By Kohl Jackson
Image credit: Flickr Gage Skidmore CCLicense2.0
Amidst the chaos and confusion over the assassination of Charlie Kirk, God’s light is shining through the darkness.
Charlie Kirk was a political activist, author, father and outspoken man of faith. As a result of being well known by many for his media personality, multiple videos and quotes of Kirk have resurfaced during the public’s reaction to his death. A prominent theme now stands out among the seemingly endless amount of content he produced- his faith in Jesus.
Just four days prior to his death Kirk tweeted: “Jesus defeated death so you can live.”
This post is circulating throughout social media and has received over 25 million views on X.com alone. Kirk’s tweet is just one of many instances where he was found proclaiming the gospel throughout his lifetime.
The abundance of exposure to Christ through the words of Kirk has led to many instances of newfound faith since the day of his death.
His wife, Erika Kirk gave a speech regarding his death on the Charlie Kirk YouTube channel just a few short days after his death. Under the comment section of this video you may find many people sharing their personal testimonies of how Kirk’s words brought them to Jesus.
Some examples include people who are new to faith.
“Over the past 24 hours, I have researched the things Charlie Kirk has said, and I want you to know, I have committed my life to Christ because of your husband. I don’t have any words that could comfort you beyond that, but I hope I did,” user @officialjunot commented.
Other examples are of those who have returned to their faith.
“Born Christian, turned Atheist around 10 years ago. For the first time in that long I prayed for your husband, for you and your children. I’m going to church soon to get back in touch with our father. Charlie’s offered me another chance to renew my faith. I’ll be there on Sunday,” user @gollem148 commented.
Former president of the Shawnee Turning Point chapter Sara Chavez-Rice gave her perspective on the recent events.
“I definitely see more of a fire in Christians. A lot of what I’ve seen is people starting to wake up and come from a lukewarm background and be more on fire for Jesus,” she said.
She added that she has witnessed this in her friendships as well.
“In my personal life, the death has reconnected me with this one girl from my old school who came from a lot of different ideologies,” she said. “Through Charlie Kirk we were able to reconnect.”
During times of violence and division, we may ask ourselves where God can be found in it all. How could a good God allow such evil to transpire?
Assistant Professor of Religion Dr. Paul Sanchez gave his response to this question in regards to the larger scope of tragic events.
“In terms of God’s allowance what I could say is, more broadly, more generically, why God does so many things- sometimes it is kind of a wake up moment. Sometimes it has the potential to lead to closer inspection of oneself and trying to make sense out of a world that seems to be spinning out of control,” he said.
“There is a sense in which a lot of times these cultural events- they do cause us, both individually but also as a people, to step back and think long and hard about the direction of our country. The way we treat other people. The way we potentially demonize other people and effects of that. Murder, in this sense.”
While we may not fully understand the divine plan that our Creator had in allowing the death of Charlie Kirk, one thing is certain- God is being glorified through it all. The good news of Christ’s death has been shared with millions because a man was open to express his faith to anybody, whether they opposed his political views or not.
We must stand together on a human level and recognize that we were not created to live in a divided society. In a country where all sides appear polarized, it is important to recognize that we are all created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).
Charlie Kirk’s funeral was held on September 21st in State Farm stadium with over 90,000 people in attendance, not including those outside of the stadium according to NBC News.
