The CDC, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, has a “Zombie Preparedness” teaching program to get people thinking about disaster preparations using a zombie apocalypse as the framework for the curriculum. My understanding is it started as a joke, but it became so popular, they capitalized on the interest.
For several years, people watched zombie movies and television shows and the next day at work, I heard them talking about what they would do in the “zombie apocalypse” and how their unique set of skills as a hunter or fishermen would prepare them for anything. Then, when we had a toilet paper shortage, some of the same people lost their minds. As Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
What is a Zombie Apocalypse anyway? According to etymoline.com the word zombie comes from “West African origin, originally the name of a snake god.” Later, in Haitian and New Orleans cultish vodoo practices, it came to mean a reanimated corpse. But you already knew what a zombie is supposed to be. But what about apocalypse? That’s a transliteration of a Greek word which means revelation, a disclosure of truth, a laying bare of something previously hidden. Which is also the last book of the Bible, Revelation 1:1, “The Revelation (apokalupsis) of Jesus Christ…” Biblically, the apocalypse is the disclosure of the truth of future events culminating in the New Heaven and New Earth and future glory of Christ Jesus and His people. The apocalypse is only scary if you don’t know Jesus. Much of Revelation is glorious in its revelation of God’s power, holiness, justice, and mercy. It’s the other parts, of God’s judgment of sinners and the world religious system that captures the attention of many.
God has prepared his people for the “last days.” God has prepared his churches for the last of the last days, leading up to the times of judgment The Bible gives many words of warnings to the churches for the last days, but they are not warnings against zombies, political powers, or pandemics. God tells his churches to beware wicked men and false doctrine. The last days are full of perilous times, a decline in truth, morality, and a further descent into depravity (2 Timothy 3:1). It will be a time of false teaching and denials of Christ (1 John 2:18; 4:3, 2 Timothy 4:1-2). The last days are also characterized by people who deny the return of Christ (2 Peter 3:3-4) despite the clear and truthful prophetic revelation of the nature of the times. Immature Christians and false professors prepare themselves for the wrong trials. They build bunkers, store food and water, and read all about the illuminati, but don’t read their Bible or attend church. They study this political leaders and insidious groups taking counsel together, straight out of the second Psalm. But they neglect the Lord’s instruction for his people in the last days. They prepare for a zombie apocalypse because they never read the Apocalypse.