The Death of Charlie Kirk | How Should Christians Respond in a Time of Darkness?
The assassination of Charlie Kirk and the murder of a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte have shaken many, raising urgent questions about truth, persecution, and the Christian response to growing hostility. In this episode, we reflect on Charlie Kirk’s legacy of respectful dialogue, the cost of speaking truth in today’s world, and the wisdom Scripture offers in times of grief and confusion.
Jesus warned that persecution would come—and history confirms it. Yet even in the face of evil, God remains sovereign. We’ll explore what it means to stand firm with conviction, to defend the vulnerable with grace, and to fix our eyes on eternity rather than fear. Turn off the noise, open God’s Word, and rediscover the peace that only Christ can provide.
Psalm 5
View Transcript – Death of Charlie Kirk | How Should Christians Respond in a Time of Darkness?
Brody
Hey, we’re going to talk for a few minutes this morning about recent events and specifically about the assassination and murder of Charlie Kirk and this coming on the heels of the brutal murder of an innocent young lady, the Ukrainian young lady who was murdered on a city transit in Charlotte and before we get into this, I just want to say the one thing that has come out in the last few days, I wasn’t super familiar with Charlie Kirk, I had watched sound bites and clips, but I never really followed turning point in depth, but I just knew I resonated with him, when I would hear him talk, I would think, this guy makes a lot of makes a lot of sense, especially be such a young dude, but I have listened to more of him in the last 48 hours than I ever had.
JB
I think that’s the case for many.
Brody
Most people. Yeah and what I’ve what has been shocking to me is how open he was to discourse, public dialog and he would always operate in the public square, talking to tuck last night and tuck said, he’s slated to come to Virginia Tech in two weeks and do and he was going to be at tech, but he would go into the public square and he would have open discourse with people that disagreed with him and if the crowd was predominantly conservative or, from his viewpoint, he would tell the crowd, please be quiet and let this be respectful, let this person talk and so, I appreciate that approach that he took and I don’t think anybody can say that he was guilty of hate speech, or creating arguments or fights just for the sake of, he was a person who was interested in free speech and discourse and sitting down with people that he had opposing views with and talking through things.
JB
Yeah, and he was so good at articulating, and you said, it just made so much sense when you listened to him, and one thing that I really appreciated about him was he fought for the truth, and ultimately, we talked about this later in the episode, but that’s what killed him.
Brody
Yep, it killed him.
JB
We always say here at Snowbird, the most loving thing. I think Brody says this a lot. The most loving thing you can do for a person is share the truth with them. So, we’re, talking that’s something that we can definitely take away from all of this, is just his way to discuss peaceably with people of such differing opinions, the way he just was able to respect their thoughts, but also share their truth with them.
Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, a podcast about the bible culture and stories from around the globe.
Brody
I want us to talk about just, the state of what’s going on right now. This past week, there was the murder of a Ukrainian refugee, it didn’t happen this past week, but it became headline news this past week, because it seems like when it happened a few weeks ago, it then was just, swept under the rug, it happened in the city of Charlotte, which is here in our state, which is not known as, a crazy place of crime, it’s not Chicago, it’s not Las Vegas, but Little and I’ve been talking about this, we already feeling the stress and strain of that situation and then, the incident with Charlie Kirk happened and in my life, I’ve lived through a few monumental things historically, I remember when I was a kid, people talk about, they remember where they were when Kennedy got shot, or the older people when I was a child, remembered Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 when America got attacked by the Japanese Empire and then, I remember the first thing I remember as a kid was when I was in fourth grade, the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. I can remember getting on the school bus and something I remember vividly from that. I remember getting on the school bus and kids saying, if the guy killed Reagan, if Reagan dies.
