The Great Lie

8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The above passage is taken from 2nd Thessalonians Chapter 2. The focus of this article comes from the phrase "that they should believe a lie". There are many lies believed due to the rejection of the truth of the Bible and there is a great lie believed by both church goers and people who do not attend church. When I have read this passage in the past, I just assumed it referred to the coming Antichrist, who is the embodiment of the great lie, and this lie would be confined to the tribulation period but the more I study the prophetic word, the more I realize some prophecies encompass past, present, and future. The great lie has always been here been all along. The rise of the Antichrist will be the final fulfillment of the great lie.

The basis of the above scripture is that truth is rejected. Once truth is rejected, the only thing that can remain is a lie. The world rejects the Bible because they do not believe it. There is much evidence to support the validity of scriptures from a study of history, a study of science, and the study of biblical prophecies that have come to pass. We also have many personal testimonies of the power of written word of God.

Governments are afraid of the written word of God and ban it from their countries. Those governments want to kick the one true God out and substitute Him with a lie.

The people who reject the Bible as containing truth do not take the time to study it. Individuals who have set out to disprove the Bible have ended up becoming believers and their lives were transformed so much that they became proponents of scripture as Lee Strobel did with his book, “The Case For Christ’.

An example of how the truth of God’s word is rejected so the world believes a lie can be found in Genesis Chapter 1 Verse 1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. This is a simple and straight forward statement that is easy to understand. Many in the scientific community have found there is an intelligent design behind the creation of the universe. They would agree with verse 1 of the Bible. There many other verses in the Bible that support creation.

There are many in the scientific community who reject this simple truth so they waste their time looking for evidence that will support the theory of evolution. Our public schools teach the theory of evolution as if it were a scientifically proven fact. Why? They “reject the love of the truth” so end up believing in a lie. The theory of evolution, however, is not the great lie spoken of in Thessalonians. It is just one example of what happens when truth is rejected.

I believe, as do many others, that the books that make up the volume we call the Bible contain the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I believe we can misunderstand some of the truths the Bible is trying to convey, but that does not make the scriptures false. We have not accepted the truth of scripture on blind faith. There is an abundance of archaeological evidence, historical evidence, and scientific evidence to support the validity of scripture.

Let’s look at another truth of scripture that the world has rejected. The writer of Psalms wrote in chapter 139:13, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.”

This plainly states that life begins in the womb of the mother. If a pregnant woman is murdered, the murderer is charged with 2 counts of murder as 2 lives were taken. Yet, the world rejects this truth in the name of freedom of choice or women’s rights. The Roe vs. Wade decision by the government of the United States of America passed a law saying it was okay to murder your babies before they were born because an unborn baby was not really a living being.

Over 50 million babies have been aborted since that decision was passed. This is a form of genocide. A whole nation has been wiped out. This has happened because the “love of the truth” was rejected. However, this is not the great lie spoken of in Thessalonians.

From the very beginning man has not believed God and the result of that has been sin. Unbelief in God’s truth is rebellion and rebellion against God is sin. All of mankind is guilty of that. The Bible tells us that God created the first man and first woman named Adam and Eve. Much of the world does not believe this is a true story, but a legend or a myth. They say, “You don’t believe that really happened do you?”

God expressly forbid Adam and Eve from eating of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil or they would surely die. Satan, speaking through the serpent, told Eve she would not surely die. Eve believed Satan rather than God, ate the fruit, as did Adam, and both Adam and Eve went from being immortal beings to mortal beings. This is recorded in Genesis Chapters 2 & 3.

There is a high price to pay when God is not believed. Rebellion enters the picture and death is always the result, both spiritually and physically. Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Pilate asked this question after he had asked Jesus if He was a king. Jesus replied, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” John 18.

What truth did Jesus proclaim? Jesus said He was God. This is the excuse the Jewish leaders used to have Him crucified because they claimed Jesus was committing blasphemy by claiming to be God.

Jesus said of Himself, “6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Was He telling the truth? Some of the world believes He was. There are many who do not believe this.

In order to understand what the great lie is, we have to understand what the great truth is. The author of the Bible is God. He used the Holy Spirit to write the scriptures through man. ”21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter.

The Holy Spirit is part of what makes up God. Man is a 3 in 1 being: body, soul, and spirit. God is a 3 in 1 being: Jesus (the body) God ( the soul) and Holy Spirit ( the spirit). Genesis states man was created in “Our Image” Gen 1:26. Note that the word “Our” is plural not singular.

The entire focus of the Bible is Jesus or Yeshua. He is the center of it all. Jesus created us. We know this from scriptures such as, “15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” Colossians 1

The world rejects the truth that God created the heavens and the earth. They go bananas when you tell them Jesus is God. Revelation says of Jesus, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Rev. 1:8.

This tells us that Jesus or Yeshua was before all things, currently is with all things, and will come in the future. The writer of Hebrews states that Jesus holds everything together, “and upholding all things by the word of His power,” Chapter 1:3

Part of the great lie is the world will reject the truth of Jesus being God and will accept someone who claims to be but isn’t. That part is not the real danger of the “strong delusion so they will believe a lie.”

What happens to us after we die? How do we get to heaven? The Bible gives the answers to both questions, but the world rejects the answers.

Everyone who has been to Sunday school should know what the central message of the Bible is. God took the form of a man whom we call Jesus or Immanuel (which means “God with us”). He came into this world like everyone else through the womb of a mother. However, he had no physical father as His father was God.

Because He was born of a virgin, He did not inherit the sin nature that befalls all of the rest of mankind because of Adam’s sin. He lived a life that was completely free of sin meaning He always believed God and never rebelled against Him. How could He? He was and is part of the three beings that make up who God is.

Since God is a Holy God, sin has to be atoned for. Jesus, who was both fully man and fully God, allowed Himself to be crucified to atone for the sin. He died on the cross so we could have eternal life. We were sentenced to death, but He took our place so we can have eternal life.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, became the final sacrifice for man’s sin. All of mankind’s sin had been atoned for and this atonement lasts for all of eternity. All man has to do is trust in Jesus and what He did on the cross. He has to believe this in his heart. Eternal life is His when he does. Jesus rose from the grave 3 days after he was put to death to show he had the power of life and death.

What does the Bible say about truth and Jesus? John 8:32 “ Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Salvation is a gift. When we receive salvation, then God sends the Holy Spirit to indwell us and it is this indwelling that empowers us to live a life that God would want us to live.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.’ Ephesians 2

This verse is the great truth that the majority rejects and this truth is also rejected in much of denominational Christianity.

The great lie is that heaven can be achieved by man’s efforts. Muslims believe that the only guarantee of heaven is dying as a martyr for the cause of Islam. This is the work of man not God. All of the world’s religions teach that heaven can be achieved by man’s efforts.

Christian churches teach that you have to do good works or you will not see heaven. These good works come about by your efforts instead of God empowering you to do want He wants you to do. This is a subtle but great lie.

Mormons are devout, religious people. They believe that man is destined to become gods and the more good works we do in this life, the sooner we will reach godhood. The coming Antichrist will make this claim. He will tell the world he has achieved godhood and will want the world to worship him. He will back up his claims by lying signs and wonders. The majority of the world will believe this liar because they have rejected Gods truth.

The power of the Antichrist will come from Satan. The Bible tells us that Satan is the father of all lies.

Copyright 2017

Gary Goodworth