Kingdom Report
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Week of 27 September 2025
Charlie Kirk Memorial Impact
Something momentous for the church happened last Sunday at the Charlie Kirk memorial in a packed stadium in Arizona; and in South Africa the rapture of the saints did not happen on 24th September. My thoughts and perspectives.
The evangelical church and especially the charismatic/Pentecostal portion of the church is now reaching a critical crossroad in our understanding of where we are in the prophetic timeline of the Kingdom of God. And critical decisions as to what is our message and our strategy going forward is on the line.
In America this last Sunday was the memorial service for Charlie Kirk. The media analysis of the impact of that event has now been confirmed. This was the largest memorial service in the history of America. About 80-90,000 in the stadium and more than 100,000 outside the stadium and the a TV audience of over 100 million rivaling the annual NFL football Superbowl.
Listening to the American vice-president JD Vance in his speech I noted this very important admission "These last 2 weeks I have spoken more about Jesus Christ than any other time in my life and that is because of Charlie Kirk...and the whole executive branch of the American government is here because of the work that Charlie Kirk and TPUSA did we would not be in government." It was half political rally and half gospel revival meeting. But America watched, the world political and media took note. It was a Turning Point USA for many reasons.
I need to give you my personal analysis in condensed form with respect to the future direction of the impact of the church and especially where we are as a Kingdom of God witness to the world And especially for us here in South Africa, where is our Turning Point Southern Africa?
What happened here in South Africa of note is what did not happen. The rapture of the saints did not happen on Wednesday 24th September. This expectation of the time of the rapture had been circulating virally in our charismatic communities for months. I was going to do a counter biblical teaching analysis but decided not since I have been for years trying to get my readers off the "end times" dead end and don't want to keep harping on that. However my brother who is in America tells me the American media (NY Times, PBS) have been noting this South African meme with interest.
The difference to what was the message and the impact of the gospel in America this last week and what was the message and impact of the "end times" message in South Africa this last week. In South Africa there was no end to mocking and jokes about "so where was the rapture". In America a whole nation's political, media and financial elite acknowledged with respect the message and life of a Christian martyr who changed the national dialogue to press the claims of Jesus Christ as Lord. Again note JD Vance and others public confession "Jesus is Lord". Can you imagine our Vice -President or any of our executive making any such declarations? And why not?
More to the point....we have critical elections coming in 2026 and 2029 that will determine the future of South Africa and I ask where is our Turning Point South Africa? Any possibility that we fill Cape Town stadium or Loftus in Pretoria with praise and political rallies that have our political elite praising Jesus Christ and thanking the Christian majority?
Note to my fellow evangelical charismatics. There was no attempt by Charlie Kirk and his group to hold miracle healing campaigns to draw a crowd, or extravagant promises of "miracle prosperity through seed faith giving". Yes there is room for proclaiming Jesus as healer and Jesus as provider and Jesus as Savior.
What Charlie Kirk and TPUSA did was like Paul going to Mars Hill in Athens. He went to engage the masses in the civic space at the their temples of learning to talk about healing the nation. And that meant Bible teaching and civic engagement. Talking to national issues.
My point here is that this is a new level of "going into all the world" to not just preach the gospel but to teach a nation the ways of the Lord. How God expects and civil society to behave in order to be blessed. For Charlie it was Make America Great by restoring a Christian foundation in the civic space.
In our age of moral relativism, where secular ideologies erode these foundations, the work of Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA (TPUSA) stands as a beacon. Through bold debates in civic spaces—campuses, rallies, and public forums—Kirk preached Christian truths not as dogma, but as living principles, fostering a greater civic morality among the young.
Kirk's approach was profoundly Socratic, echoing the dialogues of ancient Athens while infusing them with the Gospel's redemptive power. He founded TPUSA in 2012 at age 18, forgoing college to combat what he saw as the "progressive indoctrination" of youth. His "Prove Me Wrong" booths and campus tours were arenas where ideas clashed, not to dominate, but to illuminate. Here, Christianity was not sidelined but central: Kirk wove biblical ethics into discussions on economics, identity, and governance, arguing that free markets reflect stewardship (Genesis 1:28), traditional values uphold human dignity (Psalm 139), and limited government honors God's sovereignty over Caesar's (Romans 13). By debating skeptics—atheists, socialists, and cultural relativists—he modeled civic morality as active engagement, teaching that true virtue emerges from a faith grounded in transcendent truth and tested for 2000 years.
