The New Great Awakening

The murder of Charlie Kirk on September 10 has sparked an American religious revival. People are saying they’ve felt a “shift.” Many who knew little about him before he was killed, since watching videos of him, say they feel deeply moved—like they knew him.

Why such a powerful reaction?

Many voices have spoken out courageously against Democrats, socialists, Communists, anti-fascists and the “woke” agenda. A number have advocated powerfully for limited government, individual responsibility, the Constitution, the family—risking being dismissed, ridiculed, indicted and worse. Kirk was among them. But there was something unique about him.

Charlie Kirk, to the best of his ability, believed the Bible.

His advocacy started at a young age: When he was only a teenager, he volunteered for his first political campaign. He wrote an essay about liberal bias in high school economics textbooks. He gave a speech at a “Youth Government Day” event at a small university. Nothing earthshaking. But one man noticed that young people perked up when Kirk spoke. He convinced Kirk to devote himself to reaching other young people with conservatism.

So Kirk established a youth organization in a humble building in Lemont, Illinois, with an American flag on it. A youth organization—for conservatism. In the suburbs of Chicago. In 2012.

Do you remember 2012? This was the middle of Barack Obama mania. Chicago was his stronghold. America was under an unprecedented surge of power not just for Democrats but for socialism, radicalism and what can only be described as rampant evil in American politics. A teenager with a tiny “SOS Liberty” organization promoting fiscal responsibility was never going to make a difference.

Then radicalism got worse—and worse—and worse. But rather than giving up or settling into a podcast studio, Kirk took a folding table and chairs and went into the most radicalized parts of the most radical cities in America: college campuses. With little help, no stage managing and no notes, he invited anyone and everyone to come and discuss important issues, letting them choose the subject, make their points and ask questions, and responding with his own points and questions.

Imagine going into institutions where people passionately believe the Founding Fathers were wrong if not evil, central government should have even more power, money should be seized and redistributed, basic rights should be seized and redistributed, speech should be censored, meat is evil, sexual deviants should be celebrated, unborn—or newly born—babies can be aborted at will, and religious people are idiots—especially Christians and especially devoted Christians.

Kirk went in and openly said, I believe we should follow the Bible.

He advocated fiscal responsibility, job creation and various political candidates, yes, but he also spoke passionately, intelligently and even spiritually about the Constitution, American exceptionalism, saving the State of Israel, race, pornography, alcohol, masculinity, saving unborn babies, male and female, good and evil, the existence of Satan, the authority of Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible.

People—often passionately, many times with profanity—hit him with, The founders were racist. Police are hunting black men. Babies should be aborted. Israel is committing genocide. You’re a racist. You’re a fascist. Some made logical points. Some made insane points. Some made death threats.

Kirk came back, respectfully, thoughtfully, intelligently and convincingly, reasoning from the Bible as best he knew how to people who thought the Bible is the least convincing basis of reasoning there is. And people could and did decide for themselves how sincere he was.

Watch the original videos of his speeches and his debates—the ones that don’t have music or someone else commentating (whether for or against)—and you will be struck by how boldly he advocated against government tyranny, abortion, sexual perversions and more. And you will be struck by how he was willing to cite the Bible and his belief in Jesus Christ.

No one expected such an effort to last, let alone make a difference. Everyone who remembers the Obama years is stunned that a youth organization for conservatives that grew from nothing to about 2,000 high school and college chapters would play a role in helping Donald Trump win the presidency. And it was all built largely by a young man on a seemingly doomed mission to have dialogue with radical liberal college students.

Then someone murdered him for it.

Then millions of people wanted to know why. They watched him, they thought about what he said, and over the past two weeks, they have reacted. Kids on the bus talked nonstop about Charlie Kirk right after it happened. Boys wore sport coats to school the next day because that’s what Charlie wore. Young teenagers appealed to their school boards against teachers who celebrated Kirk’s death. Long lines formed to get into church services.

Fathers and mothers were prodded into serious conversations about how to raise their boys. People who were Democrats or into heavy sexual deviancy said Kirk’s arguments helped them change their lives.

Thousands of people filling roadsides, parking lots, convention centers and campuses; holding vigils; singing about God; leaving piles of flowers, signs, notes and little American flags from Chicago to Phoenix to California to Canada to England to South Korea to more than 60,000 people filling an entire stadium for his funeral.

People from ex-convicts to Kirk cohosts to famous Internet personalities to athletes to world leaders are openly sharing and asserting their various beliefs on Christianity, returning to church, praying openly. He convinced many college students to abandon leftism and consider the Bible during his life. It appears he is convincing even more after his death.

Kirk’s life goal was 20,000 chapters for the Turning Point usa youth organization. There were 2,000 on September 10. Since then, there have been 121,000 requests to join or start chapters.

“They have no idea what they have unleashed. You’ve all seen it in your own lives, in your own families, in your own circles: It’s a real thing. … But in his pursuit of truth, his earnest, intellectually honest pursuit of truth, it went from less ‘small t’ truth to more ‘big T’ truth: That we are in a spiritual battle, and it’s not enough to give people political common sense: You have to give people the gospel as well. … [H]e unleashed a revival in this country ….” That is from the official United States Department of War account, posting comments by the sitting secretary of defense.

