The Zombie Apocalypse and the Decline of Love
By Peter Goodgame
June 24, 2013
Did you know that the New Testament speaks about the rise of flesh-eating zombies in the end times? Yes, this is true! The revelation came to me while I was at work on Friday, the same day that Brad Pitt's new movie
World War Z was released (June 21). While working I was also listening to the radio and to all of the ads that would play every fifteen minutes or so. One particular advertisement that I kept hearing on KSSK was describing all of the commodities that would be sold at an upcoming "Mega Sale" at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. As I began thinking of the horde of single-minded consumers that would be streaming into the arena on the weekend I connected this image with the images that I had seen promoting
World War Z. I began to think about this and to compare modern-day consumers with zombies. Aren't zombies the
ultimate consumer? The only difference is that modern-day shoppers go after all of the products offered by the global marketplace, whereas zombies are really only interested in one product:
human flesh!
There is something going on in popular culture today that is reflecting the fears of society at large. Sociologists have made many attempts to offer explanations, but I like the one given by economist Tomas Sedlacek in his 2011 book, Economics of Good and Evil. Sedlacek speaks of two extremes to the human psyche: one part of us that is animalistic and driven by instinct, and the other that is coldly rational and driven by calculation. This helps to explain why popular media seems to focus on two forms of apocalyptic destruction for the human race. One comes through a change that takes place biologically, reducing humans to the animalistic hunger-driven flesh-eaters of the zombie apocalypse (Zombieland, World War Z), while the other comes at the hands of the machines that we have built that turn against us (The Terminator, The Matrix). Sedlacek writes, “In the first scenario animals destroy us, in the second it is the robots that we ourselves have crafted. In both cases we fight the same thing: the apathy with which they tear us (humans) to bits.” 1
Sedlacek argues that at the heart of the matter what humanity collectively fears is our loss of sympathy for each other. He writes, “If we lose it, we will become either animals or machines. That depends on which extreme we tend toward, whether the animal in us or the mechanical-rational. We have ontological fear of both.” 2
This societal fear of the loss of human sympathy is growing rapidly and cannot be denied. The rich and powerful at the top of the global hierarchy respond to this fear with a call for more law and order and more security and protection from the masses (often using advanced technology), while those outside the power structure are becoming stirred up and unified into massive hordes that are taking over city squares and marching on capitol buildings. Truly it is just as Jesus predicted it would be―that in the end times “the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12).
Ultimately, following along with Sedlacek’s logic, we see that zombies are simply human beings who have lost all sense of compassion for their fellow man. Human beings are three-part beings made up of body, soul, and spirit. Zombies, on the other hand, are bodies without a spirit whose soul has been reduced to fulfilling one single lust of the flesh, that of hunger. Zombies have no love. They serve only themselves and fulfill their purpose by seeking human victims that they might devour. In his letter to the Galatians the Apostle Paul also connects love, or the lack of it, with the potential for human-beings to descend into zombie-like behavior:
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. (Galatians 5:13-15)
Paul continues and teaches that those who “bite and devour” each other are simply those human beings who have given themselves over to the selfish lusts of the flesh.
All flesh and
no Spirit makes you a walking zombie. Instead of
serving, you are at war with your fellow man―biting, devouring and consuming each other! The works that follow such people are listed by Paul as, “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.”
Human beings have been infected with a virus that is at war with the very Spirit that was breathed into mankind by God Himself in Genesis 2:7. This virus was released when Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, but the antidote to this virus, purchased for us by Jesus Christ, was then released on Pentecost in Acts 2:4. Now when human beings receive the Holy Spirit our own hearts become a battlefield as the Spirit of God immediately goes to war against the residue of this unholy virus. Paul explains,
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… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:17, 22-25)
The zombies who are all flesh and no Spirit are in a constant state of competition with each other. The same goes for Christians who refuse to walk in the Spirit and thereby crucify their own flesh that is persistently rising up.
