America's Underground Church — E.A. Johnston

Divine Judgment and National Spiritual Decline

I believe, friends, we live in a tragic day of remedial judgments from God through his withdrawn presence in our midst and an unleashing of natural disasters from his hand, which are only the beginning of the end.

Institutional Church Compromise and the Perverted Gospel

I wouldn't be surprised if California slides into the ocean by a major earthquake. I wouldn't be surprised if our nation is attacked by our enemies. I wouldn't be surprised if our economy went into complete collapse, when God is violated in the land like America has violated him through grievous sins, and when the institutional church herself has lost her voice of authority through compromise of the gospel and conformity to pagan society, it is only further confirmation that God has left us to ourselves to sit dazed and impotent in our spiritual stupor.

We are so far gone spiritually that we say our church growth, accomplished through human means, is actually a result of God's smile upon our bulging campuses. I believe many churches exist in name only as they make no difference upon the wicked community in which they exist, which only grows more evil every day.

The Underground Church in China and the Coming Antichrist

I believe many pastors, who are good and sincere men, but who preach a perverted gospel are paving the way for Antichrist to be accepted by the church with open arms. In China today, there exist two churches, the above-ground, communist-run institutional church called the Three-Self Church that is not allowed to preach the true gospel, and then there is the underground church in China, where the true followers of the crucified Christ face constant persecution as they meet secretly at night in barns, haylofts, and in homes.

Persecution and Confessing Jesus as Lord

I believe a day is fast approaching in America where hot persecution will come to true believers in Christ Jesus that to be a committed Christian in this God-hating society will mean you are an enemy of the state, and if you confess Jesus is Lord, then you will face confiscation of your property, prison time, and even death.

Spiritual Sleep and the Rise of House Churches

The church is so fast asleep in this country that it doesn't know how to read the handwriting on the wall as society, as well as many church members, hate the Lordship of Jesus Christ in His absolute authority.

And I believe there are many Christians throughout this land who got fed up with the spiritual decay of their denomination and they quit attending church in a building long ago. They meet in homes, they have private Bible study with a few hungry hearts that long for intimacy and reality with Christ Jesus.

They listen to sermons online and are fed there. And I believe this underground church in America will only grow stronger as the days grow darker. It's obvious to anyone with their eyes open that God has left us to our own devices as we have forsaken the living God of the Bible and replaced Him with one of our own imagination.

God's Holy Judgment Against a Rejected Gospel

I believe America is getting ready to see a side of God they are quite unprepared for. Many have been deceived by a perverted gospel that has shrunken Jesus down to man's level. Many live within the doors of a church and obey not the gospel nor the Christ of the gospel.

I believe, friends, God is a terrible God of majesty who will defend His holy name upon a society that has rejected Him. My Bible says in 2 Thessalonians, When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.