Lost in Delusion

I've stated that during the 70th Week of Daniel (or the Tribulation, if you prefer) no Gentiles will be coming to Christ (nor holding on to him for that matter). The period only exists, redemptively, for the Jews and Jerusalem. Some may be wondering about the mechanics of such a thing, I think Paul explains it quite well in 2 Thessalonians 2.

What we learn from that passage, among other things, is this:
1) Even now, during the Age of the Gentiles, there is a generally imperceptible effort being made to produce lawlessness in people (i.e. an unwillingness to accept restraint).
2) That effort is being held down (hindered) by someone Paul assumed the average Christian in Thessaloniki understood the identity of from his prior talks with them.
3) At some point in time, that restraining influence would be moved out of the midst of the people, which would in turn loose (send) that which would produce the effect of wandering (i.e. a delusion).
4) The delusion would culminate in ALL the unbelievers in the world believing THE lie.
5) The lie is that the man of lawlessness (the Antichrist) is god.

The Devil is at work as I type and as you read this article. His work can be summed up succinctly as murder, marauding, and mayhem. His tools are fear and deception. He seeks to alienate and destroy what God has made for his own pleasure. His efforts are opposed by the active work of the Holy Spirit, the servants of Christ and the finitude of his own limits. Ultimately, he seeks to personally replace God as the rightful object of mankind's worship through a carefully prepared human shill called the Antichrist.

If the Holy Spirit was no longer poured out on all flesh, and God's servants (the church with its angels) were moved out from the midst of people and gathered together unto Christ (the so called Rapture), how long would it take the Devil to succeed in this plot? Just about three and a half years is the biblical answer.

The Devil's efforts from the beginning of time have been directed at getting people to cast off the restraint of God over us. In such lawlessness we are estranged from God and easy pawns for the Devil's wiles. Lawlessness (iniquity) will increase amongst mankind as we near the end of time, but Christians must not let that disillusion us. There is coming a day when we will be gathered unto Christ in glory, while the world that refused to believe the gospel will be lost in delusion.