NOTES ON HOW TO BE ANGRY YET NOT SIN IN THE AGE OF ANTICHRIST & ASSASINATION (WITH VIDEO)

WATERSHED. [“A Critical Point, Event, or Stage in history that signals a ‘New Beginning or Significant Shift’”]. On September 10, 2025, while on stage at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, for a TPUSA event, ‘The American Comeback Tour,’ CHARLES JAMES (“CHARLIE”) KIRK was allegedly fatally shot in the neck by 22 year-old Tyler Robinson of Utah. The shooting took place around 12:20 p.m. MDT (18:20 UTC), 20 minutes after the event began, in front of an audience of about 3,000 people.

Immediately before being shot, Kirk was discussing mass shootings. A student asked, “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” and Kirk’s last words before being shot were his reply: ”Counting or not counting gang violence?”Kirk was taken to the Timpanogos Regional Hospital in critical condition, where he was pronounced dead later that afternoon. He was 31.” – EDITORS, Wikipedia, Sep. 11, 2025; edited

PRELUDE. On a very personal note, I am a child of political assassinations having been a college student in California during all three previous shootings of: President John F. (“Jack”) Kennedy on November 22, 1963; Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968; and Senator Robert F. (“Bobby”) Kennedy on June 6, 1968.

Each of these killings were “Watershed Events,” and each one in its own way changed my generation (and me) forever. Selah.

1. THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “Fret not yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness (that which is not upright or in right standing with God). For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.” – PSALM 37:1-2, AMPC

KEY TERM: “FRET NOT.” ‘Charah’ [תִּתְחַ֥ר]: “A primitive root meaning, ‘To glow or grow warm;’ to [earnestly] blaze up with anger; zeal; to be [extremely] displeased; to be incensed; to kindle [a fire]; to be very wrothful or become vexed.’” NOTE: “The verb חָרָה appears roughly ninety times across the Old Testament, spanning every major literary genre. It is especially prominent in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, Psalms, Job, Jeremiah, and Jonah. ‘Its contexts unify around the imagery of heat that flares up—most often describing anger, but at times pointing more broadly to intense indignation or grief.”’

QUOTATION. “Wild fury and righteous anger stirs up in the hearts of men, driving them to action, to battle, to fight. Hopefully, it’s tempered with the Code, with the Order. ‘Fury must be kept in check, and be used to propel justice, to free the oppressed, to protect.’” – JOSH HATCHER, Author, Wisdom for Men, 2016; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘When we look abroad we see the world full of Evil-doers, that flourish and live in ease.’ So it was seen of old, therefore let us not marvel at the matter. We are tempted to fret at this, to think them the only happy people, and so we are prone to do like them: But this we are warned against. Outward prosperity is fading. When we look forward, with an Eye of Faith, we shall see no reason to envy the wicked. Their weeping and wailing will be everlasting …

‘What is the desire of the heart of a good man? It is this, to know, and love, and serve God. Commit thy way unto the Lord; roll thy way upon the Lord,’ so the margin reads it. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, the burden of thy care. We must roll it off ourselves, not afflict and perplex ourselves with thoughts about future events, but refer them to God. By prayer spread thy case and all thy cares before the Lord, and trust in him. ‘We must do our Duty, and then leave the Event with God!’ The Promise is very sweet: He shall bring that to pass, whatever it is, which thou has committed to Him.” – MATTHEW HENRY, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

II. TEACHING

I have never been so angry as I have been for ten years running now since the Rise of Donald Trump to essentially commandeer the American Order. But not even so much over that astonishing and dangerous new Reality, beloved.

‘Rather because of what I see the CHURCH doing, beloved, and as much if not more, what the Church refuses to do!’

