Charlie Kirk Memorial

[J.L. Allen]

Johnathan, I agree with your whole comment. The biggest question I'm wrestling with as a pastor right now in the midst of all the calls for us to be a part of this is what exactly it is we are supposed to be doing, other than continuing to faithfully carry out the ministry the Lord has given us. Perhaps it is also a wakeup call for any among us who have not been sufficiently attentive to evangelism, but beyond that is there anything specific to be doing other than carrying out the work of ministry and rejoicing if the Lord chooses to bless it?

Sorry, Andrew, for not responding sooner.

It's first important to know that whatever we do, we should never contemplate diminishing or adjusting our worship from the standard of Scripture. We are not at liberty to do anything that would minimize the name of God and his right to be worshipped according to his commands. It is also important to state that our worship does indeed or ought to contain the gospel each and every Lord's Day. Our liturgies are crafted that way, and our sermons put Christ front and center.

For those churches that are active in outreach, in all the various methods out there, I'd encourage them to continue. For those churches that are not as active in outreach, it's a good time to consider methods of outreach that work well for them. Regardless, we should all be praying both privately (encouraging all to do so) and from the pulpit about outreach.

I hesitate to give any more details or an exact step-by-step process. Things are going to look really different from church to church and person to person.

 

[darrellmaurina]

I have some of the concerns expressed but here is ARP minister Andy Webb's take after watching a lot of the service (from a public Facebook post), who is not some loose evangelical.

Thank you for posting the link to Andy Webb's comments. I already commented several days ago on his page and he did a great job.

 

[faithandfreedom]

Having watched a number of Charlie Kirk's videos and also clips from the memorial service a couple of things struck me:
1. Charlie's main purpose seems to have been to convince young folks of the importance of conserving our Judeo-Christian heritage, in terms of raising the importance of the moral norms that have been woven into the fabric of our Western society. Kirk argued from a distinctly Christian world view and many times lifted up the importance of humans as created in the image of God, before unbelieving young people. He was not working as an evangelist in the formal sense of the term, but was living out his Christian testimony in his work place.
2. The norms of our society are built upon Christian foundations that are a direct result of close ties between the church and state. The influence of orthodox christianity has a long and deep heritage in the UK, but sadly the ties between church and state appear to have weakened, which is leading to a huge change in our society. Our Prime Minister was asked recently if he would say the UK is a Christian country; he replied that Christianity is “woven into our informal constitution,” but added, “We also celebrate many other faiths, and I’m proud we can do that.” To see JD Vance talk about the importance of the Lord Jesus Christ is such a contrast to this. To have political leaders who are unashamed to champion Christianity is something to be deeply thankful for. One need not agree with every aspect of their theology; the fact that the US government is supportive of the Christian faith and understands its unique claim to be the one true religion is the key point.

 

[LilyG]

I agree, as I noted above and as many have said here, that we want to rejoice in the gospel presentations at Kirk's memorial service. It's a mistake that we sometimes make as confessionalists that we are so critical that we miss the good because it falls short of something better.

At the same time, we must keep in mind that if we, especially those who are confessionalists, don't resist the merging of things not to be merged and the smashing together of the Christian faith and politics, then the purity of the gospel, no small matter, is imperiled. The offense of our message should be the offense of the cross. The offense should be because the sinner doesn't like our proclamation of "thus saith the Lord." Charlie was about much more than this (and he had every right to be), but that does not mean that the "much more that he was about" is something that all have to agree with as if it's all a proclamation of the Word of God.

I don't want the world to think that we think that the Christian faith is the Trump administration. And Charlie generally talked in a way that the faith and MAGA appeared inseparable. He would talk about distinctly Christian matters like Christian marriage and family, no same sex marriage, challenging gender confusion, etc. Then, in the next breath, without saying something like "Christians may differ on this sort of thing," he would launch into monetarism and Milton Friedman, or libertarian tropes and how limited government should look. Fine to talk about all that. But no distinction was often made, as it often wasn't made at the memorial service, between that and the doctrines of the Christian faith set forth in the Word of God. As if it were all one big undifferentiated thing that comprises Christianity.

If Reformed and Presbyterian folk are not concerned about this and point this out, I don't know who in Christendom will. I know that this is not popular, even in many of our churches, even here in some respects. But I will not stop saying it, and it must be said. The gospel and the faith must be kept clear as to what they are. They are not a detailed set of political policies. The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ does not derive from this world (John 18:36) as does all that is passing away. Again, we must maintain this truth clearly, and we don't when we simply smash all our beliefs together and regard a certain political approach to be as much a part of the gospel as the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. May it never be!

Peace,
Alan

The two-kingdom distinction is important in so many ways.