On September 10th, 2025, Christians around the world were shocked to hear of the death of a fellow brother in Christ, Charlie Kirk. At only thirty-one years old, he did something that very few Christians do: He traveled the United States and the world, sharing the gospel and promoting Christian conservatism everywhere he went.
Many Christians have experienced a healthy dose of righteous indignation. This is not sinful, but is a proper emotion to feel over the martyrdom of a brother in Christ. And, make no mistake about it: Charlie Kirk was martyred for his faith in Christ.
Over the past several decades, the Left has busied itself with an anti-Christological agenda. It has politicized education and co-opted institutions with the goal of radicalizing young people against Christ, His Church, and His Word. This is what made Charlie Kirk so dangerous to their agenda; indeed, this is what makes logical, reasonable, and articulate Christians dangerous to their agenda.
What Charlie Kirk taught us is that being able to explain and defend the truth logically is a much more powerful weapon than we often imagine these days. Rather than despairing over the increase of wickedness, Christians must instead channel that righteous indignation in the right way. We must behave as Christ calls us to, and not as the world models. We must continually seek the face of God and His perfect ways as revealed in His Word and through Christ, our Savior.
Nonetheless, we are forced to ask the question: What does the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk mean for us? What do we do and where do we go from here?
Specifically, we must pray imprecatory Psalms, like Psalm 3 or Psalm 58. This is not the time to be offended by the justice of God, but we must instead embrace God’s justice as good, holy, righteous, and praiseworthy.
We must also trust that God will bring an end to the violence and sinfulness of this present age. In fact, as we pray for God to bring an end to evil and wickedness, we must trust with unwavering faith that God will bring an end to the wicked, either by saving the sinner and transforming the enemy of Christ into a child of God or by bringing them into a decisive judgment. Whether God therefore saves the sinner or vanquishes the sinner, we pray that He will enter into judgment with them and bring their sin to an end. We must then rejoice as God sovereignly accomplishes His will.
We need to know what God’s Word says if we’re going to live lives that are pleasing to God and conducive to peace and prosperity. The Great Commission calls us to teach others to observe all that Christ has commanded in His Word (Matt. 28:18-20). This absolutely requires us to study and know the Word of God.
Imagine an algebraic teacher entering the classroom and never having once studied an equation. How will they teach? Or picture a literature professor standing before his class, but never having read a single book on his course syllabus. It would be every bit as absurd for a Christian to try and teach others what they themselves do not know.
It has been said that the seed of the Church is the blood of the martyrs. Why were martyrs willing to die for their faith? Because they knew what the Bible said, and they believed it. They still do, now as they rest in Christ’s presence. We honor their earthly legacy when we do the same.
Biblical masculinity includes both physical and spiritual fitness. This means that Christian husbands and fathers must ask the following two questions: 1. Can we reasonably defend our families against the lies of the world, the spiritual darkness that surrounds us, and the lies propagated by peddlers of false gospels and doctrines? 2. Could we reasonably act to defend our families in the case of some sort of assault or another, or are we physically lazy, flabby and unfit?
Paul told Timothy, in 1 Timothy 4:7-10, that we are to, “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.”
Think of it in this way: A man is to lead, provide, protect, and defend. Some may believe chivalry is dead, but God still commands it in His Word. As we look to recent tragedies, like the senseless murder of the twenty-three-year-old Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, we find that most men did not act or move as this young girl sobbed and bled to death. Why? Because we have failed to train up men to protect our womenfolk. But a man’s duty is to do exactly that.
Erika Kirk, the wife of Charlie Kirk, shared on Friday, September 12th, that one of her and Charlie’s favorite Bible verses is Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” This is, again, a man’s duty: He is to love, defend, protect, and fight for his family.
So, we must know the Word so that we can lead our wives and teach our children. We must be able to defend them against the spiritual darkness in the world. But we should also be ready and able, before age or infirmity overtake us, to physically defend them against evil people with wicked intentions. We need to protect them. In America and other jurisdictions where the right of self-defense with a firearm remains in place, this may mean taking a gun safety training class, purchasing a weapon, and knowing how to use it to defend others. In other contexts, it may mean working out, staying fit by engaging in sports, doing a self-defense class, or jogging to maintain cardio fitness.
They must submit to their husbands in terms of the Word of God, raise their children well, and adorn themselves with the fruit of the gospel. This does not mean, in any way, that women are ontologically inferior to men. It does, however, mean that women are different than men. Women are not called upon to defend and protect their husbands, but to respect their husbands and support them in their God-given calling.
