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This lesson deals with a very pertinent issue for the last days before Christ's second coming. In fact, Paul's subject in Second Thessalonians is the events of the last days and what the church would face and witness. After spending the first chapter encouraging the church to be strong in persecution, Paul then began in the second chapter to teach about the coming of the Lord, and what must take place before Jesus returns. After giving information about the working of the spirit of the antichrist, and the coming of the antichrist himself, Paul began to discuss the spiritual climate of the end times. The strongest prophecy in this book is our text which foretold that God would send a strong delusion and cause the unrighteous to believe a lie! This lesson will deal with the pressing questions that arise from this verse of scripture, namely, "what exactly is the strong delusion," and "why would a holy God send a spirit of delusion to people?" If we are in the last days before Christ's second coming, then we should be able to witness this delusion today.

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We must remember that God is bound to His Word. That is, God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19). The Bible contains prophecies that are still unfulfilled but before time ends, all of them will have come to pass exactly as He said they would. God's Word is sure and so are His promises! This is a positive teaching for Christians today for if God has made you a promise, and it has not come to pass as yet, it will, for God cannot lie and He is bound to His Word.

There is a negative sense to the surety of God's Word, though, for just as God has made promises of what He will do for those who step out on faith and respond to His Word, so has He made a promise to reward the wicked for their sins. That is why we must strive to apply all of God's Word to every area of our life. That is why we must never quench the Spirit of God by not allowing it to change our lives or lifestyles. That is also why we must get power over our sinful lifestyles and not continue in sin simply because we know that forgiveness is possible. The Bible clearly states that a sinful lifestyle will not enter into eternal life (Revelation 21:27). That is why a Spirit-filled Christian must allow the Spirit of God to change us until we no longer live sinful lifestyles. If we do fall and sin, we must be quick to repent and find a place of restoration at the feet of Jesus Christ as we have talked about the last three lessons.

The Bible teaches us that the Word of God is a "two-edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12). Every promise in the Bible is both a blessing to those who obey, and a curse to those who do not live for God. One example of such a two-sided promise of God is very pertinent to understanding our text:

God will give the desires of our heart! He will satisfy the desire of every living thing! When we pray, we must pray from our heart, because that is what God will answer! God will bless us according to what promises we want Him to fulfill, and that is why we must study the Word, and listen to a man of God explain how God wants to bless, so that we know what and how to ask God to bless us! This is the positive side of this promise: how exciting it is living for God when we realize that He will give us power over sin, and blessings, miracles, and gifts when we really desire for His will to be done in our lives and trust Him completely!

The other side of this promise is that sometimes people desire something that is not God's will. Some people become consumed by one thing and that one thing becomes their heart's desire. They pray and ask God repeatedly to fulfill their one burning desire, but do not pray whether or not it is God's will. God then finally gives them the desires of their heart and when they get it, the person realizes that they really did not need what they prayed for so earnestly. For example, I have known people to pray for a job that would allow them to move from their city. They prayed and prayed and became obsessed with moving to another city and a new job, and finally, even though it was not His perfect will, God satisfied their desire and gave them a new job in a new city. Then when the people got there, they realized that they were not happy in the new city, that they really had it good at their old job, and that they were spiritually dying! In frustration, they cried out unto God, "Why did you open this door?," not realizing that their own persistence caused God to obey His Word!

This is why James taught us to ALWAYS pray according to God's Will (James 4:13-15). James taught the early church in these scriptures that it was a sin to leave God's will out of our prayers and desires. We should pray "if it be thy will, Lord do this," NOT "God, I've got to have this or this." One reason James gave was that we do not know what tomorrow holds, and by saying that "no matter what" we will do something in the future, we make ourselves a god. God alone knows what will happen in the future and what we need to make it through coming situations, therefore our prayer must always be according to God's Will. When Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray, He taught them to never make one request until they had prayed for God to have His will on earth and in their lives (Luke 11:1-2).

Keep in mind that some things are ALWAYS God's will. You never have to pray whether or not God wants you to follow the plan of salvation and repent, be baptized, or receive the Holy Ghost for it is not the will of God for any man to perish and for all to have eternal life (II Peter 3:9). You never have to pray if it is God's will for you to forgive someone or stop sinning. Likewise, it is always God's will for you to love your neighbor as yourself. However, in other areas of life, such as future plans and goals, we must always pray "if it be thy will." The only thing more frustrating than being out of the will of God is to be there because you did not pray according to God's Will. A great peace comes when we trust God's Will for every area of our future life! God will satisfy the desires of our heart, but we must make sure that the desires of our heart match the Perfect Will of God!

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Keeping these principles in mind and understanding the context of our text verse, let's return to our text and examine it closely.

