Last Thursday I received the latest newsletter from Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA.  As you all surely know (it was the main news item of the week), he was assassinated last Wednesday, Sept. 10,  in Orem, Utah as he spoke to students at Utah Valley University on his campus tour to give students an opportunity to interact with him over their world views on current issues in our culture. Charlie started Turning Point USA 13 years ago as an 18-year-old with a pretty audacious idea to skip college and instead work to bring conservative ideas to his peers who had decided to go to college. He began by setting up a folding chair and card table at the University of Wisconsin and encouraged students to come debate ideas with him. From there he went to Marquette University, the University of Illinois, and has been doing so ever since. His goal was to get chapters of Turning Point USA started across the nation. It is now the largest conservative youth organization in the history of our nation!  Charlie had the unique gift from God to calmly share his convictions with those who might disagree with him. He has had an amazing influence on young adults across the country. He was a very committed follower of Jesus Christ and a strong, faithful husband to Erika and father to his three-year-old daughter and one-year-old son. Erika said that every morning he would ask her: “How can I be a better husband and better father?”  Because of his bold stand on the biblical values of marriage, the sanctity of life, the creation of just two sexes (male and female), and for his witness for Christ, Charlie had already received many death threats. Last Wednesday, Tyler Robinson, influenced by the ideologies of the transgender individual with whom he was having a romantic relationship, took Charlie’s life, probably thinking that he could stop the spreading of what he considered “hate speech.” (Interestingly, moments before the shot rang out, someone asked Charlie if he knew how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters!)

      Erika Kirk, in her first public statement after the  horrific, shocking assassination of her beloved husband, sat in his podcast studio and, with God-given composure and strength, gave a very impassioned message to the millions listening. She included a powerful warning to those who would attempt to stop Turning Point USA’s message of political  conservatism, biblical values and the Christian faith. Erika said: “You have no idea what you’ve unleashed!” She was spot on!  In the days since the assassination the support for and interest in Turning Point USA has been overwhelming. Such has always been the case when the adversary, Satan, attempts to stop the spread of the Good News of the Gospel and the sharing of biblical values for living. All of the Apostles (except John) that Jesus trained and commissioned to spread the Gospel were martyred. The word martyr, by the way, originally meant witness!

     The Apostle Paul had at one time, as Saul of Tarsus, ferociously persecuted the followers of Jesus called “The  Way” (Acts 9:2). He had many imprisoned and others, like Stephen, put to death (Acts 7-8:1; 26:10,11). But, the persecution of Jesus’ followers only “fanned the flames,” causing the rapid spread of the Gospel. Acts 8 tells us, “…a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria…Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word” (vv. 1,4). And, Saul of Tarsus himself, who undoubtedly could not forget the dying testimony of Stephen, had an encounter with the risen Christ  and was dramatically transformed, becoming the Apostle Paul, missionary to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15), taking the Gospel throughout Asia Minor and into Europe. 

     On Jan. 8, 1956, missionaries Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming and Roger Youderian were killed by members of the Waodani Tribe in Ecuador (They were also called  the “Auca,” which means “savage.”). As a result of the sacrifice they made to spread the Gospel, hundreds of Christian young people in America committed their lives to missionary service. Elisabeth Elliot (Jim’s wife) and Rachel Saint (Nate’s sister) returned to the Waodani Tribe in the jungle years later with the “Summer Institute of Linguistics” and established a peaceful relationship with the Waodani. One by one, the men who killed the missionaries  became believers in Christ. Nate Saint’s son, Steve, spent time among the Waodani at the request of the tribal elders, becoming the adopted son of the tribe and then for a period brought his family to live among them. The Gospel worked a miracle of transformation among these violent people. In fact, Steve was baptized in June 1965 by two of his father’s killers, Kimo and Dyomi in the Curaray River next to the beach where his father was martyred.  Another one of the killers, Mincaye, baptized Steve’s children and his sister. 

     Persecution, rather than extinguishing the Christian Faith, serves as a catalyst for its growth and purification. This has been the case since the time of the early church, and the saying by early Christian writer and apologist, Tertullian, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” captures this paradoxical truth.  The courage and conviction of Christians who die for their faith serve to inspire others to convert to Christianity, causing the church to grow rather than to be destroyed. God, in His amazing sovereignty, uses hatred toward and persecution of Christians to build His church!  It fans the flames and causes it to spread. It also strengthens and purifies the church, refocusing the heart and causing dependency on Christ. 
     The world system and its anti-biblical worldview is under the influence of Satan (Jn. 12:31) and consequently those who stand up for their Christian convictions and biblical worldview of life will be hated. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Jn. 15:18,19). And the Apostle Paul, speaking from personal experience, wrote: “And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (II Tim. 3:12). 

     Erika Kirk’s warning: “You have no idea what you have unleashed” was really uttering a principle that has been true throughout the history of the church. As Charles Wesley said, “God buries His workmen, but His work continues on.” Not only does it continue on, it often increases. I pray that is the case with the ministry of Turning Point USA and its very timely message to our nation at this time. Pray for peace, courage and comfort for Erika and her children. (Pray too for Tyler Robinson and for his parents), and pray for the future ministry of Turning Point USA to flourish.   

Forever His,

Pastor Dave N