That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The verse pronounces damnation, condemnation and eternal death upon all who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, in contrast to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. It follows Satan's working with all power and lying wonders and deceivableness of unrighteousness against those who perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, for which cause God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, and it precedes the Lord's destruction of the wicked at His coming. People come under it by deliberately refusing to receive and love the saving truth, persisting in sin despite clear light because truth involves a cross and a cost, until they lose the ability to distinguish truth from error and accept falsehood as God's truth. That delusion is Satan's last-days work of spiritualism and lying wonders, growing more frequent and startling as the close nears, culminating when about to lose his case in his appearing in person as Christ coming the second time in unsurpassed glory to deceive even the faithful. Safety is to search God's word as hidden treasure and to love and obey the truth which sanctifies the soul and protects from strong delusions, to be on guard and compare every claim with Scripture rather than proving spiritualism by listening, attending or debating.
Verse Words and Context
The verse pronounces damnation and condemnation and judgment and perdition and eternal death upon all who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Their refusal to love and believe the truth leaves them open to delusion and places them among those who perish. It belongs to the warning that deceptive signs and wonders lead those who have not loved the truth to believe a lie, with God permitting a strong delusion as the result of their rejection.
In its immediate setting the verse follows the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness against those who perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. For this cause God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie unto their damnation. This working comes in the last days before Christ's coming, and the condemnation precedes the Lord's destruction of the wicked at His coming.
The working that brings this condemnation is that of the man of sin, the son of perdition. That power is the Papacy manifesting Satan's character and principles of government, opposing and exalting itself above God and sitting in the temple of God showing itself that it is God. Its coming is after the working of Satan with power and lying signs and wonders and deceit operating in those who are perishing, and its lie includes teaching by men who claim to be Christ's vicegerents on earth and teaching prayer to dead apostles, saints, and Mary. The outcome is the last great crisis now upon us in which that working is revealed, when those who refuse to love and believe the truth in order to be saved and instead delight in evil are given over by God to strong delusion to believe falsehood and are lost.
The judgment falls after they are caught in error, and it stands in contrast to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. The truth rejected is the offer of salvation, and those who reject it and take pleasure in unrighteousness are judged while those sanctified and believing are saved.
Cause and Divine Judgment
Those under condemnation come there by deliberately refusing to receive and love the saving truth, and that refusal leaves them open to delusion, to perishing, and to being numbered among those who believe a lie. The working against them is with deceptive power and lying wonders aimed at those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, reaching not only the unbelieving world but the great mass of professed Christians without that love. Safety lies in searching revealed truth as hidden treasure, while neglect leaves the despiser of God's word to strong delusion to believe a lie.
Their rejection is willful and without excuse, for they know the truth yet continue in sin and take pleasure in unrighteousness, persisting despite clear light and warnings. They prefer unrighteousness to the love of Christ, ignore the light God has given and the requirements He makes, and must obey that light in decisive transformed character. By closing eyes and ears while claiming to belong to God and to prosper spiritually, even while practicing and defending pride, covetousness and love of the world, they lose the ability to distinguish truth from error so that in a time of test they accept falsehood as God's truth.
Condemnation is not merely for conscientiously believing a lie, for Eve's belief in Satan's words did not save her because she disbelieved God's words, and her failure to learn and accept truth led to her fall. In judgment none are condemned merely for conscientiously believing falsehood, but for neglecting the opportunity to learn the truth and the lessons in Scripture that warn against deception, since disobedience to God is disastrous and such neglect leads to ruin.
Truth is rejected because it involves a cross and a cost, and to avoid that cost or to suit worldly convenience people neglect God's word for convenience, policy and worldly approval so as not to be at variance with the world. They seek pleasing fables that quiet the conscience, favoring doctrines less spiritual, self-denying and humiliating, degrading intellect to serve carnal desire, and being too wise in conceit to search the Scriptures with contrition and earnest prayer, so they have no shield from delusion. Cherishing doubt to excuse departure from the right path seems easier than cleansing the soul through belief and obedience, yet error and unbelief then entangle so deeply that returning feels hopeless and recovery is rare, and everyone who willfully rejects truth will accept every conceivable error so that one who horrors one deception readily receives another.
For this cause God sends strong delusion so they believe falsehood, withdraws His Spirit, and leaves them to the deceptions they love. Their rejection is deliberate refusal of the love of truth and persistent turning from God's warnings, belonging to the prophecy of deceptive work with power, signs and lying wonders already begun in Paul's time. Rejecting the light of God's word leaves people open to spiritualistic signs and wonders, as the Spirit gradually withdraws and Satan gains greater control.
