:Temptations: Christians were tempted to engage in various vices that were a part of their lives before they became Christians (idolatry, sexual immorality, covetousness, etc.).
:Deceptions: Christians encountered various heresies and false teachings spread by false teachers and prophets that threatened to seduce them away from their pure devotion to Christ.
:Persecutions: Christians were persecuted by the governing powers of the day for their allegiance to Christ. Many Christians were threatened with certain death if they would not deny Christ.

1 Timothy 4:1 describes "falling away from the faith" in the last days in terms of falling into false, heretical beliefs. Lk. 8:13 probably refers to apostasy as a result of eschatological temptation. Here are people who have come to believe, who have received the gospel "with joy." But under the pressure of persecution and tribulation arising because of the faith, they break off the relationship with God into which they have entered. According to Hebrews 3:12, apostasy consists in an unbelieving and self-willed movement away from God (in contrast to Hebrews 3:14), which must be prevented at all costs. ''aphistēmi'' thus connotes in the passages just mentioned the serious situation of becoming separated from the living God after a previous turning towards him, by falling away from the faith. It is a movement of unbelief and sin, which can also be expressed by other words (cf. the par. to Luke 8:13 in Matthew 13:21; Mark 4:17; . . .). Expressions equivalent in meaning to the warning in 1 Timothy 4:1 include ''nauageō'', suffer shipwreck, 1:19; ''astocheō'' miss the mark, 1:6; 6:21; 2 Timothy 2:18; cf. also ''aperchomai'', go away, John 6:66; ''apostrephō'', turn away; ''arneomai'', deny; ''metatithēmi'', change, alter; ''mē menein'', do not abide, John 15:6; . . . (also ) the pictures of defection in Matthew 24:9–12, and Revelation 13."〔''NIDNTT'', 1:607-608. I. Howard Marshall says ''piptō'', to fall (Romans 11:11, 22; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Hebrews 4:11); ''parapiptō'', to fall away, transgress (Hebrews 6:6), ''pararrheō'', to drift away (Hebrews 2:1); and ''skandalizō/skandalon'', to stumble, offend (John 6:61; 16:1) are also expressions connected to the concept of apostasy (''Kept by the Power of God'', 217, note 4).〕

In the passive voice σκανδαλίζω () more often means . . . "fall away from faith." In the interpretation of the parable of the sower (Mark 4:13-20 par. Matt 13:18-23) those identified with the seeds sown on rocky ground, i.e., those "with no root in themselves," the inconstant
ones, go astray to their own ruin when persecuted on account of the word, i.e., they fall away from faith (Mark 4:17 par. Matt 13:21). The Lukan parallel reads appropriately ἀφίστημι (fall away ) (8:13). In Matt 24:10 Jesus predicts that in the end time many will fall away (). The result is that they will hate one another, wickedness will be multiplied, and love will grow cold. Yet whoever endures in love until the end will be saved (vv. 11, 13).
. . . In the Johannine farewell address (John 16:1) σκανδαλίζω () does not only imply an "endangering of faith" . . . but rather "falling away from faith" entirely, from which the disciples and Christians are to be kept. . . . In the active voice σκανδαλίζω () means "cause someone to fall away from (or reject) faith," as in the saying of Jesus about the person who "''causes'' one of these little ones who believe in me ''to sin ()''" (Mark 9:42 par. Matt 18:6/Luke 17:2). The Christian is enjoined to reject anything that might be an obstacle to faith, as emphasized in Mark 9:43,45,47 in metaphorical, hyperbolic language: Hand, foot, and eye--in Jewish understanding the loci of lust or sinful desires--must be given up if they threaten to become the cause of loss of faith and thus of salvation. This . . . underscores the seriousness of conviction within which one must persevere if one wishes to enter (eternal) life or the kingdom of God. . . . Matt 5:29, 30 also issues an exhortation to decisive action (Matt 18:8, 9 ). . . . According to 1 Cor 8:9 a Christian's freedom regarding eating food offered to idols reaches its limit when it becomes a stumbling block to one's brother (πρόσκομμα ()). Hence Paul emphasizes that he will never again eat meat if by doing so he causes his brother to fall and thus to lose salvation (σκανδαλίζω (), v. 13a, b), since otherwise that weaker brother is destroyed by the knowledge of the "stronger" (v. 11). Whoever sins against his brothers sins also against Christ (v. 12). . . . Within the context of the protection of the "little ones" in the Church, i.e., probably the "weak ones" (() 18:6-10), Jesus utters an eschatological threat ("woe!") against the world (alienated from God) because of ''temptations to sin'' (v. 7a); though he allows that such ''temptations'' must come (v. 7b), he finally hurls an eschatological "woe!" against the person by whom the ''temptation'' comes (v. 7c). σκάνδαλον () used here of the temptation to fall away from faith. The parallel, Luke 17:1, like Matt 18:7b, also underscores that such temptations are unavoidable; nonetheless, the person by whom they come receives the eschatological "woe!" that already places him under divine judgment. . . . In Rom 14:13 Paul admonishes the "strong," whose position he fundamentally shares (v. 14), not to cause the "weak" any ''stumbling block to faith'' through eating habits . . . . In Rom 16:17 the σκάνδαλον () are the various satanic activities of the false teachers who endanger the salvation of Church members, who are being seduced into falling away from correct teaching; such teachers also threaten both the unity and very existence of the Church. Similarly, in Rev 2:14 σκάνδαλον () refers to a ''stumbling block'' to faith in the context of false teaching. According to 1 John 2:10 there is no cause for stumbling or sin in a believer who loves his brother . . . i.e., no cause for unbelief and thus a loss of salvation.〔Heinz Giesen, ''Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament'', 3:248-250.〕

It is clear that the churches of Asia are subject to persecution and its accompanying pressure to apostatize that arise from a Jewish quarter in Smyrna and Philadelphia (Revelation 2:9) and from the emperor cult in Pergamum (Revelation 2:13). At the same time various false teachings are touching the churches of Ephesus (Revelation 2:6), Pergamum (Revelation 2:14–15) and Thyatira (Revelation 2:20). The language of "deception," that is, of being "led astray," is applied to the false prophetess, Jezebel (Revelation 2:20). Satan, the source of all these persecution and false teachings, is also "the deceiver of the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). The metaphor, "deception" (''planaō''), implies a path of truth from which one might be "turned aside." Against these Satan-inspired obstacles the reader are called upon to "conquer," that is, to overcome these problems.〔Barnett, ''Dictionary of the Later New Testament'', 75〕