That’s just one of the comments by one of the major national leaders to be moved and to speak powerfully about what Kirk’s death, and life, has put in motion. The White House has honored him. Vice President JD Vance called him “a martyr for Christianity” and said he has talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than in the rest of his public career. At Kirk’s memorial service in Phoenix, President Trump said what many have felt: “The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us.”

People saw this vividly before September 10 was even over, when thousands of posts flooded social media of people demonically celebrating Kirk’s murder. Among other things, this reveals that the radicalism—the evil radicalism—in America is still strong and has infected not only the elites but many teachers, administrators, officials, clerks, cashiers and other people you encounter every day.

More Americans are strongly rejecting the radical, perverted, godless ideology that has swamped our nation and our culture. They are recognizing that there is a spiritual war between good and evil. They are open to the idea that Jesus was the Son of God, that the Bible is true, and that it can rightly guide our lives if not our nation.

These truths are fundamental, and they have always been there!

This is a turning point. But then what? Will Americans attend church for a few weekends, then be lulled back to their normal routine? Will they protest what the radical elites are doing but fail to stop them? Will they put their trust in men, even if they are conservative, rather than in God? Will they believe and obey the Bible?

The last book Kirk wrote was Stop, in the Name of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Change Your Life. Kirk believed in keeping the Ten Commandments. He said that he and his wife studied the Bible and came to believe that they should keep the Fourth Commandment: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God …” (Exodus 20:8-10). He said he kept it in a “legalistic” way, but he did keep it from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset and put his smartphone away, resting from his work, which involved being up-to-the-minute, up-to-date on the news of the day. When the U.S. directly bombed Iran, for example, he didn’t know, because it happened on the Sabbath.

So if America has entered the turning point, the question now is, how far will we go? Will we stop here?

Or will we be willing to bravely face and grapple with the hard questions, the crucial questions contained within Christianity itself—the questions that thousands of churches and millions of Christians actually disagree on—the questions that determine whether we really are Christian?

The Bible in general and Jesus Christ in particular warned against false religion. Christ Himself said there would be false Christians. The New Testament apostles constantly battled people who believed that Christ was the Son of God yet didn’t teach what He taught!

So the battle for truth, in some ways, is just beginning.

“Christ raised up the Church of God to stand back of the proclaiming of His gospel message by His apostles in a.d. 31,” Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in The Incredible Human Potential. “By a.d. 33, after a most amazing initial growth, a great persecution set in against God’s Church (Acts 8:1). At that time, a.d. 33, this Simon the Sorcerer was himself baptized along with multitudes of others. … Simon appropriated the name of Christ, calling his Babylonian mystery religion ‘Christianity.’ Satan moved this man and used him as his instrument to persecute and all but destroy the true Church of God. Before the end of the first century—probably by a.d. 70—he managed to suppress the message Christ had brought from God.”

That is straight out of New Testament Bible history!

“A hundred years later,” he continued, “history reveals a ‘Christianity’ utterly unlike the Church Christ founded. It had taken the name of Christ and applied it to the Babylonian mystery religion. It had replaced the message Jesus brought from God with a ‘gospel’ about the person of Christ—proclaiming the Messenger but suppressing the entire missing dimension from His message.”

Is that true? If so, it explains why Christianity has been so self-conflicted, divided, compromised, polluted and intermixed with worldly governments and even other religions. Bible history and Bible prophecy specifically say that the Israelites (whose descendants include the Americans) have struggled repeatedly and will continue to struggle with mixing false religion with the true worship of the true God. Amos 7 describes a “king’s chapel” that is in opposition to the true servants of God. Luke 12 shows that God’s true Church is small and persecuted. Matthew 7:21 records Christ warning, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

Charlie Kirk came closer than most Christians to believing and acting on some elements of the true gospel. But most people who call themselves Christian—today and for the past 2,000 years—talk about Jesus while ignoring or even fighting the message He taught, particularly the Sabbath.

The Sabbath starts out the entire Bible! It’s the reason we have the seven-day week. It reminds you every seven days who the one true God is: the God who renewed the surface of the Earth in six days to get it ready for man, then rested, which created the Sabbath. It reminds us of the first full day of human life—ever—in which God began to create not just man’s environment or body but man’s mind, teaching him and ultimately offering him the choice of what to believe and act upon. God Himself established the Sabbath, which points to the true worship of the Creator and also points ahead to the reestablishment of His government on the Earth. Only God could abolish it or move it. Did He?

You are going to have to prove—yes, really prove—whether that’s true, yourself.

American Christianity has many hard questions ahead. The Sabbath is one of them. If you want to see what the Holy Bible says about observing a day of worship toward God, I encourage you to request Mr. Armstrong’s booklet Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath? Read it online instantly, but definitely request your own copy so you can open it alongside your Bible. We had to fight in court for the right to publish and give this booklet away free. (All of our literature is free, with no charge, no “suggested donation,” no obligation.) This booklet will guide you to what the Bible says about this commandment, whether keeping it is optional, legalistic, positive, negative, good or evil.

America is at the turning point. You might be at the turning point. Don’t stop. Keep pursuing the truth of the Bible, and follow—humbly and boldly—where it leads.