This divine action repeats what happened before, when those who rejected the message in Noah's day perished in the flood after the Spirit was withdrawn, when all in Sodom except Lot with his wife and two daughters were consumed by fire from heaven, and when the unbelieving Jews of Christ's generation were left desolate. Because they reject the warnings God in mercy sends and refuse the teachings of His word, mercy stops pleading and God sends powerful deception so they believe falsehood, leaving them to what they prefer unto condemnation for refusing truth and delighting in wrongdoing.
Satan's End-Time Deception
The verse describes the last-days working of Satan with deceptive power and lying wonders that leads many to reject warning and repentance. That working is directed against those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, targeting not only the unbelieving world but the great mass of professed Christians without that love, who are condemned for not believing the truth but taking pleasure in unrighteousness. Because he knows his time is short, this last mighty effort to deceive and destroy brings greater difficulties and more determined opposition upon present advocates of truth than came upon Luther and the early Reformers. In the closing scenes the masterly working of the powers of darkness reaches its height, when Satan united with evil men deceives the whole world and the churches who receive not the love of the truth.
That working with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish is spiritualism in the last days, and Christ's coming follows immediately after that work. It is seen when evil angels represent dead saints and sinners and make them visible to human eyes, with manifestations growing more frequent and more startling as the close of time nears. Through spiritual manifestations Satan takes the world in his snare, turning attention to himself and his agents and their miracles and lying wonders, declared to far exceed the works of Christ. The lie at its root is the claim that people do not truly die, and those who cut themselves off from Christ the source of spiritual life and strength are left under Satan's control.
Satan himself is the conductor of the delusion in the form of an angel of light, with his highest agent as engineer and other agents serving under him in different offices. The whole world is taken captive and given over to strong delusion to believe a lie that they may be damned, carried with the speed of lightning to perdition. Those thus deceived are bound in bundles ready to burn, while only a little care-worn company firmly united and bound together by the truth travels the opposite narrow pathway and is bound or sealed in bundles by the third angel for the heavenly garner.
The deception makes the path to hell most attractive by clothing spirits of darkness in pure robes of heaven. It uses vain philosophy, wrought imagination, ambition, riches, power, genius, eloquence, pride, perverted reason and passion to picture the broad road as safety, happiness and glory and to promise a freedom and bliss never conceived, as was promised to Eve. Those not fortified with Bible truth and not firmly anchored upon eternal truth are deluded and led down the broad path to hell, and every word spoken against the world's Redeemer will return upon them in remorse, shame and terror when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
When Satan sees he is about to lose his case and cannot sweep in the whole world, he makes one last desperate effort to overcome the faithful by deception. He appears in person as Christ coming the second time, clothed with garments of royalty, a beautiful majestic being of unsurpassed glory with soft voice and pleasant words, proclaimed and believed to be Christ. He lifts up his hands and blesses them just as Christ did when upon the earth, and they set up a shout of victory that Christ has come the second time.
Satan sets deceitful temptations before men to accomplish what he failed to accomplish in tempting Christ, coming at times in the form of a lovely young person or in a beautiful shadow and working cures so that deceived mortals worship him as benefactor of the race and as demon-god. Phrenology and mesmerism, good in their place, are seized upon by him as his most powerful agents to deceive and destroy souls, laying the foundation of spiritualism and destroying virtue though the world considers itself much benefited by them. By this means the Bible as detector is destroyed in thousands of minds, while his arts and devices are received as from heaven and thousands converse with and receive instructions from him and act according to his teachings. Those who do not believe the truth are made to believe the Bible is uninspired, no better than a story-book, to put Jesus in the background as no more than a common man, and to deny anything miraculous about His birth, death and resurrection. He teaches that no matter how wicked men are and whether they believe or disbelieve God and the Bible, if they live as they please heaven is still their home, and by this he tears away the foundation of the Christian's hope and puts out the light on the narrow way to heaven, lulling the world into false security in awful deception that will not be found out until the seven last plagues are poured out. Neglect of prayer opens the way for these lying wonders to be readily received.
The same power works through ministers who have rejected God's truth and through professed Adventists who rejected present truth and use mesmerism to gain adherents. Satan breathes his power upon them and through them to the people, so that while they preach or pray some fall prostrate and helpless not by the power of the Holy Ghost but by the power of Satan. Their followers rejoice in the influence thinking it is the Holy Ghost, while even those who use it are so far in darkness and deception that they think it is the power of God given them to exercise, having made God altogether such a one as themselves and valued His power as nothing. This working happens in the sealing time to distract, deceive and draw away God's people, illustrating how those who reject the truth and take pleasure in unrighteousness mistake satanic influence for the Holy Spirit.
