Vampires have received a burst of popularity in the past number of few years, from the True Blood TV series to the recent Dracula movie and even with the deep philosophical question: Team Edward or Team Jacob? Vampire legends have existed for hundreds of years, and some of them are based on such gruesome and horrific historical figures such as Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory who bathed in human blood. There are many other stories and legends of vampires who are equally steeped in darkness, none of which I will expound on further.
While I find vampires in general to be repulsive, I have noticed that the truths behind the vampire tales of old have minimal comparison whatsoever to the watered-down movie and book images that current-day writers give. Unlike in books, there is no goodness in vampires. They are beings of evil who sustain their own lives at the expense of others. They are users who leave literal dead bodies in their wake. And while it is a subject of debate among some as to whether real physical vampires exist, it strikes me that the concept of vampires are a perversion of a reality that God has designed for humans, the reality of Immortality.
It is often said that the enemy perverts any reality that God creates; this case is no different. God created humans to live literally forever. Our cells rejuvenate themselves and have limitless potential for healing, and that’s just in our mortal bodies alone. Our minds are able to rewire themselves based off new thought patterns and new ideas. We are amazing masterpieces made in God’s image and likeness and as God is immortal so we are designed to be. Our very bodies are designed to transform according to the life of Christ within us.
Think of how this works — Jesus instructed his disciples that if they ate his flesh and drank his blood they would have life within them. He later demonstrated Holy Communion — a ritual that doesn’t just symbolize the consumption of flesh and blood but in the ritual one partakes of mystical, spiritual elements designed to rejuvenate body, soul, and spirit alike. For even as the Old Testament says “the life is in the blood” so too is our immortal life in the blood of Jesus. For even as we partake of communion, we are able to have our bodies healed, signs of aging reversed such as wrinkles and spots, and even our internal organs, heart, liver, brain, kidneys, etc. are to be restored to fullness through His life in us.
Vampires, then, are a cheap imitation who steal the life-blood of others in order to prolong their dark existence. Not able to partake of the lifeblood of Christ who said “but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” they have to continually supplement with the blood of the dying. If you look at it another way, Vampires are a representation of the Old Testament Law, as Romans 8 explains that Law brings death but the Spirit of God brings life. You see, the Old Testament Law required the constant provision of new and fresh blood in order to keep everyone alive — and that only barely as it didn’t permanently deal with the death problem, much like with vampires constantly hunting for fresh victims to drain. In Jesus Christ the problem of death has been solved once for all with the shedding of his blood so that we all may partake freely of that life without harm to others.
The rise in Vampire-associated media is the attempt of the enemy to pervert and even discredit the good news of Jesus Christ, turning the spiritually hungry toward works of darkness due to a lack of revelation and understanding. In spite of this, God is revealing the mysteries of revelation toward eternal, immortal life in the body on the earth and this revelation of Immortality is only increasing. According to 1 Corinthians 15:26, “the last enemy to be destroyed is death” and how better to destroy the works of death than by living forever? I cannot think of a single topic that is possibly MORE relevant to life today than Immortality, and this is a scriptural promise available to us in Jesus’ death and resurrection. May we walk steadily forward to apprehend the promises that God has for us in Him.
