A Difficult Week…
This has been a difficult week for our nation. The assassination of Charlie Kirk on Wednesday was a devastating loss for Christians. He engaged in open debate on college campuses over the most contested issues of our day. He did so warmly. He did so with a genuine desire to both encourage those who shared his views and to convince, when possible, those who would honestly consider them. He regularly called his listeners to faith in Jesus and to faithful obedience to all God has commanded of us. It is also notable that he was not a right-wing extremist. His views were consistent with what most people have believed for most of history. He was extremely effective in winning the minds of a younger generation. He advocated for marriage, raising children, hard work, and against wickedness in the public and private sphere. He called people to faith in Jesus. He demonstratably enfleshed what he preached, prioritizing his wife and children, worship with his church, and engaging in open and free debate with those who reviled him. His message and example was bearing fruit all over the nation.
It appears that he was gunned down by a young man who was raised in a Christian home by believing parents and who was radicalized after a year in University and online by progressive ideology.
The media and the left are portraying Charlie as a sort of right-wing extremist, a provocateur, a rabble-rousing and hateful man who attacked anyone who disagreed with him. This is false. I've seen Christians implying that he simply got what he asked for. This is wicked. Over the past few days, there have been two fundamental responses from Christians condemning Kirk's assasination and these two responses are instructive as we try to navigate the days we're currently in and, more broadly how the Bible describes the world.
1) There is a deep sickness over our country and it is our polarization. Our rhetoric has grown too fiery. We're not that different from one another, we must simply learn to get along. None of these things are worth dying over.
2) There is a deep sickness over our country and it is progressivism and secularism. Charlie's murder is the result of a courageous and godly man winning the argument with the ideological rejection of God, His Word and Reality. These things are worth living and dying for.
The first response is what the last 60 years and the third-wayism of modern Christianity has taught us to find comfort in. It's highest value is peace and a false sense of unity in our humanity. The second is much closer to how the Bible describes the world. Our polarization is not simply rhetorical, nor is it simply political. It is theological and spiritual to its core. It is a real division as significant as any that can exist. Jesus promised that if we love him and keep his commandments, the world will hate you. They will seek to kill you and they will say they are doing good, even honoring their god. I pray that the rot of Progressivism and its manifestations through trans-ideology, sexual perversion, BLM, Antifa and the rest will be rooted out by our leaders over the coming months and years. But in the meantime we have work to do as a Church. Work that may not seem vital to this division, but again, the Scriptures would tell us otherwise.
We are going to continue to worship together, not only proclaiming the Gospel but celebrating it. We are going to continue to build a vital and faithful church that loves God and His Word. We want to see marriages and families built and filled with vitality and joy. We are going to call one another to love each other faithfully, to return curses with blessings, and to work diligently and skillfully in the vocations God has given us in our city. We will confront the lies of our day with truth. We will call our neighbors to be reconciled to God, inviting them to worship, in warm hospitality and courageous clarity. I pray that in the coming weeks and years we might bear much fruit from this work in our city, state and nation and that we might see in marvelous and incremental ways the promises of God fulfilled here.
Mourning and Rejoicing in Christ,
Brian