This method directly countered the nation's moral decay. In a society where free speech is often stifled by "safe spaces" and property rights undermined by redistributionist policies, Kirk's debates revived the Aristotelian ideal of "eudaimonia"—human flourishing through virtue. He emphasized that Christianity provides the "why" behind civic duties: loving one's neighbor (Mark 12:31) demands defending the unborn, promoting enterprise to alleviate poverty, and resisting tyranny to preserve liberty.
Politically, Kirk's influence fortified the republic's foundations. By tying Christian morality to policy—opposing abortion as murder of image-bearers, defending gun rights as self-defense (Luke 22:36), and critiquing socialism as theft—he elevated discourse beyond partisanship. His podcast and rallies, often packed with worship elements, reminded audiences that civic virtue flows from divine order, not state coercion. Critics decried this as "Christian nationalism," but Kirk's vision was Augustinian: a City of God informing the City of Man, ensuring limited government by morally self-governing citizens.
A Moral People for a Functioning Republic.
Charlie Kirk was unapologetic about the fact that America was founded as a Christian republic. When the American Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 proudly proclaims "
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
This foundational statement from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence articulates the philosophical basis for the American Revolution. It posits that fundamental rights are not granted by governments but by God, and are inherent to all individuals because all individuals are created in God's image. The declaration further elaborates that to protect these rights, "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." This establishes the principle of a government accountable to its people which means the morality of government must reflect the values and morality of its citizens.
A republic of limited government, safeguarding property and free speech, cannot endure without a morally grounded citizenry. As America's second president John Adams warned, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Morality here is not mere legalism but a deep-seated virtue—self-restraint, justice, and communal responsibility—best cultivated through transcendent faiths which anchor ethics in divine accountability rather than fleeting human whims.
For a morally grounded government you need a transcendent public faith that sets a moral standard for the public civic space. Rules for how we conduct ourselves in the civic space.
Charlie Kirk fought for a Christian faith as the best foundation for a national morality. And he fought for that with arguments in the university public space to all comers who had a counter argument.
There are other transcendent faiths like Judaism or Islam. But as British author and philosopher Tom Holland in his book "Dominion" explains....Western Civilization was built on the New Testament message of Jesus Christ and Paul the apostle. Who famously said there is no difference between Greek and Jew, slave or free, make or female. And if today we proudly say "these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal" then certainly it was not self-evident to the Greeks and Romans of antiquity or to the Democracy of Pericles and Solon of Greece.
Human rights as proclaimed today is self-evident because of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ for 2000 years against torture, persecution and martyrdom of God's saints. And you can count Charlie Kirk among that illustrious band of warriors.
Therefore we have a right to enter the public civic space to defend the faith once delivered to the saints. What Charlie Kirk did in the political space was to redefine what "conservatism" is relative to "progressives". The American conservative right fooled themselves in thinking "conservative" meant to "conserve" Burke or Locke (or Reagan) and other "enlightenment philosophers". Kirk redefined what is to be "conserved". Namely the faith and biblical truth upon which human rights and limited government are based.....the gospel of the Kingdom of God as preached by Jesus Christ and His apostle Paul. True "progressives" are those who building on this foundation progress the government of God on earth as it is in heaven. That is "progressive". All other forms of "progressives" in actual fact are a regression to lawless barbarism.
Israel and the Moral Foundation Problem
Charlie Kirk had over the last 6 months of his life and ministry started a spiritual and ethical trip away from Israel and the idea of Judaism as an equivalent moral foundation for a righteous nation.
As such he was as worried as most Jews in America at what was happening to Israel and Palestine. To fight for a 'Judeo-Christian Civilization" you need have the "Judeo" part bring their example to the fight for a faith producing a moral society.