The Apostle James refers to such Christians in his brief letter, speaking of the lusts of the flesh that cause us to turn against each other:
From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. (James 4:1-8)
James brings up the stark reality that the entire world is an enemy of God. It is a world system ruled by Satan known as Babylon the Great that is currently under the authority of a woman named “The Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth.” She can also be identified as the great end-times
Zombie Queen of Babylon in the sense that she is definitely
all flesh and
no Spirit, and completely given over to her own selfish lusts. If we read her obituary closely we can find that what started in the Garden of Eden comes full circle and is finally judged when she falls:
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat. (Genesis 3:6)
And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were liparos [good for food] and lampros [pleasant to the eyes] are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. (Revelation 18:14)
As was explained in the presentation in January at Future Congress 2, in the end times the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden becomes transformed into the great mass of commodities consumed by Babylon,3 whereas the tempting serpent’s role becomes taken up by the great merchants of the earth.4 With this insight we find that global capitalism has emerged victorious throughout the world today as Babylon's great
Maximum Temptation Delivery System of the end times.
The Queen of Babylon is shown in Revelation 18 as the world’s greatest
consumer of worldly goods, and the great merchants of the earth and the global shipping industry will both mourn when she falls, “for no man buyeth their merchandise anymore.” If we look at the very last commodity on the long list of commodities consumed by this woman we find “bodies and souls of men.” She is indeed a Zombie Queen, for she
consumes, in a sense, the very bodies and souls of men. This is confirmed
literally in Revelation 17:6 where it says that she was seen “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” She indeed “bites and devours” mankind and becomes drunk on the blood of the righteous.
The Zombie Queen of Babylon rules the world today, and those who rise up to the highest reaches of her hierarchical system of power are the rich and powerful who are least likely to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. They are the cream of the crop of those who have wholeheartedly given themselves over to the pursuit of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Like zombies who are driven solely by hunger, Paul describes these people as having made their bellies their god:
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:17-20, ESV)
Those with minds set on earthly things can often rise to positions of power and influence within the world's system. Yet as James writes, to be a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God. The destiny that is reserved for the Queen of Babylon is unique, however, because she ends up as an enemy of both God
and the Antichrist in the end times. Scripture is clear that there will be a palace coup in Babylon when the
Queen is deposed and the Antichrist (referred to as the King of Babylon in Isaiah 14) is installed in her place. Revelation describes how a group of powerful world leaders will be used by God to turn against her and hand their power over to the Beast:
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the ****, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. (Revelation 17:16-17)
The final end of Babylon's Zombie Queen will be one of gruesome poetic justice when she herself is attacked by "zombies" and her own flesh is eaten by the Antichrist’s henchmen.
The Disappearance of Love and the Preparation of the End-Times Zombie HordeThere are two great kingdoms battling it out for possession of the earth today: the Kingdom of Light announced by Jesus Christ two thousand years ago, and the Kingdom of Darkness ruled over by Satan and the Mother of Harlots described in Revelation. The laws of God's Kingdom teach that love of God and love of human beings (even our enemies) must come first, and that we are to love
not the world, but commit ourselves to generosity and serving one another in humility (
"it is more blessed to give than to receive"). On the other hand, the Kingdom of Darkness teaches us to love and serve
ourselves first, to accumulate wealth and possessions, to freely indulge the lusts of the flesh, and to love the world and all that it has to offer. Just as Christ is preparing His Bride for the consummation of this present age and the coming of the Kingdom of God in its fullness, so is the Mother of Harlots preparing for her own final apocalyptic expression of wickedness and rebellion. Paul predicts this in the following passage:
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
In Galatians 5:14-15 the Apostle Paul identifies the commandment of "love thy neighbor" as a deterrent to the pervasive zombie virus that leads human beings to bite, devour, and consume one another. This basic ethic can be found at the heart of all of the major world religions.5 The problem for society today is that we have divorced "religious beliefs" from the way that we live our lives. This is true in so-called "Christian" nations as well as in Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu nations. Now virtually everywhere around the world, regardless of what people may believe
spiritually, we are all being conformed into a certain way of living out our lives
actually.
