“Their Inward Part is Destruction Itself”

Yesterday afternoon, while preparing to administer a quiz at one of the Tennessee schools where I work, my phone began to buzz incessantly. With a glance at my notifications, I experienced immediate deja vu, remembering all the buzzing that my phone received the evening of July 13, 2024, after President Trump was nearly assassinated at Butler, PA. Charlie Kirk had been shot at a campus event in Utah. Over the next hour, I stole glances at my phone, begging God to speed up the class so I could find out what was going on. 

After the students left, I started to catch up on the details, which at the time indicated that he had been killed. Now that has been confirmed. 

The tears came unexpectedly – something I believe many experienced today. Weeping. Weeping for Charlie, for the United States, for everyone he represents, and most of all, for his beautiful wife and precious children. I’m very close in age to Charlie, my wife is very close to his wife’s age, and we have daughters the same age as his two children. 

It’s impossible not to see yourself in such a horrific event and immediately think of the horror of your sudden, violent death plastered across millions of phone screens. The complete devastation to your family. To have that be the defining moment of their existence. Replayed over, and over, and over, and over.

Of course, the next feeling was absolute wrath. A look over social media indicated I wasn’t alone. To have this on the heels of Iryna Zarutska’s shocking murder on a Charlotte train is akin to throwing gasoline on an already out-of-control brush fire.

Where Are We?

This is supposed to be the part in the piece where I put out a list of tragic events that include every prominent murder or assassination attempt in the last few years, remark on how tragic they are, and then remind everyone not to be anxious and never to do anything mean or violent in response. I could tie in a few Bible verses about revenge, turning the other cheek, and the nature of a fallen world. I could have titled the piece with something like, “Charlie Kirk’s Death Reminds Us We Live in a Broken World.” 

But hopefully you already know you live in a broken world. And hopefully, you know that the only true cure for the brokenness around you is found in the person of Jesus Christ. If you don’t, we have some great pieces on that subject. But this one is meant for those who already understand that truth. 

We need to be clear on exactly where we are. Where we stand. What’s up ahead on the road we’re on? The assassination of Charlie Kirk brings clarity to the reality of being a simple, biblically minded Christian who understands that Christianity is not a leftist cult. Charlie is a stand-in for us. We are Charlie. We are hated to that degree. There are those who want us dead, to that degree. Iryna Zarutska reminds us that at the same time, we are also surrounded by evil, degenerated, demonically influenced criminals and thugs, those referred to in the Scripture as “useless fellows.”

It’s impossible not to feel a bit desperate.

Inconvenient Bible Passages

While the “broken world” passages are certainly relevant today, so are the imprecatory Psalms. These frequent contributions across the book of Psalms cause frequent confusion and overcontextualization in many churches and Bible studies, but yesterday’s events help the passages speak for themselves:

O Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes;

Make Your way straight before me.

There is nothing reliable in what they say;

Their inward part is destruction itself.

Their throat is an open grave;

They flatter with their tongue.

Hold them guilty, O God;

By their own devices let them fall!

In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out,

For they are rebellious against You.

– Psalm 5:8-10

When I was a younger man, I tended to skim over imprecatory Psalms because I felt like I couldn’t identify with them. After all, I didn’t have any real “enemies” in 2009. The secular college students around me were just “misinformed.” If anything, I internally felt like they didn’t quite fit with the rest of the Bible. 

But God has a way of orchestrating things so that His Word makes perfect sense.

Actual, Biblical Justice

Christians who opposed the tyrannical, senseless COVID-19 policies forced upon them were incessantly scolded that they were “violating Romans 13,” despite the frequent, careful, prudential, exegetical arguments made to the contrary. In light of the horrific violence gripping our nation, that passage will be utterly forgotten in favor of “we war not against flesh and blood.” 

Leaving aside proper exegesis of applying “we war not against flesh and blood” to the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk, a focus on Romans 13 is prudent:

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

–Romans 13:3-4

For too long, American Christians have been presented with this passage as if it only applies in one direction. Political power and authority are deemed as “outside the bounds” of Christian faith, and the best we can hope for is to just “get lucky” with righteous leaders. But Romans 13 presents two charges: one for the governed, and one for the governors. Christians who protest their own slaughter, whether simply for having the wrong skin color, believing there are only two genders, or living an open, evangelistic faith, do no wrong. Actually, they are on the side of true biblical teaching, ethics, and morality. 

Romans 13 belongs to real Christians living in a real world, applying real principles of the Book they use as a guide for all of life and faith. If there was ever a time to call leaders to live up to its standard, that time is now.

An Epitaph for Charlie

I watched TPUSA’s growth over the 10 years I was in college. Charlie Kirk was doing on a grander scale what my brother and I were doing locally on our regional college campuses. We would set up tables in the “free speech zones” to share the gospel, host apologetics-focused Q&A events, and organize formal debates with the Secular Student Alliance. From 2007 to 2013, we organized events with cooperation and goodwill. 

Around 2014, everything seemed to change. Nobody would come to campus to speak. The Christians on campus who hadn’t already apostatized were unwilling to talk about their faith openly, and we mostly stopped planning any large-scale events. We moved on to other areas of ministry. But Charlie Kirk never stopped, despite the heightened hostility. 

I would have considered Charlie Kirk to be to the left of me, advocating for a “neutral public space” that I gave up on over a decade ago. But over the last couple of years, I paid much closer attention to what he and TPUSA were doing. The whole organization seemed to be filling needs that no one else was. Most importantly, Charlie was taking on the role of an evangelist. When asked what people “should do,” he’d retort: turn to Jesus.  

And many have. Thousands. At least tens of thousands. Maybe hundreds. Possibly millions. Although he would engage with leftists on college campuses, his organization has been reaching many within right-wing circles, encouraging them, above all else, to seek Christ. 

I came to believe in Charlie and his vision to the point of applying for a job with TPUSA a few months ago. I started listening to him whenever he’d speak. His recent interview with Tucker Carlson, I believe, is one of the most important, vital conversations I’ve heard in my life. 

Charlie came to represent an entire generation of young people who wanted to follow Christ, live peaceful and virtuous lives, and be salt and light in their communities and country. 

And he’s been martyred for it. 

May God administer justice to the praise of His wondrous mercy, grace, and judgment.