Strong Delusion – Part 1
2 Thessalonians 2: 9 – 12
9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
I am a believer in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Who came to this world born of a virgin. He walked this earth fully human and fully God. He died on a cross outside the city of Jerusalem for my sins and rose again from the dead. He ascended into Heaven and He now sits at the right hand of The Father God. As a pledge that I am His son, He sent The Holy Spirit to live, move and have His Being in me. He is coming back again. Please forgive me if this is not eloquent and theologically perfect, yet I love my King and Master Adoni Yeshua even if I do not properly express it.
Our Precious Lord and Savior came once and promised us that He will come again a second time. There is presently a term or theological position that has found acceptance in the Christian family. This idea is that our Holy Lord is now coming back again to earth in two parts – a part ‘A’ and a part ‘B’. The part ‘A’ which I am going to take some time breaking down this theory is called – The Rapture. According to this belief our Lord Is coming back just outside of earth and call out His church. He will take His bride [saints] back to Heaven for 7 years and then return to earth. Part B will be then His Second Coming.
We are going to discuss how this term – Rapture – came about. We are then going to look at every possible Scripture that might speak on behalf or against this theory. I grew up in my Christian life being taught about and accepting as fact this position of a two part return of my Savior to earth. I even had a bumper sticker that showed a pair of sneakers with a puff of smoke. This displayed the instant disappearance. I am sure you have also seen a bumper sticker that says, ‘Warning, in the event of the Rapture, this vehicle will be unmanned.’
Without holding you in suspense any further let me say that I believe that this theory is false. There is and will not be a - ‘Rapture’ ,as is presently being taught by many bible colleges and pulpits. Now before you get your gander up and ready to argue let us look together at God’s Word for the correct answers. That is why I said that I am going to dedicate some time going over this idea. After we have looked at all possible Scripture and you still believe in the ‘Rapture’, then God bless you.
It is not heresy to disagree with the Rapture position. It does not go against the truth that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Is coming back to earth a second time.
However, what if we come to learn through what God’s Word reveals that this idea is a fabrication of biblical truth. Would it not be qualified as a ‘strong delusion’ that bible teachers and Pastors have incorrectly been feeding their sheep. Would it not qualify in the warning that our Lord and Savior gave to us as listed in the book of Revelation chapter 22 which states, “18 For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” Would accepting this theory as fact and teaching this theory to our Lord’s flock be liable as adding to God’s word. I know I do not want to mess around with what my Supreme Holy Ruler says. So, with this powerful challenge let us begin.
Since I used the Scripture of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and highlight the term – ‘Strong Delusion’, it would be good for us to understand what this word means. In life we read a lot of things and sometimes take for granted that we know what the word means. So what does out favorite dictionary says about a ‘delusion’.
1a. The act or process of deluding.
b. The state of being deluded.
2. A false belief or opinion:
3. Psychiatry A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence, especially as a symptom of mental illness:
So what do you think it means when our Lord says that He will send a ‘strong delusion’. You do not have to be a brain surgeon to know that what is listed above as ‘delusion’ is greatly intensified.
If you are a new believer in our Great and Wonderful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ forgive me for getting into this dialogue. Yet I do believe that you need to be informed about what is circulating out in Christian circles. I have come to understand the amazing grace it took our Savior to get us ‘Saved’. We live in a cursed world. Before our feet step out of bed we fight the world, the flesh, and the devil. Our Faithful Lord broke through these tough sinful defenses and revealed Himself to us. Thank you Lord. Then once we are ‘Saved’ we aren’t able to kick back. We are now exposed to every wacky religious cult and dead organization out there. So, how can you be sure what is true? The answer is – God’s word is true. Don’t trust me or any other teacher. Check everything out yourselves from God’s Word. People were complemented by the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts because they did just this. Look at what it said in chapter 17, “10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
So, the description of the Rapture teaches that all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who are alive will be physically removed from this earth. To the naked eye they will vanish. These people will instantly be beamed wherever they are up to meet the Lord Jesus Who Is positioned somewhere above the earth.
