Owain ReedDisclaimer – This one is a little different. It’s also recycled. It is mine though.
Disclaimer 2 – If this is too preachy, I’m sorry. I hate people that preach to me so I hope it doesn’t come across like that.
Disclaimer 3 – It’s a shorter one this week but less is more, y’know?
“I can’t profess to understand God’s plan, but when Christ promised a resurrection of the dead, I just thought he had something a little different in mind.”
Anyone that knows me will know that I’m a huge Walking Dead fan. One of my favourite characters in the series was Hershel and he came out with that absolute belter of a quote in season two.
I think this remark is in reference to Matthew 10:8 –“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”
I’m a Christian but I can’t confess to a great knowledge of the Bible. I do however have my own opinion and conclusions on what that passage may mean. For me, that passage means hope, selflessness and love. Heal and nurse the sick, clean and help the lepers, cast out devils into the darkness and give just as you have received. In the context of that passage raising the dead might mean bringing back loved ones that have descended into hell or remain in purgatory. That’s my opinion anyway. Here is where the twist comes in. The next quote doesn’t fit in perfectly but it’ll do the job.
“A prophecy that misread could have been.” – Yoda, Revenge of the Sith.
I’ll admit that it’s not the best English but he is a Jedi Grand Master so I’m not going to nit-pick. Like I said, it doesn’t fit perfectly with my thinking but it highlights the fact there is always more than one way of looking at things. If we ignore the rest of the passage and focus on the raising the dead part we can see that the context has obviously changed already. I’m not saying that Christ is going to raise the dead and we’ll see hordes of the undead shuffling through our streets, but we do live in an age where religion is on the wane, an age where (God would deem) sinful activity takes place on a day to day basis. There are a few examples of what God does in those kinds of circumstances. Take a look at the destruction of Sodom for example. There are many arguments as to why God destroyed Sodom. Some people think it was due to homosexuality (as far as I’m aware the scripture makes no real reference to this) and some think it was down to the violation of hospitality to guests. Either way, Sodom earned God’s wrath and was subsequently killed off.
Another big example of God’s wrath against society is the flood that occurs in the book of Genesis (not written by Phil Collins). The narrative of this story describes the evil of humanity that moved God to destroy the world with the flood. In a society where religion is not as important as it used to be would that society not be deemed as evil?
For me, I don’t think we can categorise society in such a black and white way. We all have free will and we all make our own choices. Life is about making choices. It’s about making mistakes and learning from them. It’s about being tested. Whether we pass or fail that test is down to the person that we choose to be.
To bring it back to the important (zombie) stuff, the point is that if God thought our society evil then he wouldn’t hesitate to make some changes. Let’s think back to what Hershel said on The Walking Dead. A flood has already been done and Sodom was just wiped off the map. So maybe he’ll just raise the dead and punish us that way.
If he does, I’ve watched enough movies, played enough Resident Evil and dreamed enough dreams to survive it.