The Subsequent Lessons

In 34 C.E., Stephen, the early church deacon, gave a rousing, historically accurate, and truth-based sermon to the Jewish religious leadership (Acts 7), which enraged them and led to their violent response—they dragged him out and stoned him to death.

On May 25, 2020, African-American George Floyd was killed in the process of being arrested for suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill.

On September 10, 2025, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated while engaging in a public dialogue with university students in Orem, Utah.

Regardless of the opinions we hold about these three individuals or the circumstances of their deaths, most people agree that their deaths were unjust—two clearly intentional; the other, though officially ruled as unintentional, was still unjust and not appropriate to the situation.

My focus in this blog, therefore, is not on the deceased individuals or the events related to their deaths, but in the aftermath of their deaths, the response of people who would be considered supporters of these individuals.

Do we learn anything of significance from the responses of various individuals and groups after each of these deaths? Do those responses give insight into the spiritual warfare going on in this world for hearts and minds? And can we utilize these insights to protect ourselves from deception as the final events occur before Christ’s return?

The Supporters of Stephen

Stephen was stoned during the time of the Roman occupation of Judea. The government was not Christian; it did not espouse Christian values. Yet, it did have a form of representation, and there were civil laws and citizen rights. Politics were part of that society. Groups would stage public protests to influence government officials to use the power of the state to advance their cause.

For example, when silver craftsmen in Ephesus, who made money by making various idols of their god Artemis, had their income threatened by the preaching of the apostle Paul, they staged a riot, loudly protesting until officials removed Paul from preaching (Acts 19:23–40 NIV84).

When the Jewish leadership was threatened by the teachings of Jesus, not only did they bring false testimony against Jesus in a sham trial, but when Pilate, seeing through their deceit, sought to release Jesus, the chief priests and elders stirred up the crowd to protest so loudly that, some translations say, Pilate feared a riot would break out, so he washed his hands and gave in to their demands and had Jesus crucified (Matthew 27:20–25 GNT).

Yet, when Stephen was unjustly and illegally stoned to death, the Christians did not respond with violence, rioting, or public protests. They did not seek to get the perpetrators punished. They did not seek to get a new governor in Palestine or new senators in Rome. They did not seek to get new laws passed.

Instead, the Christians responded by forgiving their persecutors, living orderly lives, praying for those who were against them, and dispersing throughout the region and seeking to tell others about Jesus. And as more Christians were unjustly treated, persecuted, and died as martyrs over the next century, their continued practice of the methods of Jesus—of grace, love, and forgiveness—revealed they had a power that the persecutors did not have.

They had received a power that works inside, a power that transforms lives, a power that frees one from fear and selfishness. They had received the power of love, the power of truth, the power of the Holy Spirit, who frees us from the control of the spirit of fear.

Their witness, empowered by love, stood in stark contrast to the unconverted, whether Jew or Gentile, who were controlled by the spirit of fear. It was fear that caused the unconverted to use imposed laws and their enforcement to seek to silence, punish, and destroy those spreading the gospel. But because the Christians stayed faithful to Jesus and refused to use the methods of this world, the methods of fear, the methods of law and law enforcement to advance the worship of Jesus, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire.

Paul, before his conversion, when he was known as Saul, used the power of the state, imposed law, and soldiers to enforce the law in persecuting Christians. But after his conversion, when he was freed from the spirit of fear and selfishness and lived empowered by the Spirit of love, truth, and trust, not only did his methods change, but he also counseled the Christians in a course completely contrary to what he used before his Damascus road experience:

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness (1 Timothy 2:1–2 NIV84).

Yet Paul, knowing that the war is a spiritual one, a war between fear and selfishness that uses the method of imposed law and coercive force versus the spirit of love and trust, which uses the method of truth, love, and freedom, sought to prepare the righteous for what the unconverted would do:

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12 NIV84).

Satan is the author of sin, the father of lies, which breaks the circle of love and trust and incites fear and selfishness. Fear and selfishness lead people to use power and force to control others as a means of making themselves feel safe. This always leads to imposed laws and law enforcement. Satan inspires the fearful, the unconverted, to do injustice and then uses that injustice to inflame fear in others so they will seek to do “justice” by embracing and practicing his methods.

Paul, from both his own experience and his enlightenment by the Holy Spirit, knew that law and law enforcement cannot change hearts and minds, cannot remove fear, cannot turn enemies into friends, cannot result in love, trust, loyalty, and devotion. He knew that what God seeks is the healing of hearts and minds, the removal of fear and selfishness from hearts, and the restoration of His image within, the writing of His living law upon hearts and minds (Hebrews 8:10), which is the basis of true unity.

Thus, when persecuted, the early Christians did not respond with riots, protests, politics, or any type of external system of law and law enforcement, but with Christlike love for their enemies and seeking to win hearts and minds to Jesus Christ. And the gospel of the kingdom of love spread to the known world.

This spiritual war between the methods of lies/fear/selfishness, with its imposed law and external system of force, punishment, and coercion, and the methods of truth/love/trust, with its internal law of love and truth written upon hearts, has not changed. Satan’s warfare is the same today; he seeks to get Christians to exchange the methods of God for his methods in pursuing “justice,” to embrace fear and the imposed-law and law-enforcement approach.

But the methods of God have not changed. God says it is “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” that He wins (Zechariah 4:6 NIV84). The Spirit brings the power of truth and love that transforms hearts and minds. The path of Christian victory has also not changed—it is still truth, love, trust, and freedom via the indwelling Spirit of God that transforms individual hearts.

