85: Spiritual Zombies? What Calvinism Gets Wrong in Ephesians 2:1

I'm Eddie Lawrence, and this is the Ready for Eternity podcast, a podcast and blog exploring biblical truths for inquisitive

Bible students. Is Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 talking about spiritual zombies?

Paul opens Ephesians 2 with a strong statement, you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

Some readers jump straight to the idea of spiritual death. I am of the opinion that the concept of spiritual death is not found in the scriptures, and I explore this in one of my blog articles, which

I'll link to in the episode notes. Regardless, Calvinists build an entire doctrine of total inability on this verse.

By total inability, they mean that people are so corrupted by sin that they cannot, they are unable to believe in God, repent, or respond to the gospel unless God first gives them new spiritual life.

So they are totally unable to choose to follow God on their own. God must first give them the ability to turn to him.

But Paul was not talking about spiritual zombies who can't respond to God.

He was doing something far more grounded in the language and imagery of his world.

Let's slow down and follow Paul's flow of thought. What did Paul mean by dead in this verse?

Paul connects this death with their walk before they came to Christ in verse 2.

They walked according to the course of this world. They followed the ruler of the power of the air.

Their path led toward destruction. Paul speaks about their future fate as if it already stood present before them.

Ernest Best describes this as a realized picture of their end.

He said, "...the idea is probably best explained as a realized eschatological conception of their death."

That's a fancy way of saying that Paul describes the final reality of death and judgment as if it were already true for those walking in sin, seeing their future fate in the present.

Paul uses the language of death because their destination was the second death.

They were alive, yet marked for judgment. We still speak this way today.

Some people call a condemned man on death row a dead man walking.

Paul uses the same kind of figurative language in Ephesians 2 .1.

It's important that we understand how the Jews and Gentiles of Paul's day used this language.

Some people assume that Paul taught a new concept when he said that people were dead in sins.

The evidence says otherwise. Both Jewish and Greek writers use dead as a metaphor or a figure of speech for people who lived in ignorance or rebellion.

Frank Teelman points out that Greek writers used dead this way. Epictetus called morally blind students dead.

Jesus did the same thing when he said, "...let the dead bury their own dead."

in Luke 9 .60. The metaphor was used everywhere. Best notes the same thing from later

Jewish rabbinical writings. Best said that rabbis spoke of the wicked who, even in their lifetime, are called dead.

To put it simply, Paul used a common figure of speech. His readers wouldn't think of spiritual corpses.

They would think of people who lived in rebellion and faced judgment unless they turned to God.

Why does the Calvinist interpretation fail? Calvinism builds an argument upon an accumulation of assumptions.

It assumes the word dead means spiritually dead, then assumes that spiritual death means total inability, and then assumes that total inability means the sinner cannot believe unless God gives faith to him first.

But none of these ideas appear in Paul's argument or anywhere else in the Bible. A literal reading of Ephesians 2 .1

creates major problems. If dead means spiritual zombies who are unable to respond, then logic demands they also can't sin, can't walk, and can't follow

Satan, and can't carry out their desires. Yet Paul says they did all these things before they turned to Christ.

Paul describes people walking a path toward judgment, not powerless spiritual zombies.

Jesus and the apostles used many images to describe the lost, and none of them support the

Calvinist claim of total inability. What is some of the imagery that other scriptures apply to the lost?

2 Corinthians 4 verses 3 and 4 says they are blind. Romans 6 .17

says they are slaves to sin. Mark chapter 2 verse 17 says they are sick.

Luke chapter 15 talks about them being lost. Now Calvinists might object and say, don't these metaphors prove our point?

The blind cannot see, and slaves cannot free themselves, and the sick cannot heal themselves without outside help.

Well, these are true statements, but notice what their objection assumes.

These metaphors don't describe spiritual zombies, corpses with zero capacity to respond.

It assumes these metaphors describe what people cannot do on their own, not what they cannot do at all.

A blind person cannot restore their own sight, but they can certainly hear a doctor's voice and respond to an offer of healing.

A slave cannot break their own chains, but they can accept freedom when it's offered.

A sick person cannot cure themselves, but they can seek out a physician. In every case, scriptures show these people are able to respond to help.

These are metaphors depicting real people who live, choose, desire, rebel, and they can respond when they hear the gospel.

The metaphors describe people who need help, but who remain able to recognize their need, hear an offer of rescue, and respond to it.

That's exactly what we see throughout scripture. God calls, offers, invites, and pleads with sinners to respond.

None of this makes sense if people are wholly unable to respond until God first regenerates them.

The problem is not their inability. The problem in Ephesians 2 .1

is their direction. They're not spiritual zombies. They're living people on the wrong path.

So what was Paul's point? Paul's point is sharp and simple. You once lived as someone marked for death.

Now you live in Christ. You once walked toward destruction. Now you walk in good works.

You once served the ruler of the power of the air. Now you belong to Jesus.

Paul isn't giving a lecture on human nature or constructing a theological system. He's explaining the difference between two realms, two paths, and two outcomes.

He wants believers to feel gratitude and understand what God rescued them from.

So the takeaway is this, Paul's words lead us to hope, not despair.

If Paul meant spiritually dead, then unbelievers have no real responsibility and no real accountability to God.

Why? Because a dead person, a true corpse, has no moral responsibility and no accountability at all.

It would be as absurd as holding a rock or a table accountable for wrongdoing.

But if Paul meant headed for death, then his words carry urgency, clarity, and compassion.

People walk the wrong path, but they can turn when they hear the gospel.

God's grace does not reanimate spiritual zombies. It calls real, living people to leave the path that leads to death and receive life in Christ.