The latest zombie-laden season of Walking Dead is off to a violent and bloody start. One of my kids still watches it, and gave me the details of someone from the original cast, season one, that is now off the show—killed off. I don’t bother watching it anymore. I saved recorded episodes thinking I may want to catch up; there are thirty or so saved now and I still haven’t felt like going back to it.
If you’ve never watched “Walking Dead,” it’s definitely not an off-the-shelf Zombie show. It is a custom-tailored adventure show about a band of people simply trying to live another day, against all odds and a lot of zombies who would like to see them become zombies. There are some social lessons we can glean from “Walking Dead,” too. But at one time my real reason was to see all the “What-Not-To-Do” moments. Continue reading “Zombie Apocalypse Revisited”→
In his book, The Return Man, V.M. Zito has a character explain about the zombie brain: “Basically, our memories are stored in the higher section of our brain, the part that only more evolved mammals like humans have. But experiences in our lives that take place under strong emotion are tagged before they’re stored, by a more primitive part of our brain–a part that predates our evolution, back to the lower animals. This primitive brain is a pretty scary place. Aggression, rage, hunger. . . all the basic survival instincts originate here.”
Brain Injury (journal) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The character continues with an illustration from a case in the 1800s, in England. “Three men in a lifeboat after a shipwreck, facing starvation, killed and ate the cabin boy. What happened was that their malnourished bodies conserved energy by shutting down the higher brain, then operated out of the lower brain. The reptilian brain, it’s often called. Evolved functions, like ethics and compassion, went right out the window. The men’s reptilian brains saw a simple choice–eat a boy, or die. So they ate.”
The fall season of Walking Dead just concluded. Last season’s final episode revealed a startling development: whenever a non-zombie dies, the body reanimates into one of the walking dead. Everyone is infected. While this isn’t normally the case in zombie movies and books, it isn’t new. Mira Grant, in a zombie trilogy wrote about viral loads in humans that were kept in check by the bodies immune system. It was only if those loads exceeded a certain point, or increased through a bite, that the person died and reanimated.
So a few nights ago, it dawned on me that these people having a virus that can explode at anytime is a perfect analogy for our sin nature.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Galations5:17
It seems to me, there are an awful lot of zombies walking around, operating out of their lower brains. Or operating without any brain. Brain Dead! Who builds a couple bombs and plants them at the end of the Boston Marathon? Brain Dead, Lawless, Wicked People. But that’s obvious. They have been given over to an evil nature. Their higher brains starved so long they simple don’t reason, only act in senseless, evil ways.
Then there is the momentary lapse of consciousness, falling to the primal brain functions. There’s the law enforcement officer leaving his loaded sidearm on his bed, where a child finds it and shoots a woman, killing her. Or the Special Ops Soldier that is showing off his weapon to a woman and ends up firing it into himself, and dying as a result? And there is the normally good driver making a poor judgement, and running into someone, and that person being injured?
They fell victim, became a casualty, of the war of the flesh of which the Apostle Paul spoke. The remedy?
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16
Paul makes it sound as if we have a choice. Just walk in the Spirit. We must walk with discernment. We must walk with consciousness. We must walk with our heads up, our eyes wide open, and our hands ever ready to be raised to the Lord. We need to stop thinking about tomorrow, or wallowing in the mistakes of the past, and we must walk in the Spirit, TODAY, NOW!
It all has to do with the with the New Age beginning today. One radio newscast spoke of a New World Order. It’s like the Whole Earther’s are celebrating because now the New Age begins with World Unity. It’s a radical paradigm shift to a new order, they say.
While it’s hard to swallow, there are indications there truly is a New World Order in the making. There are more and more people who are afraid and willing to trade their own freedom, and the freedom of there neighbors, for security. TFrom both within the church institutions and liberal political movements there is a desire for peace and security by having a strong world leader and a single worldwide religion. One World Government. One World Religion. Fun! It’s likely that they’ll get there way at some point. They think today it begins. Perhaps it does. But look out. For the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians (first letter 5:3):
While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
At 6:21 am this morning, an uneventful winter solstice, and I knew I’d survived the End of the World-at least this one. When is the next one scheduled to occur?
Y’shuaJesus was asked about “The End,” and said it wasn’t His to know, but only the Father G-d. Yet, of course, we really do want to know “WHEN?”