They should give this guy an award and instantly there was this, let’s celebrate this person because of what he’s done to the person that we oppose politically and when this stuff happened this past week, a couple days ago with Charlie Kirk, it was like instantly people were saying similar stuff and so, you realize it’s not just that we live in a world of darkness, it’s just chaotic, it’s dark, it’s chaotic and so, I want you to, lead this conversation JB, but I want to say this first, to set it up, Jesus gave instruction in Mark 13, in Matthew 24 Jesus gave instruction on what’s called the Olivet Discourse and in that instruction a lot of people take those two passages and they think that those two passages apply to the end times. I don’t hold to that. I believe there are aspects of those passages that are pointing to end times and there are aspects of those passages that are pointing to things that would happen in the time of Christ and what he promised is, he said, this generation is not going to pass until there’s conflict, rumors of war, wars, catastrophe, people are going to rise up against each other and he paints this picture of great persecution against the church of Jesus and from the time of Christ until today.
There’s always been persecution against Christians and when you speak out for truth, there’s going to be persecution for that and so, we shouldn’t be surprised when things like this happen, it’s, still shocking, but we live in a world where the truth will always be under attack and I think I was talking to Austin yesterday, what’s hard to process and what’s disorienting is when you have professing Christians speaking out, saying things, well, you got what he asked for this or didn’t ask for this, not asked to be murdered and in the public square, that’s crazy, it’s asinine, it’s like you don’t have to agree with this guy on all of his viewpoints, but he loved the Lord, I believe and made a very clear and articulate expression of his faith in Jesus and he got killed for it. Ultimately, that’s why he died I think and so, we just take a few minutes here and give thoughts answer questions that I think from your generation. I’d like to hear it from your perspective and I’ll do my best to, shed light on questions that you think might be asked.
JB
Yeah, I just also want to clarify and you did a great job, I don’t want this episode to just dwell on the evil and the horrible things that have happened this week and that’s, what started this conversation as I’ve been just praying through this and working through it. I’ve just, been, I guess, in the mindset of, now that this has happened, what can we focus on and what should this encourage us to focus on and yes, obviously, still mourning and grieving the loss, so much has happened in the past couple of weeks that have just been horrific and terrible, but I think the biggest thing step number one, I think for me, when all this happened, I think I spent, an hour and a half just, scrolling and searching and trying to figure out what happened is he okay, is he going to make it, do they have the guy and whatever and then, immediately following that, I just remember being, why did this happen, why did this happen and just, started to go down a path of, I don’t understand I know that God is sovereign, but why would this happen and I think that’s very easy to fall into those questions, if anything tragic happens on a public stage or in a in your personal life, whatever and I think that just reminded me, I need to get in scripture. I need to get off social media and I think that would be helpful for so many people, because so many people just have so many strong opinions and even like you were saying, I’ve seen a lot of people start to make mockery of his death, of how things should be handled, whatever and I think that is not helping, if I’m honest and so, I would just encourage those who are listening, get in scripture, probably for that first day after Charlie’s death was announced, I was just feeling, blah, it was just super weird. I went to a Braves game with my parents and was just,
sitting there and was, what is going on and it wasn’t until later that evening that I, got in scripture and journaled and prayed and then, that’s, where all of these things, the Lord placed on my heart and we’ll get into that, but I just, wanted to open with that of with that of, take a second and get off social media and stop watching videos and stop, ugh, it’s not helping, but, what I mentioned earlier is, what we can focus on, like I said, I don’t just want to dwell on this evil that has happened and you said, I think for me, this was eye opening of, evil is in the world, it always has been in the world and so, when you ask yourself that question, why did this happen or maybe, why did God allow this to happen? I quickly was humbled and was, I don’t have an answer and I never will have an answer, besides, we live in a fallen world and it’s riddled with sin and that is why evil things happen and so, I’ve just been praying and journaling through, what we should be focusing on and what we can be focusing on and ultimately, I want this episode to be a bit of an encouragement and weirdly enough, in this time of grief and craziness and sadness, I have felt this pocket of peace and pocket of encouragement and so, that’s, what I’m going to go through. I feel like I’m just talking in circles, but one of the main things that I first jotted down, I have a few bullet points of what we can focus on.
