Tattooed Nation Ready for Anti-Christ — E.A. Johnston

Perilous Times and the Coming Antichrist

We live in a day, friends, right out of the Bible, in regard to the end times. In your day and mine, it's a day where evil is called good and good evil. Our nation is in the very grip of sensuality and gross immorality, and instead of things getting better, things get darker and darker every day.

Listen to the Word of God as found in 2 Timothy, as it describes the day in which we live. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. The key words are wax worse and worse.

That's old English for a nation that's going to hell in a handbasket. It seems as if we're living in the last of the last days as society plunges into moral ruin and chaos. My message today, friends, is entitled Tattooed Nation Ready for Antichrist.

And there are three reasons why I feel this is the case in America today. Number one, a prepared populace in perilous times. Number two, a slumbering church in a backslidden condition. And number three, a growing hostility toward Christianity.

Allow me to elaborate on each of these as we proceed. Our text today is found in 2 Timothy chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. You can turn in your Bibles there now. Please pay close attention, friends, to this critical passage which speaks of your day and mine.

This now, also, that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, fierce despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away.

In this striking passage of Scripture, the Apostle Paul is describing the condition of a society ripe for Antichrist whereby in the last days wickedness grows at an alarming rate. Is that not our day, friends?

If you can't see that, your head is in the sand. There are certain elements that must be in place before the rise of Antichrist. First, there must be a prepared populace in perilous times. Are we living in perilous times?

A Prepared Populace in Perilous Times

Just pick up the newspaper and see how awful the condition of mankind is in the world. Nations lie in the grip of sensuality. Men are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Children today are more disobedient to parents than ever before in history.

There used to be a time in America where parents were looked up to and held in respect, but now they're made fun of. And there used to be a time in America where a man's word was as good as gold. Now men are truce breakers.

Even in churches, you can hardly trust anybody these days. Nations are houses of cards ready to be blown over with unforeseen disasters. The times are perilous both economically and spiritually. America's on the brink of complete financial ruin, and it's already morally bankrupt.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul says about these days from 2 Thessalonians. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a fallen away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Now listen, friends, to this passage from the book of Revelation, speaking of Antichrist in the coming days, as seen in chapter 13 and verses 16 through 18. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

So we see, friends, that all of mankind, in order to live in a society under Antichrist, will have to take a mark upon them to buy or sell anything. Now here is that aspect of which I previously mentioned, a prepared populace in perilous times, and the prepared populace is a tattooed nation.

Have you ever known a time in your life where just about everybody you bump into these days is tattooed up? Even church members proudly display their tattoos. Listen, friends, I remember a time in America where the only ones who had tattoos were sailors.

Now go to the mall and look around, and the vast majority of the populace is tattooed, so this is a prepared populace for Antichrist who will gladly receive the mark of the beast to do commerce for what is one more mark to an already marked up person.

Everything is in place for the man of sin to appear and to take command of a tattooed world by giving them one more mark, but if you take that mark, friend, you may be able to buy and sell, but it will be hell to pay.

A Slumbering and Backslidden Church

Next, the second aspect of these last days is a slumbering church in a backslidden condition. Listen, friends, in 1740, when God moved through New England, it was called the Great Awakening. Revival has often been referred to as an awakening.

At Gethsemane, Jesus faced the crisis point of his earthly ministry, and his disciples slept right through it. Today, the church is in a crisis point, and we are sleeping right through it. I've never seen a time in my entire days where the church was so fast asleep, gripped with self-sufficiency and self-gratification.

The church in America is so fast asleep that she poses no threat to Satan, has no influence upon society, and is content to live in self-indulgence. She is apathetic and indifferent to the days in which she lives.

It's as if she's drugged and numb to the pain all around her. For a few weeks, I visited a church within my community. It was obvious to all there I was a visitor because of the size of that church. But in that course of time, no one ever shook my hand or said hello or even smiled at me.

Even when I smiled at them, they were quite happy living on their own little island and did not want intruders. And that's the experience you will get from visiting a vast majority of churches in America today.