The Last Days. The End Times. The End of the World. The Apocalypse. Images race through our minds of disasters, wars, starving people, hoards of desperate people, cannibals, zombies, disease, and finally death. The images are lodged there from watching those short “trailers” that show a glimpse of an upcoming movie, or watching the movies, or reading the books. Apocalypse to us means: Disaster is coming! Collapse is coming! Wars! Disease! If this were narrated in a video you were watching on YouTube, in the background you’d hear the Doors singing, “This is the End. . .” and you’d see mushroom clouds and refugees marching slowly off screen, carrying what’s left of their worldly goods. Our minds are made up for us. We have been prepared to see the Apocalypse in a particular way. It is The End of the World. The finish to all that we’ve accomplished here on Earth. . . unless. . . unless there is someone to intervene, someone to save us. Thus, as usually is the case in the movie or books, a hero emerges from the sea of common humanity; out of the chaos comes order. Bravo! Applause! The Earth is saved. We all live happily ever after.
Hummmm. You think? Think about it. Lord willin’ I shall be back on Friday. Until then, Lord Bless, Keep, and Shine gently upon y’all.
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. . .
Romans 1:3-6
Vernon Weiss (aka Regular Joe) writes 5 G’s and a Cup of Joe (http://5gsandacupofjoe.net/). One of his recent posts is Why Is Zombie Apocalypse So Popular? (http://5gsandacupofjoe.net/2012/04/30/why-is-zombie-apocalypse-so-popular/). I look forward to reading his post, but haven’t yet. Here’s why: I awoke one morning this week troubled, thinking about a Zombie Apocalypse. No, not that one will happen; rather that there are some dangerous statements made in relation to a zombies.
Today it is time to begin putting together my thoughts on paper (albeit electronic paper). Once I’ve done that, I’ll go over and see what Regular Joe has to say. I suggest you do also.
Resurrection. Let me clarify a point here and now. For us, the True-Born Believers in Y’shuaJesus, resurrection is a good thing. We believer death does not have a hold upon us. As Randy Travis sang, “Death. Where is your sting?” Death can’t jump up and bite us. The demonstration of this was in the life, death, and resurrection of Y’shuaJesus. This is one of the key points of the Gospel message. We die in our flesh and are reborn, filled now with the Spirit of G-d. We die with Messiah, and rise to new life with Him. This is symbolized in our baptism.
But the word resurrection is taking on an different theme these days. It’s a new word for the dead becoming zombies. Normally, in the Zombie World, a person dies, usually infected with a disease, then comes back as a zombie. A zombie has no mental capacity, only primal functions of what is usually explained as the reptilian brain, for benefit of evolutionists, I’m sure. These zombies are walking dead, craving fresh flesh. Their bite is infectious, causing others to become zombies, if they aren’t eaten completely. Nothing affects zombies; they feel nothing, don’t breath, and only have one inherent desire: to eat. They are put back into death by killing that lower portion of the brain that is controlled, in some zombie books and movies, by the infection or virus.
In the past, becoming a zombie has been called turning or converting. It has also been called reanimation, as if we, the living, are animated, cease, and are animated again. Reanimation is also used in other-than-zombie talk to refer to revival of a person. Interesting. Once becoming zombies, they are sometimes referred to as the undead. According to an article in Wikipedia, “Undead is a collective name for beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. It could also describe a dead body animated by supernatural forces. . .” Even more interesting!
So why are zombies important to us? It’s that the word resurrection is being used to describe the living, dying, and subsequent return as a zombie. It occurs this way in the book The Return Man, by V.M Zito. The book didn’t tie the word resurrection to Y’shuaJesus, though. Resurrection is the name of the disease that causes death, followed by becoming the somewhat stereo-typical zombie. The word resurrection also occurred once in an episode of the television show Walking Dead. But in Walking Dead, there’s a particularly nasty scene that really bites us. One of the characters in the show is considered the closest person in the group to a preacher, as he is often portrayed reading his Bible, and “thumping” on it. In one scene, as he considers the zombie hordes, he laments that he knew G-d promised resurrection from the dead, but didn’t think this was what G-d had in mind. Ugh!
What’s my point? Simple. They, the unbelievers, have once again stolen a word that describes a very specific action of great importance to believers. It is defiling. It is steering other unbelievers away from, rather than toward, the Gospel Message. “But it’s only fiction!” one might exclaim. Sure. But don’t you see something sinister behind it? After all, the whole premise behind zombie is irrational. In a false logic model, the enemy of Messiah hammers away at illogical = resurrection = Messiah. See?
Enough for now. Let’s have a truly blessed weekend out there! Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
The latest zombie-laden season of Walking Dead is off to a violent and bloody start. One of my kids still watches it, and gave me the details of someone from the original cast, season one, that is now off the show—killed off. I don’t bother watching it anymore. I saved recorded episodes thinking I may want to catch up; there are thirty or so saved now and I still haven’t felt like going back to it.
JonahzSong 