Truth Rejected and Lie Believed
The truth that is refused is God's word which offers salvation, and those who despise its truths and prefer fables are left to strong delusion to believe a lie because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Safety lies in searching for the truth revealed in that word as for hidden treasure, and rejecting its message leaves people vulnerable to delusion and condemnation. The search centers especially on the Sabbath question, that man is not immortal, and the testimony of Jesus, which hold God's people as an anchor in these perilous times.
That truth includes the advent doctrine and the warnings of the first, second and third angels' messages of Revelation 14:6-12, which the churches described in Revelation 18 refused. Those who heard and rejected the light of the advent doctrine are given over to strong delusions of Satan, seen in false reformations yet to be more fully seen, with mysterious signs and wonders that are not genuine changes from error to truth. Having rejected the advent truth they lose the travail of soul for sinners as formerly, and their time for salvation is past. This giving over to delusion does not apply to those who have not heard and rejected the doctrine of the second advent, and while Christ still intercedes light will be given to those who seek it, a truth about the position of those who held the Advent faith after 1844 not understood at first but afterward made plain as the Scriptures opened.
The lie that is then believed is the teaching of the man of sin, the son of perdition who exalts himself above God and sits in the temple of God claiming to be God, inspiring men who claim to be Christ's vicegerents on earth and teaching prayer to dead apostles, saints and Mary. The truth rejected in its place is that the dead, including Mary, are not in heaven hearing prayers but lie in their graves until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds and the sounding of God's trumpet to call them out. That lie includes spiritualism rooted in the claim that people do not truly die, and the teaching that cuts people off from Christ the source of spiritual life and strength leaves them under Satan's control. Accepting false theories in place of God's word leads people to believe that lie and take pleasure in unrighteousness, while strong delusions work to erase truth and displace Christ's character with selfishness, separating people from God.
Pleasure in Unrighteousness Defined
Taking pleasure in unrighteousness is in one application delight in licentiousness and adultery carried on under a cloak of godliness and high profession as reformers, with the strong delusion the belief that such conduct is nothing displeasing to God, and this stands as warning to those who profess to believe the truth yet live vilely and bring reproach upon it. It includes loving worldly gain and willingness to sacrifice conscience to obtain it, and those who profess to serve God while worshiping mammon and loving the world are idolaters though they have no graven images, their conscious wrongdoing making them worse than image-worshipers who do not know a better way.
It means loving the things of the world and having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, which is to set up idols in the heart and put the stumbling-block of iniquity before the face. Unless by determined effort these idols are put away, those who cherish them will not be acknowledged as God's children, sons and daughters. Even without bowing to images, taking pleasure in worldly things and unrighteousness is inward idolatry, and churches that spurn truth and cherish error show this same mark of rejecting the truth.
Unrighteousness is transgression of the law, seen in the worldwide apostasy to destroy the Sabbath of the fourth commandment given since Eden as the memorial of creation and to put a spurious sabbath in its place so that God's works are forgotten. By leading men and women to disregard the fourth commandment Satan places them on his side, for to offend in one point is to be guilty of all. Among professed Christians those who turn faith into idolatry by giving to a man-made institution the glory and honor God requires for His Sabbath day, and who compel others to worship it, are not sealed by God but are those who believe not the truth and have pleasure in unrighteousness, Satan's deluded followers who will be damned and visited with retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy upon unrepentant despisers of His law.
It means choosing to live in sin and sinful indulgence despite Christ's condescending sacrifice for fallen man, including pride, covetousness, love of the world, and outward religion that mistakes profession for spiritual power and trusts in works and worldly policies while sinning against God and believing God accepts them. That choice brings present wretchedness, misery and unhappiness and ends in loss of eternal life, with those who know the truth but continue in sin perishing outside the city of God excluded with everything abominable. Forbidden pleasures can charm and control a person to that end, and one may profess to follow Christ and come near Him yet receive no spiritual benefit without self-denial and without seeking to know and follow Him in genuine faith. It includes trusting one's own power and merits, rejecting need for the atonement and the crucified and risen Saviour, and losing confidence in the Bible until there is no rule left to guide choices.
Prophetic Fulfillment in Churches
The verse marks the end of refusing truth when churches become fallen Babylon by rejecting the first, second, and third angels' messages and accepting a lie in place of truth. That rejection brings condemnation upon those who would not believe truth but delighted in unrighteousness. The lie embraced includes exalting the false spurious Sabbath above the Sabbath the Lord blessed and sanctified for man, together with the immortality of the soul and kindred heresies. By that rejection of truth and acceptance of error a church is turned into Babylon, standing in corrupt harmony with kings, merchants, rulers, and religious teachers.
