A Course of Delusion
Our Lawless Age (6)
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 refuse to love the truth and so be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10
In Romans 1:18-32 Paul wrote that people, knowing God through the things He has made, will nonetheless turn from Him to embrace created things as their source of hope, delight, and satisfaction. They make “gods” out of all kinds of cultural artifacts, sensual experiences, and vain aspirations, and they pursue these with a fervor and devotion usually associated with those who are earnestly religious.
Which, in fact, is what they are—zealous in pursuit of their chosen deity, deceived and determined to have their own way in life, and altogether indifferent or even hostile to the teachings of God and Christ. Why believe in Jesus, and be bound by the moral requirements of God’s Law, when they can choose their own deity and determine their own standards for how they ought to live, standards more agreeable to their preferred moral behavior?
Thus, deceived by the “signs and wonders” of our secular age and the impressive array of choices before them, they refuse the Gospel, reject the salvation of God, and set themselves a course of delusion, disappointment, and death.
We should weep for those thus deceived, and make it our business so to live the truth of God and the Christian worldview, that those around us can have no doubt but that the hope that is within us is far richer and more compelling than whatever false hope they cling to in their daily lives.
As they see us thus living out this hope, we must not be surprised when they ask us a reason for the righteousness, peace, and joy which characterize us day by day (1 Pet. 3:15; Rom. 14:17, 18). Instead, we must be ready to give a reason for our hope and to call those deluded by the gods of this secular and lawless age to turn in repentance and faith to the living God of Scripture.
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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).
Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
