Have you ever wondered about the Strong Delusion that God sends on people? What does it mean? What does it look like? How can I recognize it? How can it benefit us to understand it better? What apologetics secrets lie behind understanding it better?
Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12,
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Right off the bat, Paul says “Now concerning the coming of our Lord…” This seems to be a clue as to what he has in mind. He continues, “let no one deceive you in any way.” Perhaps the Strong Delusion is the belief that Jesus has returned, and those who believe such are following a false Christ.[1] What I think is interesting comes in further exploration of this phrase, Strong Delusion.
The Bible is replete with the idea that God will move a person in the direction they are heading. Consider Romans 1:24-28 for a moment:
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
In this short and incomplete passage, the phrase, “God gave them up” is repeated three times. This seems quite significant because God is allowing the movement of the person to go in the direction he is naturally going.
I think also of James 4:8, that we should “draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” The opposite is also true: “Draw away from Him and He will draw away from you.” Why is this the case? I argue that it is because of free will. The Bible says that God’s eyes look to and fro throughout the whole earth seeking someone to give strong support to those whose hearts are blameless toward Him.[2] Again, this verse in 2 Chronicles 16:9 speaks to the same idea, that God allows people to go in the direction that they naturally go. This appears to be what the Strong Delusion is. It seems that the Strong Delusion is also a form of God’s judgment. People make their beds, and so they will have to sleep in them without intervention taking place.
The question is, how does this apply to apologetics? While preparing for this article, I had cults in mind. Specifically, Mormonism, because I have friends and acquaintances who are Mormon. What boggles my mind is that many of the Mormon people I know are in professions that require a superior logical skillset, and they prove that they have this skillset every day. Think about medical doctors, police officers, or lawyers who are Mormon, for instance… How is it that they can often have such logical precision in their professional fields, and then when it comes to religious beliefs, that same logical precision is like a baby that is thrown out with the bathwater? I think that exploring the Strong Delusion pattern in the Bible can help us understand some things as apologists.
The Correspondence Theory of Truth
In speaking of truth, I think there are two competing theories that are prominent above others. The first one is the Correspondence theory of truth. This is the idea that truth is that which corresponds to reality. This is the theory of truth to which I personally hold. If someone were to ask me, “What is truth?”[3] this is how I would answer, that truth is that which corresponds to reality. I recently had a local Mormon email me explaining that she also desires to speak the truth. This was after she repeatedly said in our correspondence that Mormons worship the same Jesus as Christians. The following is how I responded:
I appreciate your continued willingness to engage, and I am very glad you feel the same way about truth! The question is, could you define truth? Have you ever thought about that? If a little kid came to you and asked you what truth meant, could you say more than that it is whatever is true? Let me help with a definition… Truth is that which corresponds to reality. If a claim or statement does not conform to reality, then it is not true. So, for instance, the statement, “Jesus is a created being” can only be either true or false. Christianity says this is false, but LDS says this is true. It cannot be both. This is what I mean when I say that Christians and Mormons worship a different Jesus. [Often a Mormon will scoff at the idea that there is more than one Jesus, so I wanted to stop the idea in its tracks] 2 Corinthians 11:4 says, “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” Did you see where that says, “another Jesus”? Jesus of Nazareth is fundamentally different from LDS Jesus. This is what I mean when I say that there is more than one Jesus. So, it is inaccurate to say that Mormons and Christians worship the same Jesus.
We only need one example to see that the Mormon Jesus is fundamentally different than the Jesus described in the Bible. Truth corresponds to reality. Either the claims that the Bible makes about Jesus are true, or they are false. Either these claims correspond to reality, or they do not. There are no other options. Either John 1:1-3 is true when it says that Jesus was with God in the beginning because Jesus is God, and that all things came into existence through Jesus, or the Bible is false (The Bible is not false).
The Coherence Theory of Truth
The other theory of truth mentioned above is the theory I believe that is required for Mormon thought, as well as for many other cults and false religions. Holding to the coherence theory of truth makes it impossible to live a life of consistent beliefs. The coherence theory of truth is that there are different sets of beliefs that each cohere within those sets. For instance, consider the area of mathematics. Everything that is in such a set is consistent if it remains in the set. Perhaps there is a different set of beliefs concerning a different subject or area of discussion, since the truths of arithmetic do not fit well with this different set of beliefs, yet all the beliefs in this set cohere with one another. The problem is that from one set to another, there may lie inconsistencies. Think of these sets like bubbles. In one bubble, a person is a medical doctor, or a police officer, and everything in such a bubble coheres with everything else in that bubble. But, when it comes to religious beliefs, it is a different bubble altogether, having different rules, yet these things also cohere within such a bubble.
The problem is that when we step outside of these bubbles or sets of beliefs and look at them remotely, we might find that there are inconsistencies when the bubbles come together. The problem I find is that people have trouble stepping back to observe all that is in these bubbles. For instance, a medical doctor knows that there are wrong ways to practice medicine. He knows that mixing a certain medication with another medication could prove to be fatal for his patient. He experiences the fundamental law of noncontradiction in such and knows the danger of mixing medications. Yet, when he mixes the Book of Mormon with the Bible, the fundamental law of noncontradiction is dismissed. For instance, Mormons will say that they worship the same Jesus as Christians, but when you show them the differences between 2 Nephi 25:23 and Ephesians 2:8-9, they see no contradiction. The Book of Mormon in the 2 Nephi reference says, “we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” and the Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Mormons here see no contradiction. One statement is saying that there is something that we can do in order to be saved, and the other is saying that there is nothing we can do, but that salvation is a totally free gift. In other words, people are either saved through Jesus alone, or we are not. This is the contradiction.
Both Christianity and Mormonism acknowledge the phrase, “Jesus saves,” but there are two fundamentally different Jesus’ discussed here, both by what Jesus does, and by who He is. He either saves us or not and is either a created being or is not.
So here, our Mormon medical doctor or police officer friend is living in two different bubbles, so to speak. The problem is that he is living a life filled with contradiction. He is inconsistent in his beliefs. What happened in the second bubble that disregards the fundamental law of noncontradiction? Why is it appropriate to hold to the law of noncontradiction in one bubble but not the other? I think this is the beginning of the problem as to why there are Mormon medical doctors, Lawyers, and police officers, for some examples. It seems that this understanding can be applied to any belief other than that of a Christian worldview. The reason this is the case is because Christianity is true.
This also seems to touch on a related topic, which is that our goal as human beings should be that we should seek after an integrated life, rather than a compartmentalized life. The reason is that if we have a compartmentalized life, then not only is our integrity compromised, but also inconsistencies are inevitable, and because of such, this means that some of our beliefs are simply wrong. This is the case if we believe two different contradicting ideas, such as the contradicting ideas that we can do something for our salvation versus there is nothing we can do for our salvation.
I mention all of this because, like I said, I am confused as to why some of the Mormons in my life are very good at what they do, because their profession requires or required them to be logically precise, yet they have these beliefs that are not only illogical, but harshly opposed to logical thinking. I think that we apply such information to our apologetical arsenal for the purpose of seeing where a person is coming from more clearly in their thinking, and from here, perhaps we can guide them to a place of straight thinking. Perhaps also this understanding will help us as Christian apologists to lower our own emotional defenses in order to be able to reach Mormons and other false beliefs with the truth of the gospel.
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