The way of life that has taken over and reigns supreme throughout the world today is the way of life that is dictated by the global marketplace. Everywhere some form of Capitalism reigns supreme (although with various levels of government regulation and different policies of taxation and re-distribution). Fundamentally, Capitalism is a way of life based on competition, consumerism and covetousness. It is a way of life in which everything has been turned into a marketable commodity, including labor, culture, sex, and even land and the earth itself. It is a way of life in which
money has become necessary for just about
everything, and almost all of our human relationships are mediated by
cash transactions or self-serving voluntary exchanges. In fact, what many promoters of Capitalism have referred to as the "magic of the marketplace" is at the same time the primary reason why we have seen the
decline of love throughout the world over the last few hundred years at the same time that we have witnessed the
explosive rise in commerce.For thy merchants were the great men of the earth;
for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. (Rev 18:23)
So what is the "magic of the marketplace" and how does it work? Well, the marketplace is promoted with the illusion of "freedom." No one puts a gun to your head and forces you to go out and buy or sell, and it is all passed off to us as completely "voluntary." Then, when you have your commodity ready to be exchanged nobody forces you into making a deal. All you have to do is find someone willing to accept what you have to offer in exchange for whatever they have, whether it's labor, a service, a commodity, or money that is exchanged. Once fair value has been established and the exchange is made then both sides walk away happy. They each end up in a better position than they were before the transaction, with their needs satisfied, or else they would not have both agreed to the transaction in the first place!
Brilliant, isn't it? In the marketplace two selfish people can come together and serve each others need, with both ending up better than they were before the deal was done! If this is how Capitalism works, then why not encourage the proliferation of these self-serving, voluntary exchanges?
Eventually, the whole world will be a much better place, and everyone will have all the things they need, right?And he said unto them, Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. (Luke 12:15)
There's only one problem in this equation: it is the fact that "love thy neighbor" becomes completely unnecessary for markets and for Capitalism itself to flourish, and the temptation easily arises to dismiss it as an out-dated and superstitious ethic. And that is exactly what has occurred. Not only have many of the most celebrated ideological promoters of Capitalism mocked and dismissed "love they neighbor," but so have untold billions of human beings in today's global, market-driven, individualistic, competitive society. Commerce goes up, selfishness goes up, competition goes up... while love goes down.
For Christians looking for the return of Jesus Christ this should not be a surprise, because Revelation predicts that commerce will dominate right to the end with its depiction of Babylon the Great with her commodities and merchants, and its warning of the Mark of the Beast connected directly to "buying and selling." In parallel with the end-times
global commercial takeover Paul predicted the rise of selfishness
("There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money..." 2 Timothy 3:1-2, NIV), while Jesus predicted the decline of love itself:
"And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." (Matthew 24:11-12, ESV)
Christianity and all of the other great religions of the world all claim to be more than just "belief systems" dealing only with hypothetical questions about eternity, because each of them teaches rules, values, and principles that are supposed to guide their adherents in everyday life. In the same way Capitalism teaches rules, values, and principles that guide its billions of faithful adherents in everyday life. However, Capitalism stands starkly apart from all of these world religions by the fact that it teaches that the ethic of "love they neighbor" is over-rated and unnecessary or, in some cases, actually
bad for the prosperity of the individual and of society at large.
Isn't that truly stunning and noteworthy? Who in their right mind would actually teach that "love thy neighbor" is an ethic detrimental to society, even while Jesus Christ Himself emphasized that it was
the most important rule governing our human relationships? Well, we must recall that Jesus predicted that the appearance of false prophets would precede the decline of love, and it is the promoters of Capitalism who have helped to fulfill this prophecy. The merchants and their ideological lackeys over the last few hundred years, men such as Bernard Mandeville, Adam Smith, Ludwig Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman, as well as Ayn Rand (who is referred to by her biographer as "Goddess of the Market"), have all expressed their contempt for this most basic and fundamental teaching of Jesus Christ.6 Whether it is referred to as love, charity, sympathy, benevolence, or altruism, these prophets of Mammon have done their best to destroy the ethic of "love thy neighbor" by promoting "buying and selling" as a more sophisticated, fulfilling, and profitable alternative. In so doing they have helped to prepare the end times zombie horde for its final judgment.
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. (Galatians 5:13-15)
Rest of the article here. Well worth the read IMO.
http://www.redmoonrising.com/zombieapocalypse.htm
