Zombies, Zombies… Everywhere!
Let’s face it; the above is probably not a title you ever thought you’d see in a religious article, let alone a church of Christ article. But I promise that if you’ll stick with it and read it to the end, you’ll find a very biblical, powerful, and practical point to this “Zombie” article!
Zombies are hypothetical creatures… and ugly.
The fact is that no one ever used to hear too much about zombies, except as we approached that one time of year when Satan worshippers and the like began to gear up in anticipation of celebrating their most unholy day of the year – the time that to them is as sacred as Christmas is to the world of “Christendom” at large (and I use that term loosely) – that being the hokey Halloween holiday. But all of that has changed in the last few decades, as evil “zombies” have become an everyday, everywhere fixture in our current culture. They are the featured subject and fearful centerpiece of a countless number of extremely popular movies, videos, video games, television series, and even cellular telephone and other ad campaigns, which we are now exposed to year-round.
Let us begin with what we are told they are. Zombies are characterized and defined to us as being “the living dead.” David Chalmers has written, “Zombies are hypothetical creatures of the sort that philosophers have been known to cherish. A zombie is physically identical to a normal human being, but completely lacks conscious experience. Zombies look and behave like the conscious beings that we know and love, but ‘all is dark inside.’ There is nothing it is like to be a zombie” (www.philpapers.org).
As to where they came from, the idea seems to have originated in the voodoo traditions of Haiti according to some sources, being later imported and popularized here in America with the release of the 1968 George A. Romero film, “Night of the Living Dead.” From the 1960’s American musical group known as “The Zombies,” to the 1983 Michael Jackson video, “Thriller,” even up to as recently as the 2013 release of the movie “World War Z,” zombies have grown in stature, exposure, acceptance and recognition. In fact, regarding the insanely popular zombie-slaughtering television series “The Walking Dead,” Wikipedia reports that: “AMC has renewed the series each year because of its consistently increasing Nielsen ratings, which have been unprecedentedly high for a cable series, including viewership of 17.3 million for its season five premiere, making it the most-watched drama series telecast in cable history.”
But here is by far the biggest thing that one needs to understand and consider regarding our current culture’s complete fascination and infatuation with these unfeeling and formerly human creatures: ‘As David Chalmers has written, “Zombies are hypothetical creatures.”’ In other words, they aren’t real. They not only don’t exist in the physical world but they can’t! Zombies (as pop culture currently portrays them that is) are simply the result of the mentally misfiring cracks and crevices of man’s most macabre imaginations! Those, incidentally, being the same dark and satanically-infested imaginations from whence false, futile, and useless man-made doctrines of religion actually, legitimately arise to terrorize and destroy mankind (as referenced in 1 Kings 12:28-33, Matthew 15:1-9, Mark 7:1-13, Colossians 2:8-23, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, 2 Peter 2:1-3, and so many more).
Folks, God’s word is clear: “It is appointed for man to die once, but after this, the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). The moment the body draws its last breath, the spirit leaves the body lifeless and takes up residence in the Hadean realm, not to be raised again until the final judgment (See Ecclesiastes 12:7, Luke 16:22ff, John 5:28-29, 11:24, and etc). The only exception to this, was of course, the very special circumstances surrounding those raised from the dead by Jesus Christ and His hand-picked and Holy-Spirit endowed and empowered apostles (Mark 5:35-42; Luke 7:11-17; John 11:41-44; Acts 9:36-43, 20:9-12).
However, just because zombies – those who are by definition “all dark inside” – do not and cannot exist as Hollywood depicts them, that does not mean that the ‘walking dead’ do not exist at all! Oh no, far from it! In fact, they are all around us! They are everywhere, as the spiritually dead and separated from God masses of souls within which we all function and which swirl around us all each day, remain dead in their trespasses and sins, even as we once were (Ephesians 2:1-10). Their one and only hope is also the blood (vss. 11-18). But alas, many of them ignorantly and militantly prefer their walking dead state rather than to walk with the Lord (Luke 9:59-60; Galatians 5:19-25). They refuse to come to the light (cf. John 3:19-20), preferring instead to remain “all dark inside” and separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2), “having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Ephesians 4:18-19).
The living dead; the walking dead; these are the spiritually “dead” the bible describes – “spiritual zombies” if you will – and this type certainly does exist by the millions in modern day America. These are those whom we know and love who have not yet obeyed the gospel and experienced the saving grace blood of Jesus Christ. Let us remember that the next time we see anything even remotely related to “the living dead,” and realize the reality of the terror inherent in the eternities of the “real zombies” amongst and around us everywhere, and do everything we can to change that (Matthew 28:18-19)!