Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2Th 2:11-12)
Have you ever spent time wondering…why does that RASN in my life hate me? Domestic abuse victims often try and try and try to please. To make peace. To overlook. But nothing seems to work. The anger and abuse and evil tactics just keep coming at them. Why?
I believe that the verses quoted above provide a good share of the answer. RASNs (revilers, abusers, sociopaths, narcissists) despise truth. Truth exposes and a narcissist, for instance, is constantly at work fighting against being exposed for their true self. This is why the Pharisees hated Jesus, for instance. He was Light and He exposed what they really were – children of the devil in a saint’s disguise.
When a person persists in hardening their heart against God’s truth, there comes a point when the Lord hands them over to what Paul calls a “strong delusion.” RASNs are delusional. They believe what is false and reject what is true. They took pleasure in wickedness, and so the Lord gives them over to the power of the devil and their own sin. You cannot reason with a delusional person. What they believe about themselves (grandiosity) is part of the delusion, as is what they think about you. They believe, in their delusional mind, that your function is to flatter them, feed their ego, and serve them, propping up their false self-image. You are a lowlife in other words. They hold you in contempt.
I have never yet, in all my 41 years as a pastor, seen one of these kind repent and turn, returning to a sound mind. Never. When people put on a false show of Christianity, thus mocking God, the time comes when He says, “enough!” The strong delusion sweeps over their mind so that they cannot believe the truth. Why? Because it is God’s resolve to condemn them.
And that largely explains why a RASN hates their targeted victim. Particularly if that victim is a Christian.
JS23
I lived this nightmare all my life, even after my father died. I can tell you this he fooled many people. I was the target because I spoke the truth.
Cy
My RASN would frequently accuse me of thinking he was “an evil and wicked person” when I would try to discuss his hurtful behavior. At the time, that was a shocking statment because I never said that nor did I think it. Years later I know better. Yes, he is an evil, wicked person and, I think, he knows it.
Cordelia
Abusers marry not to love, but use. The spouse is a cover for the abuser; she’s kind, giving, caring, outgoing, etc…others transfer her attributes to the other spouse [abuser] (even when their gut has misgivings about him), because he must be all that too, right?, since she married him. She is a jewel around his neck.
He never lets anyone get close to him including his spouse, it’s all surface talk, thereby avoiding being found out. If he praises his spouse in front of others, it’s to bolster his image, but underneath he is seething, being secretly covetous and jealous of all that she is. At home, in the car, anywhere away from others hearing, he systematically gaslights her, calls her horrendous names, denies comfort and support, denies funds, puts her family and friends down (but is charming to their faces), religiously tells the children their mother is crazy and not to be trusted. He undermines their mother at every turn.
He’s main veil over others’ faces is money and like pigs to the mud they squeal with delight. How can anyone say he’s bad, when he’s so generous.
Oh he can be nice, the problem is: *he is not good*. He lies, deceives, lusts, is arrogant and proud, destroys/hates. My abuser attended church and Sunday School from the time he was a toddler; he still does. But he has never, ever apologized or repented for the evil he perpetrated against me. As time passes I remember more and more of the unending campaign of hate against me; where once I was in a deep fog, I now see clearly, vividly, and with gasps of horror at what I endured.
John 3: 19 & 20
“And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed.”
Jeff Crippen
Users. Yes. Nailed it.
Jeff Crippen
I have met this man many times (sometimes he is a she). Yes, church attender, the “finest saint,” and yet in all of my 41 years as a pastor, of the many of these kind that I have had to deal with, there has NEVER been a single one come back later and express remorse, sorrow, and repentance for what they had done. And I now know – they never will.