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SCRIPTURE 2Th 2:7,11-12                                                                                                                                     March, 2008

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
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.

SUBJECT - DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU SEE!! [1]

This month’s tract, looking at the title, seems to be suggesting that you need to abandon every thing you were taught while growing up.

From the time you were born, you essentially, made decisions, based on one particular attribute of your life, and that is, what you saw. Without your eyes, you would be at an almost total disadvantage, which would put you totally at the mercy of any, and everybody.

As a little baby, you began reacting to those things around you based on what you saw. In fact, doctors gauged your abilities, in large part, on how you responded to visible stimuli.

When they put something in front of you, they would be looking to see if you would focus on it. Then, they would move it from side to side, to see if you would follow it. They would sit it in front of you, to see if you would possibly pick it up, or try to touch it.

All of these things were the beginning of your indoctrination, to believe, and react to what you saw.

As you got older, it was essentially burned in to your mind, to make decisions, based almost totally on what you see. To do otherwise, was, and is considered, the act of a fool.

We can look at, say for instance, your response to a person trying to tell you about God. You would probably respond with ‘show me some proof!!’ That means, you want to see something that will register with your indoctrination to, ‘Believe, only what you can see.’

If you remember the story about Thomas (doubting Thomas), in the bible, upon hearing that Christ had risen from the dead, and had been seen by the other disciples, refused to believe them, and remarked, that the only way he would believe, is if he saw Him, for himself [St. John 20:25].

So, as you can see, [here I go again, using ‘see’], your eyes provide evidence to what you would call, reality, or proof of something.

And, this is all good.

However, as you probably know, there are things, that someone might show you, that appear to be one thing, but turn out to be something different.

Most of us have been to a circus, or carnival, or at a particular show, where there was a person performing magic tricks. And these tricks, included all sorts of things, from pulling coins out of someone’s ear, to making a full grown elephant disappear. And even though we as grownups know it was trickery, yet, we saw it with our own eyes, and said to ourselves, ‘That wasn’t real, or was it??’ But yet, we saw it.

I don’t know how many of you have seen ‘hustlers’ on the street, using a card game, to get you to try to pick one card out of the three that they were shuffling around on a flat surface, in order for you to win some money. It is called the ‘Three Card Molly’ The gist of the game, is to show you a card, one of the three, then put it face down with the other two cards. All of them, were then shuffled, side to side, and over the others. then, you are asked to pick the card that was shown to you, at the beginning. If you picked the right one, you would be a winner.

The problem is, before you bet any money, you would always seem to win. But, as soon as you put some money down as a bet, you lost. That is because, the whole thing was a set up, which usually involved a few others standing around the ‘hustler.’

All of this was done, to get you to see something that they wanted you to see, but wasn’t real. It was a deception. And the only way that deception worked, was because it appeared to provide you with something that you desired, a chance for free money.

Every con game, out in the world, is successful, because it makes the victim believe they can have something, for little or nothing. Our desire to get something for nothing, is our weakness, and people play on that weakness, by trying to get you to look at one thing, while they use something else to entrap you. And you walk in to it, with your eyes open.

Now, I said all of that, to say this.

While we would say that people that engage in such things, are evil, what would you say, if I told you, that God, will use some of the same tactics, on us, if and when it is called for?? And He uses them, to set us up for destruction.

The people that He uses these tactics on, are those, who, have a mindset, of looking for proof of something, that will justify them, not having to believe in God.

Read the subject verses again, carefully.

Notice the underlined, highlighted part?? Do you see the word ‘delusion?’ What does delusion mean???

1: the act of deluding : the state of being deluded 2 a: something that is falsely or delusively believed or propagated b: a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary; also : the abnormal state marked by such beliefs.

Psychiatrists say there are 3 distinct criteria that define a delusional person. They are 1. certainty (held with absolute conviction) 2. incorrigibility (not changeable by compelling counterargument or proof to the contrary) 3. impossibility or falsity of content (implausible, bizarre or patently untrue)

To put it simply, when a person believes something, dogmaticly for which there is absolutely no evidence of its existence, or there is overwhelming evidence contradicting that belief, that is a delusion. A person in this state of mind, is known as delusional.

If you will notice, the one main element to this state of being, is the fact that, it is a belief based on nothing more than what is in a person’s mind.

There is absolutely no evidence. In fact, it goes to the fact that, all evidence, points to the fact that the opposite is true.

Example: At high noon, here in the continental US., the sun, is directly over head in the time zone that it is located, at that time. A person comes up to you, and swears that it is midnight, and the sun, is actually, the moon.

This person, is severely delusional.

Well, noticing verse 11, God is saying that He will send ‘strong delusion’ on a person, so that they will believe a lie.

That means, He will actually provide evidence to the person that is delusional, that will actually provide proof to the person, that what they believe, is true, even though it isn’t.

Sounds like a bunch of double talk, doesn’t it?? You may be saying, that I have all of a sudden, become delusional.

But, consider this.

Looking at the subject verses, God is addressing a certain person, or group of people, that have made up in their minds, that they are going to believe something, irregardless of, in this instance, what God, has to say about it.

When God says something is right, or wrong, these people, contest it, and set about, to, defy it, and teach others to defy it, as well. All of this, in total opposition to what God says. In other words, they actually are defying God.

Now, what do we know about defying God?? Anyone that does it, is in serious trouble.

There are several ways God can deal with this type of person, he could allow them to get sick and die. He could cause them to lose all that is dear to them. Or, he could cause them, to be so blinded by their belief, that they will never, be able to realize the error of their ways, and get saved. They become, as the bible says, ‘reprobate’ [Rom. 1:28], totally unreachable by the gospel.

What would, or rather how could God, the loving God that He is, do to get a person to get so deeply in their delusion, that they could not be persuaded to change their ways??

Remember, a delusion is something false, for which there is no evidence. Well, God, will provide evidence, even physical evidence, to that individual, that will support their belief. Therefore, since this evidence is of a physical nature, it is something that they can see, but yet, it is still not based on reality, or Truth.

Let me give you an example.

The human race, has a nature, that is at odds [enmity] with God. One of the things this nature tends to bring out, is the belief that there is no God. And in spite of all of the evidence that is available that proves that God is real, there are those that press on despite this evidence, that want to say that we, the human race are here because of some other means, like evolution.

So, what does God do?? He not only lets them believe that, but He will actually provide them with evidence, that will, in their minds, support that belief. This in turn, further condemns them to living a lie, from which there will not be an escape. They will languish there, and end up lost for eternity.

If we look at the state of mankind, especially in this nation, you will see there is a big problem facing us. And that problem is, we are getting too man conscious, meaning we are getting to the point, where we base our decisions, on the intelligence, [or rather the lack thereof] of man, rather than the word of God.

We will continue next month, in part 2.

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