Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk’s mentor Dr. Frank Turek on Saturday shared that the slain Christian wanted others to know about the gospel of salvation by God’s grace through faith alone apart from works. Turek has used Kirk’s death as an opportunity to reach more people with this message.
Turek, who runs the CrossExamined Christian apologetics ministry, was asked about the “Charlie Kirk effect” of young Americans seeking Christianity in the wake of Kirk’s assassination. He told Kayleigh McEnany on Fox News’s Saturday in America that young people are starting to “realize that there’s more to life than just video games … sex, money, and power, and prestige.”
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But what Kirk really “wanted people to know,” Turek said, is the “truth that you’re saved by grace, not by works, that you trust in what Christ did on the cross, and then you’re not only forgiven, you’re given his righteousness.”
Turek laid out a presentation of the gospel. The majority of professing Christians believe that God will judge everyone according to their righteousness, but “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) — therefore, they believe nobody can get into heaven based on their own good deeds. In order to receive atonement for sins, most Christians believe that God was manifest in the flesh in Jesus Christ and shed his sinless blood as a propitiation for their sins (Romans 3:25).
And they believe that it is through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, who died, was buried, and rose from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), that one can receive that blood atonement and God’s imputed righteousness. Contrary to many other systems of belief, they believe salvation from an eternity in hell is “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
To that point, Turek said, “Christianity is not all about doing good works. Christianity is about accepting Christ. Who did all the good work for us, and then out of love for what he’s done for us. Then we do good works.”
Turek further explained the “uniqueness of Christianity” in a Saturday interview with the Washington Examiner shortly before leading the morning prayer at TPUSA’s AmericaFest.
“Two of the biggest aspects of Christianity that make it unique are, No. 1, Christianity is true. In other words, there actually is a God. Jesus actually did predict and accomplish his own resurrection from the dead, and the Bible is true — there’s evidence for that,” he said, pointing to the arguments for Christianity in his book I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist.
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“But the second very important aspect that is unique about Christianity, unlike any other religious worldview, is that Christianity is built on grace, not on works. Jesus did all the work on the cross, and we just trust in Him. And when we trust in Him, we’re not only forgiven, we’re given his righteousness. And so when God sees us, he sees someone who’s innocent, because all of the punishment due us was put on Jesus,” he added.
“Unlike any other religious worldview, which tries to work their way to God, every other religion is trying to say, you got to do this, and you got to do that. You got to make yourself right with God. Christianity says no, you don’t have to do anything. God has already done it for you,” he said. “Now, out of love for what God has done for you, through Christ, you will want to obey his commands and do good works, but the works don’t save you. The works are just evidence that you have been forgiven.”
His point reflects the changed life most professing Christians believe comes after being “born again.”
“We’re all on a divine mission, and we’re either moving people toward Jesus, or we’re moving people away from Jesus, and what Charlie was so good at is [moving] people toward Jesus. In fact, he was so good at that, some people wanted him dead,” Turek said on Fox News on Saturday.
Kirk and Turek met in 2020, after the TPUSA leader reached out in admiration of the CrossExamined apologist. The two eventually became friends, and the Turek greatly influenced Kirk in his faith journey.
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Turek, who is set to give a speech at AmericaFest later Saturday, would go on to witness his protege’s September assassination in Utah.
In his interview with the Washington Examiner, Turek discussed how many people who were “resistant to Christianity [have] come to Christ through Charlie’s life and martyrdom and the clarity with which grace was spoken by many people at the memorial service.”