2 Thessalonians 2:11

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).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 God’s giving them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts; that they should believe a lie — Or, as the words εις το πιστευσαι αυτους τω ψευδει 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 Lord’s 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 — Ινα κριθωσι, 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, ευδοκησαντες 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 men’s 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 apostle’s 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 Daniel’s 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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:11 As seen elsewhere in Scripture (Exod 9:12; 2 Chr 18:22), God sometimes hands people over to the power of the sin or deception they have desired in place of the truth (Rom 1:24, 26, 28; 11:8).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Th 2:11. Πλάνης, of error) [Engl. Vers. ἐνέργειαν πλάνης, strong delusion,] which is in Antichrist.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Th_2:11. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο] and on this account, refers to ἀνθʼ ὧν τὴν ἀγάπην τῆς ἀληθείας οὐκ ἐδέξαντο, 2Th_2:10, and καί serves to bring forward the reciprocal relation between cause and effect.

πέμπει αὐτοῖς ὁ Θεός] 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.

ἐνέργειαν πλάνης] active power of seduction. On πλάνη, see on 1Th_2:3.

εἰς τὸ πιστεῦσαι κ.τ.λ.] not a statement of the consequence (Macknight and others), but of the design of God. In a forced manner, Hofmann: εἰς τὸ πιστεῦσαι belongs to ἐνέργειαν.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 πνεύματα πλάνης ( cf. Test. Levi. iii. 3, etc.).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A most mighty working to deceive them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

for this cause--because "they received not the love of the truth." The best safeguard against error is "the love of the truth."

shall send--Greek, "sends," or "is sending"; the "delusion" is already beginning. God judicially sends hardness of heart on those who have rejected the truth, and gives them up in righteous judgment to Satan's delusions (Isa 6:9-10; Rom 1:24-26, Rom 1:28). They first cast off the love of the truth, then God gives them up to Satan's delusions, then they settle down into "believing the lie": an awful climax (Kg1 22:22-23; Eze 14:9; Job 12:16; Mat 24:5, Mat 24:11; Ti1 4:1).

strong delusion--Greek, "the powerful working of error," answering to the energizing "working of Satan" (Th2 2:9); the same expression as is applied to the Holy Ghost's operation in believers: "powerful" or "effectual (energizing) working" (Eph 1:19).

believe a lie--rather, "the lie" which Antichrist tells them, appealing to his miracles as proofs of it . . . (Th2 2:9).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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 (Romans 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 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?

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(11) And for this cause—i.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 Antichrist’s 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 God’s 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 error”—no 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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Rom 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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 God’s 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 Joseph’s selling unto Egypt, Gen 45:7, David’s numbering the people, 2Sa 24:1, compared with 1Ch 21:1; and the ten kings giving their power to the beast, by God’s 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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For this cause; on account of their being destitute of a love of the truth. God shall send them; or rather, God sends them; the present being chosen because the apostasy had already commenced, the mystery of lawlessness was already working. Strong delusion; or, a working of error (R.V). These words are not to be weakened, as if they meant merely that in righteous judgment God permitted strong delusion to be.sent them; the words are not a mere assertion of judicial permission, but of actual retribution. It is the ordinance of God that the wicked by their wicked actions fall into greater wickedness, and that thus sin is punished by sin; and what is an ordinance of God is appointed by God himself. That they should believe a lie; or rather, the lie, namely the falsehood which the man of sin disseminates by his deceit of unrighteousness. Being destitute of the love of the truth, they are necessarily led to believe a lie their minds are open to all manner of falsehood and delusion.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore God shall send them - That is, judicially permit to come upon them, strong delusion.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 :

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11, 12. For this cause God shall send them strong delusion. Because they do not receive the truth. He who refuses to receive the truth will at last believe lies. It is the law of human nature. God sends the delusion by natural laws.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

For this reason

"Because the people do not love the truth"

God is sending them a work of error so that they would believe a lie

Paul is speaking of God allowing something to happen to people as if he is sending them something. AT: "God is allowing the man of lawlessness to deceive them" (See: Metaphor)

they will all be judged

This can be stated in active form. AT: "God will judge all of them" (See: Active or Passive)

those who did not believe the truth but instead took pleasure in unrighteousness

"those who took pleasure in unrighteousness because they did not believe the truth"

translationWords

God

believe

judge

true

righteous

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

11. πεμψει in אcDcEKLP, most minn., and the verss. (except am fu of the Vulgate)—a tame correction of πεμπει (א*ABDgr*Ggr 17 67** cattxt, Or Bas Cyr Dam, &c.)—originating perhaps with the versions.

11. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πέμπει αὐτοῖς ὁ θεὸς ἐνέργειαν πλάνης. And on this account God sends them a working of error. For διὰ τοῦτο, and its backward reference, cf. 1Th 2:13; 1Th 3:5; καί consecutive,—almost “so for this cause” (Ellicott). Πέμπει, present (see Textual Note), by anticipation of the predicted certainty; or rather, as the affirmation of a principle already at work (see 2Th 2:7)—what takes place in the victims of Antichrist is seen every day on a smaller scale. Αὐτοῖς is dative of persons concerned: πρός (or εἰς) with accus., in such connexion, denotes motion towards. Ὁ θεός is emphatic by position; see note below. Ἐνέργεια πλάνης is parallel to ἐνέργεια τοῦ Σατανᾶ. 2Th 2:9, “Satan” being ὁ πλανῶν τὴν οἰκουμένην (Rev 12:9; Rev 13:14; Rev 20:10; cf. Joh 8:44). On πλάνη, see 1Th 2:3; it is an active principle, the oppositive in its “working” of the λόγος θεοῦ (1Th 2:13); for ἐνέργεια, see note on 2Th 2:9. This πλάνη is the ἀπάτη ἀδικίας of 2Th 2:10 operative and taking effect,—the poison running in the veins; it is the ψεῦδος of Antichrist (see next clause) believed and followed. What “God sends” is not “error” as such, but error used for correction and with the train of moral consequences included in its ἐνέργεια.

This effectual delusion God sends on wicked men to the very end, foreseen by Him, εἰς τὸ πιστεῦσαι αὐτοὺς τῷ ψεύδει, that they should believe the lie. The question of Isa 63:17 is inevitable: “O Lord, why dost Thou make us to err from Thy ways?” Τὸ ψεῦδος—the opposite of ἡ ἀλήθεια (2Th 2:10), the truth of God in the Gospel (cf. Eph 4:25; 1Jn 2:21)—in Rom 1:25 taking the form of idolatry, is here “the lie” par excellence, the last and crowning deception practised by Satan in passing off the Lawless One as God (2Th 2:4; 2Th 2:9 f.). This passage, in fact, ascribes to God the delusion that we have hitherto been regarding as the masterpiece of Satan (cf. the contradiction of 2Sa 24:1 and 1Ch 21:1). Three things must be borne in mind in reflecting upon this: (1) that Satan is never regarded in Scripture as an independent power or rival deity of evil, like the Ahriman of Parsism. However large the activity allowed 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 sin works out its own punishment. In Rom 1:24 ff. he represents the loathsome vice of the Pagan world as a Divine chastisement for its long-continued idolatry: “For this cause God sends effectual 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 call a natural law. That a persistent rejection of truth destroys the sense for 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 delusion, set on foot by Satan, is the moral consequence in those who receive it of previous and wilful refusal of the light of truth, it is manifest that God is here at work; He makes Satan and the Lawless One instruments in punishing false-hearted men; cf. Eze 14:9, and 1 Kings 22. (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, and the deceivers will suffer heavier punishment than the deceived: cf. Rev 20:10. God, who “sends a working of error” in the Antichrist, will quickly send the Christ to put a stop to the delusion and to “destroy” its author by His sudden and glorious coming (2Th 2:8, 2Th 1:7-9).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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. πέμπει 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 ἐνέργ. πλάνης ‘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 τῷ 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.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πέμτε “And for this reason (because they did not welcome the love for the truth), God sends (is to send) them an inward working of delusion.” The και may be consecutive, “and so,” or it may designate the correspondence of guilt and punishment. The πέμτε refers not to the time previous to the revelation of the Anomos (ἐνεργεῖτα v. 7) but, as ἐστί (v. 9) intimates, to the time when the apostasy comes and the Anomos is revealed.

ὁ θεὸς ἐνέργειαν πλάνης κτλ. The position of ὁ θεό is emphatic. In appearance, Satan is responsible for the future success of the Anomos with “the doomed”; in reality it is God who is in supreme control, working out his moral purposes through the agencies of evil. Since the divine influence designed to stir up a love for the gospel is unwelcome, God sends another visitor, the ἐνέργεια πλάνη, whose function it is, as a servant of the divine purpose, to prepare the way for final judgment (v. 12) by first deluding the minds of “the doomed” into believing the falsehood of the Anomos.

τῷ ψεύδε balances τῆς ἀληθεία (v. 10) and εἰς το introduces the primary purpose of πέμπε In the striking phrase ἐνέργεια πλάνη, only here in Gk. Bib.,πλάνη is a genitive of the object, and denotes the goal of the active inward energy, namely, “delusion,” the state of being deceived (see on I 2:3): “an energy unto delusion.” On διὰ τοῦτ, see I 2:13; for πέμπειν τινι, cf. 1Co 4:17, Php 2:19. D omits και; GF, et al., omit αὐτού; F omits τῷ KLP, et al., forgetting ἐστί (v. 9) read πέμψε On διὰ τοῦτο πέμπε, cf. Rom 1:24. Rom 1:26 διὸ παρέδωκε

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Strong delusion [ενεργειαν πλανης] . 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 [τω ψευδει] . 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.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.