No doubt you’ve seen countless Facebook updates/ads, tweets, and Pinterest boards dedicated to all things zombie. With shows like The Walking Dead (disclaimer: never seen it) being wildly popular, and people actually signing up to participate in zombie runs (again, I don’t promote this—as I don’t run), I think it’s safe to say that zombies are a huge fad, and the zombie apocalypse is something people are really, legitimately preparing for. Now some of you may scoff and decide that these people are crazy…that the zombie apocalypse is never going to happen. I hate to burst your bubble, but the zombie apocalypse is real, and it’s happening right this very second.

Here’s the thing: so often within the church, we refer to people who are outside of Christ and His forgiveness as lost and dying. In other words, in the process of being dead. Not quite dead, but getting there. The problem with this phrase is that it’s just not even true at all.

Remember the story of the prodigal son found in Luke 15? The end of the story offers a beautiful, happy ending as far as the father and the prodigal are concerned, but as the father is talking to the older brother, he refers to his other son in this way:

“It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” Luke 15:32

Note that, as the unfaithful brother was ‘away from the fold’ if you will, he was dead. He wasn’t out there dying; he was dead. This fits perfectly with other scriptures, which state:

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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—  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. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” (Eph 2:1-6, emp added). 

Clearly, before we were baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27), we were dead. We weren’t wandering around the earth dying, we were dead. And – the dots connect perfectly don’t they? – the people whom we come into contact with every single day who do not know Christ or who have rejected His truth–they’re not dying, they’re DEAD!

Personal evangelism (which is commanded for all Christians – see Great Commission) would be on the rise if Christians everywhere would simply wake up and realize they’re in the midst of a real zombie apocalypse: that the people they come in contact with every day are dead. And it’s not that if we don’t fulfill the great commission they’ll be dead….it’s that they already are! Which is why it’s so imperative that we get out there and tell them how to be saved!

I’ll be the first to admit to you that I struggle with this. It’s easier to get involved in the latest fads, like zombies or color runs or Doctor Who. It’s easier to go along thinking about ourselves and what we want. It’s easier to go to Wal-Mart and only think about groceries, and not that the cashier is dead. It’s easier to watch TV and laugh at our favorite celebrities than it is to mourn over the fact that they’re dead. It’s easier to sit with our families and reminisce about old stories than it is to realize we’re talking to dead people…people who need to be made alive in Christ. It is my prayer that we as Christ’s body will wake up and realize that we’re living in a world filled to the brim with the actual, literal walking dead, and that we have the power to save them. No, not in and of ourselves, but with the weapon which we wield: the sword of the spirit — the gospel (Rom. 1:16).