After watching a stirring, fiery sermon by Dr. Hart Ramsey titled, “How the Righteous Should Respond to Evil” (Hunger Church Atlanta, Mar. 4, 2025), I nearly jumped from my chair at several points. Then I read this quotation from Charles Spurgeon:

“A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are as easy as an old shoe are generally of as little worth.” – Lectures to My Students, 1875

ERA OF ANTI-REASON. Following the horrifying assassination of Trump Christian Nationalism advocate Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah, I heard a spokesman at a follow up press conference speak these words, with a good deal of genuine emotion:

“America is broken, and we desperately need leaders who can lead us out of this terrible place.”

Or words close to that effect. And I agree with its basic sentiment to be sure, but differ from his likely reference to our political leaders. Beloved, we have not a single Political or Church Leader in all of America who can fix this.

Not one. More on that later.

For this part of our discussion, I turn to ALAN ELROD’S excellent piece titled, “You’re Not Crazy: America Has Gone Mad” (Liberal Currents, April 5, 2025; edited). He is the co-founder, along with the inaugural board, of the Pulaski Institution. He received his undergraduate degree in History at Harding University and his Master’s at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

Here is a SUMMARY of his MAIN IDEAS.

• OPEN. “‘Never has our future been more unpredictable. Never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces that look like sheer Insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries.’This is an oft-quoted passage from HANNAH ARENDT’S The Origins of Totalitarianism [1951]. And it’s one that has proven especially popular in the years since the ‘Rise of Trump and explosion of Global Authoritarianism.’”

• INSANITY. “I open with it here because I want to offer an extended reflection on what it feels like to be trapped inside the sort of Madhouse she describes. ‘Because I think sheer Insanity now rules America.’ We have gone Mad, and the consequence is that sanity now feels itself like a Disorder.  We aren’t the first society to come unglued. We almost certainly will not be the last. But right now, each day in America for those of us who do not favor the president or hold to the MAGA Worldview feels like we have been sent to some dilapidated Asylum by mistake, like the protagonist of a pulp thriller. Nothing is working as it should. No one is speaking in sentences that add up to anything sensible.”

• FASCISM. “How did a man who admitted he has brain damage from a worm and who has spent decades spreading deadly disinformation about the efficacy of modern medicine become the head of our nation’s health services? … And it’s here I want to turn to Nazi Science. This is not as abrupt a ‘Transition’ as it might seem. Part of the Madness of the Nazi Regime was the imposition of their deranged and deadly scientific approaches on the whole population. America is not [not yet] a Totalitarian Society. But it is in the grips of Madness driven by Authoritarian figures, and Kennedy’s destructive reign at HHS is warping American life to his eccentric and cruel scientific worldview. And the absurdity of it all is relevant. Too many people have a view of the Nazis as rigorously empirical and scientific thinkers whose crime was that they applied this in service of their devout Racism. But Nazism was also a mess of inconsistencies, irrationality, and bad science.”

• CAPITALISM. “‘Markets are supposed to be Rational.’ This is not an uncontested statement. After all, Capitalism is an economics with a long history of panics, bubbles, and crashes. But, setting aside the most ideological critiques of the system, markets are meant to aggregate information. When they work well, prices and commerce reflect agreed upon facts, undergirded by mutual trust. Trade itself is a communicative process that allows parties—individuals, companies, nations—to enjoy mutually beneficial gains. None of this is how things appear to be working at the moment. Let’s begin with Trump’s Tariffs. Trump’s Tariff Chart, displayed on ‘Liberation Day’ not only included figures completely detached from economic reality but included places where no tariff can even be applied … We are now in the Stage of Trumpism where economic decline and the loss of personal financial security are worthy sacrifices in the name of Donald’s grand, incoherent, vision. “

• EXPANSIONISM. “In the same way we have become used to a booming economy, perhaps we have also become over-accustomed to peace. This might seem strange to say when America only recently concluded its decades long foreign engagements in the Global War on Terror or when Russia is currently waging war on Ukraine or when Israel’s war on Gaza has dominated headlines for a year. But how else to explain the lack of alarm among the American press as Trump continues to suggest he will seize Greenland and wants to annex Canada? [or invade Venezueala!] … When our Media covers Trump’s language as audacious but not necessarily bellicose, they are writing a fantasy. The only way to take Trump’s expansionist talk seriously is to lay out explicitly that it is not achievable without direct conflict with other states. Anything short of that, anything that entertains it as either edgy policy or tough talk is farcical. Madness is as much a denial of reality as it is an embrace of the unreal. Here, our Press has continued to deny what is so clearly front of them: the rapacious ambitions of a Narcissistic Strongman.”

