No one knows the future. Sure, we can make educated guesses; we can read the signs of the times and even get close to seeming clairvoyant or prophetic at times, but no one can determine infallibly what will happen tomorrow. God alone has this power, and he has simply not given this ability to us.
Regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10th, 2025, this was an event that no one knew was going to happen. There was certainly always the possibility given the nature of his vocation and the volatility of those on the left, but alas, this was not something that could have been predicted. I say this all for a purpose: we must learn to trust God and his providential movements and his sovereignty.
God’s Sovereignty
While all of us mere mortals were unaware of the shooter (or shooters) plans, his position, his intention, his flight to the roof, his escape plan and his crosshairs, God was not aloof; he was not unaware, uncertain. God was not only not aloof, but he knew every jot and tittle of this event; likewise he decreed this event before time began.
“God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.”
Westminster Confession of Faith 3.1
When events such as this, or the murder of Iryna Zarutska take place, we should never imagine that God had momentarily ceased watching the CCTV feed and made a boo boo. He wasn’t taking some time on the toilet—like the prophets of Baal. God was working in these events for his own glory and for the good of his people; for the building of the church; for the growth of his Kingdom.
“God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the First Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, he ordereth them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.”
Westminster Confession of Faith 4.1-2
This kind of perspective doesn’t require you to squint and tilt your head—but instead it requires a heart that trusts in God and believes that all that he does is right and good, which it is. It requires that we recognize that we are but children, he is our father, and that we have no other. It requires that we trust that he will always meet out justice, recompense, and retribution to evildoers when, where, and how he pleases, and with his ordained means, and that we are to hide under the shelter of his wings till then.
The Comfort of That Sovereignty
The first thing to recognize is that no man is sufficient to handle the difficulties of this life (2 Corinthians 2:16). The secular world attempts to make itself sufficient—with its psychology, riches, self-esteem, and pomp it tries to make itself adequate for all the challenges one could face. But alas, this is a smokescreen, a ruse, an ignorant fog. Without Christ they are nothing more than a leaky ship adrift on turbulent waters. They bale water to their own demise. They have no grounding, no base, no foundation upon which to formulate conviction and so their minds are a feather in the wind—blown about by every new idea.
The Christian, however, knows this challenge and he therefore puts all his faith in the Lord; establishes his entire worldview, opinions, beliefs, direction, etc. upon God’s unchanging word; recognizes Christ’s teaching as a rock that can support one’s entire life without hypocrisy.
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.”
Because God is sovereign he has already decreed his own victory. Because God is sovereign he has already decreed the church to overcome the world. Because God is sovereign he has already ordained the crushing of Satan’s head. Because God is sovereign he has already declared the ends from the beginning. Because God is sovereign all evils in this world are not meaningless. Because God is sovereign all things work together for good for those who love God. Because God is sovereign all the evil that men devise is used by God for good.
Without God being sovereign we would be hopeless, because we would be at the wretched whim of mindless, directionless, and purposeless evil. But knowing that God is the unmoved mover, the First Cause, and the determiner of all events, we can have confident assurance (faith) that even in the face of unthinkable evil, and a seeming setback, God is still building his kingdom and Christ is still on his throne.
Make No Mistake
Charlie Kirk was assassinated because he is a Christian—a lover of Jesus Christ. And I use the present tense verb because he is still alive. God is the God of the living, and now Charlie Kirk is more alive than he has ever been, and he now knows more about God than any theologian could hope to know in this life.
But make no mistake, whether you sit in high places as he did, or you are a nobody like me, the evil forces of this world seek to destroy you just as they did him. If you believe in Christ, fight for his Kingdom, share the glorious message of his atonement, want to see the whole world bend the knee to Christ, then the evil in this world wants your dead. But this should not frighten you—on the contrary it ought to embolden you! For in this desire, they actually fear you; they fear the light; the fear the aroma of Christ that emanates from you; they fear your salt stinging their eyes, and they seek—by whatever measure—to stop you…but they cannot.
“Then [the apostles] left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name [of Christ]”
The evil of this world is, in our time, is acting as a dog in a cage, and eventually it will have no choice but to defecate in the corner. The Church of Christ gains ground and they now live in terror. Their idols are being demolished by virtue of the hearts across our nation waking to the knowledge of God and his Christ, and they fear his scepter of righteousness. They fear his scorn, his anger, his wrath, and they know that you, dear Christian, bear his name on your lips. With that name comes authority. Not the authority of man, but the authority of the one true living God.
Charlie Kirk was an ambassador of Christ, and he was influencing thousands, if not millions, of young minds to think biblically; to see how Christ is the ruler of this nation; to understand life according to God’s word; to see the objective beauty in marriage, monogamy, children, life, hard work, and the church; to see the disgusting nature of the LGBTQ movement, the absence of law, illegal immigration, wokism, and islam, and finally judaism.
He wasn’t murdered by a crazed lunatic, he was murdered by someone or some group that hates good and loves evil; a person or group that loves the devil and hates God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
So, be on guard, for your adversary, the Devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, but you can resist him by faith in Christ (1 Peter 5:8-9). For your faith in Christ has overcome the world (1 John 5:4-5) and nothing is more powerful than that. Not Marxism, not wokism, not islamism, and not the jew-cult. Nothing.
Final Exhortation
Do not fear those who can only kill the body, for God can and will resurrect your body, glorify it, and give it back to you, and give you an eternal dwelling with himself. Instead, fear him alone who can kill both body and soul in hell, and devote your life to him because he loves you and even knows all the hairs on your head (Matthew 10:28-29).
Be bold, therefore, for the sake of your Lord who was bold and courageous for you. He set his face like flint toward what he knew would be his death, and he has given you his Spirit so that you would be just as courageous.
Kirk, just as Paul was, and just as all male pastors should be, was given by God to be an example to follow insofar as he followed Christ. We ought to look to his courage and feel our spine stiffen; we ought to hear his speech and learn wisdom; we ought to hear how he spoke truth in love and emulate that.
We all have a day of death ahead of us. How and when that happens no one knows, but what we do know is that we have been given today—this moment. The murder of Charlie Kirk was meant to scare you into inaction; it was meant to frighten you into a corner; it was intended to make you rethink and regret your efforts of Gospel proclamation. But we know that this is the gasp of a floundering serpent destined to be crushed under your very feet (Romans 16:20).
Because Christ defeated death by death, the death of Charlie Kirk is not unlike the death of all martyrs—it will only grow the church. If we do not shrink, then Kirk’s death will only cause the church to hit hell’s gates even harder. So, I exhort you dear brother, I encourage you dear sister, I stir you little children, you’re Lord calls you to battle in his army for an assured victory! March on and be not afraid, for Christ, your King, is with you!
Very epic
You'll need to define martyr. I have, “a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty for declaring belief in and refusing to renounce a religion”
As such, I don't think that was the motive of the shooter. He was assassinated for his beliefs, but there is no direct evidence that he died defending the name of Jesus. Maybe I'm wrong, I just took a quick look at Claude.
I always thought a martyr was a person who does specifically for the sake of the gospel of Christ.