The Zombie Apocalypse and The Fall of Man

Apparently, there is a growing number of people who are fearful of a coming Zombie Apocalypse (ZA).  The idea is that the un-dead or walking dead are rising, and that they will continue to spread as they make living human beings zombies, too.  I'm not sure how a zombie infects somebody else, but the idea is there.

1. There are zombies out there
2. Their number will continue to rise
3. The ignorant populace goes about their lives
4. We eventually all succumb, becoming the walking dead.

The concept is pretty frightening.  That is why it has become such a popular theme in horror films and literature.  But such an idea is pretty far fetched, right?

Well, it actually isn't.  There is also a strain of biblical thought whereby all men are walking dead in a manner of speaking. Consider Paul's words in chapter two of his letter to the Ephesian church:

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Paul is essentially saying that the saints of Ephesus were actually dead and walking around, following the course of the world (vss 1 &2).  That in their sinful passions, they were actually living dead people (vs 3).

Elsewhere, Paul says that  in 1 Corinthians 15:
21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Paul says that all are born dead, because the prophecy of God in the garden was fulfilled.  Namely, that when Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die.  He did not die physically, but he died spiritually.  And not only that, all who are descendants of Adam (all men) are born spiritually dead.

So, at the fall, there was effectively a spiritual ZA.  Now, the world is covered with people who were born spiritual zombies.  They are walking around in the body, but they are spiritually dead inside.

Thanks be to God that by the gospel of Jesus Christ the dead walking can become the alive walking!   And if that has happened to you, then as you proclaim the gospel to others, you speak words that can bring the dead to life, thus pushing back the effects of the spiritual ZA at the fall of man.