Deeper ReflectionTHE GREAT REFUSAL OPENS THE DOOR TO THE GREAT
deception: Satan’s deception through the antichrist’s “false signs and
wonders” is “for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the
truth” (vv.9-10). The great refusal actually receives a double dosage of the
great deception. The additional dose comes from God, which comes as
the
great judgment: “Therefore
God sends them a
strong delusion”
(v.11a). And it is for a specific purpose: “so that they may
believe what
is false” (v.11b). They believe “the lie” (v.11b, NIV) and this “lie” is “the
denial of the fundamental truth that God is God, together with the blatant
assertion by Antichrist that he is God”
7. This divine specific purpose (v.11b)
has its final purpose: “in order that all may be
condemned” (v.12a).The God “who desires
all people to be saved” (1 Tim 2:3-4), “not wishing
for
any to perish” (2 Pet 3:9), is the same God who in judgment “sends”
those who insist and persist in unbelief and unrighteousness “a strong
delusion” to deepen the deception, and in His wrath “gave them over”
to deeper depravity (Rom 1:18, 24, 26, 28). There is no greater divine
judgment than this divine abandonment, leaving sinners to rot by their
own sin.The great deception (v.9-10a) is the result of “refused to love the truth” (v.10b).
And the great judgment (v.11-12a) is the result of “did not believe the
truth” (v.12b). So, ultimately, when these unbelievers are “perishing” (v.10)
and “condemned” (v.12), the responsibility lies on them. It is their choice.
7 John R. W. Stott, 172