It describes the final condition of Babylon when the church has fully reached the fall foretold by the second angel as the result of rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12. Those who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness are then left to receive strong delusion and to believe a lie. That takes place when the Revelation 18 message, the last ever given to the world, is doing its work. Then the light of truth shines upon every open heart, and all of God's children still in Babylon heed the call to come out of her and separate from her communion, while those who remain with departing churches allied to the world face renewed persecution.
The verse is among the scriptures that define the true position of those who held the Advent faith after 1844, showing that while Christ still intercedes light will be given to seekers. That truth was not understood at first but was afterward made plain as the Scriptures opened. It also means that the false shepherds carrying on the false revivals and false reformations appearing shortly after the 1844 movement are given over to strong delusion to believe a lie and be lost. Their reformations increase and spread with mysterious signs and wonders yet do not turn people from error to truth, and they lose the travail of soul for sinners they once had because they did not receive the truth and their time for salvation is past. That giving over to delusion applies to those false leaders, not to sinners in general who never heard and rejected the advent doctrine.
It shows the outcome of the last great crisis now upon us in which the working of the man of sin is revealed, when those who refuse to love and believe the truth in order to be saved and instead delight in evil are given over by God to strong delusion to believe falsehood and are lost. It foretells apostasy in earth's closing days among men and women with great light and abundant evidence for this time who come under the enemy's seductive working, which must be accepted as foretold. Some will have eyes opened and turn, but for many it will be too late to correct errors, and when the days of apostasy end those who believed a lie will be defeated while truth and righteousness triumph. The same condemnation rests on last-days deceivers who deny Christ and lead away from faith, who may appear sincere while seeking to deceive even God's people, and on those who resist truth despite repeated efforts so that false teaching turns the interested from truth to fables and sinners' iniquity fills up unto destruction at Christ's coming.
Warning and Safety for Believers
The verse is a call to stay on guard and not drift from the faith, by watching carefully what doctrines are received. It exposes the last-days working with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who perish, which is spiritualism, with evil angels personating dead saints and sinners and making them visible to human eyes, and with manifestations growing more frequent and more startling as the close of time nears, and Christ's coming follows immediately after that work. There is no need to test that system by listening to its reasonings, attending its circles, or debating its teachers, because God Himself has already proved that class and given the result, which is that those who received not the love of the truth that they might be saved are sent strong delusion to believe a lie, and all who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness will be damned. Neglect of God's word for convenience, policy, and worldly approval leaves people open to receive damnable heresy as religious truth, since those who will not accept plain cutting truth because truth involves a cross seek pleasing fables to quiet conscience and favor doctrines less spiritual, self-denying, and humiliating. Safety is to compare the deceiver's claims with Scripture, for receiving the love of the truth protects from the powerful deception that takes the world captive.
Protection comes by searching revealed truth as for hidden treasure, especially the Sabbath question, that man is not immortal, and the testimony of Jesus, which hold God's people as an anchor in perilous times. Truth when received in love sanctifies the soul, and loving and obeying the truth keeps people from accepting strong delusions, while false teaching turns people away from God's Word toward spiritual ruin. Neglect of prayer opens the way for lying wonders to be readily received, when deceitful temptations are set before men, at times in the form of a lovely young person or a beautiful shadow, with cures wrought so that deceived mortals worship the worker as a benefactor. Phrenology and mesmerism, good in their place, are seized as the most powerful agents to deceive and destroy souls, the Bible as detector is destroyed in thousands of minds, arts and devices are received as from heaven, thousands converse with and receive instructions from this demon-god and act according to his teachings, and though the world is thought much benefited by phrenology and animal magnetism, it never was so corrupt, for these very things are used to destroy virtue and lay the foundation of spiritualism.
Discernment of the darkness and of the working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness comes only by God's grace, without which a person would fall into the same deception of selling oneself to the enemy under strong delusion unto damnation, and a spirit of retaliation, triumph, or revenge endangers a person to stumble in the same way. Those who have received light have no excuse for choosing the path that leads to death, for rejecting truth is not merely failure to know it but preferring unrighteousness to the love of Christ unto destruction, so they must obey that light and show a decisive transformed character. Willful rejection leaves no shield from delusion, for Satan supplies the heart's desire with deception in place of truth, which is how the papacy gained power over minds and how Protestants rejecting truth for the same reason follow the same path, degrading intellect to serve carnal desire and being too wise in conceit to search the Scriptures with contrition and earnest prayer for divine guidance. Everyone who willfully rejects the truth becomes vulnerable to every conceivable error, so that one who looks with horror on one deception will readily receive another, including lying signs and wonders, and safety is in Christ who will destroy the deceiver at His coming.
