What Does 2 Thessalonians 2 Say About a Great Deception?

Term: Strong delusion: the phrase in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 for a deception that leads people to believe a lie.

Term: Man of sin: Paul’s name in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 for a lawless figure who opposes God and sets himself up as God.

Term: Alien gospel: a term some researchers use for the message in many contact accounts that beings from elsewhere created humanity.

The fiction side of this theme is in my Watchers’ Universe novels, beginning with The Watchers’ War.

What Does 2 Thessalonians 2 Say About a Great Deception?

In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul warns that before the day of the Lord, a man of sin will be revealed who exalts himself above God. His coming will be marked by the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. Those who refused the love of the truth will receive a strong delusion, so that they believe a lie. Some Christians connect this to UFO and alien claims. The chapter does not mention UFOs, and Christians read it in several ways.

What the text says

Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica around AD 50 or 51. Some believers thought the day of the Lord had already come. Paul tells them not to be deceived. He says that a falling away must come first and that the man of sin, the son of perdition, must be revealed. That figure opposes God, exalts himself above all that is called God, and sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

The deception

In verses 9 to 12, Paul says the coming of this figure is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness for those who perish. They perish because they did not receive the love of the truth. For that reason, verse 11 says, God will send them a strong delusion, so that they believe a lie. Verse 12 says judgment falls on those who did not believe the truth and took pleasure in unrighteousness.

How Christians read it

Christians disagree about the passage. Futurists expect a future Antichrist. Preterists connect it to events in the first century, such as the Roman emperors. Historicists see it unfolding across church history. All agree that Paul warns of a large-scale deception that uses signs and wonders and is aimed at people who reject the truth.

The link some make to UFOs

Some Christian writers ask whether a wave of belief in advanced beings from the stars could prepare people to accept a powerful lie. They point to the alien gospel, a pattern in many contact accounts in which the beings say they created humanity or seeded life on Earth. That message contradicts Genesis 1:27, which says God created man in his own image. Writers who hold this view say it would fit a deception that moves faith from God to a group of advanced creators. I share this concern, and I describe it in my book Disclosure: They Are Not Extraterrestrials.

What the passage does not say

It does not mention UFOs, aliens, or the sky. It does not say what the lying wonders will be, and the phrase can mean wonders that are false or wonders that serve a lie. Any link to UFO claims is an interpretation. Many Christians who hold the passage to be a serious warning do not connect it to the UFO subject.

What is solid and what is not

The text of 2 Thessalonians 2 is clear about the warning of deception, the signs and wonders, and the strong delusion. The application to UFOs is a reading that thoughtful Christians weigh for themselves. Disclosure is available on Amazon. You can find more of my work at ckqbooks.com.

Sources

2 Thessalonians 2:1 to 12 (King James Version). Genesis 1:27. C. K. Quarterman, Disclosure: They Are Not Extraterrestrials, conclusion on deception and the alien gospel.