God's Promise To Send Strong Delusion

2nd Thessalonians 2:8-12, “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

I humbly believe that this passage of Scripture means God doesn't want anyone getting saved after the fact, that is, after they know what the truth is. When they were living for the pleasures of sin, they refused to heed the Gospel to be saved; but when the Tribulation comes and the truth becomes quite evident, it will be too late for them. God promises to send STRONG DELUSION to ensure that those wicked sinners don't get saved.

Please don't misunderstand, God does want sinners to get saved. 2nd Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

This interesting passage of Scripture reveals God's mindset in salvation. The LORD wants every human being to come JUST AS I AM without one plea, as a guilty needy sinner deserving of eternal damnation in Hell, to be saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ. Salvation is simply a matter of believing that Jesus did it all for you through Calvary's cross.

The inspired King James Bible warns that love for sinning hinders a person from getting saved. God's wants us to acknowledge THE TRUTH (which is repentance) to admit that we are a SINNER and Jesus is the only SAVIOR. Many preachers make the fatal mistake of thinking that being willing to turn away from your sins is the antithesis of John 3:20, “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” This verse plainly tells us that a person's love for sinning prevents that individual from coming to the light of the truth of the Gospel to be saved. This is why Jesus said in John 5:40, “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Jesus did not say “ye cannot,” He said “ye will not come.”

What every corrupt neo-evangelical and neo-fundamentalist pastor ignores is John 3:21, “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” Carefully notice that the Bible doesn't say, “But he that is willing to turn from his sin” cometh to the light. No. The Bible doesn't say, “But he that repents of his sin” cometh to the light. Nope. The Bible doesn't say, “But he that follows Christ cometh to the light.” No. The Bible simply says, “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light.” The opposite of doing evil is not turning from it; the opposite of doing evil is doing truth (that is, obeying the truth of the Gospel by believing it).

2nd Timothy 2:25, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” I love that phrase—REPENTANCE TO THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE TRUTH!!! That is what repentance is dear reader—to simply acknowledge THE TRUTH that you are a guilty SINNER, and Jesus is the only SAVIOR. Repentance means to change your mind—that’s what believing is. In salvation, you have turned from your sin of unbelief to trust Christ.

Now is the time to get saved dear friend while you still can. The LORD frowns upon those who refuse to heed the Gospel in fair weather. If you wait until the Rapture comes, and you are left behind, you may find yourself out of luck. The Scripture warns that God is going to send STRONG DELUSION, and the Bible tells us exactly why. It is because when those sinners had the opportunity to get saved, they chose their sinful lifestyles over cometh to the truth of the Gospel to be saved. The problem was never that they needed to turn away from their sinning. No Sir! That is the counterfeit plan of salvation that most churches are propagating today.

The issue is that they refused to repent TOWARD GOD (Acts 20:21), to simply admit that they were guilty needy sinners and believe upon the name of the only begotten Son of God, the Christ (John 20:31). I am alarmed that I increasingly hear bad preachers embellishing the Greek meaning of the noun (metanoia) “repent” in the New Testament. The word just means “a change of mind,” nothing more. It doesn't mean “a change of mind resulting in a change of behavior,” which is what they wickedly teach at Pensacola Christian College (PCC).

In fact, the Greek word metanoia (repent) doesn't even tell us what to change our mind about. So, we need supplemental information! That extra information can only be determined by a particular Scripture passage. For example: I quoted 2nd Timothy 2:25 to you a moment ago. Here it is again. 2nd Timothy 2:25, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” In this text the Bible makes it clear that we are to change our mind to acknowledge “the truth.” The Greek word for “acknowledge” is epignosis which means “recognition, that is, full discernment.” No man can believe the truth to be saved until he first has and accepts the truth. Bible repentance is changing our mind to accept (or recognize) the truth that we are a SINNER and Jesus is the SAVIOR. This has nothing to do with reformation or turning from your sinful ways to get to Heaven. Reformation (a change of behavior) is a work of the indwelling Holy Spirit in the growth of an obedient believer (i.e., sanctification and discipleship, not salvation and sonship).