The verse pronounces damnation, condemnation and eternal death upon all who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, in contrast to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
It follows Satan's working with all power and lying wonders and deceivableness of unrighteousness against those who perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, for which cause God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, and it precedes the Lord's destruction of the wicked at His coming.
People come under it by deliberately refusing to receive and love the saving truth, persisting in sin despite clear light because truth involves a cross and a cost, until they lose the ability to distinguish truth from error and accept falsehood as God's truth.
That delusion is Satan's last-days work of spiritualism and lying wonders, growing more frequent and startling as the close nears, culminating when about to lose his case in his appearing in person as Christ coming the second time in unsurpassed glory to deceive even the faithful.
Safety is to search God's word as hidden treasure and to love and obey the truth which sanctifies the soul and protects from strong delusions, to be on guard and compare every claim with Scripture rather than proving spiritualism by listening, attending or debating.
Verse Words and Context
The verse pronounces damnation and condemnation and judgment and perdition and eternal death upon all who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Their refusal to love and believe the truth leaves them open to delusion and places them among those who perish. It belongs to the warning that deceptive signs and wonders lead those who have not loved the truth to believe a lie, with God permitting a strong delusion as the result of their rejection.
In its immediate setting the verse follows the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness against those who perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. For this cause God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie unto their damnation. This working comes in the last days before Christ's coming, and the condemnation precedes the Lord's destruction of the wicked at His coming.
The working that brings this condemnation is that of the man of sin, the son of perdition. That power is the Papacy manifesting Satan's character and principles of government, opposing and exalting itself above God and sitting in the temple of God showing itself that it is God. Its coming is after the working of Satan with power and lying signs and wonders and deceit operating in those who are perishing, and its lie includes teaching by men who claim to be Christ's vicegerents on earth and teaching prayer to dead apostles, saints, and Mary. The outcome is the last great crisis now upon us in which that working is revealed, when those who refuse to love and believe the truth in order to be saved and instead delight in evil are given over by God to strong delusion to believe falsehood and are lost.
The judgment falls after they are caught in error, and it stands in contrast to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. The truth rejected is the offer of salvation, and those who reject it and take pleasure in unrighteousness are judged while those sanctified and believing are saved.
Cause and Divine Judgment
Those under condemnation come there by deliberately refusing to receive and love the saving truth, and that refusal leaves them open to delusion, to perishing, and to being numbered among those who believe a lie. The working against them is with deceptive power and lying wonders aimed at those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, reaching not only the unbelieving world but the great mass of professed Christians without that love. Safety lies in searching revealed truth as hidden treasure, while neglect leaves the despiser of God's word to strong delusion to believe a lie.
Their rejection is willful and without excuse, for they know the truth yet continue in sin and take pleasure in unrighteousness, persisting despite clear light and warnings. They prefer unrighteousness to the love of Christ, ignore the light God has given and the requirements He makes, and must obey that light in decisive transformed character. By closing eyes and ears while claiming to belong to God and to prosper spiritually, even while practicing and defending pride, covetousness and love of the world, they lose the ability to distinguish truth from error so that in a time of test they accept falsehood as God's truth.
Condemnation is not merely for conscientiously believing a lie, for Eve's belief in Satan's words did not save her because she disbelieved God's words, and her failure to learn and accept truth led to her fall. In judgment none are condemned merely for conscientiously believing falsehood, but for neglecting the opportunity to learn the truth and the lessons in Scripture that warn against deception, since disobedience to God is disastrous and such neglect leads to ruin.
Truth is rejected because it involves a cross and a cost, and to avoid that cost or to suit worldly convenience people neglect God's word for convenience, policy and worldly approval so as not to be at variance with the world. They seek pleasing fables that quiet the conscience, favoring doctrines less spiritual, self-denying and humiliating, degrading intellect to serve carnal desire, and being too wise in conceit to search the Scriptures with contrition and earnest prayer, so they have no shield from delusion. Cherishing doubt to excuse departure from the right path seems easier than cleansing the soul through belief and obedience, yet error and unbelief then entangle so deeply that returning feels hopeless and recovery is rare, and everyone who willfully rejects truth will accept every conceivable error so that one who horrors one deception readily receives another.
For this cause God sends strong delusion so they believe falsehood, withdraws His Spirit, and leaves them to the deceptions they love. Their rejection is deliberate refusal of the love of truth and persistent turning from God's warnings, belonging to the prophecy of deceptive work with power, signs and lying wonders already begun in Paul's time. Rejecting the light of God's word leaves people open to spiritualistic signs and wonders, as the Spirit gradually withdraws and Satan gains greater control.