The first one is eternity. I think I mentioned this on an episode a few months ago. I had a conversation with my brother in law a while back about just, secular beliefs, or maybe what different political parties believe and so crazy that they’re just so passionate about, you’re right, I’m wrong, whatever and he said, for those who don’t know Christ, this is their eternity, this world is all that they have. So, of course, they’re going to fight so hard to make this amendment or to make this law or whatever and they’re going to fight so hard to make sure their point is “correct” and I think that is, super eye opening for me as well. Is, as believers, we know we don’t belong here, we know that this isn’t it. This isn’t all we have been promised and if anything, everything that’s happened should just make us like long for eternity, for home and I also think that’s, it makes me sad, that people who don’t know Christ are so hopeless that they feel the need to rationalize with these horrific actions of violence and so, I think that as believers, we can truly just reflect and thank the Lord, this isn’t our home and we have so much more, to look for and long for and then, that also, leads me into God’s sovereignty, like I said, when this first happened, I was praying through I was, Lord, I know that you’re sovereign and I trust that you’re sovereign, but, it’s just so hard sometimes to wrap your mind around that.
So, even just praying through that and even looking back in Old Testament and all throughout scripture, like you said, there’s always been evil in the world and God has remained Lord and king and victorious and scripture is so clear that, the world hates God, the world hates truth, John 15:18, maybe says, if the world persecuted me, it will persecute you. If the world hated me, just know, or if the world hates you, just know it hated me first and so, just, looking back at those all throughout scripture of, this is not the first time something like this has happened and it’s not the last time, unfortunately and just really relying and trusting and sitting in the fact that, through all of this, the Lord is sovereign and will continue to be sovereign and then, also, for some reason, Luke 23 where Jesus is on the cross and he says, Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’ve done. I don’t know why that verse has just been in my head. By no means am I trying to, take scripture and morph it and apply it to a situation that doesn’t apply, but I think for me, that verse has just been like in the moment that Christ died and there was so much arguing and so, much disunity and in that moment, he was still so graceful and merciful and in a weird way, that gives me so much encouragement and obviously, as a believer, we should strive and desire.
To look more like Christ and to act more like Christ and I think in that moment, I don’t know, it just gives me so much encouragement of like he did not step back, he was not defeated, he wasn’t passive, but he was still so merciful and so, gracious and so, loving towards people that were so corrupt and stuff and so, I think I don’t know why, other than the fact that the Lord placed that in my mind and in my heart. So, even though, I just see so much arguing and stuff on social media, which I agree, we do not need to be passive, but also, he was so graceful, gracious and caring and compassionate in the most heated time and so, I think that’s just, encouraging to me. One, for me to look to and try to replicate, but two, also, so encouraging that we serve the God who is so strong victorious, but also so kind and compassionate and gracious and so, that, just wraps up, overall, just reflecting on Christ and the personhood of Christ, the life, death and resurrection of Christ and I know that’s like a lot of times, I can almost try to look past that and be, No, what’s the deeper, I need something deeper, no, that’s it. That is, it, Christ was persecuted, Christ was killed and Christ rose, he’s victorious and because of that, as believers, we’re victorious, we can live and walk in that.
Brody
I think it’s that’s all good. A couple of thoughts. One, the writer of Ecclesiastes says that there’s a time for everything, a time and a season for everything and he says there’s a time for war and there’s a time for peace and as believers there are times where we’re called to fight or to defend the weak, or to fight against evil. I believe in history, there are times where Christians can agree that fighting was the right thing to do now, there’s going to be disagreements on when and what that looks like. If you take someone who’s a pacifist, they’re going to say we should never fight, we should just trust God and then, you take someone who’s a Christian nationalist, they’re going to say we should take up arms and create a Christian state, that’s a generalization of what Christian nationalism is. That’s not fair to say that’s what Christian nationalists believe, but an extreme view of that, where we see Christianity as this sort of militant march, which is what happened under the latter part of the Roman Empire, where it became governmentally controlled Christianity, we’re all going to be Christian and that doesn’t seem biblical. Pacifism doesn’t seem biblical and it all comes down to that verse in Ecclesiastes that says there’s a time to fight and there’s a time for peace. Jesus gives us some context to it, he says in John 14.
