According to His Purpose
Whenever I tell people about this book that I’m working on that mixes Christian theology and zombie mayhem I get some rather confused looking faces staring back at me. I get responses like “how does that work?” or”why would you do that?” I figured the same questions may be in the minds of those who are reading and following online. For this reason I decided to share the preface to the book. I think it may help explain the story and intent a little more clearly. So, without further adieu here is “According to His Purpose”, the preface to And The Dead Shall Rise First…
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Since the day Jesus ascended into heaven and promised to return to bring final peace and restoration to his creation, his followers have kept their eyes peeled for his return. The Apostle Paul tells the believers in Thessalonica that they are to work and maintain their lives because they were apparently sitting around on their roofs waiting for Jesus to come down from the sky into which he had only a few years earlier disappeared. There is a consistent record from that time forward of Christians attempting to understand and prepare for the return of their savior. As they and we have obviously discovered, the time had not yet arrived and over the years many of his followers have lived and died waiting in anticipation for his coming. Timelines have been drawn up, events have been interpreted, dates have been set and changed and the prophecies even remotely related to that day have been scrutinized for any shade of clues missed by their spiritual forefathers. In spite of all these well intentioned guestimates and theological structures the bride still waits for her bridegroom.
Now skeptics and hopefuls alike pray for and yearn for this end more than ever. Some see the events unfolding before us as signs that the day is fast approaching. Others aren’t so confident, but they hope he comes to claim his chosen ones before there are none left to harvest. These are dark days. These are the last days whether the Maker has intended for them to be or not. In the eerie lights of these definitive days and their events, the church is faced with a new and grave responsibility: To bring sense and hope to a situation, the likes of which have never even been dreamt up in the worst nightmares or fantasies of the most evil and destructive men in the history of this world. This is a daunting task for a church united and bound in the love and brotherhood of Christ; it is essentially impossible for a divided and violently conflicting graveyard full of bones like the once vibrant body of Christ has become. The one hope, the one saving grace was, of course, what it had always been: the presence of God among his people, His Holy Spirit. The only question remaining was whether or not his children would actually listen to his voice, assuming that his voice could even be heard through all the self inflicted devastation humanity served itself on a bloody fire-ringed platter of darkness. Would they? Could they? We must and we will if only to make this hell bearable by attaching meaning to it.
What has been said thus far is obnoxiously cryptic. I offer my sincere apologies for that, but the nature of this undertaking forces one into hidden meanings and cryptic logic. Trying to find theology in the events of any time is convoluted; trying for that same thing in events that have never been imagined only serves to exponentially increase this problem. So, I again apologize with the utmost sincerity, but ask that you stick it out with me because, while this is a story of destruction, it is also, as when anything ends, a story of hope and renewing, of rejuvenation and the New Beginning.
While my words seem cryptic, I assure you that they could not be more direct and clear. I have always been a straight shooter, a person who believes in the simplest and clearest answers to even the most difficult problems in life. If you were reading thoughts of a mystic on the events of our time I can assure you that they would be utterly useless to you. Trust me, I know mystics; they are part of this story. I hope I can translate their reasoning into something remotely meaningful to you.
There are also the intellectuals and scholars. It is their hope to break these things into formulas and charts. While there may be some meaning in such things, it is the kind of meaning that leaves one feeling more empty than they would have felt had they simply been left wondering. I hope to give people more hope than this, to reconnect meaning with the reality of facts and formulas.
There are also those who think in such simple, limited structures that the meaning of the events of our time is completely clear to them, yet their views do not hold up to the scrutiny of reason and simple logic. They obviously have a say in this story, and, while their understanding is easily overlooked for its lack of consistency with the real world, their hope to find meaning is valuable and important. It is my intent to embrace and foster that same hope in those who read these pages.
