Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Thessalonians 2:11

11 And for this cause God shall send them ‖ strong delusions , that they should believe as lye .

We had account in the former verse of such as are deceived by the man of sin, of their sin, and here of their punishment. They were first deluded, which was their sin, and God sends them strong delusion and that is their punishment. They did not receive the Truth in the love of it, which was their sin, and therefore are given up to believe a lye, which is their punishment. Had they received the Truth aright, they might have been saved, but not receiving it they are damned. And they were said to be such as perish, and their perishing is here call'd damnation. So that though God is not the Authour of sin, or falshood, Deus non est author cujus est ultor. Fulgent. Yet he may in Justice give men up to them, which the Apostle here calls Gods sending, &c. which imports either, 1. Tradition, delivering men to Satan to tempt, and deceive. 2. Desertion, withholding, or withdrawing that grace that might preserve them. 3. A judicial permission, God purposing not to hinder men to fall into that sin or delusions which he seeth their own hearts incline them to. God concurs to evil, not positive, but privative; not efficienter, but deficienter; Schoolmen. God in Scripture is often said to do that which he permits to be done, as in the case of Iosephs selling into Egypt, Gen. 45.7. David's numbring the People, 2 Sam. 24.1. compar'd with 1 Chron. 21.1. And the ten Kings giving their power to the Beast, by Gods putting it into their hearts, Rev. 17.17. and it is not a bare permission, for what evil God permits, he decreed to permit it; and he decreed the circumstances attending it, and the end to which he would order and dispose it. And the degree to which it should break forth. They were deceived into error, and God gave them up to it. And it did work with great efficacy. Which either relates to the man of sin that did lead them strongly into it, or to them that were led by him, when error doth vitiate the life, and one error begets another, and makes men violent against the truth, then it is the efficacy of error. And thus God doth judicially punish sin with sin, and delusion with delusion. And then they are alwayes most operative, and most incurable. But men fall not presently under these judicial acts; men first refuse to see before God sends blindness, and first harden their own hearts before God hardens them. These in the Text first refused to receive the Truth before they were given up to believe a lye; see Rom. 1.24. so that both God, and this man of sin, and themselves also are concerned in these evils; but they sinfully and unrighteously, but God judicially and in Righteousness.

And the Lye they were given up to believe, is a Doctrinal Lye; false speaking is a lye in words, Hypocrisie is a lye in fact, and Error is a lye in Doctrine. Hos. 11.12. Act. 5.3. Some by Lye, here suppose is meant the lying wonders before mentioned; and this sence need not be excluded, but I rather mean it of false Doctrine, as that which stands opposite to the Truth before mentioned, and again mentioned in this verse. Sometimes Idols are called lies, Isa. 44.20. sometimes the things of the World; Psal. 4.2. sometimes the great men of the World, Psal. 62.9. sometimes false Divinations, Ezek. 22.28. Zech. 10.2. sometimes false prophesyings and predictions, Ier. 14.14, 23, 25, 26. and sometimes false Doctrines, as 1 Tim. 4.2. where we read of false prophets, who shall arise in the last time, and speak lies in hypocrisie, &c. and false Apostles are said to be Liars upon that account, Rev. 2.2. And such are many Popish Doctrines which the Apostle here probably refers to. What is Transubstantiation but a lye; Purgatory, Infallibility of the Church, Mediation of Saints, their opus operatum, &c. Men must be strongly deluded to believe such Doctrines, and it is mentioned as a great Judgment of God upon them to believe such lies, as it is a great Mercy to believe the Truth, especially if we consider what follows upon it.