The comments about “deceiving even the elect, if that were possible” are found in Matthew 24 and Mark 13, and stand in reference to persons being taken in (or not) by the false miracles of last days fake messiahs.
This whole business of falling into a delusion, or not, is a more all-encompassing thing, I think; it’s more an overriding “cult of personality” than just being fooled by sleights of hand. Nonetheless, the key to it all is, I think right there in verse 10: those who get sucked in will fall prey to the delusion “...because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”
So, the antidote is to LOVE Truth; to positively identify it by the Holy Spirit, and cling to it EVEN WHEN (not if) it doesn’t align with what we thought we had figured out. This is a point I have touched on more than once, because it sits squarely in context to eschatological timelines and events, and because there are various interpretive camps each having their own timelines as to what’s happening to who and when.
So, this Thessalonian Warning can be framed thus, “Ascertain the Truth by The Holy Spirit, not according to your own understanding, and cling to it for dear eternal life, whether or not it affirms your chosen eschatology.”
God is going to do things HIS WAY, and I think we all have ideas as to how He’s going to do things; and if His way is different than what we think, we’ll find Him going one way, when we thought He’d be going another; and in that moment The Saving Question is this, “Will we let go of our ideas, and cling with love to the Truth being revealed in God’s present-moment acts, or not?”
>>> This whole business of falling into a delusion, or not, is a more all-encompassing thing, I think; it’s more an overriding “cult of personality” than just being fooled by sleights of hand. Nonetheless, the key to it all is, I think right there in verse 10: those who get sucked in will fall prey to the delusion “...because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”
The scripture being referenced is speaking specifically about those who have heard the gospel during the age of grace and outright rejected it because they loved their sin more than the Truth... for that specific group, they will be sent a strong delusion from God so that they will believe the lie. (i.e. they won’t get a second chance to change their mind after the rapture occurs)
Some, including born again people who are already saved are certainly not invulnerable to deception... including the deceptions of Q. Therefore, the connection between Q and the “strong delusion” cannot fit because some of those decieved ARE saved... and ALL of those referenced who will recieve the delusion FROM GOD after the rapture will NOT be saved.
It’s still an interesting connection though.