Above all else, it is my desire in sharing these things to offer real and meaningful hope, and that can only be found in beliefs based upon reality. Offering meaning simply for the sake of bringing some peace to hurt and troubled minds is of no value on its own. Hope that does not correspond to reality is only a temporary fix that will ultimately, when discovered for its emptiness, only serve to cast one deeper into the pits of despair than they were prior to ascribing to this form of an empty shell of peace.
So, I have a big vision with this work: to grant the reader meaning through Christ in the midst of devastating darkness, to do so from truth and reality, and to do all this for the sake of granting hope and strength to God’s children in this time when He seems so distant.
I pray for your sanity and survival in these dark days…
Daniel Allen Sr.
September 19th, 2022
Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan
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This sounds great and I can’t wait to read it! Keep up the good work!
Amy, glad you liked it, and glad to have you here at ZT!
It does seem ironic, doesn’t it, that hope would be brought through the theology found within a document describing destruction. And yet, this is exactly what the author of Revelation did for his time. God granted visions of incredible tumult, violence, horors beyond imagination. Yet that was not the end. Hope, in the end, is found in our Lord Jesus, and in the new creation that is in the process of being raised up.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is indeed in the process of an Ezekiel process, as you elluded to here. In our time, I do think that the image of the zombie will help the worldwide church to become more self-aware. As Paul writes, “wake up, o sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you”. I pray that we will awaken with a renewed sense of purpose and direction once the prophetic and artistic voices among us are heard, and the eyes of the meandering church will once more be fixed on the author and perfector of our faith.
Trista
That is certainly the paradox of it. Noah and the Ark is another great example, hope out of destruction, and as you’ve explained, that is the whole story of Revelation.
Thanks for another great comment!
Dan
I too am interested in developing a Zombie Theology, not for the same reason as yourself, I think the Church resembles the Walking Dead more than the unchurched do, and so the attempt for me to create the genre is a commentary on how little Christians are able to comprehend even the simplest of theological concepts, akin to the empty hearts and minds of your average brain eater. They eat brains because they intuitively know that the brain is the seat of life, the abode of the Soul, and thus the soulless crave them like crack addicts crave their next hit on the Pipe, and like Christian Zombies crave the next Church fellowship meeting where no fellowship is actually accomplished. Sitting in a pew listening to someone talk about fellowship (with God or each other) is not the same as fellowship, it is pseudo-fellowship, sort of like how a crowd of Zombies run through the mall looking for brains to eat, but they have no awareness of the other Zombie Squad members running and bumping into them in the mad dash for the tortuously smelly and sweet human flesh (“Sweet and Smelly Chow Blain” is the menu favorite of Zom’s from every culture. The only problem with Zombese Food is that you can eat the whole buffet and your still hungry again an hour later)……..
My experience as a Prophet of the First Church of Zombieland is that Christians almost to the last man are soulless soul-savers, brainless brain-eaters, they are confused theologically so thoroughly that I shall, in the course of this blogmentary (such as it may become) show example after example of Christian Zomology that everyone believes is true but can be easily shown as nonsense of the unthinking masses of Zom’s whose greatest goal in life is to be the top Zomstor (there’s always a head Zomstor (like a Pas-tor) who is stronger, meaner, hungrier, more wily and more ravenous then the other sheep grazing around them). Assuming Dan allows it to continue, I happen to be the best in the world at this stuff, and while completely unintentional (Zombies have no intentions) I risk stealing some of his blunder-thunder. That said, it is understandable if he’s unable to resist the instinct to feed, unable to resist the temptation to sample my sweetest and sourest flesh, bite me and turn the switch off inside.
It’s okay, Dude, I’m used to it, pastors and their wanna-be toelickers have been doing this kind of un-fellowshipping to me for three decades, it’s not a problem, I have developed an extraordinary self-defense survival nature that hasn’t stopped them from chasing me around the town square, I just haven’t been bit yet.
Zombie attraction to live flesh is actually not a craving for meat. It is purely a reflex action, like when the limbs of something just killed jerks for 20 minutes after death.
