Showing posts with label zombie apocalypse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zombie apocalypse. Show all posts

Friday, June 1, 2012

(Updated) Zombie Apocalypse, collapse, and "there may even be some cannibalism"

Update: Huffington Post ran an article late this afternoon

Zombie Apocalypse: CDC Denies Existence Of Zombies Despite Cannibal Incidents
"The horrific face-eating arrest in Miami and several other seemingly subhuman acts has many people wondering what's behind this flesh-munching wave of terror.A zombie apocalypse, however, is not what we should be worried about, at least according to the federal government.Over the years the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a couple of tongue-in-cheek "zombie warnings," which really are just disaster-preparedness stunts. But on Thursday, the agency made it official: Zombies don't exist."CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)," wrote agency spokesman David Daigle in an email to The Huffington Post.Nevertheless, recent incidents in which humans reportedly ate human flesh have the Internet in a firestorm, with "zombie apocalypse" being Google's third most popular search term by Friday morning..."

A government agency reassuring the public that zombies don't exist is bad enough, but having to do so because of a spate of cannibalistic crimes is worse. Life has officially stumbled into surreal territory now.

end update--------------

Time Magazine has a news article today with the headline and synopsis as follows:

Today’s Sign of the Zombie Apocalypse: Student Charged in Cannibalistic Slaying of Housemate
"A suburban Baltimore man admits killing and consuming parts of a man he lived with in the latest of several recent dismemberment stories"

That there have been a spate of stories like this recently in the US surely IS a sign of the Apocalypse. I know Time wrote that headline tongue in cheek but I'm not kidding...

Zombies are animated corpses. "The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli." (source). In the real world, unbelievers in Jesus Christ are (spiritual) zombies. Their hypnotism is from satan, who blinds the lost to Jesus. Unbelievers are conscious, self-aware, ambulant; yet hypnotized and under satan's spell. In other words, a Zombie. In real life, Zombies are spiritually dead people. Look how the bible describes the spiritually dead, who are in their sins:

"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God," (Hebrews 6:1)

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11)

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;" (Ephesians 2:1)

They are dead in their sins and dead in their works. Dead, dead, dead, but ambulatory.

The South Beach cannibal shocked the nation. But did you know that there are many such instances that have occurred in recent weeks? Here is a dynamic google map. If you click on the pins on the real map (not the one below) the news excerpt will come up and there will be a link to the full article. I don't recommend you read them. Please just note the frequency of real and alleged cannibalistic acts in the US recently via the map below:


"Intimately tied to the conception of the modern zombie is the "zombie apocalypse", the breakdown of society as a result of zombie infestation." (source). Apocalypse has been a popular novel, film, and television subject for several years, gaining popularity each month. End of the world, witches and warlocks, and vampires have provided steady income for anyone willing to write or produce media about them. Now we have zombies. So, why not a Zombie Apocalypse? Everything of the world is from satan, who is the god of it. Why wouldn't he want to launch his perverted spiritual lies into the culture as a mirror of himself?

Here is a blogger commenting on the phenomenon. Be warned that if you click on the 'source' link, he has posted graphic zombie photos in the article and also graphic news excerpts that describe what the perpetrators were doing. The following is the most salient part, anyway. He wrote--

"Okay, this is starting to get really weird. In the past couple of weeks there have been reports all over the country of criminals chewing on human flesh and eating human brains. So exactly what in the world is going on here? Is this some kind of zombie apocalypse? For the record, I certainly do not believe that zombies exist. Let me be very clear on that. However, zombies have become so prominent in popular culture in recent years that it was probably inevitable that people would try to mimic them. In addition, I certainly do believe that demonic possession is real, and that could be a cause for some of this behavior as well. And of course drugs can play a huge role in causing people to behave in absolutely crazy ways." (source)

I agree 100% with what he wrote there.

