The Murder of Charlie Kirk, Part 4a: Cultural vs. Biblical Christianity

The Murder of Charlie Kirk, Part 4a: Cultural vs. Biblical Christianity
Tuesday, October 14, 2025 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Apologetics / Contemporary issues / Postmodernism / Scripture discussion / The church / Thought for Today / Truth telling

Cultural vs. biblical Christianity. Whether on the political left or political right, forms of cultural Christianity are far more popular than what is biblically Christian.

What happened at Charlie Kirk’s funeral? Genuine Christianity was at the forefront, at least for a time. Erika Kirk, insofar as she was able to given the short time frame, offered genuine forgiveness to the shooter of her late husband. Through the act of forgiving, the one doing the forgiving mirrors the actions of Jesus Christ. The forgiveness one can receive through faith in Christ is the core of Christianity. We cannot work or earn our way to forgiveness: it is God’s gift to us, available only through faith in Jesus Christ. As Christians, we follow Christ, and that means we forgive as Christ forgave.

While it is true that forgiveness does not eliminate earthly consequences of sin—an alcoholic can stop drinking and still die of cirrhosis of the liver—it has massive eternal consequences. While the perpetrator must still repent and accept Christ’s death on the cross for the forgiveness of his sins, through Christ’s death, all sins are covered, including those of the shooter. The flip side is that if we refuse to accept Christ’s death in payment of our sins, we end up paying for them ourselves. Our spending eternity in hell is the result.

Thus, in Erika Kirk’s comments, we saw genuine Christianity. But did Charlie Kirk’s funeral end there? Unfortunately, no. Trump spoke. From a political standpoint it is easy to understand why. But what followed? We saw voter registration booths, rallying to the political conservative cause. Given the Left’s disdain and often outright hatred of anything remotely biblically Christian (we will see that the Left does have its supposed “Christian” forms), that too is, humanly speaking, understandable.

But is it biblical Christianity? No. Christ called believers to love those who hate them, to do good to the unjust. At the end of the funeral service, was that what was going on? No. We forget that we battle not against flesh and blood, but spiritual forces, the demonic world. That battle can only be successfully fought through Jesus Christ, through what one might call biblical Christianity. Yes, we must uphold biblical truth, God’s truth in this world, in all areas of life, and that includes politics. But, again, the core battle is spiritual, not physical.

What does cultural Christianity look like? In the next couple of posts, we will look at some of the cultural forms of Christianity, starting with the political right, and then moving on to the political left.

Note: I'm currently battling through upgrading computers from Windows 10 to 11, so entries may be a bit sparse for the next week or so.

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