It is a revulsion to Life, and anything that explains that Life so as to accentuate Death. This is about Silencing the Lambs. So many lambs are born dreaming (well, not really dreaaming as much as
Bottom line, as we delve into “Advanced Zomology For Dummies” and lay a real foundation for some theology that makes sense out of what no one, including our illustrious author-host, is doing and that is saying anything comprehensible.
Zombie Theology isn’t about finding cool walking dead references in the Scriptures (we’ll have fun with some of that, who can resist?), it’s about the disease. How it’s contracted,how it’s spread from host to host. How they can be stopped (got to shoot them in the Soul, their head) and the most important question of all, how do we cure ourselves once we are bitten by the overwhelming Zombie Army?
How do we take Zombieland, which is over-run now, Dan’s right about that, and turn it back into the God-created world filled with actual live people who really think and use all of their brains for building their world, not destroying it. There are actual answers to that problem, and Dan mentioned both of them, amazingly enough (amazing because that preface is a nightmare, while unwittingly accurate to the essence of all eschatology, Return and Restoration.
You folks are in for a treat. The author really has no where to go, because while the idea of Zombie Theology sounds cool, you actually have to be a competent theologian to begin with to even have a hope of writing more than four pages in your book.
Sonny Craig
Apache Junction, Az.
Home of the Arizona Zombies, the original crackhead brain-eaters
Dear Sonny ~
You said, “Zombie Theology isn’t about finding cool walking dead references in the Scriptures (we’ll have fun with some of that, who can resist?), it’s about the disease. How it’s contracted,how it’s spread from host to host. How they can be stopped (got to shoot them in the Soul, their head) and the most important question of all, how do we cure ourselves once we are bitten by the overwhelming Zombie Army?”
Here, dear one, is the gospel: we don’t have the cure. God does. The cure came in the form of Jesus Christ and is being distributed by the Holy Spirit breathed into the world as Jesus breathed His last. Jesus came to resurrect our imaginations, to give our brain-dead appetites something other than each other to gnaw on. One day, all of creation and all of humanity will remember the goodness and freedom it was crafted with. We look forward to that day.
You are right when you say that many Christians are acting in ways that resemble zombies. We are part of a world that is infected with the virus, (or the toxin, or the radiation, whatever imagery we find in zombie literature can be applied). We’re born into it, we’re raised by infected beings, and we’re exposed to it every day. The zombie infection is everywhere. It’s what gives all humans (and other animals, for that matter) a tendency towards violence, self-preservation, destruction of others and other behaviors that are not condisive to societal uplifting.
Zombie theology is not about pointing fingers at someone else and claiming that they are worse off than we are. It’s about embracing the reality that we are all equally undead – Christian and non-Christian alike. Zombie theology for Christians, though, points to the cure and has hope and confidence that Jesus can and will remove the infection from all creatures, from all humans and from all of creation.
It sounds, from your post, like you have had some negative experiences with my Extended Family in the Church. I am sorry for whatever has happened to you. I assure you that not all Christ-followers desire to destroy philosophy and deep thinking with toxic theology. Some of us are trying hard to fight the infection within (and without!) and doing everything we can to help our fellow zombies remember that we were once humans created in the image of God. I do hope that you will experience the grace that flows through the Holy Spirit at work in we who are trying to overcome.
~ Trista, a fellow theological zombie and follower of Christ ~
Trista and Sonny
I try my hardest to avoid calling other groups of people zombies for fear of alienating them from my own perspective. I know I certainly wouldn’t want to be called a zombie for my beliefs, lack of beliefs, spending habits, trend compliance, cubical job or whatever else. Probably if I call you a zombie for one of those things you won’t be very willing to dialogue with me. I like to write zombie stories and surely I could connect the undead with whatever thing or group of people I disagree with, but I prefer to use the idea of a zombie apocalypse to get me thinking about what humanity would do if society and culture crumbled before our very eyes. Americans and westerners in general enjoy great comfort and ease. I like to think about what I might do, as an American, if all those things were ripped away from me. When all the peripherals burn, what will really matter to me?