Let not your hearts be troubled. So, in a time like this, Jesus would say to us, don’t let your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid because, in my father’s house, there’s security. That’s not the word he uses, but he’s saying, there’s a place where this doesn’t happen and I go to prepare a place for you there and you’re going to come to me there. I’m going to go, before you prepare this place you’re going to come. Charlie Kirk has entered into that. I texted all the men in my family are in a text thread, a text group and I love those guys, they’re, some knuckle dragon, good old boys and they’re ready to take up arms and let’s go and I love it. I don’t want them to not be like that’s how they are, but and they’re patriots and I texted them the other day and I said, I’m bummed by this, but I believe Charlie Kirk was a believer, which is a conversation for maybe another time, but I believe he made it clear that he embraced and accepted the gospel and I’ve heard him give his testimony and his account and I texted all the guys in my family in that thread and said, this is hard and I hate it, but he’s entered his reward, he’s entered his rest, he’s received his reward, he has now received the reward of his suffering and he’s gone to a place that will one day go I think the lesson we learn is wake up every morning prepared to die.
You don’t know what’s going to be your last day and every single day I want to wake up put on the whole armor of God, live my life wearing the breastplate of righteousness, carrying the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, get up every day, drench your mind in scripture, drench your heart in the grace of the Lord, embrace the responsibility of the gospel and go live it out and know this might be your last day and I don’t want to die on a day where I’m not doing that and so, he I think that’s a perspective we can take from this and we can thank him for that, he exampled for us how to die well, because we’re all going to die. I want to die well. I want to finish my race with my hand gripping the plow, my other hand gripping the sword and that’s the way I want to go see Jesus and so, there’s a time for war, there’s a time for peace, right now, it’s probably not the time for war, but it’s also, back to what you said when Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them. I think there is a time where Jesus would say, when someone persecutes you, embrace that persecution and we may be seeing a shift in our culture where, as Christians, we’re going to see an increase in persecution that may happen and I would just say to folks that lean more aggressively towards a nationalistic idea of Christianity, I would say this, that throughout history, if you take every century in 21 centuries of Christianity, 20 plus centuries of Christianity.
The majority of the church has faced persecution for their faith, of the 12 apostles of Christ, take Judas out. The other 11 were all persecuted. At least 10 of them died for their faith. John was imprisoned. There was great persecution in the church then, there’s great persecution in the church today and the other thing I would say is the capital C Church is not just the American church, it’s the African Church, the Asian Church, the South American Church and when you take the global church of Jesus, the amount of persecution is great, Christians are persecuted and so, we wake up each day knowing I need to put on the armor of God and be ready to proclaim the truth and love my enemy and do good to those that persecute me and have the mindset of Christ in that and when there is a time to fight, whether that’s through legislation or to defend the weak, I would say, when someone says, well, when should you fight? Well, I’ll give you a working example, people have often asked at Snowbird why we take security to the extreme? We take it because we have a very aggressive security protocol for our worship services. A lot of churches have some guys carrying pistols that are, walking around, we have the most aggressive security protocol I’ve ever seen, we have multiple long guns.
