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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Apostasy
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APOSTASY.—A defection from the tenets of some religious community. In Act_21:21 it describes the charge brought against St. Paul by the Jews, viz., that he taught that the Jews should abandon Mosaism. In 2Th_2:3 it describes the defection of Christians which was to accompany the ‘man of lawlessness’; i.e. the Antichrist. This expectation is an illustration of what seems to have been a common belief—that the return of the Christ to establish His Kingdom would be preceded by exceptional activity on the part of His superhuman opponent, and that this would result in an abandonment of Christian faith on the part of many of those nominally Christian.
Shailer Mathews.