This divine action repeats what happened before, when those who rejected the message in Noah's day perished in the flood after the Spirit was withdrawn, when all in Sodom except Lot with his wife and two daughters were consumed by fire from heaven, and when the unbelieving Jews of Christ's generation were left desolate. Because they reject the warnings God in mercy sends and refuse the teachings of His word, mercy stops pleading and God sends powerful deception so they believe falsehood, leaving them to what they prefer unto condemnation for refusing truth and delighting in wrongdoing.
Satan's End-Time Deception
The verse describes the last-days working of Satan with deceptive power and lying wonders that leads many to reject warning and repentance. That working is directed against those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, targeting not only the unbelieving world but the great mass of professed Christians without that love, who are condemned for not believing the truth but taking pleasure in unrighteousness. Because he knows his time is short, this last mighty effort to deceive and destroy brings greater difficulties and more determined opposition upon present advocates of truth than came upon Luther and the early Reformers. In the closing scenes the masterly working of the powers of darkness reaches its height, when Satan united with evil men deceives the whole world and the churches who receive not the love of the truth.
That working with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish is spiritualism in the last days, and Christ's coming follows immediately after that work. It is seen when evil angels represent dead saints and sinners and make them visible to human eyes, with manifestations growing more frequent and more startling as the close of time nears. Through spiritual manifestations Satan takes the world in his snare, turning attention to himself and his agents and their miracles and lying wonders, declared to far exceed the works of Christ. The lie at its root is the claim that people do not truly die, and those who cut themselves off from Christ the source of spiritual life and strength are left under Satan's control.
Satan himself is the conductor of the delusion in the form of an angel of light, with his highest agent as engineer and other agents serving under him in different offices. The whole world is taken captive and given over to strong delusion to believe a lie that they may be damned, carried with the speed of lightning to perdition. Those thus deceived are bound in bundles ready to burn, while only a little care-worn company firmly united and bound together by the truth travels the opposite narrow pathway and is bound or sealed in bundles by the third angel for the heavenly garner.
The deception makes the path to hell most attractive by clothing spirits of darkness in pure robes of heaven. It uses vain philosophy, wrought imagination, ambition, riches, power, genius, eloquence, pride, perverted reason and passion to picture the broad road as safety, happiness and glory and to promise a freedom and bliss never conceived, as was promised to Eve. Those not fortified with Bible truth and not firmly anchored upon eternal truth are deluded and led down the broad path to hell, and every word spoken against the world's Redeemer will return upon them in remorse, shame and terror when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
When Satan sees he is about to lose his case and cannot sweep in the whole world, he makes one last desperate effort to overcome the faithful by deception. He appears in person as Christ coming the second time, clothed with garments of royalty, a beautiful majestic being of unsurpassed glory with soft voice and pleasant words, proclaimed and believed to be Christ. He lifts up his hands and blesses them just as Christ did when upon the earth, and they set up a shout of victory that Christ has come the second time.
Satan sets deceitful temptations before men to accomplish what he failed to accomplish in tempting Christ, coming at times in the form of a lovely young person or in a beautiful shadow and working cures so that deceived mortals worship him as benefactor of the race and as demon-god. Phrenology and mesmerism, good in their place, are seized upon by him as his most powerful agents to deceive and destroy souls, laying the foundation of spiritualism and destroying virtue though the world considers itself much benefited by them. By this means the Bible as detector is destroyed in thousands of minds, while his arts and devices are received as from heaven and thousands converse with and receive instructions from him and act according to his teachings. Those who do not believe the truth are made to believe the Bible is uninspired, no better than a story-book, to put Jesus in the background as no more than a common man, and to deny anything miraculous about His birth, death and resurrection. He teaches that no matter how wicked men are and whether they believe or disbelieve God and the Bible, if they live as they please heaven is still their home, and by this he tears away the foundation of the Christian's hope and puts out the light on the narrow way to heaven, lulling the world into false security in awful deception that will not be found out until the seven last plagues are poured out. Neglect of prayer opens the way for these lying wonders to be readily received.
The same power works through ministers who have rejected God's truth and through professed Adventists who rejected present truth and use mesmerism to gain adherents. Satan breathes his power upon them and through them to the people, so that while they preach or pray some fall prostrate and helpless not by the power of the Holy Ghost but by the power of Satan. Their followers rejoice in the influence thinking it is the Holy Ghost, while even those who use it are so far in darkness and deception that they think it is the power of God given them to exercise, having made God altogether such a one as themselves and valued His power as nothing. This working happens in the sealing time to distract, deceive and draw away God's people, illustrating how those who reject the truth and take pleasure in unrighteousness mistake satanic influence for the Holy Spirit.
