So that is why God lets an operation of error go to them, that they may get to believing the lie,

This can mean life or death, for God has let “an operation of error” go to those believing the lie, who look on the “man of lawlessness” as representing God, yes, even more, as being a “god,” accepting his words as above those of Almighty God as recorded in the Bible.

God does not directly send this “operation of error,” but lets it go to the deceived ones in order to prove that it is what they really want. (Compare Hebrews 4:12.) In this way all honest-hearted persons can see that God is just in his judgment. (Rev. 19:2; 2 Thess. 1:6-8) For not ‘accepting the love of the truth’ those who ‘believe the lie’ will find themselves among “those who are perishing” at the death of their “god,” the “man of lawlessness.”