Daniel I. Hiler
It has been said that we believe what we want to believe. This is very largely true. People believe falsehood because they want to, and others believe truth because they want to. This is not to say that anybody wants to believe falsehood in the abstract. Few, if any, ever want to do that. But there are specific truths that people want to believe for personal reasons. And there are specific truths that people want to believe for personal reasons and not because they are true. Obviously one does not have to love truth in order to believe a specific truth. But there are those who love truth and want to believe whatever is true. In this respect they are like the Bereans who searched the Scriptures daily to see if the things they were hearing were so. They are like Saul of Tarsus, who gave up every thing for the truth of the gospel. They are the ones whom the truth will make free.
But what of those who do not love the truth? Paul said that the “lawless one” would come “according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Then he said, “And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thess. 2:9-11). It follows that not everyone who teaches error does so knowing that he is teaching error. Some believe their false teaching is true, because their lack of love of the truth God has sent them a working of error that they should believe a lie. As long as they maintain this attitude toward the truth, no amount of logic or scripture will make them see that they are wrong.