First notice that those given over to the strong delusion did not "love the truth." When Jesus was in trial before His crucifixion, Pilate asked Jesus if He was a king, and Jesus responded that He had come into the world to bring truth and "every one that is of truth" heard his voice. Pilate responded by asking a question that many men have asked since when he threw up his hands and said "what is truth?" (John 18:37-38). Sadly, Pilate never waited for an answer and walked away from the One who had brought truth and eventually crucified Him. Pilate knew what the truth was, but to admit that Jesus was the Messiah, would have cost him his political power. Because Pilate did not love the truth enough to give up his selfish dreams, he gave into the lie of the Jews that Jesus deserved to die.

John 17:17 states that God's Word is truth. All of God's Word is truth, not just what people want to hear, and this why we must base our life and doctrine on all of what God's Word has to say on a subject. When God's Word contradicts their philosophy, many people today respond like Pilate and walk away from Jesus saying "what is truth?" We must diligently study the Word of God and make sure our experience, our doctrine, and our views conform and obey ALL of God's Word for to do so is to love truth.

There is another scripture that defines truth.

Many people today deny that Jesus is God in flesh and that there is only one God! As we have already discussed in the last lesson, the one Jehovah God of the Old Testament is the One God of the New Testament and His name is Jesus (Acts 4:12, Isaiah 9:6, Phillipians 2:10-11). When people reject that Jesus is the one God of scripture and is the Father and the Son, they reject the true identity of the man who is "truth!" Many people still stubbornly hold onto traditions of men such as a trinity of three persons in the Godhead and other baptismal formulas beside immersion in Jesus' name! Tradition does not save us though, and we must sure to obey ALL the scriptures on a subject. To not do so is to not love truth. Many men today do not want to hear what the scriptures say, but rather trust in whatever their church creeds or traditions tell them over the Word of God. When faced with a verse that contradicts their tradition, they choose tradition over truth!

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Because they received not a love for truth, our verse states, then God sent a strong delusion to them. The word delusion is "planay" in the Greek. It is also translated as "deceived" and "to err." Jesus placed a great importance on making sure a person was not deceived or "planay." Notice the strong way and warning that use the word for delusion in the Greek, "planay."

Jesus knew that men could be deceived and warned HIS DISCIPLES against such a delusion. Some people want "to twist God's arm or scripture" and make Him fulfill their plan but we need to beware that there are some people who seem to have a relationship with God that are in fact deceivers! Remember that there is a vast difference between using God and being used of God! Not everyone who did marvelous miracles in Jesus' name will enter into heaven (Matthew 7:21-23).

Paul joined with Jesus in teaching about making sure that we are not deceived by false teachers. Paul warned us that certain sins would not enter into the kingdom of God and warned against men who would teach that sin could enter into heaven. Today there are many churches that teach that a man can live a sinful lifestyle as "long as he is saved," and that no matter what abominations that men do, they are "saved." Paul warned us to not be deceived by the delusion of such teachers, and addressed this issue several times:

James the brother of Jesus even joined in with Paul and Jesus teaching on not being deceived by people who teach that you can continue in sin "after you are saved" and still make it to everlasting life:

In summary, if a person can join a church and are told they are saved and there is not a true repentance, a water baptism in Jesus' name, and a receiving of the Holy Ghost with evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance which causes them to live differently than their previous lifestyle, then that person has not been taught the truth and is in the process of being deceived! We are to be a new creature in Christ Jesus, and must be "born again." If there is no change in our lives or habits after conversion, then we have really not been converted! Some people do not want to hear the truth of God's Word on a subject as it would cause them to change their tradition or sinful lifestyles. These people want to believe in an "easier religion" so much that God causes them to believe a lie, but they are not saved, they have received a delusion!

There is also a story in the Old Testament that corresponds with God causing a person to believe a lie. Some people are very uncomfortable with the fact that God would send a delusion, but notice the following story of Micaiah and King Ahab:

To understand this passage of scripture completely, we need to realize that Ahab had rejected God repeatedly through his reign as king. God had sent Elijah to rebuke his sin, and Ahab had still allowed his wife Jezebel to provoke him to sin. Ahab had passed a decree that anyone who worshipped the true God of Israel would be put to death and that all of the Israelites had to worship the idol of Baal. Because of his blatant sinfulness and false repenting, God rejected Ahab and allowed him to believe what he wanted to believe.

In this story, Ahab was going to war and wanted so bad for it be God's will so he called for false prophets and prophets of idols and asked them what they thought. All of the false prophets told Ahab that it was God's will to go into battle and that he would get sure victory. Then some one asked about a true prophet of God, Micaiah, and asked the king if he wanted his opinion. King Ahab responded that he "hated" Micaiah because he always prophesied evil to him (I Kings 22:8). In truth Micaiah told King Ahab the true word of the Lord, which the king did not want to hear because it would cause a change in his lifestyle an fleshly pursuits.

A servant was sent to get Micaiah, and the servant warned the prophet that all of the "other prophets" had prophesied favorably toward the king (vs 9-14). When Micaiah came to the king, he very sarcastically gave a false prophecy of victory for the king, at which Ahab became enraged and demanded Micaiah to tell him the truth (vs 16)! King Ahab knew what the truth was all along, but had wanted a man of God who would tell him what he wanted to hear! This is the way some people are today, if they hear a teaching from the Word of God that they do not want to obey, then they simply go find another "minister" that will tell them what they want to hear. God's Word, however, does not change and they are simply setting themselves up for a strong delusion from truth!