• UNWELLNESS. “‘The Effects of all this are to make those who are not in lockstep with MAGA feel they are losing their grip on Reality. What is happening is that our Reality is being remade before us in the image of an irrational, chaotic, despotic, and unscientific worldview. ‘This is insane’ is the common refrain, but each time we say it some part of our mind slips and shifts, the structural integrity of our own sense of the world weakening a little. MAGA is a Project of Delusion, both personal and political, and it has absolutely ‘Unmoored American Society.’”

• CHAOS. “We aren’t only witnessing an unspooling of our institutions and public decision making. ‘We seem beset by a kind of generalized moral insanity—only its locus is the GOP [and the CHURCH!]. So who are we to BE in such a society?’ How are we to find sense, stability, and sanity when so much feels like it is coming undone? … Will Trump attempt to have a third term in office as he has repeatedly stated he wants to do? ‘No,’ people will say, ‘He can’t do that. That’s insane.’ ‘Ok,’ should come our reply, ‘But what if he does?’”

• CONCLUSION. “We must be as frank as possible about the challenges before us and willing to call things as we see them, no matter what our opponents or even our own allies might say. ‘We have to stare at the Abyss and dare it to stare back.’ We can be Realistic about how Dark things have gotten and retain the hope necessary to fight what could well be a long, even generational struggle to reclaim American democracy. ‘For my own sanity. I have to believe that we will win.’” 

CONSEQUENCES. All of this massive Loss of Order make us distressed, increasingly on edge, which naturally leads us to becoming increasingly ANGRY! For Christians laboring to remain faithful to Christ, there is one aspect of all this Moral Chaos that drives us nearly to Palpable Outrage:

‘The White Evangelical Church’s CAPITULATION to the MAGA Nationalist Worldview.’

III. THE KIRK DIVIDE

Sadly, and dangerously, the Nation is now caught in a flood tide of embittered infighting between those who admired Kirk and those who despised him. And yes, there are Christians engaged in this furious conflict on both sides of that Great Debate over what he stood for and taught so effectively to American young people.

REVENGE & CIVIL WAR DRUMS. Journalist for The Guardian, TESS OWENS writes: “Within hours of Charlie Kirk being shot dead at a college event in Utah, he had been turned into a FAR-RIGHT MARTYR in the US’s raging Culture War. Many prominent Rightwing voices and influencers quickly characterized his murder, in no uncertain terms, as an ‘Act of War’ from the Left – and have vowed to respond in kind.’”

Of the Five Next Wars I see on the horizon in these Last Days, I predicted the first one would be a SECOND CIVIL WAR: “The Line for such a Second American Conflagration was drawn in the bloody pavement at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 …  [when it] was attacked by a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump” [another ‘Watershed Event’] (Cliff Kelly, The Sixth Seal II, 2024, p. 147).

KIRK’S POLITICAL GOSPEL. Therefore, I want us to consider FIVE MAJOR IDEAS that Kirk’s Turning Point USA (founded in 2012 with Bill Montgomery) nonprofit organization shared with high school and college students throughout the nation over the past several years in alliance with Donald Trump’s Maga Christian Nationalism Movement.

This information is taken from a piece by journalist and editor BETH HARDIE writing for the British tabloid, Mirror, in a piece titled, “Charlie Kirk’s Five Most Controversial Claims” (Sep. 11, 2025; edited).

