Do they refuse to love God or did God predestine them to refuse?
When was the powerful delusion sent? Presuming that God did not predestine the refusal and it was mans own choice to refuse, it seems that God interacts with man throughout; not predestining all things prior to the foundation of he world.
I suppose one could say that these passages speak to the end time peoples since it is addressing end times in general. To my way of thinking the passages take a shift to encompass all peoples/unbelievers for all times??? But, as I say, there may be differing views and we/current readers and believers must heed this as a very strong warning from going astray into unbelief.
I believe the predestination passages. I also believe in freewill. One of the first freewill exercises might be Adam and Eve presented with the tree of knowledge of good and evil which was forbidden fruit. Also, God admonished Cain for his ungodly attitude when Cain was downcast because his offering wasn't considered acceptable...God said sin is crouching at the door and you must master it. I'll offer one more example, this from Israel. Before crossing into Canaan the Israelites were pronounced the Blessings and Curses of the Lord. In the end it was declared in their hearing...
Deuteronomy 30:19-20:
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now
choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
As for predestination...
It would appear that as we have freewill that we have it, but God knows in advance how we shall exercise it.
I'm sure you are aware of the Romans example, but here it is again...
Romans 9:16-24:
It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[g] 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[h] 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
Now after citing the above Romans passages perhaps I need to reverse myself on my postulate that we all have freewill, but God knows in advance how we will exercise it. One can go back another step to true inception of the plan for us and say it was all God's will and mercy which determined who are the elect...predestination. Our freewill may be considered a misnomer???