Martyrdom and Purpose

Reflecting on the horrific and tumultuous events of the past few days — without question, the assassination of Charlie Kirk was beyond inexcusable… nothing less than pure evil… executed by another human being who was equally created in the image of God, yet deceived, deluded, and oppressed by Satan.

Charlie has become a martyr — something he recognized could come to pass… but for what cause?

In no way do I call into question Charlie’s faith or belief in Jesus as his savior. And at first, hearing many news outlets refer to him solely as a political activist was irritating and somewhat disingenuous. These same news outlets were intentionally deceptive in referring to the inscriptions on the shell-casings as merely “cultural“ despite their overtly political and hateful nature.

But I’ve sought to think through the differentiation between who Charlie was perceived to be and how he presented himself throughout his few short years in comparison and contrast with others whom I would say are well-recognized as Christian apologists. I believe people like William Lane Craig, Frank Turek or Cliff Knechtle fit this latter category very well. They range in style from deeply academic to more Socratic/conversational, but always focused on the message and mission of Christianity — with politics tending to enter the conversation unintentionally if at all. Charlie, however, was much more polemic and heavily political, while expressing and framing his views often within the context of his Christian beliefs.

I believe it is accurate to see Charlie as a Christian who was martyred primarily for his politics. I believe it’s important to recognize this, not for the sake of diminishing the horror of his martyrdom or dismissing his politics out of hand. Rather, we as Christians need to distinguish between his politics and his Christian beliefs. If the enemy of our souls can blind us to this, we can be inclined far too easily to give inherent value to his politics as they were blended into his Christian beliefs. It then becomes far too easy to demonize any political opposition — furthering and deepening the divide within our culture while at the same time obscuring and even corrupting the message of our eternal King and His eternal Kingdom.

May King Jesus and the good news of His Kingdom never be diminished or diluted in our vision and mission… and may we long, as He does, for all to come to repentance and to know His great salvation — including the person who martyred Charlie.