I will remain dispassionate in this section given its sensitivity of moment. ‘I report, you decide,’ a catchphrase that has faded in past years but which I resurrect here as a matter of Journalistic Integrity.

CHRISTOLOGY. “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (MATTHEW 12:37, NKJV).

1. GUN CONTROL. “‘Kirk was a huge supporter of the Second Amendment’ and fought to preserve it, despite the regular occurrence of mass shootings in the US. In 2023 he said he believed the loss of human life was ‘worth it’ to maintain citizen’s rights. ‘It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights … That is a prudent deal, it is rational,’ he said during an appearance at the Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church. Just moments before he was assassinated, he was discussing shootings and was asked how many had been carried out by transgender people in the last 10 years. He replied, ‘Too many,’ before then being asked how many mass shooters there had been in the US in the last 10 years. Moments later a shot rang out and he was seen raising his hand to his neck before collapsing to the ground.”
2. TRANSGENDER RHETORIC. “Kirk refused to accept transgender people, or that a person could identify as a different gender than the one they were born as. He said he believed people who were transgender had a ‘mental illness’ andneeded ‘brain treatment.’ He refused to use chosen pronouns saying, ‘I will not call a man a woman.’ Knownfor quoting religious scripture which supported his views, he once read out a phrase from the Bible during a church speech that stated: ‘A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak.’ Just beforehand he told the audience he believed: ‘The transgender thing happening in America” was a middle finger to God.’”
3. CIVIL RIGHTS. “At a conference in 2023 Kirk revealed that he didn’t support the Civil Rights Act of 1965 which prohibited discrimination on race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, and prohibited segregation. The new laws significantly boosted Black voter registration. ‘I have a very, very radical view on this, but I can defend it, and I’ve thought about it,’ he said. ‘We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.’ He claimed that the law brought about a ‘permanent’ bureaucracy which promoted diversity and inclusion. He also labelled civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. ‘awful’ and said he was, ‘not a good person.’”
4. CONSPIRACY THEORIST. “During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Kirk regularly shared Conspiracy Theories on social media. It led to him being banned for a time from Twitter for misinformation. In March 2020, he used the phrase the “China Virus” in an argument about border control with an accompanying clip of him giving a speech. It was adopted by Trump afterwards when referring to Covid. ‘Now, more than ever, we need the wall,’ he wrote. ‘With China Virus spreading across the globe, the US stands a chance if we can [get] control of our borders. President Trump is making it happen.’”
5. IMMIGRATION, RACE & ETC. “In February 2024 he posted that‘The Great Replacement’ was a ‘Reality’ and not a theory. It is based on the idea that undocumented immigrants are entering the US to replace white Americans. It has been widely debunked as a Conspiracy Theory but has been adopted by prominent far-right politicians and media … He was often recorded as making highly provocative statements, such as, ‘I’m sorry. If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, “Boy, I hope he’s qualified,’” which he said during a 2024 podcast.which he said during a 2024 podcast. In another podcast he suggested incarceration would solve the housing crisis in the US. ‘We do not have enough people in jail in this country,’ he said. ‘One of my hopes is to turn the Republican Party into a resolutely stronger Party on crime,’ he continued.

‘We are not harsh enough on crime in this country’ … and this is not just about stopping criminals. If you enforce the law, housing will be cheaper because more of the country will be livable.’In February [2024] while discussing capital punishment he said children should watch people being killed using the death penalty and that executions should be public. ‘Death penalties should be public, should be quick, it should be televised. I think at a certain age, it’s an initiation’ … he said before adding that ‘the crime rate would go down if kids had witnessed an execution.’”

