The Plight of The Zombie

by John Bellam

(Zombie Definition: “Re-animated Corpse”…)

He feasts on the human spirit. He delights in the deeds of darkness! He dwells in the deserts of the damned and wanders from place to place seeking contentment and a sense of peace and purpose and some form of fulfillment that never comes. His thirst is never quenched. His belly is never filled, no matter how much he consumes. He is the living corpse called fleshly man, and he has been sentenced to everlasting destruction because of his rebellion against His Holy Creator. The eternal spirit contained inside the corpse may or may not get redeemed, but the corpse will never find redemption. And so he treads onward, consuming things of the flesh and building his resume for destruction. And the greatest enemy and targeted victim who this Zombie hopes to destroy before its inglorious ending finally comes… is the Christian it is attached to!

(Note: Yes, God will use the dust of our old being to recreate a whole new body someday… but the condemned sinful nature of our fleshly man will die as the due penalty for Adam’s sin that is inherent in our flesh)

Oh, Wretched Man…

Paul spoke of this Zombie in one of the greatest passages in all of Scripture. A passage that shows the true plight of man and the war that rages inside the redeemed believer. There is no such war inside the lost. They are perfectly content in letting the Zombie lead them anywhere and everywhere, delighting in the works unto death that he leads them into. No… it is the Believer who is at constant war with the Zombie because the things he desires are the things the redeemed spirit knows are wrong. And the things the saved spirit ultimately longs for are out of reach while this corpse is still attached to their being. It’s a battle till the death … and one that is more heartbreaking and difficult than many realize. But Paul saw it clearly:

“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” Romans 7:14-24

Wow! How clear can Paul be? He lays out our plight perfectly. So perfectly in fact that some theologians over the eons have argued Paul is talking about himself before he became a believer. But that is a false assumption. The unredeemed man does not see the depths of wretchedness inside himself. Even Paul, who was a high-ranking Pharisee and thought he was righteous with an earned righteousness he had acquired through strict adherence to the Law of God before his conversion, didn’t see his true condition until Jesus struck him blind on the road to Damascus.

The more we understand that all of our righteousness is a gifted righteousness from Jesus and not something we take part in through our own goodness and deeds, the sooner we will understand the albatross still hovering over us even after our redemption, which is the carnal zombie of our flesh.

“I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”- Isaiah 61:10

See, this is what we get when we become believers in Jesus… “A robe of righteousness”. This robe is the perfect righteousness of Jesus and the sinless life He lived that is imputed to us at the moment of salvation. Conversely, Jesus took to the Cross our imperfection and the sinful life we lived, and He was punished for it on our behalf. We are so unworthy in our natural state that even the good we believe we do is not good. This is what we ourselves bring to the table in our flesh:

“All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…” Isaiah 64:6

Yet somehow, most of the world prefers to stay in their fallen state, choosing to rest on their own goodness rather than count on the righteous gift of Jesus’ goodness for their eternal hope. They try to enhance their own goodness through some religious practices or some acts of philanthropy, but all to no avail. The wretched Zombie that they are in their flesh has already been condemned. They need a total spiritual rebirth to separate themselves from the walking dead being that their flesh truly is. And even if that rebirth comes, the Zombie still hinders them til the grave to one extent or another.

“Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“…Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit”

-John 3:3,5-6

Paul’s question “Who will save me from this body of death?” Didn’t get left hanging in the air. He answered it himself in the same passage:

“Who will save me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” (Romans 7:24-25)

The zombie is that slave to the law of sin. And his continual impact even after salvation for a believer is still powerful … and deadly!

The Zombie’s Impact…

What keeps people lost in their sin and unwilling to come to Christ? The Zombie!

What spoils the joy of the believer by drawing them back into sins they have already repented of and been forgiven of but still feel the imaginary chains of? The Zombie!

What causes the Christian’s fruit yield to be sparse and their daily walk to resemble the life of a lost person rather than that of a spirit-filled saint zealous for Christ? The Zombie!

The impact of this flesh all humanity deals with is lethal and deadlier than almost anyone realizes. An example of its effect on its carrier was given by the Great John MacArthur years ago.

