The Theology of Charlie Kirk through a Reformed-Confessional Lens

Abstract

This study examines the theology of Charlie Kirk through a Reformed-confessional lens, comparing his public teaching and political ministry to the doctrinal standards of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the theology of John Calvin. Across three parts, this study traces the emergence of Kirk’s civil religion that redefines grace as moral activism, faith as patriotism, and the church as a political constituency.

Part I surveys Kirk’s platforms: Turning Point USA, TPUSA Faith, and allied church events, and identifies eight recurring patterns that subordinate the Gospel to cultural renewal.

Part II analyzes twelve doctrinal conflicts between Kirk’s system and the Five Solas: Scripture, Grace, Faith, Christ, and the Glory of God. These reveal a consistent displacement of divine initiative by human effort, culminating in a nationalist eschatology alien to Reformed orthodoxy.

Part III evaluates his late Roman-Catholic sympathies and public praise of Mormonism, showing how both expressions collapse confessional boundaries and promote a pan-Christian coalition theology rooted in pragmatism rather than revelation.

The study concludes that Kirk’s theology revives pre-Reformation errors of synergism, sacerdotalism, and civil millennialism, under a populist guise. Reformed theology answers by recovering the twofold kingdom of Christ and the sufficiency of Word and sacrament. Only through renewed fidelity to sola Scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus, and soli Deo gloria can the contemporary church resist the transformation of Christianity into a political mythology and bear faithful witness in a transient world.

Part I — Public Teachings & Platforms

Charlie Kirk’s public theology developed across multiple media: Turning Point USA (TPUSA), TPUSA Faith, his The Charlie Kirk Show, and frequent “Freedom Night in America” events in megachurches. Although he often identified as a Christian nationalist opposed to “woke” secularism, his religious framework consistently departs from Reformed orthodoxy in both substance and tone. The following survey outlines his major teachings and the theological assumptions beneath them.

1.1 Kirk’s Political Gospel

From 2019 onward Kirk presented the Gospel as a national revival program. In speeches such as “Faith and Freedom 2020” he proclaimed that “The church is the greatest untapped asset in the entire country to the fight for freedom and liberty.”¹ Calvin and the Westminster divines would recognise here a confusion of kingdoms. WCF 23.3 limits the magistrate to civil justice, not evangelistic vocation. Calvin’s Institutes (4.20.1) warns that to mingle spiritual redemption with temporal government is to “confound heaven and earth.” Kirk’s synthesis produces a functional Pelagianism of the polis. By that term I mean a political theology that treats the nation as a moral agent capable of redeeming itself by its own virtue, laws, and activism. All this is achieved without dependence upon divine grace through Christ alone. It is salvation by activism.

1.2: The Church as a Political Arm

TPUSA Faith’s literature invites pastors to “turn their churches into centres of civic engagement.” On their website, TPUSA Faith writes about their mission as “serving pastors, faith leaders, churches, and believers … building an active network of churches, local faith groups, community impact events, registering voters, and educating the Christian community on the connection between Faith and freedom.” (italics added). In effect, the local church becomes a campaign headquarters. WCF 25.3 defines the visible church as the communion of saints under Christ’s headship through Word and sacrament, in no way a campaign workshop.

When the pulpit becomes a podium for voter drives and political activism, the church’s distinctives are obscured. Calvin’s Geneva kept magistrates near but not in the pulpit; Kirk’s model reverses that discipline. In Institutes, 2.11.1 Calvin explains that the Old and New Covenants are one in substance but diverse in form. The patriarchs were saved by faith in the coming Christ, as believers are by faith in the revealed Christ. Charlie Kirk’s “prosperity” covenant rhetoric is the opposite of Calvin’s point: any theology that treats obedience or national morality as the condition of divine blessing mistakes the shadow (temporal Israel) for the substance (Christ). It thereby re-Judaizes the gospel and collapses grace back into works.

This is a re-run of Rousas John Rushdoony’s project (Christian Reconstructionism or Theonomy) though in a more theocratic form. Rushdoony’s core thesis, as revealed in In The Institutes of Biblical Law ² and The Politics of Guilt and Pity ³, taught that the Mosaic Law remains binding on civil society and that nations are morally obliged to apply biblical case law as the foundation of justice. He argued that redeemed individuals and communities can, through obedience to divine statutes, “reconstruct” society according to the law of God.

1.3. Populist Anthropolog

Kirk’s anthropology is Pelagian rather than Pauline. He routinely insists, “We can save America if good people rise up.” Whilst it must be acknowledged the Kirk identified the moral bankruptcy of America, the Reformers denied that moral capacity was sufficient for revival. Calvin wrote that man is “utterly deprived of all righteousness.” WCF 9.3 affirms that fallen man “is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself.” Kirk’s optimism treats sin as policy failure, not corruption of nature. There is no biblical or Reformed doctrine of fallen man in Kirk’s theology.

By preaching collective virtue rather than individual regeneration, Kirk’s populism produces moral reform without repentance. Michael Horton calls this the “Pelagian reflex of modern revivalism, assuming the will’s capacity to achieve grace.”⁷ The Reformed corrective insists that civic virtue may adorn society, but only divine grace renews hearts. When moral self-confidence replaces dependence upon grace, the state becomes the saviour, and political activism the new means of grace.

