Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10, 2025. Some people think December 18th was the 100th day since that tragedy; others think the hundredth day won’t be until December 19th. The reason for the difference is which day is counted as first. Inclusive counting considers September 10th as the first day. Exclusive counting considers September 11th as the first day. To take another example, saying “Jesus rose on the third day” is a result of inclusive counting: Friday is the first day, Saturday is the second, and Sunday is the third. This is the way 1st-century Jews and Christians counted. It is also part of the explanation as to why 1st-century Christians would see no discrepancy between Jesus prophesying of being “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt 12:40) and being raised “on the third day” (Matt 17:23). In biblical times, any part of a day was counted as a day. This can be seen also in Esther 4:16-5:1.
(I decided to run the paragraph above through AI to make sure I hadn’t confused the issue in some way. ChatGPT responded, “Charlie Kirk has not been assassinated. He is alive.
Because the paragraph is built on a false premise, it cannot be considered accurate regardless of how well the counting discussion is handled.” ChatGPT made more specific comments and then concluded by saying: “If you want a version that keeps a real historical or modern event, or one that removes religious references, I can tailor it precisely.” AI is amazing; it’s able to remain faithful to secularism even when it is being stupid. As for wanting to remove my reference to Jesus, He was the primary reason I wrote the paragraph in the first place!)
Preliminaries aside, let me get to Charlie. Consider that in the first days and weeks after his assassination, many people claimed that his murder would only galvanize support for Charlie’s mission. More than one person said something like “This tragedy is going to create millions of Charlie Kirks – and with it, a renewed passion for boldly professing the Gospel.”
Yet here we are, 100 days later, and it is not apparent that there are millions more Charlies spreading the Gospel. On the contrary, it is painfully apparent that there is one less. Far from being galvanized, Charlie’s followers and admirers have fractured into, it would seem, a million pieces. The political right is at war with itself. But all this has been happening just as Scripture would have predicted:
Zech 13:7 …“Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered…”
This is what the Old Testament prophet Zechariah said, and what Jesus repeated (Matt 26:31; Mark 14:27) in His own times. “Striking the shepherd” is what bad people do when they want to stop a movement of good people. That is, the unrighteous go after the leader of the righteous for the same reason that the gunman went after Charlie’s head and not his feet. Bad people wouldn’t keep striking down good shepherds if it wasn’t an effective tactic.
“Striking down the shepherd” didn’t work with Jesus because God raised Him from the dead. Yes, Charlie got to go to heaven, but he didn’t get to spend 40 extra days and nights on earth strengthening his followers with personal appearances accompanied by encouragement and instruction as Jesus did. Neither will Charlie be able to direct the operations of Turning Point USA as Jesus was able to direct the operations of His apostles and disciples from the vantage point of heaven.
The Jesus movement got stronger when Jesus was crucified not by itself, but because it had great help – divine help…that had been planned for ages.
There will be a lot of rallying of Charlie’s troops this weekend at America Fest in Phoenix. May God be with them. But let us never underestimate the power of evil. Only when we recognize how strong it is will we be able to overcome it.
Rom 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Related essays:
- God in America’s Founding Documents (45 min)
- How Can One Person Change the World? (5 min)
- What’s Wrong with Secularism? (5 min)
- All Essays
12/19/25
The Duty of a Man 