And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
All Commentaries on 2 Thessalonians 2:11 Go To 2 Thessalonians 2
Fulgentius of Ruspe
AD 533
Sometimes by the hidden and incomprehensible judgment of God, the bad angels are permitted to make certain things to test the good and seduce the evil. Now the bad angels themselves do not create what they produce, but they are permitted to bring forth certain things, because these already exist hidden in the heart of God, things which we cannot see. Similarly, the devil was not able to create serpents or frogs, although with God’s permission he produced them, just as he was not the creator of the fire when, to test Job, he, with fire falling from heaven, consumed his sheep together with the shepherds. Nor was he the creator of the wind, when a wicked wind blowing out of the desert, struck the four corners of the house and crushed all the children of holy Job in one simultaneous ruin. The omnipotent God alone created the various natures, that is, the elements of this world. In secret and hidden places, God places certain seeds of things, hidden to us but visible to the angels. From these, as the nature of the work and its own proper time require, by the hidden counsel of his wisdom, God either commands that certain things be produced by the good angels or permits them to be shown through the bad angels. By permitting these latter things, God shows how much power he has given to the holy angels when he has given the ability to do certain things in the material creation even to the wicked angels…. So it is [that] the blessed apostle, speaking of the Antichrist, says, “And thus the lawless one will be revealed.”