Truth Rejected and Lie Believed
The truth that is refused is God's word which offers salvation, and those who despise its truths and prefer fables are left to strong delusion to believe a lie because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Safety lies in searching for the truth revealed in that word as for hidden treasure, and rejecting its message leaves people vulnerable to delusion and condemnation. The search centers especially on the Sabbath question, that man is not immortal, and the testimony of Jesus, which hold God's people as an anchor in these perilous times.
That truth includes the advent doctrine and the warnings of the first, second and third angels' messages of Revelation 14:6-12, which the churches described in Revelation 18 refused. Those who heard and rejected the light of the advent doctrine are given over to strong delusions of Satan, seen in false reformations yet to be more fully seen, with mysterious signs and wonders that are not genuine changes from error to truth. Having rejected the advent truth they lose the travail of soul for sinners as formerly, and their time for salvation is past. This giving over to delusion does not apply to those who have not heard and rejected the doctrine of the second advent, and while Christ still intercedes light will be given to those who seek it, a truth about the position of those who held the Advent faith after 1844 not understood at first but afterward made plain as the Scriptures opened.
The lie that is then believed is the teaching of the man of sin, the son of perdition who exalts himself above God and sits in the temple of God claiming to be God, inspiring men who claim to be Christ's vicegerents on earth and teaching prayer to dead apostles, saints and Mary. The truth rejected in its place is that the dead, including Mary, are not in heaven hearing prayers but lie in their graves until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds and the sounding of God's trumpet to call them out. That lie includes spiritualism rooted in the claim that people do not truly die, and the teaching that cuts people off from Christ the source of spiritual life and strength leaves them under Satan's control. Accepting false theories in place of God's word leads people to believe that lie and take pleasure in unrighteousness, while strong delusions work to erase truth and displace Christ's character with selfishness, separating people from God.
Pleasure in Unrighteousness Defined
Taking pleasure in unrighteousness is in one application delight in licentiousness and adultery carried on under a cloak of godliness and high profession as reformers, with the strong delusion the belief that such conduct is nothing displeasing to God, and this stands as warning to those who profess to believe the truth yet live vilely and bring reproach upon it. It includes loving worldly gain and willingness to sacrifice conscience to obtain it, and those who profess to serve God while worshiping mammon and loving the world are idolaters though they have no graven images, their conscious wrongdoing making them worse than image-worshipers who do not know a better way.
It means loving the things of the world and having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, which is to set up idols in the heart and put the stumbling-block of iniquity before the face. Unless by determined effort these idols are put away, those who cherish them will not be acknowledged as God's children, sons and daughters. Even without bowing to images, taking pleasure in worldly things and unrighteousness is inward idolatry, and churches that spurn truth and cherish error show this same mark of rejecting the truth.
Unrighteousness is transgression of the law, seen in the worldwide apostasy to destroy the Sabbath of the fourth commandment given since Eden as the memorial of creation and to put a spurious sabbath in its place so that God's works are forgotten. By leading men and women to disregard the fourth commandment Satan places them on his side, for to offend in one point is to be guilty of all. Among professed Christians those who turn faith into idolatry by giving to a man-made institution the glory and honor God requires for His Sabbath day, and who compel others to worship it, are not sealed by God but are those who believe not the truth and have pleasure in unrighteousness, Satan's deluded followers who will be damned and visited with retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy upon unrepentant despisers of His law.
It means choosing to live in sin and sinful indulgence despite Christ's condescending sacrifice for fallen man, including pride, covetousness, love of the world, and outward religion that mistakes profession for spiritual power and trusts in works and worldly policies while sinning against God and believing God accepts them. That choice brings present wretchedness, misery and unhappiness and ends in loss of eternal life, with those who know the truth but continue in sin perishing outside the city of God excluded with everything abominable. Forbidden pleasures can charm and control a person to that end, and one may profess to follow Christ and come near Him yet receive no spiritual benefit without self-denial and without seeking to know and follow Him in genuine faith. It includes trusting one's own power and merits, rejecting need for the atonement and the crucified and risen Saviour, and losing confidence in the Bible until there is no rule left to guide choices.
Prophetic Fulfillment in Churches
The verse marks the end of refusing truth when churches become fallen Babylon by rejecting the first, second, and third angels' messages and accepting a lie in place of truth. That rejection brings condemnation upon those who would not believe truth but delighted in unrighteousness. The lie embraced includes exalting the false spurious Sabbath above the Sabbath the Lord blessed and sanctified for man, together with the immortality of the soul and kindred heresies. By that rejection of truth and acceptance of error a church is turned into Babylon, standing in corrupt harmony with kings, merchants, rulers, and religious teachers.