Thank you both for your valuable and thoughtful comments.
I wish you both safety and sanity in these dark days…
Dan
One of the things I notice about most congregations these days is that they shuffle in, mumble to each other, then sit down and wait for the sermon to end. This to me is a form of zombie-ism. It’s like they come because they are afraid not to or do so out of duty.
I’m currently attending a church where it’s pretty laid back. So much so that the paster wears t-shirts, jeans, and sandles! No one dresses nicely (except me. I was raised to respect the Lord by dressing nice. Of course, I know God doesn’t care what we wear, just that we come to worship.)
But I love singing for the Lord. I sing every Sunday for Him and not for anyone else there. But as I stand there singing, I look out at these people and wonder why they aren’t wanting to sing out with me. I always ask them to sing with me, but only 1 or 2 will join in. The rest sit back and do nothing!
That’s one of the things that’s wrong with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Most don’t want to stand up and praise him, but claim they’re Christians. They just sit there until the service is over. Then they shuffle back out to go on with their (unliving) lives.
This is also why a lot of non-christians point to us and say the things they do.
I don’t think most Christians resemble zombies. Zombies like brains. (This was a joke…)
-Alan
@ Alan : *feigned shock*
@ Blackfire: I am highly intrigued by the actions (or inactions) of many of our brothers and sisters in the “worship service”. It seems the larger the congregation, the greater the lethargy. I think this is an American thing. We’re so used to being entertained that we forget how to interact with one another, let alone with a Being whom we can’t see, touch, taste or smell. The ways we approach the Lord simply is a reflection on the ways we relate (or neglect to relate) to each other. We don’t know what relationships in general do, (or could) look like and we’ve forgotten how to sing with passion.
As a woman who has led worship for several years, I have struggled greatly with the American lethargy and self-absorption. Like you, I long for open expression of passion, joy and love in our gatherings. I see videos and hear stories about our brothers and sisters in the Southern and Eastern contexts who have the utmost openness in their services and know how to truly worship. Maybe it’s because, (as Dan referenced) we are too comfortable, and we take everything (and therefore everyone) for granted.
My Church History professor often reminds me that the American religious freedom and democracy is a very intriguing experiement in the history of the world. Christianity flourishes where restrictions are the greatest. There, people know what bondage and oppression really look like, so they embrace and are passionate about the freedom found in Christ.
@ Dan: I think that the younger generations here in America have the sense that within our lifetime, there is tremendous potential for the American way to collapse, and for us to truly be without. We have caught a glimpse in recent years of what that might look like since the economy has begun to loose some bearings. The zombie (and certain other horror genres) are growing in popularity as we come to grips with the instability surrounding us. We all sense that the empire infrastructure is eroding and that it is about time for another superpower to rise up. Imagination is our way of preparation.
I too, wish you safety, sanity and, most importantly, the peace of Christ in your continued writing and creative endeavors.
Zomology (post 2) –
Great responses. I criticized Dan’s preface in post 1, now let’s look at what he said was right, and maybe this will help him get some inspiration on the rewrite.
Dan instinctively knows what is central to Zombie Theology when he writes (I’ll edit for clarity):
…the Church is faced with a new and grave responsibility, to bring sense and hope to this situation we find ourselves in. This is a daunting task for a Church divided in mind and body. The once vibrant body of Christ has become a graveyard full of bones. The one hope and saving grace in the midst of this history of division of God’s body, is the promise of the presence of God among his people, the Holy Spirit. The only question remaining is whether or not his children will actually listen to his voice. Will we? Can we? We must, if for no other reason than to make this hell bearable, by attaching meaning to it.”
