On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, Christian, husband, father, and conservative influencer was tragically assassinated. Charlie knew the Lord through faith in Jesus. Therefore, for him, to be absent from the body was to be immediately present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). But his death was premature and brought about by violent evil. The next day I went to see the Sight & Sound production of Noah in Pennsylvania. The inspired narrative in Genesis records that God judged the world with a worldwide flood because “GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:5 and 11). This description of continuous evil and violence sounds like our present world. Where did and does violence come from?
The Old Testament “seers” in a sense at times saw one world overlaying another. The Scripture explains. “…the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:11-12). There is a cosmic battle in the spirit or spiritual realm affecting the events in the physical realm. This does not negate human responsibility, but it does reveal there are unseen influencers that seek to affect our world.
When Jesus walked the same earthly world that was judged with a flood in Genesis, He explained that the devil, Satan, “is a liar” and the “father” of lies (John 8:44). The devil is the great deceiver. Jesus also said that the devil comes “to steal,” making him a thief, “to kill,” making him a murderer, and “to destroy,” making him a vandal and a terrorist (John 10:10). When we see and hear of murder and destruction in our world, Satan is behind it. He is the great assassin and destroyer.
When any ideology, whether religious or political, espouses, promotes, incites, and even justifies violence, that ideology sides with the devil—the wrong side. For the devil is also the great loser. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit convinces “of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment…Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged” (John 16:8 and 11). When Jesus cried out on the cross “It is finished” (John 19:30), He won the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. Provisionally, Satan was defeated at the cross. This defeat will be fully manifested in the events recorded in the book of Revelation. “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). All those who follow the devil and his lies and reject Jesus, who is the truth, will also be “cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). This is described as the “second death” because it is eternal separation from God who is life.
Our world needs Jesus! In the same verse where Jesus said that the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, in contrast Jesus declared that He comes that humankind might “have life” and have that life “more abundantly” (John 10:10). Jesus promised that those who believe on Him receive eternal life—His life (John 6:47; 1 John 1:2). Like the door to the ark in Noah’s day, Jesus is the door to life. Jesus declared, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9).
John Van Gelderen
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