Micaiah began to tell Ahab a vision that God had given him about the circumstances. The scene is a portrait of God's throne in heaven very similar to the story in Job where Satan appeared with other angels before God and received permission to tempt Job (Job 1:6-12) From these stories we learn that even evil spirits still have access to God's throne and that God can even use evil spirits for His ultimate purpose! In Micaiah's vision, God asked which angelic being would go convince Ahab to go into battle so that he might die according to the words that the prophet Elijah had foretold. An evil spirit, a lying spirit came and told God that he would go and so God sent an evil, lying spirit to the false prophets to tell Ahab it was God's will to go into battle!

There are many important lessons to be learned from this passage of scripture. First, notice that God is in control of all things. Second, the lying spirit was FROM the Lord but not OF the Lord. Third, the reason that God allowed the lying spirit to go forth was to fulfill the desires of Ahab's wicked heart.

The false prophets that prophesied to Ahab really heard a word from the Lord, but because they had rejected truth, they did not realize that it was a strong delusion. They really felt a spiritual presence when they prophesied and prayed. The spiritual presence that they felt was not the Holy Spirit however, but a lying spirit because these men and the king had rejected the truth of God's Word!

Many people who reject the truth of Jesus being God, Jesus' name baptism, and infilling of the Holy Spirit do so by ignoring scriptures that do not fit their theology. There is an extreme danger in not allowing the truth of the Word of God to change us because if God's Word is not the governing factor of our life, then we open ourselves to desires that are not according to God's will. That is, if a person wants to believe something bad enough, God will not stop them, and if that person repeatedly rejects truth, God will give them over to a strong delusion. They will feel a spiritual presence from the Lord, and will even hear a message from the Lord, but it is a strong delusion because they did not love the truth! The delusion is from God but not OF God!

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Paul talked about people that had received such a delusion from God even in his day. Notice the following scripture and how it parallels our lesson on the strong delusion:

These people knew God but refused to glorify Him as God and thus became fools through the darkening of their hearts.

These people then stopped worshipping God Himself and began to worship idols. It is amazing how many people today are content to worship idols and statues of saints and even Jesus Christ Himself when the second of the ten commandments forbade even making and worshipping anything that was in heaven (Exodus 20:4-6)!

God then allowed them to fulfill the lusts of their flesh and live in sin and defile their bodies with their sinful lifestyles, because they loved not the truth and changed it!

The next step in this digression was "vile affections" and rampant homosexuality. What a portrait of mainstream America that this scripture is! We were founded on the premise of serving the one God, and then have changed our religion to one of idols. Most Americans spend more time making money and pleasure than serving God and when anything is more important than God, it becomes an idol. Is it any wonder that the majority of our churches pollute or corrupt the scriptures to fit their own lifestyle? And what Paul said would happen, blatant homosexuality, has happened in our own nation so much so if a preacher stands upon God's word and denounces it as sin, they are looked upon with contempt as being "jugdmental" to an "alternate lifestyle." What God calls sin is now just another way to live!

God gave them over to a reprobate mind because they did not get a love for truth! How many of our society have a "relationship with God" and "feel God's Spirit" but are being deceived and have received a strong delusion?!

These verses are a fair portrait of our society today, and one only has to read a newspaper to document that fact. Our nation does not love truth because truth would cause us to change our lifestyles, repent, and crucify our flesh! There is a danger to rejecting the truth, though, because if a person wants to believe that they are okay long enough, God will send a strong delusion and allow them to believe anything that they want!

I do not want a spirit from God that is not the Holy Spirit! I do not want to live deceived and believe a lie and be damned! I must base everything that I do and live and teach upon the Word of God which is the ONLY authority of what to teach (II Timothy 3:16). If a person is "moved on by a spirit from God" to tell me something that contradicts God's Word, then I must be wary, for it is possible to receive a strong delusion from God!

Paul repeatedly warned against people changing the basic message of salvation.

The gospel that Paul preached is beautifully illustrated in Acts chapter 19 when he asked the disciples of John the Baptist "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" (vs 2) Paul then led these devout men to water and rebaptized them in the name of Jesus Christ (vs 4-5) and then prayed with them until they received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues (vs 6). Paul was devoted to this gospel and said that even if an angel from heaven preached any other gospel, let him be accursed! If we reject the truth of the message that Paul preached then we place ourselves in danger of receiving a strong delusion from God. We must base everything that we do on the Word of God and the principles of life found therein!

So to summarize, if people do not love truth and want to live differently from the Word of God yet try to seek a relationship with God under those conditions, they open themselves up to deception and can even go as far as receive a lying spirit that will tell them what they want to hear. God will eventually give such a person the desires of their heart, but one day in judgment, they may realize that they did not want to actually receive what they desired! God help our motives and hearts to be pure and open to the unadulterated Word of God!