But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,
some shall depart from the faith: Paul points out the effect of some of these false teachers. They will persuade some to abandon the faith. To "depart" (apostesontai) is defined "to make defection, fall away, apostatize" (The Analytical Greek Lexicon 62). It is translated variously as "to abandon," "to desert from," "to revolt from," "to turn against," or "to rebel against" (The New Testament from 26 Translations 973). The idea is not necessarily that they will cause their victims to abandon all concepts of Christianity or the Bible totally but that by subtle additions to or subtractions from God’s word they will lead them away from the truth. By doing that, the system of faith revealed in God’s word will be altered and thus abandoned (Galatians 1:6-9; Judges 1:3; Revelation 22:18-19). MacKnight says that rather than an abrupt and total abandonment, the victims of such false teaching will be "relinquishing the true faith and practice of the gospel" (455).