2 Thessalonians 2.11-God Will Cause Those Who Reject the Gospel to be Deceived by the Antichrist
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday September 12, 2021
Second Thessalonians: 2 Thessalonians 2:11-God Will Cause Those Who Reject the Gospel to be Deceived by the Antichrist
Lesson # 37
2 Thessalonians 2:11 Therefore, because of this, the one and only God will as a certainty to their detriment cause them to experience activity which produces deception so that they believe that which is characterized as the greatest lie. (My translation)
Now, we come to 2 Thessalonians 2:11, which is composed of two result clauses.
The first result clause contains the prepositional phrase dia touto (διὰ τοῦτο), “because of this,” which presents the reason why God will cause the unregenerate who refuse to love the truth so as to be saved to experience activity which produces deception.
The preposition dia, “because of” is a marker of cause and its object is the accusative neuter singular form of the demonstrative pronoun houtos, “this.”
The referent of the latter is the previous statement in 2 Thessalonians 2:10,which asserts tēn agapēn tēs alētheias ouk edexanto eis to sōthēnai autous (τὴν ἀγάπην τῆς ἀληθείας οὐκ ἐδέξαντο εἰς τὸ σωθῆναι αὐτούς), “they choose for themselves to refuse to love the truth so as to be saved.”
Now, the first result clause here in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 asserts that God will as a certainty cause these unregenerate individuals, who refuse to love the truth communicated in the gospel so as to be saved, to experience activity, which produces deception.
Therefore, the prepositional phrase dia touto (διὰ τοῦτο) indicates that God will cause the unregenerate individuals, to experience activity which produces deception “because” they refuse to love the truth so as to be saved.
Therefore, this first result clause asserts that because of refusing to love the truth so as to be saved the Father will as a certainty cause the unregenerate living during the seventieth week of Daniel, to experience activity which produces deception.
This deception will be in the form of various miracles and wonders performed by the Antichrist according to 2 Thessalonians 2:9.
Therefore, a comparison of the statement at the end of 2 Thessalonians 2:10 and the first statement here in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 indicates that God will as a certainty cause these unregenerate individuals to experience activity which produces deception so that they will believe that the Antichrist is God in the flesh “as a direct result of” refusing to love the truth about Jesus Christ, which is communicated in the gospel.
Also, in this result clause we have the noun energeia, “activity,” which is referring to the activity of Satan, as it did in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 where it speaks of a process or manner of functioning or operating and specifically, it was used of the activity of Satan with emphasis upon his supernatural power.
Now, here in 2 Thessalonians 2:11, the word energeia is again referring to the activity of Satan, which is indicated by the fact that the referent of the word in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 is the activity of Satan.
Also, the word which modifies it here in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 is the genitive feminine singular form of the noun planē (πλάνη), which means “deception” since the word pertains to causing someone to hold a wrong view and thus be mistaken.
Here it speaks of causing someone to not believe the truth about Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection which is communicated in the gospel.
The referent is of course the various forms of deception which the Antichrist will perform during the seventieth week of Daniel which are various types of miracles and wonders, which produce a lie.
Also, in 2 Thessalonians 2:11, the noun planē functions as a genitive of product, which is expressing the idea that this activity “produces” deception.
The second result clause in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 asserts that the unregenerate living during the seventieth week of Daniel who refuse to love the truth, i.e. the gospel, will believe that which is characterized as the greatest lie.
The noun pseudos means “a lie, falsehood, deception” as it did in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 since the word pertains to that which deviates from or perverts the truth and here it refers to the lie that the Antichrist is God in the flesh.
This interpretation is supported by the use of this word in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 where it was modified by the nouns sēmeion, “miracles” and teras, “wonders.”
Paul puts the adjective pseudos in the singular rather than the plural, which would conform to the plural form of these two nouns.
The reason for this is that these two nouns belong together and constitute a single entity, which is indicated by the fact that these two words contain as we noted the figure of hendiadys.
So therefore, this adjective pseudos is describing these miracles and wonders as deviating from or perverting the truth.
Also, the noun pseudos in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 functions as a genitive of production would indicate that they are miracles and wonders “which produce a lie.”
The Antichrist will be characterized by miracles and wonders which are not in accordance with the gospel, i.e., the Word of God, the Word of truth since they deceive members of the human race to worship himself and consequently Satan who empowers him rather than God.
Lastly, further indicating that the noun pseudos is referring to the lie that the Antichrist is God in the flesh is Paul’s statement in 2 Thessalonians 2:4, which asserts that the Antichrist will sit down in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem during the midway point of the seventieth week of Daniel in order to present himself as God.
Now, the articular construction of this abstract noun pseudos particularizes the general quality of this noun and defines it more closely distinguishing it from other notions.
Here it is distinguishing the lie produced by the Antichrist from the lies communicated by the rest of unregenerate humanity since he will perform various types of miracles and wonders so as to deceive the human race into believing that he is God in the flesh.
This type of article falls under the “par excellence” category in that the article indicates that this lie is the greatest lie ever perpetrated by a member of the human race.
So therefore, Paul is teaching a spiritual principle in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 that when a person rejects the truth of the gospel, God hands them over to the lies of Satan’s cosmic system, which is also taught in Romans 1:24, 26, 28, 11:8 and 2 Timothy 4:4.
The greatest of these lies will be that the Antichrist is God in the flesh.
God has only truth to give people and if you reject that truth, then there is nothing else for Him to do but hand that person over to the lies of the god of this world, Satan (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4).
This handing a person over to a lie is God’s judgment of the individual.
2 Corinthians 4:3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. (NET)
Notice, this passage teaches that Satan has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so that they would not see the light of glorious gospel of Christ.
Satan and his angels have a world system in which they deceive members of the human race by various types of lies, which are designed to prevent them worshipping the Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ.
These individuals choose to reject the truth of the gospel in exchange for the lies of Satan’s cosmic world system.
Now, in the same way, during the seventieth week of Daniel, many unregenerate people will reject the truth of the gospel in exchange for the lies propagated by the Antichrist.
The greatest of these lies will be that he is God in the flesh and he will do this by performing various types of miracles and wonders.
However, according to Revelation 13, the greatest deception will be that the Antichrist will be assassinated but will be revived so as to cause the world to worship Him as God in the flesh.
The Antichrist will display himself to the world as possessing the attributes of God as a result of being assassinated but then recovering from his wounds.
Thus, this event will cause the world to believe that he is indeed God.
This is indicated by the contents of Revelation chapter thirteen.
Therefore, 2 Thessalonians 2:11 teaches that God punishes unrepentant sinners with other unrepentant sinners since it teaches that God punishes unregenerate people, who sin by refusing to love the truth communicated about Jesus Christ in the gospel so as to be saved, with the sinful actions of the Antichrist.
In the same way, God in the sixth and seventh centuries B.C. judged the unrepentant, apostate citizens of the southern kingdom of Judah with another nation immersed evil, namely the Babylonian Empire.
God uses evil to punish evil.
During the seventieth week of Daniel, God will punish unrepentant unregenerate people who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ with the evil actions of the Antichrist who himself will be an unregenerate, unrepentant sinner.
God will punish the unrepentant, unregenerate people of the world during the seventieth week of Daniel who reject the gospel by causing them to experience the various types of deception the Antichrist will perform through various types of miracles and wonders.
Thus, they will believe that the Antichrist is God in the flesh and this will be their punishment for rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ who is truly God in the flesh and so therefore, their unbelief will be punished with the evil actions of the Antichrist.