Charlie Kirk: Man of Faith, Man of Fire

Audio By Carbonatix

I didn’t have a personal relationship with Charlie Kirk; there will be others with better stories, memories, and glimpses into his life and legacy. I never even went to a Turning Point event, and I listened to Charlie some during the election cycle, but I wasn’t a routine listener. And yet, I am telling you that Wednesday, upon hearing he had been shot and then learning of his death, I sobbed and screamed like I have never before. In the days since, I have grieved as though he were son, brother, or friend. Because even from a peripheral vantage, I can see the absolutely extraordinary value of the life he lived, the work he did, and the way in which he did it.

Children, sons and daughters alike, will be named Charlie and Kirk or some derivation, by young people in hopes of honoring Charlie and inspiring their children. And well they should.

He was a force. He was a one-man revolution.

Charlie was a complex combination of multiple passions and pursuits. Skills and accomplishments that people spend lifetimes chasing in singular form, Charlie Kirk had in triplicate. He was a visionary, but not just a visionary because he was a worker too, a laborer and executor of his vision. He was a skilled and charismatic communicator, but not just a communicator because he did well one-on-one or in an arena, in a debate, or interview, on a podcast, unscripted, scripted…He was an evangelist. An apologist. And as remarkable as those facets seem, I have noticed that those who knew Charlie best, saw him as an encourager.

You and I both know how rare it is to have strategy, administration, charisma, character, humility, etc., all wrapped up in one man.

But as one who has been soaking in Scripture over the summer, preparing to teach Ephesians this year, here is how I see Charlie. Charlie was a Paul–yes, the apostle. So, that’s the perspective I will give and I think it is fair. Charlie was absolutely as much a reformer of the republic as he was a reformer of the pulpit.

Let’s start with things Paul and Charlie knew about people, this may help some of you who are struggling to understand the depravity and shameless rejoicing upon Charlie’s death.

• How can people be so cruel, so vile? So unaware that their response is at minimum unfit to share publicly and unflattering? (And unemployable, I hope.) 

Easy answer. Because people, all of mankind is living in one of two realities, alive in Christ or dead in sin. The indifference you are seeing is because those dead in sin are literally “unresponsive” to any holy inclination or Godly good. It is essentially expecting a corpse to tend others with mercy and kindness. They cannot. Sin has made them unable to receive those impulses or respond to them. Now, Paul and Charlie knew this is a thing to be grieved and should stir our compassion rather than wrath. This fact, rather than repelling, propelled Charlie towards those people…drove him towards the very people who would cheer his death.

• Why? Because they aren’t just dead in sin, they are enslaved and held captive by the deceit and lies of this present age and our ancient enemy. 

There is truly no other way to reconcile the utter blindness that we see. How can people be so totally unaware of the inconsistencies, the hypocrisy, the destruction that these idolatries and ideologies have brought to both country and kin? Bondage. They see only what their captor allows. They hear only what their captor says. Powerless to question, certainly never daring to oppose. But what sets the captive free? Truth. Not tolerance or solidarity. Just truth.

For this reason, like Paul, Charlie would go daily or weekly, hourly depending on his schedule, not to the church but to the secular arenas of learning. And he would persuade. He would reason with them. “If you disagree, prove me wrong…” Friends, do you know how easy and wholly different it is to only speak in front of audiences that love and agree with you? To write only for your readers? It’s a joy, a delight. It is not at all the same as going to the places you are not welcomed, to campuses that have been closed to truth for so long and allowing yourself to be exposed to the questioning and criticism of every dead, enslaved person within earshot.

Charlie didn’t just allow that kind of vulnerability for himself, he welcomed it–along with any best efforts to humiliate, trip-up, or “gotcha” him.

Why would anyone do that? Why would anyone subject themselves to that kind of treatment? Why would anyone burden themselves with bearing the responsibility required for preparation and the accountability for every answer and word given? Do you know how many news outlets and average joes I have witnessed just in the last few days say something stupid only to retract it or remove it? I have never heard that about Charlie Kirk. I have never heard him walk back an answer or sheepishly deny something he has said. I have not seen him abandon any of the things he said as a young man, now a father and husband.

We have become so unwilling to be convicted by truth–God’s truth, that leading lives of deep conviction has become an anomaly. We don’t understand it, but we hate it nonetheless, because it exposes what we lack–courage, conviction, and clarity. Charlie Kirk had all three in spades.

When you know the absolute truth, it is much easier to be absolutely confident in it. That is how you are able to contend for it daily.

The truth didn’t change for Charlie. Not even for the most hostile audience or listener.

He knew what he knew. He knew he was right, because it wasn’t his truth…it was His Truth, and had faith to stand upon it like the rock it is. I heard Charlie in a Q&A tell students, when asked what his calling was, “Fight evil and proclaim the truth.” Zero hesitation, 100% certainty when he said it.

Why is that so significant? Because it frees the captives. Why was he so relentless? Because it revives the dead.

Charlie Kirk’s calling was to love others, to share life-giving truth to as many people as possible, even to those who would hate him for it. His calling was to see souls saved and in so doing, see a nation saved. His calling was to change hearts and minds, to recognize the value of redeeming our lost youth and taking the truth to them. Like Paul–he went, he listened, he responded, he invested, he committed to seeing others mature.

I have googled and searched every inflammatory thing he is accused of saying the last few days. Kirk’s antisemitic! It was a quote. And it’s funny because also,”Kirk is a shill for Israel!” “Stone gays!” Where? When? Transphobic. Homophobic. Mysogenist… Not at all. He wanted dead people to be alive and enslaved people to be free. Hard truths are required for both.

A life spent in service to an Eternal King, not just an earthly president, looks exactly like a life lived so very well.

Well done, young man. Make America Charlie Kirk, indeed.