Soon will be out the third season of Fear the Walking Dead, a prequel of sorts to the most popular cable show ever, The Walking Dead. It is not really a prequel as it has all new characters and it takes place in Los Angeles and Mexico, not on the East Coast. However, it does take place in the same universe as the Walking Dead, just earlier. The program was designed to show the events that led to the dead coming back to life and the Walkers (remember they do not call them, “Zombies”) taking over the world. The show is smaller in the sense that it is more personal and is more concerned about relationships than The Walking Dead.

However, I was a bit disappointed initially as it did not really show it in the detail that I was hoping. I was hoping to get an explanation of why, though people have been staying dead for thousands of years, all of a sudden, the recently dead were coming back to life as flesh-eating ghouls. There was some allusion to a virus going around in the first few episodes but some people got it and others did not, yet now EVERYONE will get up and try to eat people when they die? Things seemed to go very fast from the time the main character, Madison asked, “What the Hell is happening?” at the end of the first episode and then the army rolling in and there being an army of the undead. Despite my disappointments, it is a very good series.

Spiritually, I have seen many analogies and symbols to tie it to our current world. There are a lot of parallels between Fear the Walking Dead and various other novels like William Goldman’s Lord of the Flies or Billy Bud by Herman Melville. They are all innocents (except Nick in the tv series) living a happy life, blissfully unaware of the horror that is about to strike them. They are all thrown together and have to use their most base survival instincts to survive. All definitions of right and wrong and morality are out the window. The strong prey on the weak.

The second to last episode of the second season really showed the inherent darkness in our souls. In this episode (and I will attempt to not give spoilers, but I have to make my point), a man and his 15-year old son have been traveling with three other young men. The three young men are full of themselves and their youthful power. They ask Travis (the adult parent), ‘Aren’t you glad that society is gone? You do not have to be at work on time or anything?’ (paraphrase). Travis’ reply is “No”. Travis longs for the security and safety of the world he knew while the kids think all of this is a game. Chris, Travis’ son is enamored with their youthful ignorance and throws in with them and kills innocent people and chooses them over his own father. To please his peer group he even smashes his own father over the head while his father is guarding someone who the kids want to kill. What happens to Chris I will not tell you but suffice to say, the same thing will happen to us if we put aside God’s law for convenience and popularity.

This world and most of the people in it are going to Hell. I do not say that glibly. It is a horrible fact that cuts to the heart of the Lord. However, if you do not see that, then you are not aware of what the Word of God says and/or not paying attention to what is going on out there today. Today, there are evil people roaming around eating each other emotionally and spiritually. Despite our circumstances, God’s law does not change and we are called to radical obedience and radical love in ALL circumstances.

God’s laws will endure despite the ending of society as we know it.

The theme of Fear the Walking Dead is the same theme of the Garden of Eden. Everyone lives in ignorant bliss and then they are cast out and into a land of undead people roaming around. It is also what is happening in today’s society. However, thanks to the blood of the Lamb, we can live in the Lord’s Eden on a daily basis if we follow Him. Some may argue that that is also ignorance or putting on rose-colored glasses and there definitely cases of people of faith acting ignorantly. However, Jesus never did and obviously He is our model.

Do not let the undead or evil men or women define the rules for you. The Lord has defined the rules for us, lets follow Him and live.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

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