NOTE. In light of these views, it is of critical significance that the vast majority of the White Evangelical Church considers Charlie Kirk an ‘Honored Martyr’ to the cause of Jesus Christ. JON PAVLOVITZ observes:

“‘Jesus’ central command was to love.’ How exactly did Kirk love immigrants and people of color and women and Trans teens and Muslims and Democrats and atheists? Precisely what of his work and words made them feel more seen, heard, respected, valued? Charlie Kirk was a human being, a husband, a father, a leader to a movement, an adept communicator, and his murder was an act of unconscionable barbarism. But Conservative Christians need to stop pretending he was doing God’s work here, because Kirk’s actual words and the actual words of Jesus are compelling testimony that he wasn’t.” – “The Shameful Christian Idolatry and Fraudulent Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk,” Substack, Sep. 12, 2025; edited

IV. LAST THOUGHTS ON ANGER

As I penned these final words, I was reminded of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ Five Stages Grief (1969) in the aftermath of a Great Trauma – ‘Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.’ It feels as if America in just ten years is having to deal with the first four stages all at once!

‘Society-wide PTSD’ comes to mind here.

TWO KINDS OF ANGER. As I listened to Republican Utah Governor Spencer Cox’s emotional plea in a news conference just this morning (Sep. 13, 2025), he accurately expressed Two Realities: One, that “America is broken.” And Two, that he had never been so angry in all his life. So yes, we will close with a brief treatment of STAGE II: ANGER.

I borrow from the sensible teaching by BETTY DODGE, a member of the consortium associated with the Blog, Fighter Verses. Her title: “Righteous and Unrighteous Anger” (May 15, 2021; edited).

EPHESIANS 4:26-27 (NKJV): “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”

• BE ANGRY. “‘Righteous Anger is a settled conviction of God’s holiness that burns in our hearts against all manner of evil, hating what God hates, loving what He loves.’ It is anger that is tempered by wisdom and reason. There is also a grieving humility that accompanies righteous anger and this is a good test for us when we get angry. In Mark’s Gospel account, JESUSgives us an example:

“And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man who had the withered hand, ’Step forward.’ Then He said to them,‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ But they kept silent. And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other” (MARK 3:1-5, NKJV).

• DO NOT SIN. “‘Jesus’ Righteous Anger directed at the Pharisees was coupled with grief for the hardness of their hearts.’ He then glorified the Father in the healing of this man. In the same way our Righteous Anger can drive us to do what is pleasing in God’s sight. Yet, because of our frailties and weaknesses, the command, ‘Be angry’ is necessarily followed by another command that warns us, ‘and do not sin.’What starts out as Righteous Anger can easily cross over into self-centered passions, agitations, exasperations, and even bitterness. Ephesians 4:31 exhorts us, ‘Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice.’”

• DO NOT LET THE SUN GO DOWN. “‘Do not carry the burden of righteous anger when it is time to rest.’ At the end of the day, if your heart is not at peace, it is essential that you turn to the Lord, setting your mind on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Let His authority and sovereignty give you peace. Or perhaps your Righteous Anger has crossed over into Unrighteous Anger that requires ‘Confession and Repentance.’ It is time to come to God in Jesus’ name and receive forgiveness and restoration of a clean heart. Continuing in Unrighteous Anger can grow a Root of Bitterness, cause a grudge to be taken up.

EPHESIANS 4:27 states: ‘Give no opportunity to the devil.’ Remember the instruction we are given by the Apostle Paul in his Letter to the ROMANS 12:17-20 (NKJV): “Repay no one evil for evil. Haveregard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

DK’S ENDNOTE. While we again decry and forcefully renounce the murder of Charlie Kirk as catastrophically outside the bounds of the Christian Canon, I remain profoundly ‘Outraged’ at the White Church’s stunning near-deification of a set of ideas that are theologically definable as:

 “The Doctrines of Demons.”

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron …

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the  lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 

And for this reason God will send them STRONG DELUSION, that they should believe the lie,that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” – 1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2; 2 THESSALONIANS 2:8-12, NKJV

GOD’S POINT. MAGA Christian Nationalism is from Satan, and all who continue to partner with shall perish.

Therefore, choose wisely, exceptionally, existentially well, beloved. ‘This is ourLast Great Test. Don’t fail it!’

Selah.

MEDIA

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/PvBizpxdC-g