MacArthur told of one particular ancient culture that would issue a bizarre penalty to anyone convicted of murder. The corpse of their victim would be chained to the murderer back to back so the living culprit would be constantly attached to the rotting body until he too would die of infection and disease from being attached to the dead man. The mental anguish and horror and shame of it may have been even worse for the convict than the physical attachment to the deceased cadaver, and in many cases a believer can have similar feelings about our connection with the fallen flesh still attached to us.

The lost person who is literally a dead spiritual being walking in the flesh sees only what the world sees as attractive, and the Zombie they walk around in chases sin and excess like a kid in a candy store. Some disregard their spiritual longing completely and live as wildly and wickedly as possible, as if they have no limitations except getting caught by the wrong person. Others choose to pacify the spiritual hole inside themselves with some worldly defined goodness like having a balanced life of fitness, career success, a solid relationship with someone, and maybe some sort of spiritual wellness. Basically considering themselves a human success and seeking the good life here on earth. The Zombie is free to feed on whatever he desires as long as the person considers it acceptable in their worldview.

The believer, however, has a redeemed spirit and is alive in Christ yet still attached to this dead person. The Zombie wrestles for control, but so does the renewed spirit. Which one has the greater impact on the overall character of the being? It depends.

It has been said that the two natures of a Christian are like having two dogs. A good one and a bad one who are always at battle to be the Alpha! Who is stronger? Whoever you feed most. Is the believer practicing self denial seeking to restrict the Zombie’s desires? Is he feeding the Spirit a steady diet of great sermons and God’s Word rightly divided, and is his prayer life strong and his fellowship with strong believers his main peer group? Or is he drifting back to old tendencies and living more like the world and consorting mostly with unredeemed people? The answers to these questions will show which dog is getting the nourishment they seek.

So while the internal battle rages on inside the Christian trying to control the monster at their hip while seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance and strength to be sanctified and molded into a Christ-like image, the world grows more and more monstrous, inventing new ways to sin and devour more and more wickedness while plunging the world into a pre-flood state of Godlessness and uncontrolled wickedness. The stage is practically set just as the script said it would be thousands of years ago!

Our Glorification…

For the believer in Christ, there is an expiration date stamped on the zombie that is similar to the Lord’s boundaries He put on the roaring Ocean as described in Job:

“Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,

when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,

when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,

when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?”

(Job 38:8-11)

Similarly, the Lord put limits on the flesh. It is sentenced to a certain number of days and then will die and release its incarcerated prisoner… either to life for the Christian… or damnation for the unredeemed. But it will die for its rebellion and no longer hold any prisoners.

Think of a small worm crawling along and building its death chamber. It will form its cocoon and be covered with its death shroud, but inside… as its old self is dying, a beautiful butterfly is being armed with new wings and ready to be set free at the right moment. Out of that cocoon comes a new glorious creature while the old shell of the worm is dried and dead on the ground. For the Christian, the new butterfly comes at our glorification. The worm

Dies and frees the beautiful new creature attached. But for the unredeemed person, the butterfly is dead on arrival. No glory. Only death and destruction.

Spiritual warfare in the last days…

The last thing our condemned flesh needs to add gasoline to the fire of sinful cravings is spiritual warfare to come against the Christian inside the flesh and further hinder its battle for control. But as the final moments of human history descend upon us and the voice of the Christian to proclaim the Gospel of Christ from the rooftops is so desperately needed, sadly the majority of voices are being silenced by the distractions of the powers of the air.

True believers everywhere are being hounded by the world’s plethora of sin options. With technology running amok, we now have just about every imagination of our fleshly

Hearts available at our fingertips. If the demonic realm can lure us into our sinful desires by consorting with the Zombie, even Christians can become disengaged from their calling and distracted from bearing fruit for the Lord. And if the Devil can’t knock us off track with temptation. he will attempt to throw some other monkey wrench into our life to preoccupy us from our final warnings to the lost world.

AI is starting to not only make possible the Lord’s warning at Babel in Genesis 11:6, but it is also allowing conditions of our day to be matched only by the pre-flood conditions in Genesis 6:5.

Genesis 11:6 “The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. “

Genesis 6:5 “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.”

We as believers should be strong and able to trust the Holy Spirit’s strength to keep us on track and fruitful even in this dreadful hour that approaches. But … the Zombie keeps things in constant disarray and can sabotage even the most faithful believers when his options for destruction are so plentiful.

