If God cannot lie and cannot be deceitful, and is loving and wishes all to be saved...?

Question

How would you explain:

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
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.

Definition of "Delude":
de·lude /dɪˈlud/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[di-lood] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object), -lud·ed, -lud·ing. 1. to mislead the mind or judgment of; deceive: His conceit deluded him into believing he was important.
2. Obsolete. to mock or frustrate the hopes or aims of.
3. Obsolete. to elude; evade.

That looks like deceit to me. How do you reconcile this statement with a belief in a God who cannot lie or deceive?

Thanks for your replies!

Answer 1

The answer is obvious: "they believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness".
God is just giving evil men what they insist upon.
When men stubbornly harden their hearts against God and refuse to listen, God bears with them patiently at first, for weeks, months, even years; and if they persist in their rebellion, He simply takes this stance: "All right, if you want to refuse the truth and believe a lie, I will help you."


"So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God "will give to each person according to what he has done."
Romans 2:3-6

For Cindy Cee. Adam and Eve both died that day. They lost their relationship with God and died spiritually. I perceive from your attitude that you are still dead in your sins as well, since you believe Satan more than God.

Answer 2

The actual greek is transliterated plan-ay: It literally means to make wander. Not to deceive.

A better way to look at if from the actual greek and in context: The people in question had been introduced to the truth of Jesus and did not accept it. Then the anti-christ comes and performs signs and wonders. The people are taken with the signs and wonders. So God sends them to follow the wanderings of their hearts, which pleasure in unrightousness.

For a sinful people chase after signs and wonders. So these people are following their own heart, not being led into delusion by God.

Hope that this helps.

Answer 3

As the Bible says, I am already saved (Rom. 8:24, Eph. 2:5–8),
but I’m also being saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12),
and I have the hope that I will be saved (Rom. 5:9–10, 1 Cor. 3:12–15).

Like the apostle Paul I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), with hopeful confidence in the promises of Christ (Rom. 5:2, 2 Tim. 2:11–13)."

Catholic

Answer 4

God cannot lie and is not deceitful. You have picked a few scriptures to try to explain the scope of your question. You must rightly divide the word of God and see the totality of the picture before questioning segments of it. Just as much as God lives and cares, his truth also teaches consequences for wrong doing. Try including these scriptures to help your understanding:

Psalms 19:7  ¶The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
8  The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
9  The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
10  More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11  Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
12  Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
13  Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
14  Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

The strong delusion referred to in your referenced scriptures has nothing to do with what you are questioning.We all ahve a will and the right to make choices. There is both good and evil in the world because of the original choice of man (Adam) to disobey God. God provides good, and allows evil so we can see a clear choice between them. The strong delusion that He allows is that man decides on his own to follow the wrong path, and therefore becomes subject to the laws of God. Remember, though, that through Jesus Christ, He has offered a way of escape for mankind if he seeks forgiveness. So the ultimate consequences of being "deceived' rest in man's own hands. What will you do with Christ? Accept His Love, or continue in "deception?"

Answer 5

Here's a better version

10and in all deceitfulness of the unrighteousness in those perishing, because the love of the truth they did not receive for their being saved,

11and because of this shall God send to them a working of delusion, for their believing the lie,

12that they may be judged -- all who did not believe the truth, but were well pleased in the unrighteousness.

Answer 6

you can't just take a scripture & not read its context. did you read the versus prior & after those two?

if you start at verse three, it says "Let no one seduce you in any manner, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction. 4. He is set in opposition and lifts himself up over everyone who is called 'god' or an object of reverence, so that he sits down in the temple of The God, publicly showing himself to be a god. 5. Do you not remember that, while I was yet with you, I used to tell you these things? 6. And so now you knowq the thing that acts as a restraint with a view to his being revealed in his own due time. 7. True, the mystrey of this lawlessness is already at work, but only till he who is right now acting as a restraint gets to be out of the way. 8. Then, indeed, the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will do away with by the spirit of his mouth and bring to nothing by the manifestation of his presence. 9. But the lawless one's presence is according to the operation of SATAN with every powerful work and lying signs and portents 10. and with every unrighteous deception for those who are perishing, as retribution becasue they did not accept the love of the truth and they might be saved. 11. So that is why God lets an operation of error go to them, that they may get to believing the lie, 12. in order that they all may be judged because they did not believe the truth but look pleasure in unrighteousness."

so then, it is not GOD who is deluding my dear, but SATAN. and for those who chose to be deceived and not accept the truth will naturally receive judgment, because they chose not to accept the truth.

Answer 7

This passage seems to talk about events before Christ's second coming. He says a man will come who will deceive us all. God will allow this man to deceive people who are not believers.

It is not God deceiving us, but allowing satan to lie to everybody. This is a test God is giving to us, seeing if we will be strong in our faith or be weak and follow Satan.

You must read 9-12 to get the full effect of what is being said.

Answer 8

God will ALLOW the deceiver to enter them fully. He will remove His hedge of protection and allow the evil spirits to enter the arena. It could happen to ANY of us. He will give us the desires of our heart. If you don't believe in God, He will step back and let you learn on your own. God made us as free will people. We can choose to do anything we like. We all can choose to kill, hurt, lie, steal, you name it. BUT God sends us a comforter, the Holy Spirit, to give us that inner voice that says STOP, Look at what you are about to do. It is ALWAYS up to us to choose the roads we take. We allow drugs into our system, therefore we become crack fiends. We allow hate to enter and dwell, then we can kill without conscience. Racism is only in existence because people allow it to enter them. i know this all sounds simple, but trust me, it really is that simple. It's not hard to understand if you know someone like any of these, and ask them why they do/did it. I hope my reply helped. It probably opened more questions than answers. I know I always ask myself why did I think or do something stupid after I have done it. I can say, i always had a voice that warned me beforehand...i just chose the lesser road.

Answer 9

It's explained in the first chapter of Romans - which is to summarize, God graciously restrains sin from having it's full corrupting impact on people until some point in which they willfully have persisted in it. You reap what you sow

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
The one who sows to please his sinful nature,
from that nature will reap destruction" Galatians 6:7,8a

You Sow: Rom 1:21 although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened
You Reap: Rom 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
You Sow: Rom 1:25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator
You Reap: Rom 1:26a Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts

You Sow: Rom 1:28a since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God
You Reap: Rom 1:28b he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done

What is implied from the fact that under certain circumstances God "gives people over" to the corrupting influence of sin is that God normally restrains sin from having its full effect. But if a person willfully and persistently embraces sin, God does at some point give them over to have their mind, their conscience, their heart corrupted by it.

Answer 10

Read Numbers 23:19. God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (NIV)