I am genuinely sorry to all of you whom I offended last week with my bulletin note and the picture on the cover.
Once again, I am out of touch and blindsided by my ignorance. In the previous two weeks, I have gotten two sides of the same church upset with me concerning the same person.
After all I had heard about Charlie Kirk, I honestly did not even contemplate that not everyone in Berean saw Kirk as someone who died for living out his faith in Christ. Two weeks ago, I heard from members of Berean concerning how disappointed they were that I didn’t talk about Kirk. Then this past week, I heard from members concerning how bothered they were that Kirk was on our cover and in our church bulletin.
At this point, I am tempted to articulate why I saw Kirk as a brother in Christ who was murdered for advocating biblical truth, but that has the potential of being misunderstood again. Please know I wrote last week about Kirk as a modern-day martyr. If you feel like that was naïve, please extend grace to me. Nothing I have heard in the past seven days would cause me to question that original presupposition. But others are quite bothered to the point of asking about the legitimacy of his salvation and my lack of judgment. So, at this point, let all of us remember and admit that we are not gods to know who is and isn’t saved.
Christianity has a 2,000-year history of God using sinners to accomplish His will. Before Jesus, King David was a man after God’s heart (1Sa 13:14), yet he was an adulterer and a man who orchestrated the death of an innocent man. Peter was a hypocrite (Gal 2:13) and even denied knowing Jesus (Mat 26:69-75). Samson and righteous Lot come to mind. Let us—all of us on both sides, and everyone in between—be thankful that we don’t have to be perfect to be servants of the Lord. Is this a time to cast judgment concerning the sins or shortcomings of another, or to be reminded of the fact that God has purposed to use even sinners for His glory and our good? Consider Saul’s ravaging of the Church (Acts 8:1-3) before his own conversion and the spread of the Gospel as a result. Furthermore, the Apostle Paul evidently still sinned and struggled against sin, even as a believer (Rom 7:21-25).
I hope there isn’t even one person thinking I am trying to rationalize or justify my previous note. Judge Kirk in the same way you desire to be judged (Mat 7:1-2). Speak of Kirk and pray for Kirk’s family as you would expect someone to speak of and pray for your family. Think of Kirk as your son or husband, assassinated at 31 years old, leaving behind a wife and two children. Can a sinner, having been made righteous by faith, hear the words “Well done, you good and faithful servant, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world” (Mat 25:21,34)? Yes.
