Given Over

November 20

“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness,”

II Thessalonians 2:9-12.

People who love God and who esteem the free gift of salvation that has been extended to them through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus will value truth highly for they will believe the Word which tells them, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” John 8:32.

The original settlers to the shores that became the United States of America were willing to leave home and country in order that they might have the freedom to pursue truth and to worship our Holy God after the truth they had discovered regarding Him. The founding fathers of this country were willing to stake their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor upon the truth that sets men free.

Yet in our day, truth has become a commodity that men easily sacrifice on the altar of self-gratification and the pursuit of pleasure and selfish gain. People today are not so much seekers of truth but espousers of the notion that ‘anything goes.’ Nobody, they conjecture, has the right to dictate morality or righteousness or to lay claim to truth.

Truth is whatever each individual finds it to be for himself. Because of the pervasiveness of this erroneous notion, tolerance has become the only viable commandment of the day. We will accept any doctrine, indulge any behavior in order that everyone may embrace his own truth; and in so doing, we hold only lies to our hearts.

Verses 11 and 12 of II Thessalonians 2 go on to say, "And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie so they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." This parallels Romans 1:28, where Paul says, "God gave them over to a reprobate mind."

If man does not value truth; if man prefers the lie and convinces himself of its veracity, God will not cajole or force him to forsake the lie he’s chosen. Rather, the Holy One will allow him to embrace the lie to his own detriment. And that is not to negate the power of the Holy Spirit which is ever present to give credence to God’s truth; that is simply to acknowledge that if a man prefers the lie, God will not deny him the pursuit of it.

So we see lawlessness in our courts and the evidence of reprobate minds in our elected officials because our citizenry is no longer pursuant of God’s truth. Many of our people no longer grace the Church with their presence; no longer lift their voices to sing the praises of the One who died to set them free from sin; no longer honor, let alone study, the Book that holds the TRUTH that is eternal within its covers.

As the Living Christ and His Bible have become passé, our society has coarsened, our power has become weakened, and our knowledge of truth has lessened. In our current state, we are reprobate and godless but oblivious to the precariousness of our condition. Can it be because as Paul said, God has given us over to a reprobate mind?