It is obvious that society is breaking down. The collapse is well underway. The social compact is a goner. Here are a few news clips to illustrate the point:

Highly addictive drug blamed for cannibal attack in Miami a growing problem in Maritimes
"Greg Purvis, director of Addiction Services for the Pictou, Colchester East Hants and Cumberland county health authorities in northern Nova Scotia, called the drug the most dangerous new product he’s seen in his career. “I’ve been working in addictions for 19 years . . . and this is the first drug which really has me concerned,” he said in a telephone interview. Since April, he says emergency rooms in Nova Scotia have had at least three cases a week of patients on bath salts, usually brought there by police."

The combined population of those 4 counties is only 151,000. And the Paramedics and emergency room responders see three cases per week? That is huge!

Mr Purvis continued: "Negative side-effects that we are seeing; Hallucinations, delusions, psychosis, being awake for one to two weeks straight with very little rest. Kidney failure. Aggressiveness, combativeness and extreme paranoia. And the police and emergency physicians are having problems because this is a stimulant similar to speed and you are having that amped-up extra strength and aggression and these folks are experiencing psychosis, so they don’t really know what’s going on. Imagine that in the back of your squad car.”

Indeed. Imagine that in the emergency room, with innocent patients and staff nearby, too. Imagine the horror of having to answer a call like the one the SoBe cops and paramedics did.

Civilizations only remain intact when social compacts are by and large adhered to by the majority of the population. When the majority begins to set the social compacts aside, the care professionals and first responders face a defeating task. I am speaking of the social compact such as respect for authority, respect for private property, respect for fellow humans.

On the small scale an example of a social compact is the lines on the road. Successful vehicular travel only works because the majority of people adhere to the rule that they stay on their side of the road, where a line is painted to mark the coming from the going. There is no wall to make us stay on the right. There is not a police officer stationed there every half mile. There is only a line. Technically, anyone can cross it at any time. But we don't, because we understand the written and unwritten rules of the road where our own and others' personal safety is concerned.

The social compact is breaking down, almost broken. The total break will occur after the rapture when the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way so that sin can run its full course.

Dmitry Orlov lived through the collapse to the old Soviet Union of Socialist Republics (USSR). He is a keen observer and social analyst. His work can be found on his insightful blog, Club Orlov. He wrote a book called Reinventing Collapse. In it, Mr Orlov identified five stages of a civilization's collapse:

"Rather than tying each phase to a particular emotion, as in the Kübler-Ross [grief] model, the proposed taxonomy ties each of the five collapse stages to the breaching of a specific level of trust, or faith, in the status quo. Although each stage causes physical, observable changes in the environment, these can be gradual, while the mental flip is generally quite swift". He is talking about the breakdown of the social compacts in five different arenas that combined, form a functioning civilization.

I would go so far as to say that though the US has been collapsing for many years, the final stage began their final hurtle in 2008 with the September/October financial collapse. Here are Orlov's five stages:

Stage 1: "Financial collapse. Faith in "business as usual" is lost. The future is no longer assumed resemble the past in any way that allows risk to be assessed and financial assets to be guaranteed. Financial institutions become insolvent; savings are wiped out, and access to capital is lost."

Stage 2: "Commercial collapse. Faith that "the market shall provide" is lost. Money is devalued and/or becomes scarce, commodities are hoarded, import and retail chains break down, and widespread shortages of survival necessities become the norm."

Stage 3: "Political collapse. Faith that "the government will take care of you" is lost. As official attempts to mitigate widespread loss of access to commercial sources of survival necessities fail to make a difference, the political establishment loses legitimacy and relevance."

Stage 4: "Social collapse. Faith that "your people will take care of you" is lost, as local social institutions, be they charities or other groups that rush in to fill the power vacuum run out of resources or fail through internal conflict."

Stage 5: "Cultural collapse. Faith in the goodness of humanity is lost. People lose their capacity for "kindness, generosity, consideration, affection, honesty, hospitality, compassion, charity" (Turnbull, The Mountain People). Families disband and compete as individualts for scarce resources. The new motto becomes "May you die today so that I die tomorrow" (Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago). There may even be some cannibalism."

Did that last line give you chills? Is there any doubt about where we are in the stage of civilization today? I remember reading his work in 2008, knowing that the financial collapse of Wall Street and the big investment houses was a harbinger of the following stages to come. I distinctly remember reading the last line, and going 'EWWWW, impossible! That must be after the Tribulation starts!'.

