Why does God intentionally hinder belief in him?

Question

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12
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.

Esther: He's not ALLOWING them, he's PROACTIVELY deluding them.

Dust: Are you a Christian now?
--NO.

Remember Atheist cannot use the Bible for questions or to make points against believers since Atheists have deemed the Bible not a source of proof of God.
-- Why not? One has nothing to do with the other.

Answer 1

Because God does not exist.

I don't believe in God anymore. I used to, but I also used to believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. I realized just a few days ago why I believed this, and the answer is the same for all three fictional beings...

I was told they existed, and I just accepted it without too much scrutinization.

If there is a God, then He would be benevolent. If God was benevolent, then he would make it very well understood what he wants from us and how we stand with him.

He doesn't.

If God is omnipotent, then nothing could stand in his way if he wanted to deliver a clear message to us.

He doesn't. Apparently, he either can't, or won't.

If he can't or won't, then he is impotent. If he is impotent, then he can't be god.

There are tens of thousands of religions. Each has tens of thousands of sects. Even christianity has 10,000 different denominations, all of which disagree with each other over different interpretations of THE SAME BOOK!!!

I only add this last part because someone here is going to claim that God does make his will clear to us. Obviously, he doesn't.

El Chistoso

Answer 2

This is a prophetic Scripture, which speaks of the time when the antichrist will come to deceive the nations. If you start reading at the beginning of Chapter 2, you will see that Paul is reminding the Christians at Thessalonica that the Lord had not yet returned for His church, as some were saying. The antichrist would appear first. So these verses speak of those in the future who are deceived by the antichrist because they rejected the truth and preferred unrighteousness. That's why verse 11 begins with "For this reason..." As a student of the Word, that phrase implies that I must go back and ask the question, "What reason?" to get the full meaning of verses 11 and 12.

Answer 3

Good question
Paul is writing this second letter to the church of Thessalonians He is warning them to not become deceived by the lawless ones. The rebellious and lawless one is the antichrist. He will use Satan to deceive many so this is something we should guard against and take very serious.
Those who fall prey to false phophets, will be deceived.
Those people will perish because they refused to love the truth.
For this reason, God will let them believe the lie and that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Today, the antichrist is at work but has not reveiled himself.
God calls us to believe in Him and when we don't and we get caught up in false phophets, there may be no turning back because we have hardened our hearts against the truth.
The more we reject God, the harded our hearts become.
At some point, God will stop calling us. He knows that these people are going to be lost forever. They had their chance of redemption and now God is going to give them up.
He already knows who is going to accept Him and who is not.

People Now is the time of salvation

Answer 4

Meaty,
Again, this was taken out of context. You can read part but evidentally not all of the scripture. Prior to this was "2 Thessalonians 3Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

4Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. " Thus, HE was speaking of satan's followers who are trying to deceive GOD's People. You are incorrect in your writing (again). Have a good day.
Thanks,
Eds, Christian

.

Answer 5

It's a collective punishment on those who wear costumes of religion, who pretend to accept God while actually rejecting him, and who try to obscure and reinterpret the truth that God has sent. (These verses specifically referred to the future "falling away" of the Christian church. We can now see in the numberless competing branches the evidence of Christianity's disintegration.) False religions are attributable to God; they represent a dilution of truth for those who would not take the higher doses. In this way, even the punishment of delusion is a blessing of fractional truth, which is better than nothing.

Answer 6

New American says he sends a decieving power.

It's a test. For a more modern example, God might send a test in the form of legislation, so that all the Democrats who claim to be Christians will be found out and damned when they support abortion and homosexuality.

Or a test like you misquoting scripture to confuse. If we have belief we are not hindered and don't fall for it. The purpose is to find the hypocites.

That's why.

Answer 7

Genius, what God says and how we CHOOSE to hear it are two different things. Yes God DOES make His will very plain and very clear, but then man comes along and decides to add his own interpretation of what he hears...end result thousands of religions and as you put it, many denominations within a particular religion itself (Christianity). God reaches out to us as you see through out the bible and history, but man says no thanks I can do it on my own. I am not going to comment on the actual question except to say this, because as someone has mentioned this verse is clearly taken out of context and misrepresented. One only has to be intelligent enough to read the whole chapter of 2 Thessalonians 2 to see this whether they believe in the bible or not. Even if I was to ONLY read what you quoted it wouldn't take much to understand that God is giving them what they want. They chose not to believe in truth, but would rather find pleasure in righteousness, so God gave them what they wanted which is echoed in the verses surrounding these two you mentioned. They wanted to believe something other than truth so God answered them by giving them what they wanted. What you think that if God was to appear in front of people they would begin to believe in Him? "I'll believe it when I see it," says the skeptic/atheist! The bible and history prove otherwise, that even when people were put face to face with God they STILL CHOSE NOT TO BELIEVE. Prime example is Jesus, God on Earth, and still TO THIS DAY people deny and argue about who He IS and WAS.

Answer 8

God allows this delusion because people have already so demonstrated their willingness to believe anything but Him, that He allows them to go their own way, believing a lie. The delusion is a form of seperation the Bible speaks of as being "given over to a reprobate (unrepentant) mind". He doesn't intentionally do this to them; they CHOOSE it and He simply removes His influence and replaces it with the delusion.

Answer 9

Strong "delusion" = Legalism (Law Law) = "Confusion".
MANY shall come... to DECEIVE ...shall deceive MANY.
What part of this first and last MANY did you not get?

"Strong man" to bind = Law (the "strength" of sin).
Unrighteousness = OT Law & NT Law
Righteousness = Grace

The objective is NOT believe, but "KNOW": John 8:32
Know the truth makes you free of believe the lies(laws).
Devils "believe": James 2:19 (Hell-o)
So "believe not": Mt 24:23,26; 1Jn4:1

POINT: "Grace" is neither of two "law"s in Mt 22:36-40.

Grace neither tempts(laws) nor can be tempted(lawed).

The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.

Answer 10

I am a Christian now and have been since the 1950's.

The Skeptical Christian
Grace and Peace
Peg