TLP 200: Parenting a Zombie, Part 1 | what does the Bible say about zombies?

Is your child a zombie? How can you tell? What does it matter? Today AMBrewster discusses what the Bible says about zombies and equips Christian parents to discern if their children need a cure.

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Episode Notes

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Transcript

Introduction

Welcome to our 200th episode!​

We may have had some technical difficulties lately, but God is always good, and I praise Him that He’s seen fit to allow this podcast to grow and influence families all over the world.

And one of those fine families recently left this Five Star review on iTunes. Kim in Tex said, “These are very useful podcasts for Christian parents. Highly recommended!”

Thank you very much for your sweet thoughts. Your ratings and reviews on iTunes and Facebook are not only an encouragement to me and TeamTLP, but they’re very helpful in connecting us with new dads and moms.

Some of you may even be listening today because of what someone else said about this podcast. So, thank you all for spreading the word about Truth.Love.Parent.

And thanks for joining us as we celebrate our 200th episode and third year of podcasting! 

In honor of that, I decided to have some fun and introduce an interesting series I’ve been working on for the past year.

It’s called “Parenting a Zombie.”

What comes to your mind when I say the word “zombie”?

Some of you will think about the undead flesh-eaters from your favorite horror movie or show; others of you may consider it metaphorically and imagine a person who has no energy or who’s wandering around aimlessly.

But what does the Bible say about zombies?

If you’ve been with Truth.Love.Parent. for any length of time, then you know that we’re desperately interested in aligning our family dictionaries with God’s Word.

Of course, unlike the oft-misunderstood words wisdom and love, hate and submission, the Bible doesn’t use the word “zombie.”

It does talk about the dead raising to life, but that’s a different topic completely.

So, today we’re going to look at a biblical Truth that shares a startling resemblance with our modern concept of zombies.

Now, I know that all this zombie-talk may be off-putting to some of you. Perhaps you think the whole thing is wicked or vile, perhaps the idea of comparing our children to zombies is inappropriate, so let me tell you why I’m using this metaphor and why it’s imperative that we understand the biblical realities.

But before I do that . . .

TLP has been growing quite a bit recently, and it’s possible that this is your first visit with us. So, I’d like to welcome you and tell you just a little about myself.

My name is Aaron, my wife’s name is Johanna, and we have two kids, Micah and Ivy. And since we live at Victory Academy for Boys, every year we add eight teenage boys and two college-aged guys to our family.

Now, from time to time I like to give our listeners little insights into the fam . . . and since we’re talking about something a little dark today, I thought it would be fun to share with you my family’s preferences when it comes to the macabre.

So, my son has a love/hate relationship with it. He’s always loved stuff like Scooby-Doo — you know, the scary stuff that’s not really scary — but he has a serious issue with blood and gore . . . including his own. And he always wants to go into age-appropriate haunted houses, but he does his best to get out of them as soon as possible. 

My wife shares the anti-gore sentiment and has mentioned on a number of occasions that — since she’s had kids — disturbing images don’t sit well with her. However, she was firmly on the vampire and werwolf bandwagon of the early 2000’s.

To this day, I swear she still has a thing for vampires.

My daughter — who’s younger than my son — can pretty much take anything. The teenage boys who live at Victory with us joke that anything they can do, Ivy can do better. 

She really seems to appreciate disconcerting moments in stories, but she’s also very much like her daddy in that her mind sees past the fiction and considers the real-life implications. She’s extremely practical that way.

I, personally, have never been a fan of horror. I find it to be unnecessary gratuitous, sexually-charged, and not that scary. If I want to be scared, Alfred Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamlan do it better. But I have to admit that The Walking Dead hit a surprising chord with me early on. I’m a fan of post-apocalyptic stories, and the idea of a dad having to reunite with and protect his family during dangerous times was compelling to me.

Of course, I prefer to watch it on VidAngel where all the language and sexuality can be filtered out.

So, as far as my family goes, we definitely err on the not-so-scary side of movies and shows. 

However, we don’t consider The Lord of the Rings to be scary at all, though I’m sure many would. So, I have no idea where that puts us on the continuum.

And with that, let me tell you why this zombie metaphor is so valuable, and then we’ll jump into the Biblical examples.

I believe one of the most diabolical tools the devil welds is the ability to convince us that our sin isn’t that bad.

“We’re good people and special snowflakes, and we have to preserve our self-esteem.”

“Our poor choices are simply mistakes and accidents.”

“Sin is viewed as being a disease or a disorder we can’t help. We’re merely victims.”

By the way, if you’d like a great illustration of the reality of our sin natures, I encourage you to listen to our last episode.

But this prideful desire to downplay the seriousness of our sin is not only wrong, it highjacks any hope for true change.

Sin kills. It condemns people to hell. It enrages God. It earns destruction. It dismantles relationships. It hurts; it always hurts.

And we need to see our sin for what it is.

I mention Matthew 5 a lot on this show, and I do so for a good reason. Jesus starts His most famous teaching by driving us to the reality that we are spiritually destitute. And — like James 4:9 says — Jesus calls us to weep and mourn over our sin. And then He calls us to reject pride and humbly acknowledge our need.

I started using the “Zombie Behavior” illustration a couple years ago, and it’s been extremely helpful when working with the my children and the boys at Victory Academy.