When this is done well, a woman is praised for her godliness and her husband’s accomplishments, not just her achievements, which become her own. Case in point: Erika Kirk shares in all the accomplishments that Charlie Kirk enjoyed for the Kingdom of God on earth. Every godly wife shares in her husband’s accomplishments because she is his helpmeet. It’s true, what they say: Behind every great man is a great woman.
One thing that Charlie Kirk did so well was implore young people to get married and have families. He placed more of an emphasis on this than on voting and getting politically involved. He recognized, of course, that the ones who will leave the greatest impact on society and culture will be those who take godly dominion of the earth through building families and training up their children in God’s Word.
Having a family is a good and joyful thing that honors and glorifies God. Ultimately, getting married and having a family serves to fulfill God’s great Dominion Mandate. Genesis 1:27-28 spells this out for us:
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
In order to see God’s Law again become the standard of morality across the West, we need to see hearts changed through the gospel. Apart from this, man’s heart is filled with sin, and he lives a transgressive life in the grip of meaninglessness and futility. As Romans 1:18-23 states, man knows that the Triune God exists, but he rejects this truth in favor of the lie that he is autonomous. He invents gods to suit his own passions.
The reality is that the two paths before us are only ever Christ or chaos. We will either have autonomy or theonomy. And, the problem with man’s autonomy is that it always leads to tyranny. This tyranny will lead to governmental overreach, violence against Christians, and a rejection of objective truth. Ultimately, it will lead to the total degradation of Western Civilization. As Jesus said in Luke 6:47-49:
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.
A solid foundation for our nation is impossible apart from God’s Word. This necessitates our engaging the public with the Word. We need to engage the culture with the Word of God. We need to get involved at the local level in politics with the Word. We need to get involved at the state level with the Word. Our emphasis must unashamedly and unabashedly be the Word.
Education has been politicized. Institutions have become corrupted by an anti-Christological agenda. Kids go to public schools or colleges and get indoctrinated against Christ and His Word. They are radicalized against the truth. The only remedy is to recognize the value of teaching our young people—all people, actually—the value of critical thinking and the art of rhetoric.
This means we must be apologists for God’s Word. Even a basic level understanding of Scripture and theology will serve the Christian incredibly well in this age. It will act as an incredibly powerful weapon to tear down the strongholds of opposition to Christ (2 Cor. 10:3-5). As we do this, we must use the Word of God to promote the love of God, the recovery of the family, and the local church.
God has equipped the church to storm the gates of Hell. It’s not enough to simply have a piece of paper that says we’re members of a church. Many nonbelievers have done this, and it’s amounted to recyclable waste and little else. It’s not enough to just come for Sunday morning worship to check to box; previous generations have done this, and now we have a mess on our hands.
We need to be all in on the local church in service to Christ, our King. Anything less is unacceptable. The local assembly of the saints is where we receive the means of grace to strengthen and encourage us in our Christian walk. Likewise, we are far more effective together than we are apart.
We Christians are not violent revolutionaries. Diabolical leftists and antichrists will physically assault and even martyr Christians because they know they cannot give an answer or rebuttal to the claims of Christ, which we herald in the Word. But we are not violent. We have the truth on our side, so we can be peaceful and calm. We have Christ on our side, so we must herald His Kingship everywhere. We must be patient in our task before us.
Jesus promised us, in Matthew 16:24-27, that there will be a rich reward for those of us who patiently follow Him in the work of biblical reformation:
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
This is not done as the world wages war, but as Christ has taught us to do so in His Word. We have our marching orders in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5:
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
We honor our brothers and sisters in Christ, who have been martyred for their faith, when we storm the gates of Hell and tear down these strongholds raised against the knowledge of God. We honor them when we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Several years ago, we planted Christ Keystone Church. From its inception, our task has been to “Reform the Church, Rebuild Biblical Community, and Reclaim Culture for Christ.” I believe this summarizes the work that all of us have been called to.
Charlie Kirk has been martyred. He has been called to be with Christ. He ran his race well; he kept the faith. We who are righteously indignant, who are still on this earth, have a job to do.
Let’s channel this righteous indignation to serve God and honor the legacy of martyrs. And, let us offer praise to the Lord for our God is with us, and He equips us for the work ahead. The same Jesus who has been given all authority in Heaven and on earth is the same Jesus who promised, “Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”