Now to add confusion great theological scholars cannot come up with the same conclusions. Some biblical experts say that this event will occur before what the bible calls the Great Tribulation. People who accept this position are called Pre-Tribulation Rapture or Pre-Tribers. Since many biblical scholars have come up with the idea that the Tribulation will be a period of 7 years some have taken a position that believers will be ‘Raptured’ halfway into the 7 years or after 3 and ½ years after the Great Tribulation begins. Those who hold this position are called Mid-Tribers. Lastly, there are those who take up a position that all believers will have to go through the whole seven years of the Great Tribulation and then be ‘Raptured’ out. They are referred to as Post Tribers.
Does this sound a tad bit confusing? Again forgive us for getting into this stupid worthless debate. The book of 1 Corinthians chapter 14 says about our Precious Holy Spirit this, “33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.’
In all truth the doctrine of a ‘Rapture’ is the most divisive of modern day positions.
Where did the idea of the ‘Rapture’ came from. You will be quite amazed that this is a modern day discovery.
This idea was birthed back in the 1800’s. Here is what I discovered.
In early 1830, Margaret McDonald, a 15 year old Scottish Girl had visions [we’re in trouble now, one girl has a ‘vision’ which will set church policy. I thought the bible was complete. Haven’t the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses been correctly labeled as cults for their visions?] that included a Secret Rapture of believers before the appearance of the Antichrist. A viewpoint that we will discuss later is that the Roman Catholic Church had put forth a Counter Reformation to the Protestant Reformation that in the future one man would be the epitome of all evil and be called the Antichrist.
Edward Irving (1792-1834) her Scottish Presbyterian pastor and forerunner of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, attended prophecy conferences that began in Dublin Ireland in that same year, 1830, at Powerscourt Castle. There he promoted the doctrine of the Secret Rapture.
John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), a minister of the Church of Ireland, who later became a member of the Plymouth Brethren, also promoted a Secret Rapture after attending the same Powerscourt Bible Prophecy meeting in 1830 where he learned of Margaret McDonald's vision. He visited Margaret McDonald at her home in Port Glasgow, Scotland, and then later visited America several times where his Secret Rapture theology was quite well accepted.
As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation.
The writings of John Darby greatly influenced Cyrus Scofield (1843-1921) who incorporated this doctrine in the notes of his Scofield Reference Bible, first published by Oxford University Press in 1909. One million copies were printed by 1930, firmly establishing this Futurist interpretation in the Bible schools and denominations of the United States in the 20th Century.
The beliefs Darby disseminated were then propagated with Scofield’s Reference Bible at such places as Dallas Theological Seminary and Bob Jones University and by authors and preachers such as Hal Lindsey who wrote a best seller called ‘The Late Great Planet Earth. and Tim LaHaye who I am sure you know, became a huge success co-authoring his ‘Left Behind’ stories.
Can you see how this idea was adopted and thereby infiltrated into our churches’
Yet, before we end I want you to see right away that from God’s word that this doctrine is false.
Remember, the idea of a ‘Rapture’ is that our Precious Lord and Savior is coming to take His church out before the Great time of Tribulation that will strike the earth. So what does our Lord really say. Let’s take a look at the Gospel of John chapter 17.
Many people think that the Lord’s prayer is ‘Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen!’ Is this what you think? Sorry you are wrong. As recorded in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 and Luke chapter 11 our Lord Jesus Christ was asked by His disciples how to pray. Here our Lord gives them and us a model on how to pray. If you want to read about the Lord’s prayer than that is just what we are about to do in the Gospel of John chapter 17,
1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. 6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. 9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. 20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
Please note the words of our Master, Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of John chapter 17 verse 15 He Is praying for all His church or saints. Did He say, ‘Father please take My Bride out of the earth before, during, or after the Great Tribulation? Then, what does He say? He asks the Father to protect us from the evil one so that when all this Tribulation comes upon us we will not fall away.
In our next study we will take a closer look at our Lord’s Prayer recorded in the Gospel of John chapter 17, Remember, be ‘Bereans’ and study the Word yourselves to see whether these things be true.
