While you may not have followed Charlie Kirk or even heard of him before his horrific murder, for sure the teenagers and young adults in your life know about him or even followed him closely, especially young men. Starting his organization at age 18 with a pocket-full of donors and a card table he would set up at college campuses to engage in lively civic debates, Kirk ultimately made his Turning Point USA America’s largest and fastest-growing conservative youth activist organization with unprecedented reach and influence.
Several months ago, I listened to an hour and a half interview with Kirk in which he shared his personal story. His intelligence and maturity were impressive, despite his being so young, but especially impressive was the depth and sincerity of his faith which, as he matured, clearly served as an anchor for what he did.
In Israel, the sadness over his death was felt deeply and expressed widely with Israelis sharing post after post of Charlie defending Israel or talking about how being in Israel changed his life as a follower of Yeshua. At a time when Israelis see so many lies, conspiracies and hatred towards them and their country, Kirk’s highly visible support of Israel was especially encouraging.
A VOICE FOR BIBLICAL VALUES
Kirk was a sincere man of faith and, in fact, had just finished a book about keeping the Sabbath. He shared that he began taking his faith seriously in his twenties, and, as his faith matured, he was unwavering on biblical values which he passionately discussed and debated, values which in popular secular culture are routinely labeled as “intolerant”, “ignorant”, “bigoted” and “hateful.” Because his main venue was college campuses, Kirk was perhaps the only voice arguing conservative ideas and biblical values so successfully with young people.
A GREAT LOSS FOR AMERICA AND BEYOND
At the same time, among leading online conservative influencers, Kirk was one of a small few of online personalities with similar influence who offered meaningful resistance to the surge of alarming Jew hatred, slander and misinformation about Israel that is now being expressed on the right in the US. Just one day following Kirk’s murder, the Anti-Defamation League found that there were over 10,000 posts on X blaming Israel or Jews for the murder of Kirk. Five days later, that figure reached over 72,000.
In so many ways, Kirk’s loss leaves a void, not the least of which are for his young family. As for Israel, the loss of a clear voice of truth and reason to the younger generation is great at a time when support for Israel among people under the age of 30 in the west is plummeting.
A TURNING POINT?
While Americans were still reeling from the violent nature of Kirk’s very public murder that was clearly meant to “silence” him, the internet erupted with sickening, gleeful reactions from those who hated Kirk and his ideas.
The natural, first response that most might feel at this is indignant anger. If that “indignant anger” gets indulged in a trip down an online-rabbit hole of “rage”, it can easily spill over into other less holy emotions. It is specifically in moments like these that the dark societies in which we live are desperate to see a higher standard expressed from followers of Yeshua: a response that shows the light of His love. Especially in times like these, vigilance is required to guard our hearts from growing cold in the face of society’s lawlessness and hatred and turning our backs on love in response. Yeshua warned us about the times we seem to be living in:
“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”
-Matthew 24:12
Yeshua is not talking about “love” of the unredeemed in the world growing cold, but rather the love of His followers growing cold. This, in my opinion, is one of the most important prophetic warnings about the end times: to guard our hearts from going cold. Loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us is a commandment, not an option, and the only way to manage it is to spend more time in the presence of the Lover of our souls.
Matthew 24 is one of the most studied end time prophecies in the New Testament. Interestingly, in the following chapter, Yeshua tells the parable of the ten virgins, only half of whom keep oil in their lamps to be ready for the “end times”, the darkest hour when the Bridegroom returns for them. That “oil” is a deep, intimate relationship with Him which cannot be borrowed from someone else.
In Hebrew, the phrase for “repentance” translated literally means “return to the answer”. I find myself needing to “return to the answer” often when I allow myself to nurture anger, resentment and even hatred for Israel’s many enemies near and far. In these dark and lawless times, it is important that we all guard our hearts in God’s love and be on our knees asking Him to bless and save the lost of this world, including our “enemies”. Maybe that way, there will be a real “Turning Point” of spiritual proportions that would transform countless hearts across countless dividing lines.
