I was reading through Zechariah for my devotions a week or so back and came across this passage:
“This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. On that day men will be stricken by the Lord with great panic. Each man will seize the hand of another, and they will attack each other.” Zechariah 14:12-13
Okay, I admit, the first thing I thought was “zombie apocalypse.” Seriously, rotting flesh, attacking each other. This is total Walking Dead going on here. Now, I admit that I’ve never really seen many zombie movies. I do know from Ving Rhames that the only way to kill a zombie is to shoot it’s…uhm…something something head off. But rotting flesh? Eyes rotting? People fighting each other because of the rotting flesh? Dude! It’s both awesome and disturbing at the same time.
It’s totally awesome because with this whole pop culture thing about zombies, we can say “Hey look! We have proof that the zombies are eventually coming.” It’s awesome because many people geek out over this horror/sci-fi stuff.
But it’s also disturbing. This is in the Bible? I thought God was about love? I thought that God cared for all people? Why is he sending this disturbing stuff? And to tell the truth there are other disturbing things in the Bible. Many disturbing things that were even shown in the whole Bible miniseries on the History Channel back in March. Many people found the violence shown in the miniseries disturbing. The thing I kept saying was “that’s in there.”
Too many times we hear about these wonderful flowery stories in the children’s picture Bibles and in Sunday school. We don’t want to tell them about the prostitutes in the Bible, about a father about to sacrifice his son, about the sons of Jacob circumcising a whole village and then killing them all when their all healing. Yeah. Disturbing.
So, what about the Biblical zombie apocalypse then? It probably isn’t coming. To be honest, I don’t thing we’ll ever have a zombie apocalypse. That’s why it’s called sci-fi and fantasy. It’s not real. But the Bible is real. And this probably already happened out of judgement. And that’s a tough pill to swallow.
When we take the Bible for what it’s worth, it’s not a happy thing all the time. Yet we see things about God that are amazing. We hear that he is slow to anger and abounding in love. He is slow to become angry means a lot. He forgives sins when we come to him. He forgives when we ask for forgiveness. When we seek him we find him. And he is zealous for his people. He protects his people. He watches over his people. And he takes care of them.
In the end, you have to accept the sex and violence in the Bible. We are flawed people. We are cracked pots. We’re all not right. And the world is filled with sinful people. People who destroy. People who murder and kill. People who hurt others.
God has brought an answer to all of this and no it isn’t the zombie apocalypse. He has brought an answer to all the evilness, the murder and hurting. He brought Jesus. He brought Jesus as love. Love conquers all. And God, who is slow to anger and abounding in love brought the ultimate gift of love in Jesus to come and conquer all of this.
And there will be a day when all of this, all these problems, hurts and pains, will be no more. There will be a day when all of this will be made right, be made perfect. And there will be a day where we no longer have to fear, have to worry, have to struggle. There will be no more murder, no more killing, no more…the word here is sin.
And that will be a day much more awesome than any zombie apocalypse. It’s the anti zombie apocalypse. And it will be a day when Jesus comes again and all things will be made right. Some look towards the future, a future with zombies and death, with fear. I look towards the future with joy and hope, knowing that it will be the anti-zombie apocalypse happening.
Spiritual Musclehead 
I have been trying to find a way to make a Christianized version of a zombie apocalypse without much success, but after reading this article i have found new hope in making the idea! Thanks!
Glad I could help.
What if this is true and literally going to happen?
Good question.
Biblical prophecy is more about forth-telling than foretelling. Yes, there are times where the prophets tell of impending judgment or of what will happen in the future, but prophets also called people back to God, called them to repentance and to follow God’s Word.
When we try to use the Bible to answer questions such as will there literally be a zombie apocalypse, that’s not using the Bible the way it was planned to be used. It is not a fortune telling device.
As for an actual zombie apocalypse, no, I don’t think we’ll literally going to have one.
I’m sorry to burst your bubble…. The word plague, translated from the Hebrew word maggephah, literally means “pestilence”—a sickness. Given today’s war tactics, it is entirely plausible that this verse describes biological warfare, or it could be a special plague designed by God just for this circumstance. Whatever the case, a judgment that rots the living flesh from the bones and the fluid from the eyeballs is horrifying, but it does not indicate a zombie apocalypse.
God is Love.
Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/zombies.html#ixzz2pMypfCW2
Thank you for your comment and your observation. If you look up a bit you’ll see my response to a previous comment stating that, no, I don’t believe that this is for an actual zombie apocalypse. In fact, if you go to my post https://spiritualmusclehead.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/a-zombie-apocalypse-in-the-bible/?relatedposts_exclude=1930 you’ll read my follow up to this post. As for the word מַגֵּפָה it is used in Exodus to describe the plagues of God placed upon Egypt. It is translated as plague, as a disease or even as simply a blow one strikes on to someone else. In all cases it is used, it is always used for divine purposes (see the Theological Workbook of the Old Testament 1294b for the use of מַגֵּפָה in the Old Testament).
As for your final comment, yes, God truly is love. At the same time, there are tough passages in the Bible that we come across such as this particular one. The question I want to bring out is this, if God is love, then why have this particular verse of judgment in the Bible? These are complexities that go beyond the simple statement of God is love.
Again, thank you for your comment and observations and for taking time to read this blog post. Please feel free to read other posts I’ve done looking at a variety of other subjects such as Dr. Who https://spiritualmusclehead.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/dr-who-and-living-the-now/
Why does God do these things? Everything God does that seems cruel or heartless he does for the sake of his chosen people with his control over reality and foreknowledge of how events shape the future while abiding by the rules He set forth in a world warped by sin. It is why sometimes he allows Israels enemies to continue to exist and mingle with the Hebrews and why for no seeming good reason has others obliterated, sometimes cruelly. It is a warning to both Israel and the rest of the world. Case in point you don’t eff with Gods game plan for Israel or you will face a loving, yet HOLY god’s wrath. Remember God is love but also righteousness and purity which can only abide sin so much.
People also dont realize the zombie similarity of Jesus and the resurrected saints who will rule and rain over the nations in righteousness and enforced sinlessness for a thousand years. All of these zombie movies are a deceptive tool I’m sure Satan will use to convince humanity to rebel over its holy zombie overlords after the 1000 year kingdom to come and Satan is released from the pit. Almost humorous that the unrepentant world will see us as a zombie apocalypse invasion that must be stopped so humanity can go back to doing whatever it wants again, no matter how many billions suffer. Then you get your big Megiddo, Gog and Magog, world attacks Israel only to get obliterated by the Heavenly kingdom of God coming down from the sky thing you see in movies like Left Behind, etc. So, yeah, sorry to rant but there’s also that. 🙂
Chris D…
The questions you ask about God’s wrath vs His love have been asked for generations. These are good questions trying to reconcile the attributes of God and what happened during the Old Testament. I won’t go into depth here about some of my thoughts (this is just a blog post comment reply, but maybe sometime in the future I’ll blog about it) but in short it’s something hard to grapple with.
As for looking at this particular passage, I think how one reads it depends on one’s eschatology (study of the end times). What you referenced (such as the 1000 year reign) is from a dispensationalist per-tribulation rapture, post-tribulation reign of Christ. Looking at it form the perspective, I can understand your thoughts on Jesus and the saints ruling and the attempt to overthrow them. From an amillennial eschatology, the idea of a 1000 year reign is more the idea of complete eternity. From this eschatology, the kingdom of God has come at the death of Jesus on the cross and will come in its fullness when Jesus comes back
As for “zombie” Jesus and resurrected saints, the resurrection isn’t a “zombification” of Jesus and the saints, but in a glorified body. Zombies are undead and therefore partially decomposed and decomposing still. Jesus’ resurrected body was pure and different.
Some good thoughts, thank you for your comment.
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Good article
Preoccupation with earthly endeavors steals people’s focus, so that the Voice of Truth they truly need to hear is diminished, most of the time, to mere whispers. Sadly, the voice people hear the most is their own voice, which has inhaled the voice of the cultural environment around them, leading them to perceive truth from these resounding voices which are vying for attention daily. However, the biased truth people are absorbing on a regular basis is not from The One Who is Truth.
GOD, who is LOVE and TRUTH comes to people over and over in their circumstances, to express His Love to them in personal ways. But so many refuse His gestures of Love again and again. LOVE’S purpose is to draw to Himself anyone who will stop and take notice that He is speaking to them. LOVE and TRUTH is a personal GOD who desires fellowship with human beings who are made in His Image and after His Likeness. GOD truly desires to have fellowship with you.