apostasy

Uh-pos´tuh-see

Rebellion or abandonment of faith. It refers in the OT to Israel’s unfaithfulness to God (Jer 2:19; Jer 5:6; Josh 22:22; 2Chr 33:19) and in the NT to the abandonment of Christian faith (Heb 6:6). In (Acts 21:21), the Greek root of the word “apostasy” is used for Paul’s alleged rejection of Moses and, in (2Thess 2:3), for an expected rebellion before the end.