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[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
“When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.” (Acts 7: 54) These words were transcribed and written by Luke, a follower of Jesus, who recounted in the New Testament Book of Acts the accusations against Stephen, and the stoning of Stephen. The “things” they heard were words sharply critical of the listeners who had heard Jesus preach but had rejected both Jesus’ preaching and Jesus himself.
David Guzik in his commentary on the Holy Bible tells the readers, “Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people: God did great wonders and signs through the apostles; but also through others like Stephen, one of the servants chosen to help the widows. God used Stephen because he was full of faith and power.”
Similarly, Charlie Kirk was not an ordained minister of the Gospel, nor was he an elected official holding a national or even local office. Nevertheless, Kirk was able to challenge and put to shame voices in opposition to the conservative, Christian worldview in a unique, forceful, uncompromising, informed, logical, and good-humored way.
The key element in Charlie’s success is that he introduced a crucial spiritual dimension to the political discussion. The differences of opinion in the political arena were not only differences between Democrats and Republicans, between the “woke” and the “unwoke,” between the Left and the Right, between illegals and citizens, between the law abiding and the non-law abiding, between those who believed in the traditional family and those who advocated for alternative forms of “family” or for shacking up, between those who valued college education and those who believed it was over-rated and too expensive, and even between those who believed in God and those who did not.
Charlie added a crucial dimension to his take on political and social policy. He repeatedly affirmed and stated that Jesus Christ was the foundation and basis for his views on political and social policies. He affirmed the Trinity. He affirmed being born again and living under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Word of God. He affirmed the Holy Bible as the source of wisdom and truth about Almighty God and the social policies for which he advocated.
He emphasized that Almighty God created man from the earth and then created woman from the side of man. God did not create a variety of gender options. He emphasized that marriage was ordained by God to be only between a man and a woman.
He emphasized that many if not all the problems in the African-American community were caused not by whites but by the fact that about 80% of African-American children are raised in homes without a father.
Over the years, this collapse of the two-parent black family has been attributed by some, beginning with the work Losing Ground by Charles Murray, who have “argued that the social programs of the 1960s had the unintended consequence of reversing social progress by creating dependency on government aid….” Kirk promoted this point, and argued that the welfare system makes it more profitable for women to have children supported by the welfare system than they would be if they had only one husband.
However, over the years, many civil rights leaders have rejected this view. “Family instability is a ‘peripheral issue,’ warned Whitney Young, executive director of the National Urban League. ‘The problem is discrimination’.”
Charlie also frequently noted that African-American males though only about 6.5% of the population commit approximately 50% of the murders. While the individual is responsible for the crimes he or she commits, he blamed this high murder rate on the collapse of the African-American family.
He insisted that moral responsibility in the areas of marriage and procreation must be acknowledged and changed, and the only way this can and will happen is by an evangelical Christian commitment to Christ who requires a responsible family life for those who follow Him.
A church-going African-American co-worker told me years ago how bothered she was when she was in church and two or three unmarried sisters in the Lord were singing in the choir with their pregnant bellies clearly visible to the congregation. She made that observation long before Charlie appeared on the public stage.
Stephen, a deacon and a mighty man of God, as he was being accused by an outraged population for preaching and teaching the Truth spoke about the Israelites who were following Moses saying that they created a golden calf to worship while Moses was up on Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments directly from the hand of Almighty God, “And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.” (Acts 7:41)
Charlie Kirk, like Moses and like Stephen, consistently challenged the calf worshipers. Not everyone on the conservative side of politics is an evangelical Christian, but a very large number are. Further, Charlie brought many to that correct understanding that underlies the value of more conservative political issues. Conservative political views are rooted in faith in the Word of God, and that is true for living voters, and for deceased martyrs like Charlie.
For Charlie …
Thanks for the memory. I think I wore out the first four albums. Viola Lee Blues.
Dead Heads are popping up –
Lonsman Allan – first Happy New Year – second – Who knew you are a Dead Head – lets pack our pipe in preparing to puff, roll one up and have a Simchat Torah for Charlie Kirk –
I am not a true deadhead.
I am a fan of American Beauty, Workingman’s Dead and Aoxomoxoa… IOW, their studio best.
Most of the live works are too involved for me.
I note that the.Dead’s St. Stephen puts a secular gloss on the story, but the parable works the same.
Oh, and Happy New Year . ~
What did the Dead Head say when he ran out of dope?
He said “Wow, this music SUCKS”!
Actually, the Dead are pretty good, but I still laugh at that joke.
So far they haven’t resorted to stoning anybody but the Liberal left would want all Conservatives stoned which is what they still do to Wizards in the Middle East
“Charlie Kirk, like Moses and like Stephen, consistently challenged the calf worshipers.”
Perhaps it was just a poor choice of words, but Moses and Stephen didn’t “challenge” their people. Moses and Stephen severely rebuked their nation for not following and obeying the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
If only more evangelical Christian’s understood better where things were at prophetically in Acts ch. 7 when Stephen was stoned; and what didn’t happen after he was killed.
If Carlson was accurately reflecting what Kirk taught as the gospel, their Bible doctrine is off base. The gospel today is not the 4 gospels or what Peter preached in Acts 2. The gospel today is 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. Carlson did not mention this.