The tragic events in Gaza have profoundly damaged the Jewish faith's standing as a paradigm of public morality in the global eye. Since the escalation following October 7, 2023, Israel's military actions have drawn widespread condemnation, with accusations of genocide and comparisons to the Holocaust itself—a bitter irony given Judaism's historical role as a bulwark against such atrocities. Organizations like Amnesty International have concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, citing intentional acts causing irreparable harm. Similarly, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has labeled these actions as genocide in reports from mid-2025, while Human Rights Watch has documented crimes of extermination and acts of genocide through deprivation of essentials like water. Scholars and historians, including Holocaust experts like Amos Goldberg, have argued that Gaza "does not exist anymore" due to Israel's response, evoking genocidal overreactions. Public discourse on platforms like X amplifies this, with users decrying Israel's actions as a "holocaust" and "genocide," often framing them as war crimes and ethnic cleansing. This perception—whether fully accurate or not—has tarnished Judaism's moral authority, associating it with state power perceived as oppressive rather than the prophetic justice of Micah 6:8 ("to do justice, and to love kindness").
In a world craving ethical exemplars for civic life, such controversies undermine Judaism's appeal as a universal standard, shifting focus away from its rich tradition of tikkun olam (repairing the world) toward geopolitical strife.
These erosions create a fertile ground for Christianity's ascent as the preeminent standard for civic faith and morality. Unlike the state-entangled perceptions afflicting Judaism in the Gaza context or the extremist distortions plaguing Islam, Christianity's core message—embodied in Christ's Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)—emphasizes love for enemies, mercy, and inner transformation over external conquest. This aligns seamlessly with republican virtues: self-restraint (Galatians 5:23), justice tempered by grace (Romans 12:19-21), and a separation of church and state that prevents theocratic overreach while infusing public life with ethical depth. In a self-governing society, where laws rely on voluntary moral compliance, Christianity's emphasis on personal redemption fosters the "moral and religious people" Adams deemed essential. Recent global disillusionments have thus highlighted Christianity's resilience, drawing seekers toward its non-violent, reconciliatory ethos as a bulwark against moral relativism.
The martyrdom of Charlie Kirk by radicals has propelled this Christian witness forward, proving the efficacy of public debate in advancing Christianity as the optimal faith for a rule-of-law republic. Kirk's TPUSA debates—confronting secularism, socialism, and cultural decay on campuses—were modern apologetics, echoing Paul's defenses in Acts 17. By integrating Christian principles into civic discourse, he demonstrated how faith sustains liberty: defending life, property, and speech as divine endowments. His assassination, amid rising threats, mirrors the early martyrs whose blood seeded the church's growth (Tertullian: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church"). Posthumously, TPUSA has seen surges in engagement, with young people embracing Christianity's moral framework for governance, viewing Kirk's stand as prophetic. This tragedy underscores that, in a world weary of violence-tainted moralities, Christianity—proclaimed through bold, reasoned debate—offers hope for a republic where rule of law thrives on virtuous hearts.
We here in South Africa need to get out of the dead-end theology of end times and when is the rapture. We need to jump to the end of Revelation 21&22 and see the church as the New Jerusalem whose life giving waters and fruit is a ministry of healing the nations.
We also need to get out of the ethno-African nationalism that "ubuntu" is our way to national redemption. The issue also is not which political party will save us.
Neither is the issue now of when will Jesus come. The reality is Jesus has come and His light needs to shine on the faces of all His people so that government and society is a reflection of His ways. That means entering the civic space and entering the national debate demanding a government accountable to the moral majority of its people.
The further reality is that all races in South Africa are bound together not by the good will of "ubuntu" but of the power of the Holy Spirit in our Christian majority to make one nation of many races.
When I saw the masses in that stadium in Arizona, and all the politicians and financiers and power brokers coming to honor a martyr of the Kingdom I saw the Mountain of the Lord in that stadium and Micah 4:1-2....
Mic 4:12 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.