The Supporters of George Floyd

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, many, but not all, of those who would be identified as his supporters rioted, engaged in violence, destroyed property, demanded retribution, activated political groups and parties, sought legal changes, new representatives in government, and the advancement of policies that served a certain political agenda.

They not only sought the punishment of the person held responsible for his death, but also, under the stated pursuit of the righteous goal of racial equality, the defunding of police departments, the removal of societal guardrails that protect the innocent, the advancement of policies that would increase chaos, disorder, pain, suffering, exploitation, and injustice, all under the guise of seeking greater justice. Even if some joined with innocent hearts seeking only justice and equality, the methods employed and outcomes achieved did not bring community healing. 

Their actions had the impact of inflaming fear, selfishness, and causing ethnic, racial, and economic division among people groups. This was politics seeking to change government, not truth and love seeking to heal hearts and unite communities. 

The protesters who acted violently did not lead hearts and minds closer to God, did not promote love, trust, friendship, community cooperation, but fear, suspicion, and hate.

One cannot achieve love, trust, loyalty, friendship, and a mature character by riots, violence, and chaos, nor can it be achieved by law and law enforcement, and, therefore, God’s kingdom cannot be advanced by such methods.

However, that does not mean, in a world of sin—in a world in which people are controlled by a spirit of fear, a motive of selfishness, and they seek to exploit, abuse, cheat, murder, rape, pillage, and harm others—that there is no place for human governments with law and law enforcement. There is, and Paul speaks of this in Romans 13. God has ordained, permitted, that imposed law is to be used by rulers and governments for the purpose of restraining evildoers, the unconverted, the unrighteous, those who have not been reborn, those who do not have God’s law written upon their hearts, from harming others, so that a level of civil order can be created that allows the gospel to go forward, which transforms hearts and minds and brings forth the kingdom of God.

In other words, imposed law and law enforcement are temporary measures that are used to restrain evil and have a restraining purpose in a world of sinful beings. But law and law enforcement cannot promote righteousness, cannot renew hearts, cannot win to love and trust.

And imposed law and law enforcement do not represent the kingdom of God, for God’s laws are design laws, the protocols upon which reality is built to operate. Satan tricks people into believing God’s kingdom is built on imposed law and law enforcement because imposed law is the highest form of government that sinful beings can make. The unconverted, those who don’t know God, cannot conceive of anything better. The wisdom of God is foolishness to them (1 Corinthians 1:20–25).

God tells us that His ways are not like ours:

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:7–9 NIV84).

God doesn’t govern using imposed laws that require the infliction of punishment. He freely pardons and provides the healing remedy. Why? Because God’s laws are design laws, the protocols life is built upon, like the laws of health. If someone breaks the laws of health, the doctor does not have to inflict punishment; the individual will reap their own death unless they are healed. This is reality. This is why the Bible says that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23 NIV84). “Sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:15 NKJV).

Sin breaks God’s design laws for life and causes death—but God loved us so much that He sent His only Son to provide a remedy to sin, to “take away the sin [cause of death] of the world” (John 1:29 NIV84) and provide a new heart and right spirit, to provide us a new life, a righteous, sinless life. He provides us with His sinless life of which we can partake, as Peter wrote, we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4 NKJV). Through faith, we receive that new life, the spirit of fear we inherited from Adam is replaced with the life, the spirit, of Christ, and we are reborn. As Paul wrote, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20 NKJV; see also 2 Timothy 1:7).

This is the reality of God’s kingdom, of what God wants to accomplish.

The Supporters of Charlie Kirk

We are still early in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination; as time unfolds, we will observe what direction his supporters take. But we can already see the potential for two divergent groups.

There are people, like his widow, who demonstrated love and grace when she publicly forgave the assassin and did not call for retribution. We have not seen riots, destruction of property, or violence, but many peaceful assemblies and other memorials and remembrances.

However, there are certain voices who are using his death as a rallying call for political action, for taking power from political opponents, for changing or adding new laws, for wielding the sword, the power of the state to punish.

There are some seeking to merge Christian faith with nationalism, patriotism, and government rule, seeking to bring Christian ideals back into society, not through the methods of the early church (witnessing truth and love to win hearts), but by using government to pass laws to promote certain Christian ideals—such as Christian prayer in schools, Bibles in public schools, church attendance, and more government-sponsored Christian holidays or celebrations.

And this is where it gets dangerous. Good people can get duped into working against Christ. How? By pursuing a good cause through Satan’s methods. It is a good cause to win people to Jesus, but it is an evil method to legislate religion, to pass laws that promote what people should believe or how they should worship.

It is a good thing when people desire to know God and voluntarily read their Bible, but it is a harmful method to legislate that people must read their Bible, including in public schools.

Any genuinely godly reform requires freedom of conscience, for only in freedom does love grow and hearts are transformed. Coercion of conscience always results in rebellion and the destruction of love from the heart. The trap of Satan is to deceive people into recognizing the benefits of worshiping God, reading the Bible, giving their heart to Jesus, but then trick them into thinking society can be improved by using the government to pass laws that promote these practices. If such a thing were to happen, and I pray it never does, it would not result in a godlier society, but a beastly, intolerant, and abusive one—very much like what happened in the Dark Ages.

My prayer is that if injustice happens to me or those whom I love, I will be motivated by Christ’s Spirit of love and respond like the early Christians, like Stephen, who, as he was being stoned, prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60 NIV84).