Around the building, we have a gated security checkpoint people have to come through, within the building when we’re having a worship service, we have multiple long guns and strategic positions and we have anywhere from six to 10 people carrying handguns placed throughout the building and we have a plan for how we’re going to react and we drill it and we train it and we practice it, we have a protocol. So, there is a time to fight and I will tell you this, if you attend an event at Snowboard Wilderness Outfitters as a student, I would say this to parents, we will kill to protect your child. There’s a time to fight. There’s a time to kill and there’s a time to die and for Charlie Kirk, his was a peaceful approach, he used the public square to speak truth and to accept the consequences, because more than once now, we’ve all seen videos in the last few days of him saying, when I die, I want to be known as a guy who had courage in his faith and he did that and he showed that. So, let’s learn from it, let’s honor him by being able to articulate the gospel and keep your composure. Don’t freak out, those dudes who I love that are my family members, they freak out when somebody goes on social media and says something that’s contrary to what they but its okay people are going to not believe what we believe and they’re going to persecute us for it., that’s all right. That’s fine, that’s good, no worries. The truth will set you free and the truth is the gospel and so, let’s spend our energy proclaiming the gospel of Jesus,
JB
And knowing the gospel.
Brody
And knowing the gospel,
JB
Teaching it to yourself, preaching it to yourself, so when the time comes to defend, you’re ready, you know it, it’s drenched in your mind.
Brody
That’s right, yes and all my cousins and brothers like them guys are all going to be listening to this movie like he just threw us under the bus. No, I’d go to war with him, dude, you guys, that’s my boys, I’m just saying to the general men in my life and at Red Oak and in the Snowbird community, we can we take a breath, I don’t think it’s a time for war here, to take up arms, it’s a time to remember what Tertullian said in the first century, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Second Century, when people are persecuted for the name of Jesus, we have an opportunity to use that persecution for gospel leverage. So, let’s turn our attention to the confidence we have in Christ and be ready to fight when the time comes. I’d fight to defend the powerless or the weak, but there’s a time for that and there’s a time to point people to Jesus the hope that we have. Peter says, Peter, who was persecuted and ultimately martyred, said, always be ready to give an answer to those who ask for the hope that is in you and the hope that we have is the hope that Charlie had, which is that Christ is Lord and he’s establishing a kingdom where this nonsense isn’t going to be going on. It isn’t going to be happening.
JB
Yeah, for sure. I would like to close by reading Psalms 5. I read it a few days ago before all of this happened and then, as I was talking to one of my sisters, she was yeah, I’ve just been praying to Psalms 5, you should read it and I read it and it was so good and I just, saw it in a different light and perspective than I ever had before. So, here’s Psalms 5, give ear to my words, oh Lord, consider my groaning, give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray, oh Lord, in the morning you hear my voice in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch for you are not a God who delights in wickedness, evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes, you hate all evildoers, you destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful, but I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house, amen, I will bow down towards your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me. oh Lord, in your righteousness, because of my enemies, make your way straight before me, for there is no truth in their mouth. Their inmost self is destruction. Their throat is an open grave, they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt. oh God, let them fall by their own counsels because of the abundance of their Transgressions, cast them out, for they have rebelled against you, but Let all who take refuge in you rejoice, let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them that those who love your name may exalt in you for you bless the righteous oh Lord, you cover him with favor as with a shield, but I just think that has been good for me to hear and to read and to dwell on.
Brody
There’s hope in scripture, you open the word of God and you read something like that and it just puts your soul at rest. I appreciate what you said. I hope people take it to heart, get off your social media feed. Open the word of God, get quiet, get still before the Lord. Go sit down under your favorite tree in your yard or on your porch, or jump in the car and go to your favorite spot where, it’s quiet. You’re unplugged. Leave your phone at the house. Open God’s word. Spend an hour just meditating on scripture, letting it saturate and drench your mind and find that peace that the Lord alone can provide and I appreciate that a lot. Well, hope this is some source of encouragement for folks and we’ll be back Monday with a normal episode. So, you guys have a great weekend. Keep your eyes on Jesus, keep your hand on the plow.
Thanks for listening to No Sanity Required, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating, it really helps, visit us at swoutfitters.com to see all of our programming and resources and we’ll see you next week on No Sanity Required.