And Carlson mentioned the Beatitudes and the “Our Father.” Matthew chapters 5-7 concerns God’s program with Israel. The Beatitudes have been called the Constitution of the Messianic kingdom. And that’s Israel’s kingdom. The body of Christ’s realm is in the heaven’s, not on Earth.
“Christian thought is leavened with the error of failing to distinguish between the heavenly church and the church on earth.”
There were certainly statements made about the gospel and the Bible at the Kirk memorial service that serious, orthodox Christians and Bible readers could take some issue with. But, wow, your post contains some weird theology. I think YOU would do well to read the Bible (the WHOLE Bible) with more discernment.
Its about studying the Bible and rightly dividing it:
2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
The Bible is “time past,” “but now,” and “ages to come.”
A prominent Rabbi said the following to Sir Robert Anderson:
“We regard Jesus as one of the greatest of our Rabbis…It was not he that founded Christianity, but your Paul.”
The eyes of most professing Christian’s would glaze over if they read what the Rabbi said. Including yours?
You shall know the tree by the fruit it bears.
Charlie Kirk was about the common sense.
Not all political conservatives are evangelical Christians. Most ACTUAL Catholic Christians (not the Biden, Pelosi fake-Catholic-types). Most of us are conservative if we believe in Jesus and His teachings. Charlie was about to become a Catholic as well. I hope one day two miracles are attributed to his intercession, and he can become a Saint, even if not Catholic when he was assassinated. +JMJ+
“Charlie was about to become a Catholic…”
Why? (If you know.)
Charlie Kirk embodied the beliefs, values and virtues of America in the 50’s and early 60’s. When the
“ intellects”, devoid of wisdom, thumbed their noses at GOD and the Bible and removed them from our public schools our descent began – from killing our children in the womb to sexually, physically, mentally, and spiritually abusing them before they are adults.
I recall that day when the 10 Commandments were removed from above the chalkboard. It seemed weird. Those 10 Commandments kept little kids in line, especially boys. That was 1962 which would have put me in the 4th grade I believe because it was in the 5th grade, a year later, Mr. Rivers, my first male school teacher came in after recess, ashen and shaking and announced like a gasp that President Kennedy was dead. And we of 10 years old knew the feeling with the Kennedys and Jackie who was redecorating the White House.
We were all stunned and shaken. JFK assassination shook the world in his own way as did Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
We cannot lose President Trump, the last hope of the USA and the world. As the USA goes, so goes the world!
It was in the USA that Charlie Kirk was raised and his mission given to him, and the devil, once again working through people as the devil did through Judas and those who cried out: “Crucify HIM”, thought to destroy a movement only created more resolve and more people globally thanks to the internet who are equally fed up and fired up and not going back to complacency and patience when patience has run out!
I posted on Substack:
“Charlie was today’s era of Christ’s Apostles and horribly was murdered like 10 of Lord Jesus Christ Yeshua Messiah’s apostles. We can bet, Charlie Kirk is with God and Jesus wrapped in royal robes!”
One reply from someone who claimed they are Christian and no doubt heavy into a Christian sect, which is ok if it gives people comfort, said I was blaspheming. Saying it was blasphemy to consider Charlie Kirk like an apostle of Christ.
Paul is the only apostle who never met Yeshua before HE was crucified. Paul in fact held the coats of those who stoned young Stephen to death.
Talking about a lifetime of remorseful repentance Paul must have had over this and the power of Christ’s Forgiveness.
I said this because it was in my soul. my spirit told my brain and my being could not withhold my feeling which was not a knee jerk emotional response but one gained over decades of life experience seeing patterns in this world and the gift with the ability to see unto multiple dimensions. Sometimes not with my eyes but my soul. Also the gift of being shown what we call the supernatural and the years of life experience not caring if people thought is was nuts or lying.
“Charlie was today’s era of Christ’s Apostles and horribly was murdered like 10 of Lord Jesus Christ Yeshua Messiah’s apostles. We can bet, Charlie Kirk is with God and Jesus wrapped in royal robes!”
What I see in that comment and other’s, is the thinking that what was going on in the gospels and Acts, and what “continues” today in men like Kirk, is all.part of some sort of godly cause. It’s not. The question for the professing Bible believer, or what should be the question, is exactly what was going on in the gospels and in the post resurrection ministry of the 12? That is THE question. What was God doing? Also part of the same question.
The earthly ministry of Christ and the 12, and their early Acts ministry, concerned Israel and the literal, earthly, physical, visible, Davidic messianic kingdom. Hence, the apostle’s question in Acts 1:
“Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to ISRAEL?”
Israel’s messiah had fulfilled the first of the five Davidic mandates, that of the Redeemer. The next four mandates have yet to be fulfilled: 2-Deliverer 3-Avenger 4-King 5-Blesser.
The 12 apostles correctly expected the remaining four mandates to be fulfilled in their day. Most of them, excepting James for example, came to understand why the kingdom program was postponed.
Unfortunately, Charlie Kirk did not understand this, nor does Tucker Carlson. The list, devastatingly, goes on.
The answer to all these questions is what the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to Paul.