Lesson number one of Zombie Theology is not indirect references to resurrection or drawing comparisons from allusions to life/death, sleeping and waking, etc., it is much more profound than that and is directly relevant to reality and therefore unequivocally meaningful:
1. Zombie genre is always the story of apocalyptic tribulation. The zombie plague has come and threatens the human race with destruction. The zombies are attacking, the survivors must endure to the end (be diligent with handling the ever-encroaching crisis) to be saved (salvation by finding a cure for the virus and curse of death). The group of survivors must unify themselves to fight the evil horde, search for those they can save out in the world of darkness, preach the message of hope to them of the coming cure, and require faithfulness to the Body, meaning that if you do something to threaten the harmony and safety of the group trekking towards salvation, you will be banished to the outer darkness.
Lesson One of Zombie Theology should not only match the storyline of the zombie genre, it should also be true to the story of scripture, and in this case, both match perfectly:
2. Biblical eschatology (theology discussing the last days prior to the return of Christ and the judgment of the world) has a singular theme – the world is fallen, there is portending judgment coming on evil where the good and the wicked will be separated, the good being saved and the evil being condemned and banished forever. This theme of tribulation and judgment (which is very negative and laced with horrible metaphors and symbolism like boils on the skin, insects that bite, searing pain and the inability to die or escape the plague) is an adjective to the actual theme of prophetic literature, Renewal and Restoration.
The world began (created with purpose) as a paradise of human and divine innovation, they were to work together to build something truly beautiful and eternal. Good brought the animals to Adam for him to name, that’s science (classification). That means God intended something rather profound to occur as man extended his dominion throughout the earth, and throughout the universe. The story was interrupted (coitus interruptus?) by a necessary part of the philosophical backdrop of intelligent life, free will and the potential existence of evil (yin-yang kind of stuff). The Devil screwed things up and the world began to Fall.
God provided for that necessary potentiality, and that is the Biblical Story of Salvation found in Old Testament, New Testament, and other apocalyptic literature.
So, world in trouble (tribulation), a curse of death threatens to kill humanity and there is a cryptic but real cure for the virus and only one group knows what it is and has the message of where and how the cure can be found. They are surrounded by death and forces of evil trying to kill them.
But if they are Faithful, they exhibit Watchfulness, and Preparation for tribulation, they can overcome the worst of times and prevail when the Cure comes.
The purpose of the Church throughout the eschatology of the NT is very clear, we are to become a witness for Christ to the nations of dead people needing salvation. We are to prepare for Tribulation, be Watchful for His coming, and be Faithful to God’s purposes, which include interpreting reality for those infected with confusion and viral death. He will reward those who endure this trial to the end with LIFE. The Zom of good zombie theology is that good interpretation and communication of the Gospel message is that it is positive, we are talking about the restoration of the planet, the renewal and perpetuation of human life, the proper dominion (husbandry) of the planet and its species, and the future exploration of a Universe of potential and exciting Life. Yes, there’s a war we have to win, a crisis we must prevail in. The Zombies of Evil need to be SHOT IN THE HEAD, and THE CURE MUST BE FOUND AND ADMINISTERED.
It’s allabout Humanity, Dead, Alive, Good, Bad, etc.
There’s two kinds of people in this world, and there’s two possible endings to the story.
It’s US or THEM. I vote for US.
It’s very Zom, the Bible’s overall grand theme.
Be back next time……have a good 4th of July.
Zomology – post 3
In post 2, we briefly described the central point of Zombie Theology, learning how to handle the horrific conditions of a Zombie Apocalypse or Tribulation. In a Zombie Apocalypse, only the prepared will live through it. Only those who comprehend the problem will be able to save themselves, save others, save humanity and eradicate the disease. The Church, being the witness of God to the Nations, finds its Vocation in these concepts. Eschatology then is not an elective, it is a primary subject.
The idea is that from the first passage of the Bible (“In the Beginning…..” Genesis 1:1), eschatology is established as an underlying motif of biblical interpretation. A beginning implies an end, and a major principle of interpretation of the Bible is that “the last things are like the first things.” Not only is the beginning of things described in Genesis, we are also told that something went wrong. We are also told that God, who made the world and allowed its creatures to have a say in that Creation (free-will) , also has a solution to the problems created by those free-will creatures, “the Seed of the Woman” would come and crush the head of the Serpent, eradicate the Evil and the Undead, and restore the Earth to it’s Edenic Paradise. Paradise Lost, Paradise Found, and in-between is His Story, or history, the History of Salvation.