You'd receive a better welcome in the local bar than you would at church these days. That's how bad it's gotten. The church has become self-absorbed. And the sad fact is, the church in America today has no power, no influence upon the evil society in which she lives.

She is an impotent church, under the judgment of an offended God, who has withdrawn his presence from her because of her multiplied sins and her refusal to repent of those sins. This adds to the perilous day in which we live because the church is no longer a moral compass to the very nation she lives in as society unravels all around her.

The church let the world influence her rather than stand true to the God of the Bible and have an influence with the world. And lastly, this last aspect of a tattooed society ready for Antichrist is this, a growing hostility toward Christianity.

Growing Hostility Toward Christianity

Just look around you today, you'd be hard-pressed not to notice how society, in both the government and media, have an outright hostility towards Christianity and it grows more hostile every day. We live in a tolerant society that is tolerant toward everything and everybody as long as they are not Christians.

Even our own military is trying to kick out every Christian by making it such a hostile environment toward them. Now let me state this, society is very agreeable toward the brand of Christianity that is predominant in the land today.

The brand of Christianity spoken of here in our passage today of those having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. I'm speaking of the happy church in America that embraces all as it embraces all without requiring anybody to change their ways.

There's no mention of sin or any need of repentance. You can join the church just the way you are and stay the way you are and everybody is okay with that. It's a tolerant church that tolerates all types of sin.

Holiness is never mentioned nor practiced but if you try to live a holy life as a Christian and distance yourself from the pack then you will be viewed as an oddball and a troublemaker. You will be viewed as intolerant of others and if you dare preach on the lordship of Christ and make mention of the need of repentance, if you preach about a bloody cross and a crucified savior, if you warn men to flee from a terrible place called hell and say that man is a sinner and unless he exercises repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ he will surely go to hell, then the bricks will start flying at you, pulpits will be closed to you, you will be an object of ridicule and hate because satan hates the mention of a bloody cross, he hates the mention of sin and he hates his final resting place called hell and society will hate you friend if you preach those things to this generation of god-hating pagans but if you cheapen the gospel and leave out the offensive things and just talk about heaven and about a tolerant god who is tolerant toward sin then you and society will get along just fine.

Listen friends everything is in place for the man of sin to appear and take control all the dominoes are in place and lined up ready for the appearance of antichrist for we have a prepared populace in a perilous time a slumbering church in a backslidden condition and a growing hostility toward vital christianity.

The Need for Vital Christianity and Revival

And i look around today for signs of vital christianity. I search for churches that preach the true gospel and i have a hard time finding either. Rather it is compromised here and compromised there. Don't offend anybody.

Just offer a jesus who will let you into heaven and let you stay in your sins. And i receive emails from people all the time who complain that they can't find a real preacher and a true church to worship god in in their community.

They are sick and tired of the state of things in both the church and the nation. I say to you friend do not be discouraged in this discouraging time god is in complete control. I've read the back of my bible and it all turns out okay.

God has his faithful remnant and god is raising up here and there a new generation of young preachers who are not afraid to preach the full counsel of god. They are men who earnestly desire revival. And they are men who are set on living holy lives unto god.

God has his firebrands and he is preparing them and thrusting them out. Even now you'll find them on street corners and in prisons as they go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.

Faithful Preachers and the Gospel of Christ

Some are faithfully filling pulpits some are hidden in prayer. They are a new generation of preachers who fear god and not man. God has his remnant of ambassadors for him. And they remind me of men whom god has used in former times.

Men like this the apostle paul luther wesley whitfield knox edwards finney spurgeon moody each shared a common denominator a fire in their belly. They were so eaten up with the gospel and thirsty for christ and filled with the holy ghost.

They could not stand idly by. While others perished they saw nothing but eternity worshiped a holy god and served a risen christ living not for earth nor its gains but living only for heaven and its rewards.

When they preached they linked the devil with sin and the cross with salvation. They preached hell and its fire and christ and him crucified. Not one of them feared king queen or pope. And not one of them sought the compliments of men.