The best example I’ve come across that takes the Bible seriously, but not literally, is the Zombie Apocalypse. This is a story you probably haven’t heard in church or in Sunday school, and honestly, if I was a biblical literalist I wouldn’t go around broadcasting these events to the world either.
The story begins in Matthew 27 where the author describes the pivotal events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross. This is the very foundation of Christian belief in eternal salvation and is taken literally by most Christians. Verse 50 tells us how Jesus died on the cross:
Jesus, cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit.
The next verse identifies physical manifestations that, we assume, rocked Jerusalem from one end of the city to the other, grabbing the attention of all who lived there:
Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to the bottom. The earth quaked and rocks were split.
Jerusalem is near an earthquake fault line and quakes hit the area every 150 years or so. This was a strong earthquake because the veil in question was an enormous, probably sixty-foot high and very thick cloth that separated the “Holy of Holies,” where it’s believed God’s presence appeared, from the rest of the Jewish temple. The quake was also strong enough to split rocks.
All Eyes Are on Jerusalem
An earthquake would grab my attention. Once the quake hit I would be out of my house and onto the street checking to make sure everyone was safe and looking for damage. Neighbors would be talking to one another waiting to see if this was the first of more to come.
In short, everyone in the city would be attentive and focused, waiting to see what happened next.
At this point, the curiosity of Jerusalem residents was primed; they were in the perfect state for the events that followed. Those events, the key to this particular weekend becoming unforgettable for the residents of Jerusalem, are found in Matthew 27:52-53 where scenes of countless horror movies must have been played out in real life for the people of Jerusalem to experience first-hand:
The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered into the holy city and appeared to many.
Wow. Graves opening, dead people, one can assume in varying states of decomposition, walking through the streets and “appeared to many.” Visual images from the TV series, The Walking Dead come to mind.
This is ghoulish imagery, but how perfect to burn a permanent memory into the minds of all who witnessed it. Can you imagine the stories that permeated through Jerusalem’s society, at all levels, rich and poor, as a result of this single event? Contrary to what happens with modern-day urban legends, the embellishments could not have surpassed the reality of this Christian version of the Zombie Apocalypse.
Maybe the dead were raised to look like normal people. Even so, they were raised when Jesus died on Friday, but didn’t enter Jerusalem until Sunday morning. What were they doing for two days? Holding a Zombie Ball?
And why didn’t those who laid Jesus to rest in his tomb or those who visited the empty tomb on Sunday morning not report back the fantastic miracle of so many tombs being opened with the dead hanging around for two days ?
If one of the objects of such miracles was to help convert the unsaved, this was the perfect miracle to let everyone know about.
Yet, there is no mention of the Zombie Apocalypse in the historical record, and few if any pastors have based a Sunday sermon on it.
The question is, should the events surrounding the dead being raised from their graves, and then two days later walking through the streets of Jerusalem, be taken seriously, and not literally?
A Hollywood Ending?
Years ago when I was delving into the accuracy of conservative Christian claims that the Bible is the inerrant, error-free word of God, I read Matthew 27 and wondered why I had never heard of the Zombie Apocalypse with graves opening and the dead walking through the streets of Jerusalem.
Any stories relating to the death of Jesus ended with him dying on the cross. Even Mel Gibson’s realistic visual masterpiece of the last hours of Jesus’ life, the movie, The Passion of the Christ, ended with his resurrection and did not include the earthquake or the raising of the dead.
What if Gibson had extended the movie to visually capture the Zombie Apocalypse in the same manner he captured the graphic walk Jesus made as he carried his cross to Calvary, the place of his crucifixion?
Gibson is a master storyteller, but including what the Bible describes in verses 52 and 53 would have both shocked his audience and turned a serious discourse on the brutal suffering that Jesus experienced into a Hollywood movie that held little to no credibility with anyone, let alone those Christians who were so emotionally moved by the brutal reality of Hollywood’s depiction of the last hours of Jesus’ physical life.
Should we take the Zombie Apocalypse seriously, but not literally? Does the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 27 describe events that are allegories, but did not actually happen? If so, how do we know which parts of that story should be taken seriously, and which parts should be taken literally?
This last question, how do we know which parts of the Bible actually happened, is the greatest fear that conservative Christians have. They fear that allowing even “the least rupture” in their belief in biblical inerrancy will be the slippery slope that pulls the very foundation out from under their religious belief and practice.
This was an excerpt from the upcoming book, “The Jesus Principle.”
Click here to receive an exclusive offer to pre-order this book as soon it becomes available.
-
- Photo by Nathan Wright on Unsplash
