Times have really seen a turn throughout the years

Many years ago, when I was a graduate student at D.C.’s Washington Bible College, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.

The next morning, when I went to school and hunted for a parking spot on public side streets, the parked cars all had their windows smashed. I found a spot between two such vehicles and walked toward the campus. People were sitting on front steps staring blankly ahead. A car had been overturned in front of the school. After classes as I returned home, the radio indicated violence had resumed. Informed that the Library of Congress (where I worked) would remain open, I put a pistol in my glove compartment for protection and drove back into town against the flood of traffic heading the other way. The sky was black with smoke. When I got to work I learned the decision had just been made to close.

I made it safely back home.

Last week, there was another assassination of someone who often spoke about Jesus. Charlie Kirk was gunned down in Utah shortly after he told a group of students that Jesus Christ had defeated death. The reaction, however, was far different. There was no violence afterward. A few on TikTok and elsewhere celebrated the killing, but they were condemned by the majority. Some were outright fired.

Vigils were held by students across the United States. Over a million even assembled in London England in honor of Charlie. The indigenous peoples of New Zealand held a ceremony in his honor. Huge crowds took to the streets of both South Korea and Spain chanting his name. The Vice President used Air Force Two to return his body to his home town. The president announced that he would present him posthumously with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Kirk’s wife announced in a speech that she would dedicate her life to continuing his ministry.

The purpose of Charlie Kirk’s ministry, Turning Point U.S.A., was to counter the liberal propaganda on college campuses. He wanted to turn students toward conservatism and also toward Christ. The evidence suggests he was succeeding.

Many of Kirk’s speeches and interactions with students are recorded on the Internet. They are currently being watched by a huge number of potential followers. His debates at the Oxford Union as well as at Cambridge are being rediscovered by viewers everywhere.

It is also reported that Turning Point U.S.A. has received thousands of phone calls from students asking how they can start Turning Point chapters at their university. Turning Point and other conservative organizations are also being inundated with donations. The response has been amazing.

Even more importantly, last Sunday, thousands of new previously unchurched young people attended services at local evangelical churches. Kirk has become a martyr, and his death has prompted a revival.

His wife predicted in her speech that he wouldn’t be forgotten and that his death would produce results exactly opposite to those intended by his murderer. It appears that is exactly what is happening. The governor of Utah gave an important speech. Just about everyone on Fox News has spoken out in his favor. Even his enemies have for the most part decried his death and called for an end to violence. The murderer’s own family turned him in.

Charlie Kirk’s very name would seem to indicate his purpose in life. The work kirk means “church.”

Now, because of him, literally thousands of young people attended church this week who never had before.

Charlie’s wife indicated in her talk that even in his death all things were being worked together by God for good.

It would appear that we have a revival on our hands.