Remember Jesus’ warnings in Gethsemane. He told them :

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” - Matthew 26:41

And remember how Peter swore He would stay with the Lord even unto his own death that night, to which the Lord responded :

“Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

-Matthew 26:34

That wasn’t Peter’s spiritual wish. He wanted to be strong for his Lord. But the Zombie had other plans!

The Coming Frankenstein….

Perhaps the greatest Hollywood example of a zombie-type creature was the Frankenstein Monster. A creature put together with the parts of numerous cadavers and then animated by electrical current in a ghastly science lab experiment owned by Baron Von Frankenstein.

Will Satan play the part of the mad scientist and piece together the man of sin with AI technology merged with a human corpse who is fatally wounded?

“One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.” -Rev 13:3

Something transforms a world leader, perhaps one of the regional governors of a coming 10-king confederacy, into a satanic monster for the ages. The Antichrist will be the most charismatic, powerful, evil, and destructive being the world has ever seen, and he will ascend to the throne of world government and rule the planet for the final 3.5 years of the coming tribulation period. Will he be a reanimated corpse that AI and Satan indwell to energize this long-awaited Frankenstein? This ultimate zombie will promote all things of the flesh and entrap the whole world in his system of slavery to Satanism?

The answer appears to be “yes,” as we know he will be indestructible by human means and will only be vanquished when the Lord Jesus returns to conquer him and cast him into Hell. A machine doesn’t go to Hell. A Zombie can! And while the world will think it is AI that gives him his newfound, post-resurrection brilliance, it will actually be Satan behind the mask!

It makes sense that this man who previously

Had been just a regional leader, will suddenly be hailed by the citizens of the world as a savior so brilliant that they will entrust him with the whole planet when he suddenly becomes a walking AI human that knows everything and has every answer embedded inside him. Of course Satan will also be indwelling him, and while the world is enthralled with man’s own brilliance in fulfilling the lie in Eden about us becoming like God, Satan will actually be the great brain and power inside this final man of sin. Yet the world will beam with pride at the ultimate triumph of humanism and put all trust in this man implanted with what they believe is our own brilliantly contrived technology.

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” -Gen 3:4-5

CONCLUSION…

The Antichrist is coming. The penultimate Zombie who will die yet be alive to rule the world. The ultimate display of walking blasphemy. A man who will be called out of death into life by Satan himself, although it’s truly only possible for Jesus to call the dead to life. But AI and the devil will be allowed by God to reanimate this zombie for the purpose of fulfilling history exactly as God foretold all those millennia ago.

As we await this creature with a hellish soul, our own world of zombies descends lower and lower into a sinful dark place matched only by the antediluvian world just before God’s previous global judgment was poured down on the world. This time the judgment will come

By different means, yet somehow will be even worse according to our Lord.

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matthew 24:21)

The nature of sin is to creep and grow like a mildew that covers and rots everything. Even though sin has been condemned by God and will end when the Lord says “Enough!” still it grows worse and worse in this tiny speck of eternity known as time. To rid the world of it requires it to be hacked to pieces just as Samuel hacked Agag to pieces in one of the most startling Old Testament descriptions.

“Samuel declared: As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women. Then he hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.”- 1 Sam 15:33

Agag, king of the Amalekites, represented the wickedness that shunned and killed Israel with a hatred we now see from radical Islam. A hatred that promoted the horrific October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. It also showed a symbol of how severely deadly sin can be and how it needs to be destroyed completely and not just contained. Ultimately, the only one that can vanquish sin is Jesus Christ. He will finish the job of eliminating sin during the final Millennium. He has freed us from the consequences of sin when He bore our sin on the Cross and was butchered Himself as God poured His wrath on His own Son as a substitute to pay for our sin. But our flesh still remains until the time of its final destruction, and the Zombie continues to corrupt and plunge the world into the Hell that soon will be called “The Great Tribulation!”

“The night of the Walking Dead” is almost upon us. Spiritual battles rage across the globe as deception grows. Yet we still have a calling to preach the “Good News” of Jesus Christ until the final curtain on this age is drawn! Watch and pray that the Church can finish the job and not be lured in by the temptation that still attracts our inner Zombies and will continue to do so until its last dying breath!

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” - Romans 8:1-4