I don’t care who you are, zombies are disgusting. They’re repulsive. They’re reanimated corpses set on nothing more than killing and eating living creatures. 

That’s gross.

But our sin is even more gross.

Our disgusting iniquity, and the pathetic determination with which we pursue it, is an affront to the Almighty God of the universe.

Each act of commission and omission is an attack on the character of God.

Zombies attack people, sinners attack God.

It’s been so helpful for me, my family, and the families I serve to get a truly biblical view of sin . . . and that view is bloody, violent, disgusting, and gross.

Topic

So, first, we need to understand the modern concepts surrounding the fictional undead.

1. Regardless of the storyline or unique universe created by the writer, Zombies are nearly braindead.
   
2. Zombies think of only one thing: satisfying their hunger.
   
3. Intelligent people who meet a Zombie either try to kill it, run away from it, or lock it up.
   
4. Zombies will tolerate great destruction to get what they want. It doesn’t matter if it’s set on fire. It doesn’t matter if it’s shot or stabbed. It doesn’t matter if it falls off a cliff. It doesn’t matter if it loses limbs. Even if it’s reduced to only a head, it will continue to chomp.
   
5. Zombies never learn. It doesn’t matter how many people hate it, how many people want to kill it, or how much destruction it suffers, Zombies are incapable of learning. They never change.

With those five descriptors in mind, can you think of a similar biblical concept?

I’d love to take suggestions from the crowd, but since that’s not possible, I’d like for us to take a moment to apply these ideas to what God says about the Fool.

One word for “fool” is used nearly 80 times in the Bible. Another is used nearly 50 times. “Fools” is used over 40 times. “Foolishness” is used 7 times. And there are at least 50 other miscellaneous terms that also describe foolishness in one form or another.

These combined terms show up over 200 times in Scripture.

And the book of Proverbs has the most to say about fools, but I believe we so often dismiss its instruction because we don’t truly understand or appreciate what God’s talking about when He speaks concerning fools.

So as we study the fool, my hope is that we will truly understand how it applies to us and our parenting, but that we’ll also understand just how destructive and vile foolishness is. It’s truly “zombie behavior.”

And here’s why I say that . . .

1. Believe it or not, the Bible says that — just like zombies — Fools are braindead. Proverbs 15:21 says, “Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense.” We’re going to pick apart the pieces of that verse on our next episode, and we’ll learn that “lacking sense” is worse than we may assume.
   
2. Like zombies, fools think of only one thing: satisfying their desires. Proverbs tells us that Fools despise instruction, flaunt their folly, look at sin like it’s a good joke, and are reckless and careless as they pursue their one way.
   
3. Intelligent people who meet a fool try to hurt him or run from him. Proverbs 18:6 tells us, “A fool's lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating.” And Proverbs 14:7 says, “Leave the presence of a fool.”
   
4. Like zombies, fools will tolerate great destruction to get what they want. Proverbs 1:32 teaches us that, “the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them.” Proverbs 3:35 reveals that, “fools [inherit] disgrace.”
   
5. Fools never learn. It doesn’t matter how many people hate them, how many people want to hurt him, or how much destruction they suffers. Fools often refuse change. God tells us “fools despise wisdom and instruction,” and that “Wisdom is too high for a fool.”

​
I find the comparisons between fictional zombies and biblical fools to be more than alarming.

And what even more disconcerting is that God says this “zombie behavior” is literally knotted up inside your child.

Proverbs 22:15 says, “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child.” The word translated “folly” is translated “foolishness” just as often.

Conclusion

My goal today was to help us all see that it doesn’t matter how old our kids are, they’re all prone to zombie behavior. ​

We’re all born with a thirst for self-destruction that comes as a result of us foolishly pursuing our sinful satisfaction.

So, here’s a breakdown of this series:

Next time I plan to discuss the zombie’s problem. We’re going to look at a ton of biblical data that will lay out the root issue of foolishness.

On part 3, we’re going to talk about the zombie’s diet. This episode will be beneficial in helping us see the signs of zombie behavior in our kids . . . even when they’re very young.

Part 4 is going to be about the zombie’s relationships. We’re going to figure out how our kids became spiritual zombies, but we’re also going to look at the collateral toll foolish behavior has on the family.

Part 5 is going to take a necessary look at the zombie’s destruction. Listen, when God takes the time to outline the consequences of our choices, we absolutely must take heed.

And Part 6 is going to be so enjoyable. Unlike most zombie movies where there is no hope for the infected, God’s Word tells us that there’s a cure for zombie behavior. 

So, the Truth is that all of us are born infected by sin; all of us have foolishness bound in our hearts. That foolishness often blossoms into cankerous destruction in the lives of our kids and we need to know from where it comes, be able to spot it before it becomes full-blown, and know how to lead our kid toward their salvation.

I hope that you’ll share this episode. There are a lot of zombies out there, and there are many parents who are being tempted to run away from their kids because of that zombie behavior. Perhaps this series may be a blessing to them.

You can also find our episode notes at Taking Back the Family. The link is below.

And — if you’re new — please know that we offer free email assistance. You can reach us at [email protected] to talk about your unique family struggles.

Listen, no one wants to imagine that their children are acting like zombies. It’s a disgusting thought, but that’s the ugliness of sin. 

The good news is that God gives us the information we need to understand, detect, and help our children have new life!

To that end, I’ll see you next time.