What if, however, I was to tell you that the zombie apocalypse has already happened? In a recent trip to the grocery store, I was tempted (more than once) to check to see if someone that I was speaking to had a pulse. Some of them really did seem to be like the living dead. They were behaving mindlessly and carelessly; as though they were nothing more than re-animated corpses who thought about nothing but their own stomachs. Many people drive this way, should we be surprised that they live this way also?
People of this character are spoken of in Scripture frequently. Take for example the reference that St. Paul makes about those who are "enemies" of Christ: "Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things" (Philippians 2:19). Although not actual cannibals (as far as I can tell) some of these modern "zombies" seem to be bent on hurting others as though that were the only way for them to survive. They often mindlessly lash out in anger as though the anger and hatred of others is in itself enjoyable.
We have become an angry society (what else should we expect when we reject the peace of Christ and seek the peace of personal self-satisfaction?). What makes it worse is that a large number of people are acting like anger is a goal to achieve rather than an evil to avoid. The manner in which many people react to the slightest mishap tells us that they are actually looking for something to be angry at. The anger that we see from Jesus in the gospels is a calculated and intentionally planned expression. People had sinned and his anger was not over a personal offense, but an emotional and yet self-controlled response that says "God has been offended, and we cannot sit by and ignore it". That is not what we are seeing in people's anger these days.
Anger and hatred seem to have become (in the minds of many today) a justifiable state to live in on a regular basis. I know someone who works in construction and he has told me stories of the attitude of most of his fellow employees. These men appear to spend their lives in a constant state of anger and discontent with their lives. Nothing makes them happy, and so they seem to want to make sure that no one else is actually happy either.
What is most common in people is a mindless response (zombie-like) to the world around. They (as though their spirit is dead) do not think through their actions or words; they are behaving like brute animals who act only on instinct. This brutality is not new. Many times in history this is exactly what happens when people reject God. St. Paul gives a vivid description of people who have fallen into this frame of mind and it sounds like much of our modern world:
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them (Romans 1:28-32).There is an older movie that is a satire of zombie movies; it is called "Shaun of the Dead" (it is not for everyone!). It was done as a comedy and it has a subtle underlying "jab" that it gives on society. At the beginning, there is running display of people in a town who are behaving like mindless automatons (i.e. like zombies). Then after the zombie apocalypse happens, they mostly just continue the same deadened behavior. The point is, we are already zombies, so the zombie apocalypse would merely be a continuation of the trend. There really is some truth to this, but my point in this post takes it one step further; we are not just mindless and unthinking, we have become a people who are mindless and vicious.
Is this what we have become? Are we merely a culture of brutes and beasts who behave no better than a pack of wild dogs? God tells the prophet Ezekiel that when people refuse His commandments and instead choose false idols as their gods, that He would deliver them "into the hands of brutal men" (Ezek 21:31). This has truly happened to us. This is why those of us who seek faithfulness to the Lord need to concentrate our efforts at being even more holy than before. We need to stand out as mindful, caring, and loving people, who are willing to speak the truth because we care. We need to promote the fullness of godly life in a culture of death. We need to show the world the truth of Christ.
