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This believing a lie does not necessarily denote intellectual, or what are called speculative errors, but perhaps refers more particularly to moral questions. And yet intellectual belief is not to be excluded. "The inworking of error" is potent here also. Much nonsense is talked in these days about irresponsibility for opinions. "A man always believes according to evidence," it is said. So he may, and yet it may be his own fault that more evidence was not obtained. In one of the numerous debates that I have held with leading sceptics, my opponent said that God could not be just if He punished him for his opinions, because he had used every means in his power to arrive at the truth. Then said I, "You are the first man in this world who ever did." I am sure no man can say before God that he has let no opportunity go by for learning the truth; that he has left no available evidence unexamined; that he has allowed no chance to escape him which might have been used to profit. Belief is largely influenced by the will. Don't let us forget that. Man very largely moulds his own character, and with it his beliefs. Every man has a free will, and by his voluntary choice he makes habits which become permanent. These constitute his character. In the end he comes to "believe a lie," and his doing so is entirely his own fault.

(G. Sexton.)

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KJV: And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

WEB: Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;