What are you afraid of? I have to admit that I am a huge wimp! This season of ghouls and goblins in NOT my favorite time of year at all. I’m so skiddish that even the commercials for scarey movies make me jump! We see all sorts of witches, vampires, and zombies-they are everywhere now, but should they really be a cause of trepidation for us as Christians?

Let’s deal with witches first. Are they real? Absolutely. They were there in biblical times and they are still around today. Listen to the stern warnings given concerning them. “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord.” Deuteronomy 18:10-12. We see in 2 Kings 21 also how King Manasseh was known for allowing these practices to flourish in the land (21:6), and later in the chapter (verse 11) God pronounces His judgment that Manasseh has “done more wickedly than all the Amorites did who were before him.” God did not show mercy on those who disobeyed. In 1 Samuel 28 we read of Saul, Israel’s first king. He has cut off mediums and spiritists from the land and imposed a sentence of death for those who are caught (verse 9). Saul has disguised himself and gone to En-dor to seek the very practice that he has outlawed (verse 8). Did God deal lightly with King Saul after he does this? The fact is, Saul’s life-and thus his reign-would soon be ended, and his kingdom given over into the hands of the Philistines (verse 19).

How about vampires? Do we read of any in the Scriptures? Leviticus 3:17 is clear, “It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all our dwellings: you shall not eat any fat or any blood.” So does our Lord violate this when He tells His disciples, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life,” John 6:54? We know He was without sin and would never act against the statutes that He had given. This is simply another analogy given by the Lord that stresses unless we accept Him fully as our Lord, we will not have eternal life. We are told in Matthew 5:13-14 that we are salt and light, but we understand that He is not saying we are literal salt and lights at all. We are simply vessels of God to be used to spread His Word. The Lord uses comparisons to illustrate His points, and those who were truly seeking would inquire further as to the meaning of the illustrations. We see in 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 that the Lord gave the example to His disciples at their last supper together. He said, “This is My body” and broke the bread and passed it. Then He said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood,” and passed the cup for all to drink the fruit of the vine. There was no drinking of actual blood by the Lord or His disciples. So do we find any vampires in the pages of the Scriptures-absolutely not.

Now we press on to look for mention of zombies. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, this would be “a corpse revived.” (Page 806) My mind immediately goes to several examples we have of this taking place in the New Testament: Lazarus (John 11:44), a widow’s son (Luke 7:15), Dorcas (Acts 9:40), and of course, Jesus (John 21:14), to name a few. The conflict we have with the Scriptures and the world is clearly the purpose of the ones coming back to life. None of the accounts we read of walked the earth with faces or body parts hanging off and making moaning sounds! It was the Will of God that these people returned to life.

So, after taking a closer look at witches, vampires, and zombies, are they really something for us to fear?

Witches, yes, they clearly are not doing the Will of God, and we should try to warn them of their ill-fated ways. We are told in Ephesians 5:11-12, “And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.”

Vampires-no such thing found in the Word. They are a make-believe legend for sure, and since the Lord does not instruct us how to ward off these creatures, they should not be a source of trepidation for the children of God.

Lastly, zombies. We have no reason to fear a zombie apocolypse until the judgment day. “For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16. (I don’t know about you, but I prefer the word “saint” to be used instead of “zombie”!)

So where should our true fear be? I think it should be on the judgment day and if we will be in the group that rises first. One of the very first verses in Proverbs tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (1:7) He is our Creator, and the One and only One who will decide where our eternity is spent. “And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both sould and body in Hell.” Matthew 10:28

Let’s focus our concentration not on the outer body, but on the condition of our heart with God. “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.” Proverbs 31:30

 

Robin Martin

Robin serves with the South Twin Cities congregation in Rosemount, Minnesota, where her husband serves as an evangelist. She feels extremely blessed to have seven children, and eight grandchildren with two more on the way!