When One Falls...

We all know that Charlie Kirk was murdered by an assassin’s bullet on September 10, 2025. America knows; the world knows. We also know – thanks to social media – that while countless numbers of people deeply grieved his death, many other individuals celebrated the gruesome event.

There are clearly some who think the Charlie Kirk killing would stop a movement, silence a voice, and end a legacy. They may naively believe that this murder is a setback for the progression of his values and intimidation enough to dispel his followers.

But those who think along those lines don’t know what Christians are. Christianity has survived centuries of martyrdom, violence, and persecution. Not by our own merits or strength but because of the faithfulness of Christ in preserving the church.

Christians have been fed to lions, crucified, and burnt alive as human torches. Christians have been speared to death, cannibalized, imprisoned, beaten, beheaded, and enslaved. And Christianity has survived; not just survived, but been added unto daily, as in the days after Christ’s crucifixion (Acts 2:22-47). Christianity has grown, increased, and multiplied even in the darkest and most unlikely places: under the most virulent opposition and within the most blatantly evil strongholds of Christ’s enemies.

In the last few days, many Christians have quoted words attributed to the second-century Christian leader Tertullian: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.” How true that is. Every time the blood of a Christian murdered for his or her faithful witness falls to the ground, new believers spring up. And they spring up not just from the ranks of the unaffiliated, but from out of the very core of our enemies’ ranks.

Even in the moments after hearing that Kirk had been shot, while still deep in prayer for the continuation of his life, I felt a truth resonate in my soul: He is not mankind’s Savior; he is a messenger for our Savior. If he falls, another will rise up in his place.

Another will always rise up – and another, and another, and a million others.

Christian, RISE UP.

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