Zombies

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 flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 

Ephesians 2:1-3

I was recently invited by a non-believing friend to an open forum where people can bring their questions about God and Christianity. While it was determined there were no atheists in the room, there were several agnostics, and at least one pantheist, a South Asian girl I was delighted to get to know.

The girl from Bangladesh, whom we will call “M”, is a current PhD student in the area. As I inquired about how she came to America, we discovered we had both lived in France and thus bonded immediately over our commonality. A self-proclaimed feminist, M’s hangup with Christianity is that it is a religion “created and perpetuated by men and thus cannot be trusted”. As it felt like too great a thought leap, I decided not to speak to the work of the Holy Spirit in authoring the Scriptures but to address her concern about women by directing her to Jesus, who is arguably the greatest feminist of all time. (I was thankful to borrow from Rebecca McLaughlin, who borrowed from Richard Baucham on women in the life of Jesus.¹) As M had already read the Gospel of Mark, I urged her to return to it, specifically looking for the women in the life of Christ. I plan to bring her some books next week.

Seated near us were two men, one sat quietly while the other was earnestly conversing, almost with himself, stating his questions and following them up with the standard apologetic arguments. He was wrestling with the concept of God. As I listened in on the dialogue, I gathered he had heard it all before. Everything he said begged to know if the open secret of Christianity was really true.² How could so many people believe if it was a farce? Such a myth could not possibly have endured this long and with such fervency, he reasoned. Yet, assurance of the truth eluded him.

The friend who brought me to the forum is one whom I’ve been praying for years would come to saving faith in Christ. She states, as if they are mutually exclusive of one another, “I believe in God, but I believe in science”. She may be tired of me bringing her books about God and science, the most recent, a new title from John Lennox for youth.³ If she is weary of me, she thankfully has not yet ended our friendship over it. I recently told her, graciously and lovingly, but matter-of-factly, “If God does not give you eyes to see Him, you cannot see Him. Ask Him to let you see” (Isaiah 6:10; John 12:40).

These three examples bring us back to the unusual title of this essay, Zombies. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines zombies as “the walking dead, animated corpses, unthinking masses, often acting as a mob driven by instinct”. This is the very sense Paul has given us in Ephesians 2:1-3. Later in Ephesians, Paul returns to his depiction of an unbeliever, describing them as operating “in the futility of their minds” and explaining, “they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart” (Ephesians 4:17-18). Lest we get cocky over our ability to see God, something we had nothing to do with, Paul reminds us that we all once lived as the walking dead, you and me too!

Our first father, Adam, was a corpse, “formed out of the dust of the ground” until God breathed life into him and he “became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7).

God repeats this marvel when he asks Ezekiel to prophecy over a valley of dry bones, telling them to hear the word of the Lord, “Behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live…” (Ezekiel 37:5).

Much later, Jesus will reanimate the corpse of Lazarus by the breath of His words (John 11:43).

Even Jesus became a corpse for a few days, but God, the giver of life, who breathed life into the first Adam, also breathed life into the second Adam, resurrected Him, and set Him as ruler above all people and things. So too, we who have been given eyes to see and faith to believe “have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4).  Be stunned by this, and immensely grateful. Now, go and tell some “zombies” what you once were and what you now have seen and know to be true. By God’s grace, they too might become alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:5).

 

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End Notes: 
1. Rebecca McLaughlin, Jesus Through the Eyes of Women (Austin: The Gospel Coalition, 2022) and Richard Bauckham, Gospel Women (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002).
2. Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995).
3. John Lennox and Katy Morgan, Science and God: Do You Have to Choose? (India: The Good Book, 2026).