It describes the final condition of Babylon when the church has fully reached the fall foretold by the second angel as the result of rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12. Those who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness are then left to receive strong delusion and to believe a lie. That takes place when the Revelation 18 message, the last ever given to the world, is doing its work. Then the light of truth shines upon every open heart, and all of God's children still in Babylon heed the call to come out of her and separate from her communion, while those who remain with departing churches allied to the world face renewed persecution.
The verse is among the scriptures that define the true position of those who held the Advent faith after 1844, showing that while Christ still intercedes light will be given to seekers. That truth was not understood at first but was afterward made plain as the Scriptures opened. It also means that the false shepherds carrying on the false revivals and false reformations appearing shortly after the 1844 movement are given over to strong delusion to believe a lie and be lost. Their reformations increase and spread with mysterious signs and wonders yet do not turn people from error to truth, and they lose the travail of soul for sinners they once had because they did not receive the truth and their time for salvation is past. That giving over to delusion applies to those false leaders, not to sinners in general who never heard and rejected the advent doctrine.
It shows the outcome of the last great crisis now upon us in which the working of the man of sin is revealed, when those who refuse to love and believe the truth in order to be saved and instead delight in evil are given over by God to strong delusion to believe falsehood and are lost. It foretells apostasy in earth's closing days among men and women with great light and abundant evidence for this time who come under the enemy's seductive working, which must be accepted as foretold. Some will have eyes opened and turn, but for many it will be too late to correct errors, and when the days of apostasy end those who believed a lie will be defeated while truth and righteousness triumph. The same condemnation rests on last-days deceivers who deny Christ and lead away from faith, who may appear sincere while seeking to deceive even God's people, and on those who resist truth despite repeated efforts so that false teaching turns the interested from truth to fables and sinners' iniquity fills up unto destruction at Christ's coming.
Warning and Safety for Believers
The verse is a call to stay on guard and not drift from the faith, by watching carefully what doctrines are received. It exposes the last-days working with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who perish, which is spiritualism, with evil angels personating dead saints and sinners and making them visible to human eyes, and with manifestations growing more frequent and more startling as the close of time nears, and Christ's coming follows immediately after that work. There is no need to test that system by listening to its reasonings, attending its circles, or debating its teachers, because God Himself has already proved that class and given the result, which is that those who received not the love of the truth that they might be saved are sent strong delusion to believe a lie, and all who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness will be damned. Neglect of God's word for convenience, policy, and worldly approval leaves people open to receive damnable heresy as religious truth, since those who will not accept plain cutting truth because truth involves a cross seek pleasing fables to quiet conscience and favor doctrines less spiritual, self-denying, and humiliating. Safety is to compare the deceiver's claims with Scripture, for receiving the love of the truth protects from the powerful deception that takes the world captive.
Protection comes by searching revealed truth as for hidden treasure, especially the Sabbath question, that man is not immortal, and the testimony of Jesus, which hold God's people as an anchor in perilous times. Truth when received in love sanctifies the soul, and loving and obeying the truth keeps people from accepting strong delusions, while false teaching turns people away from God's Word toward spiritual ruin. Neglect of prayer opens the way for lying wonders to be readily received, when deceitful temptations are set before men, at times in the form of a lovely young person or a beautiful shadow, with cures wrought so that deceived mortals worship the worker as a benefactor. Phrenology and mesmerism, good in their place, are seized as the most powerful agents to deceive and destroy souls, the Bible as detector is destroyed in thousands of minds, arts and devices are received as from heaven, thousands converse with and receive instructions from this demon-god and act according to his teachings, and though the world is thought much benefited by phrenology and animal magnetism, it never was so corrupt, for these very things are used to destroy virtue and lay the foundation of spiritualism.
Discernment of the darkness and of the working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness comes only by God's grace, without which a person would fall into the same deception of selling oneself to the enemy under strong delusion unto damnation, and a spirit of retaliation, triumph, or revenge endangers a person to stumble in the same way. Those who have received light have no excuse for choosing the path that leads to death, for rejecting truth is not merely failure to know it but preferring unrighteousness to the love of Christ unto destruction, so they must obey that light and show a decisive transformed character. Willful rejection leaves no shield from delusion, for Satan supplies the heart's desire with deception in place of truth, which is how the papacy gained power over minds and how Protestants rejecting truth for the same reason follow the same path, degrading intellect to serve carnal desire and being too wise in conceit to search the Scriptures with contrition and earnest prayer for divine guidance. Everyone who willfully rejects the truth becomes vulnerable to every conceivable error, so that one who looks with horror on one deception will readily receive another, including lying signs and wonders, and safety is in Christ who will destroy the deceiver at His coming.