’s righteous nature. Yet there were priests who were lawless (such as Eli and his sons), who exhibited no evidence of being “chosen” because they were not filled with the Spirit. Their biology did not seem to impress God at all.

Paul does not contrast Spirit with law as though the Spirit produces lawlessness. In fact, Paul says plainly that “the law is spiritual” (Romans 7:14). He contrasts the Spirit’s inward work with fleshly attempts at righteousness. The Old Covenant commanded obedience from the outside; the New Covenant empowers it from within.

To revert back to Old Covenant thinking—even while claiming to be under the New Covenant—is part of the great delusion. This delusion was already present in Paul’s time, but it is now reaching its climax today. Darby’s “dispensationalist” notion that the age of law (ending at the cross) was “suspended” for a season and that the age of grace filled in a gap temporarily that would then be resumed at the second coming of Christ. Accompanying this, Darby and later Scofield advocated what came to be known as Zionism.

These teachings seeded a strong delusion in the minds of believers, causing them to expect (and support) a reversion to Old Covenant worship and lawlessness that feeds fleshly desire.