Brief Exhortations

David J. Riggs

“...They did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thess. 2:10-12)

In 1877, Percival Lowell heard that an Italian astronomer had seen straight lines crisscrossing the surface of the planet Mars. Lowell spent the rest of his years squinting into the eyepiece of his giant telescope in Arizona, mapping the channels and canals he saw. He was convinced the canals were proof of intelligent life on Mars, possibly an older but wiser race than humanity. About the turn of the century, Lowell’s theories had gained wide acceptance.

Now, of course, things are different. Space probes have orbited Mars and landed on its surface. The entire planet has been mapped, and no one has seen a channel or canal of any kind. How could Lowell have “seen” so much that wasn’t there? There are two possibilities: (1) He so wanted to see canals that he deceived himself into thinking they were there. (2) We know now that he suffered from a rare eye disease that made him see the blood vessels in his own eyes. The Martian “canals” he saw were nothing more than the bulging veins of his eyeballs. Today, the malady is known as “Lowell’s syndrome.”

These facts about Mr. Lowell well illustrate how “strong delusion” can similarly come to those who do not love the truth.