The Zombie Apocalypse (going deeper)

 

Could there be more to the interest in Zombies than the entertainment value that their fans seem to receive from them?

A metaphor: False religion is the Zombie Apocalypse. Those who deny God’s call to sanctification are the walking dead, welcoming the deceived masses to join in their crusade of pleasure seeking that will ultimately lead to God’s judgment on the world as they deny the call of Christ.

This is a bold statement, and God’s Word, the Bible, has much to say in this regard. To understand, and to get a new perspective of the present fascination with Zombies, please consider the following truths expressed from the Bible.

What is spiritual resurrection?

 

Evidence of Redemption

The true Christian is one reborn. (Joh. 3:3 and 5-7, Joh. 1:12-13) Born of God.

Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'

 

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

 

This person becomes a new creation. (2Co. 5:17, Col. 3:9-10, Gal 2:20)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

 

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

Once reborn, the true Christian chooses to deny his or her old self, the carnal person he was, as he strives to live in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. He has a new purpose for life. God’s coming to him, the presence of the Holy Spirit within, changes everything. (Rom. 8:5 and 9-11)

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

 

God, who resurrected Jesus, gives new life, the miracle of resurrection, to our mortal being.

 

New Life

In pursuing the life of Christ, the true Christian practices the spiritual discipline of self denial and self sacrifice.  (Luk. 9:23-24, Gal. 5:24)

And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

 

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 

This person continues to struggle with their flesh, or carnal nature, the self they originally were. But holiness, the increasing presence of the Holy Spirit, is a pursuit that the new person desires. This quest is mandatory for the new life.

So is the lure of the flesh unconquerable? No, Christ lives and intercedes to provide victory. It comes by striving for the power of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, there is no excuse for the believer to live as one carnal, without denying Christ. (Rom. 8:34-39, 1Co. 15:57)

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."

 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

 

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In the victory of Christ, the true Christian has the way to possess true life.

 

Deception

But what of the religious person who never truly submits to the authority of the Spirit of Christ in denial of self? This person does not yield his life to Him.

If that person denies Christ by returning to the selfish life that loves the world and the gratifications of pursuing carnal pleasure, there are strict warnings written in the Bible for him. (2Pe. 2:20-22, Heb. 6:4-6, Joh. 15:6, Luk. 9:25-26)

 

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

 

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

 

What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."

 

For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

 

If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

 

For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

 

Instead of the experience of a new birth that comes by confession of sin and in repentance, that person may choose a religious and self-righteous life that accommodates his lust for pleasure and selfish gratification.

 

Walking Dead

The Bible warns of death by carnality. (Rom. 8:6)

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

 

What then happens to the person who lives for the flesh and not the Spirit? (Rom. 8:12-13)

 

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

 

Within the context of their false religion, those who live for the flesh are the “walking dead.”

Furthermore, the person who does not accept and follow Christ, who is not born of the Spirit, is dead already. He is spiritually dead, and his soul is dead.

 

Resurrection of the Soul

Being born of God is a spiritual resurrection. (Rom. 6: 3-8, Phi. 3: 8-11, 1Co. 6:14)

 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

 

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

 

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

 

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

 

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

 

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

 

And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

 

Application:

A zombie as known in today’s culture is a false resurrection. This lie about life after death is propagated by Satan to distract those who are aware of their dying, a physical death that comes in time and cannot be avoided. They are drawn away from the truth of the resurrection of Christ, and the resurrection of the person born of God, for this life and the next. They are void of spiritual understanding.

And yes, there is a final resurrection of those who have left this world: to face judgement and their eternal destination.

 

The original meaning of the word “apocalypse” is prophetic disclosure or revelation. When the word implies a final destruction, it is being used according to a new definition popular in today’s culture.

False religion that denies new birth as a spiritual resurrection evidenced by the presence of the Holy Spirit and established by the believer’s determination to live in and for Christ, may be propagating an apocalypse in the sense of both meanings of the word noted above, (the revelation of spiritual Zombies and the foretelling of their overrunning the world).

But the truth is, false religion is setting our world full of spiritual Zombies that are to be joined with Satan after the final battle between good and evil which will usher in the end of our world, and the resurrection of the dead.

 

Truly Alive

The truth of new life in Christ teaches us to deny the flesh. (1Pe. 4:6 and 2, Rom. 6:11-13, Gal. 5:16-17 and 24, Rom. 6:23, Rom 8:14, 1Th. 4:3)

For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.

 

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

 

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

 

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

 

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

 

For this is the will of God, your sanctification…

 

Conclusion

There may be a great Zombie Apocalypse in our midst, but it is one that is spiritual, not simply a metaphor and surely not a physical manifestation of the living dead, a risen corpse.  Do not neglect your spiritual life, or yours will be the destiny of eternal damnation and torture.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life. (Joh. 11:25-26)

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

What is your religion teaching you? (1 Ti. 4:1-4, 2 Pe. 1, and 17-17)

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

 

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

 

These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.

For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.

They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.