How wrong I was. We have that going on NOW.

If you don't have Jesus' forgiveness and the Spirit inside you, you are a zombie. He can and is willing to make you into a new creation! (2 Corinthians 5:17).

"If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11)

You do not have to stay dead, but become a new creation in Jesus, alive and joyful for all eternity! If you ask Him to forgive your sins, repenting in sorrow and asking Him to cleanse you, He will. otherwise, you will be around for the real zombie apocalypse, and do you really want to be someone else's dinner?

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Midway Airport: Twitterverse, Patient Zero and the Zombie Apocalypse

I've been watching a situation blossom for the last 20 minutes. The first tweets came over the boards from @SteveGrzanich, afternoon anchor/reporter @WBBMNewsradio, @CBSChicago. Steve tweeted

-- Stand by for breaking news... we're about to go to Chopper 780 for a situation developing at Midway Airport.

--Delta Airlines flight lands at Midway and is surrounded by fire department personnel. Potential health emergency.

--Chopper 780 says fire crews have surrounded the Delta Airlines flight but crews have not boarded the flight and no one is coming offw/passenger.

--The Delta flight at Midway is under quarantine. A source says the flight may have originated in Africa.

--Patient has been in flight for 24 hours according to source...who says the patient has a rash.

--Centers for Disease Control responding.

--The passenger on the Delta flight at Midway may have changed planes in Detroit.

--We've identified the flight...it's Delta 3163. Chopper 780 images show plane with door open and surrounded by ambulances.

--Door on the Delta Flight had been open...it's now closed. UPDATE: @CDC confirms to @WBBMNewsradio it is investigating "contagious situation" on Delta flight 3163.

The patient was removed and after one hour the entire quarantine appears to be over.

While it was going on, it took precisely 10 minutes for someone to tweet about the zombie apocalypse, and another 5 minutes for Patient Zero to be mentioned. ["Zombie Apocalypse-- intimately tied to the conception of the modern zombie is the "zombie apocalypse", the breakdown of society as a result of zombie infestation, which has emerged as a prolific subgenre of apocalyptic fiction"].  Mentions of the movie Contagion were made. Ubiquitously. And someone else tweeted "This is legit scary" and he is right. It is pretty scary.

We know that the Tribulation will come with all kinds of horrors. Jesus said, "There will be pestilences." (Luke 21:11). Some won't be revealed as a horror until it is too late. Someone could pass a contagious disease and not know it until it appears as a rash as this case apparently did. However in this case CBS is saying that the passenger had bug bites, not a communicable disease. [I know that there are many people who will refuse to believe what a government agency says regarding a situation with potentially communicable disease...because, they say, the government will lie to prevent panic...but I simply report the news from the authoritative sources and leave the rest up to you].

How will pestilence begin when it DOES begin? A flight from Ghana and a patient with a rash...who'd changed planes in Detroit? It is a likely and logical scenario. When it does begin, it will probably begin just like that. And it is scary.

Revelation 15 shows us the final plagues. "Chapter 15 is introductory and prepares the reader for the execution of the judgments described in chapter 16. They are first described as the seven last plagues and then as seven bowls full of the wrath of God (vs. 7; 16:1). These seven plagues will chronologically bring to an end the ordered events of the Tribulation judgments in a dramatic crescendo. The plagues described here are extremely severe and occur in rapid succession, which adds greatly to their severity. The plagues are culminated by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the final phase of Armageddon. The purpose of chapter 15 is a vindication of God’s holiness. It shows these judgments stem from the holiness of God and the perfection of His plan." (bible.org)

But Jesus protects His bride and will remove us before judgments fall. And you know, the zombie apocalypse is not far off from the truth. Those who are not in Jesus are the walking dead, dead in their sins (Col 2:13, Eph 2:1). They're not dead bodily, but spiritually...and when we are in Christ He makes us come alive. (Eph 2:5). I'm alive in Christ! Are you?
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