The Walking Dead

Zombies are the rage these days. It seems everywhere you turn the warning goes out “the zombies are coming”. How they come to be these flesh eating monsters, well… it is a matter of far-fetched speculation.

This type of science fiction finds an audience to be sure, while others find it very distasteful. In either case, the idea of the dead coming to life to feast on the flesh of the living is pure make believe!

Now having said that, the walking dead are among us today. “Well”, says one, “you just said it is fiction”. It is, the way Hollywood portrays it. On the other hand, the Bible speaks of those who are the walking dead, alive physically, but dead spiritually.

I Timothy 5:6 speaks of the wanton widows, “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth”.

Revelation 3:1 speaks of those who are twice dead (Jude 12). “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; these things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou liveth, and art dead”.

Those verses speak of the living dead in tragic terms. Outwardly they may look alive and healthy, but inwardly, they are separated from God and dead. Ephesians 2:1 speaks of the disease that kills a soul. “And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin” (Ephesians 2:1).

Sin is the killer, but Ephesians 2:1 makes something else clear as well, the dead can be quickened (made alive). From death to life, from lost to saved, from a child of the devil to a child of God, that ought to excite every soul. “I want to live”.

And the Bible tells us how to be made alive: 1. You must hear the word of God (Romans 10:17). 2. You must believe the gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark 16:15-16). 3. You must repent of your past sins (Acts 17:30). 4. You must confess Christ before men (Romans 10:10). 5. You must be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38).

Are you among the walking dead? Then obey the gospel of Christ, for in Christ all shall be made alive (I Corinthians 15:22).

Come while we stand and sing!