Christianity has made a mistake in its presentation and explanations of many aspects of this story of salvation. These mistakes are becoming critical, so much so that Christianity essentially is the bald-headed step-child of modern epistemology, when it had once been its author and professor.
Correcting (self-correction) those errors is absolutely necessary to preach a meaningful Gospel message, a coherent theology. Christians resemble Zombies because they no longer appear to have any brain functions, they appear to be dead because they have no signs of life.
An example of this phenomena is Christian Creatonism. Not a single model of Creationism makes any sense whatsoever, even to itself. Another example is the philosophical concepts of Free-Will (theodicy).
If the Church cannot answer 2 simple questions (and they can’t) that leap off the first pages of the Bible (like Creation and Free-Will), why do they think that anyone will listen to them about anything else, particularly about esoteric ideas about salvation?
Is this why the Church today seems to have NO RELEVANT VOICE OR ANSWERS CONCERNING OUR SOCIETY’S MOST PRESSING ISSUES?
Name one major Christian idea that is transforming our culture today, solving modern problems. Anyone? Anyone?
Maybe the Church has been Zombified. No, not “maybe” THEY ARE ZOMBIES. If they weren’t, we’d have many Christian leaders today standing up and making sense, answering problems, revealing false ideologies, and judging wickedness and evil.
I’ve seen none of that lately, have you?
Okay, Lesson One complete.
Preparation, Watchfulness, Endurance, Faithfulness.
The guy building the Zombie FOB (forward operating base) in his back yard isn’t the crazy bastard everyone says he is. He’s right, the world has caught the virus and the Apocalypse is upon us, spreading exponentially. There is little time to waste.
How well you learn the lesson, and apply it, is a direct correlation in LIVES SAVED when the Zombie Shit hits the fan.
Zombie Freedom for the 4th of July
Zombies are not free. Freedom implies the ability to discern between choices, and since Zombie brains are nothing but soup, they can’t think about their life in terms of free will choices, they simply whore after the smell of living flesh, and that’s all there is to it. You can’t reason with the Zombie, you can’t make deals, or win them over by conversion.
Jesus didn’t attempt to win over the Zombies of His time, He knew better. Who were the Zombies? The religious leaders, the political leaders, the moneychangers, those that followed the smell of flesh and ate without thought who they hurt, or whether what they were doing was right or wrong.
Criticism of modern American Christianity isn’t sour grapes, it is a necessity, it is holy warfare, it is Biblical. Jesus Christ engaged in more polemical material during His adult ministry than any other subject. More than ten years ago I cataloged the motif of the covenant lawsuit in Christ’s teachings, and found that direct quotations addressing the Pharisees and religious leaders of His day as hypocrites and liars, manipulators and murderers, or allusions to them as comparative of Evil, an example of what NOT to become in one’s religious life, totaled more than 70% of all pericopes in the Gospels (Craig, “A Kingdom Eschatology: A Discussion Of The Doctrine Of Last Things For The Kingdom-Dominion Movement,” 1994.)
The Zom reference is crystal clear:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look alive on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.”
Mt. 23:27
Today’s preachers, politicians,and corporate barons live off the flesh of others, they obviously cannot think, their brains are soup, therefore the Zom of the day is not going to come to you by them, it is going to come from someone alive, like me.
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The Zom Gospel of Freedom
The Judeo-Christian ethic that underlies the Gospel of Christ also underlies the foundations of American civil theology.
In the OT, the central story and ethic is taught in the story of the Exodus. It is the story of Freedom from slavery. Thus, the foundational pillar of the OT ethic is that of FREEDOM.
In the NT, the central ethic of the Gospel message is that of LIBERTY from sin and death, through salvation in Christ.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Cor. 3:17
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Gal. 5:1