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How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

The title was selected to capture the attention of a wider audience. It is hoped that a sprinkling of humor may be sufficient to keep the reader’s attention while he is subtly given information that could be useful to him in the future.

It may surprise the contemporary reader to learn that the word “Apocalypse” had a usage before the X-men and even before Robert Duval loved the smell of napalm in the morning. From the Greek apokalyptein, the word meant to uncover, disclose, reveal. The word was applied to the last book of the bible to describe what the apostle John wrote about the future.

What John describes is destruction and carnage over the whole earth that has yet to be rendered fully into a Hollywood blockbuster. However the word “apocalyptic” has found a home in our language to describe everything from a broken fingernail to the trash left after a music festival.

The phrase “zombie apocalypse” has come to convey a thematic idea, frequently posed in movies, of a future where some calamity has rendered much of the population walking corpses (living dead). These stories have come to present the dead as much more active (and thus threatening) than one usually finds the dead.

One might think of the last book of the bible, called Revelation (apokalupsis) from the first verse, as the grandfather of all zombie stories. However, what makes the calamities described more alarming is that they are not stories but predictions.

Since the people who would find themselves in the middle of such strange circumstances would most likely be those with the least idea of what was happening or why, this article could be useful to call to memory an understanding of such cataclysmic events.

A zombie movie is designed to show the viewer what is happening in sequence so that he can understand the story and identify with the protagonists. In the Apocalypse most will not even understand what they are being told, much less what is really happening or that they are the protagonists. Since most media people have come to see their job as similar to how the news is presented in North Korea, one may have to rely more on rumor and previously obtained information.

There are two events that could occur before the start of the tribulation (apocalypse) that could be noticeable even if covered by TV news. The first might be the disappearance of Christians called the rapture. This is not specifically called out in the bible but it can be inferred from several verses. What may make this less discernable is that only real Christians would be taken. Remaining behind would be many who consider themselves Christian, but aren’t. This could include almost entire church congregations.

The second event may be a war of an Arab and Persian alliance against Israel. This also may be difficult to discern as wars are almost always happening in the Mid East. It may be that the supernatural protection of Israel by God will be attributed to a charismatic leader who would then be seen by Israel as their Messiah. This would be a clever deception for the antichrist (anti being a Greek prefix meaning in place of). While not the same as claiming credit for making the sun come up or causing it to rain, Israel would not be the first people to be taken in by boasting.

What might be considered as the actual start of the tribulation is usually seen with the four horsemen. This is not a reference to the Notre Dame football squad under Knute Rockne. Rather it is a reference to different color horses used in the book of Revelation to illustrate the arrival of war, death, famine, and pestilence that start the tribulation. These combine to kill 25% of the people on earth. This should be noticeable enough that even the TV news wouldn’t be able to suppress it.

Even a nuclear exchange between the US and Russia would likely kill only 600 million. However, with the interruption of food production and distribution as well as the disease associated with the dead from war, one can see where the number of dead could rise to the 25% level.

For those who survive, a period will be coming that makes the zombie movies look like child’s play. A choice will have to be made by the survivors. The antichrist will establish an economic system for the world that requires all people to have a mark on their hand or their head in order to be allowed to buy or sell anything. Those who accept the mark will be like zombies (the living dead) because they are destined to be thrown in the lake of fire (the second death).

If someone wants to avoid this zombie fate, he will have to not take the mark and try to survive outside of the world wide economic system. It might be a good idea to find an abandoned Christian home in a rural area where food an water could be obtained away from population centers. It would be helpful to find a bible at start reading it as if your life depended upon it.

The bible does not describe the initial events or their sequence . For example, the rapture could be decades before the war against Israel or the start of the tribulation. However, the sequence of the events in the tribulation are defined by the description of the opening of a scroll by breaking seals.

People in zombie movies survive by avoiding those who would kill them or turn them into zombies.

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