1.4. The Prosperity Reflex

While rejecting a prosperity gospel, Kirk nonetheless employs the logic of preachers preaching a prosperity gospel.^{8, 9} Instead of personal wealth, Kirk’s prosperity gospel is that national blessing follows faithfulness. “If America obeys God’s principles,” he told a Dallas congregation, “He will prosper our land.” This recycles Deuteronomic covenant categories without covenantal mediation in Christ. Calvin distinguished between Israel’s typological land-promise and the church’s heavenly inheritance. WCF 7.5–7.6 locates all covenant blessing “in Christ.”

R. Scott Clark warns that such reasoning “re-Judaizes the gospel”¹⁰ turning providence into a barometer of merit. It also contradicts the Reformed understanding of common grace: God distributes temporal goods indiscriminately. Thus, national prosperity cannot be read as divine favour any more than poverty can be read as wrath. Calvin’s exegesis of Job 1 underscores that very point, that piety and prosperity are not proportionate.

1.5. Celebrity Discipleship

Kirk’s religious influence depends upon charisma rather than office. The Charlie Kirk Show functions as pulpit and confessional simultaneously: political commentary is fused with devotional monologue. Calvin feared exactly this: “Those who think they can enjoy Christ without the church deceive themselves; for as the mother conceives us and brings us forth, so she nourishes us all our life.”.¹¹ WCF 31.1 assigns doctrinal determination to lawful synods, not to self-appointed broadcasters. Horton remarks that “the pastor’s cure of souls cannot be livestreamed; formation requires the embodied means of grace.”¹²

By transferring spiritual allegiance from pastor to pundit, Kirk’s movement replicates the cult of celebrity that Calvin identified in Corinth (“I am of Paul”). The result is not merely vanity but disorder. It is discipleship through parasocial attachment rather than ecclesial discipline. In Reformed polity, the church alone possesses the keys of the kingdom; influencers possess only followers. The result is catechesis by algorithm rather than by elders. In practical terms, the church, as the bride of Christ, is being replaced by something unrecognizable made in our own image.

1.6. Eschatology of Triumph

Across TPUSA Faith rallies, Kirk proclaims, “We will take back the culture for Christ.” This slogan embodies what theologians call realised eschatology: the assumption that Christ’s kingdom will be manifested through cultural dominance before His return. The Reformers expected not cultural dominion but perseverance amid suffering. Calvin’s exposition of 2 Cor 4:7 reminds believers that the church’s treasure is carried “in jars of clay.” WCF 33.1 directs our hope to the final judgment, not earthly ascendancy. Kirk’s realised eschatology yields activism as sacrament and optimism as creed. Again, in practice, the work of sanctification in a believer’s life is replaced by political activism. Our eternal inheritance, safe-guarded in heaven , 1 Peter 1:4, is replaced with a hope of political triumph here and now on polling day.

The Reformed tradition guards the already/not-yet tension: Christ reigns now, yet His kingdom advances by Word and Spirit, not by law or coercion. When activism replaces proclamation, the cross is eclipsed by the sword. Kevin DeYoung cautions that “cultural victory is not the Great Commission.”¹³ The church conquers not by dominance but by witness and endurance.

1.7. Syncretic Alliances

Kirk’s stage frequently hosts prosperity preachers, Pentecostal apostles, and even Catholic and LDS guests, united under the vague banner of “faith.” This coalition treats doctrinal distinctives as impediments to national renewal. Faith becomes the lowest-common-denominator front for political (conservative) unity. WCF 25.4 describes the purest churches as those “most sound in doctrine and worship.” Calvin warned that false peace—unity without truth—“corrupts the body from within.”¹⁴

By collapsing orthodoxy into coalition, TPUSA Faith functions as an ecumenism of utility: agreement on values replaces agreement on gospel. R. Scott Clark notes that “the Reformers did not die for moral order but for justification by faith alone.”¹⁵ When justification is no longer the article by which the church stands or falls, activism fills the vacuum.

Kirk’s broad coalition trades orthodoxy for energy. I will not provide footnotes for the following, but each of these alliances can easily be verified online.

At the Faith Forward Pastors Summit, TPUSA Faith hosts evangelical names like Greg Laurie, Lucas Miles, Samuel Rodriguez, Steve Deace, Frank Turek, and others. This shows overlap with broadly evangelical speakers beyond strictly Reformed or conservative political realms. Others include:

• Rob McCoy (Pentecostal / charismatic pastor)

• Rob McCoy is also co-founder of TPUSA Faith with Kirk. Their partnership is a clear example of blending charismatic church leadership with political mobilization.

• Lucas Miles and other charismatic-inclined pastors.

• In coverage of the pastors summit, the TPUSA Faith director Lucas Miles (a charismatic-leaning pastor) is noted to have thanked Catholic attendees and signaled an ecumenical posture.

• Catholic audience engagement.

• During TPUSA Faith pastors’ events, they explicitly thanked Catholic attendees in the crowd, signaling a willingness to bridge denominational divides.

• Frank Turek

• On The Charlie Kirk Show, Kirk invited Frank Turek (an apologist known across evangelical circles) to share the gospel and discuss TPUSA’s growth, reflecting cooperation with broader Christian apologetic networks.

• Dream City Church (Luke Barnett’s church and Kirk’s home church)

• TPUSA Faith holds monthly “Faith Events” hosted at Dream City Church under Pastor Luke Barnett. That anchors the TPUSA Faith alliance to a specific church and its broader networks.

• Memorial Church Partnerships

• For Kirk’s memorial, TPUSA Faith partnered with churches nationwide to host community screenings of his memorial service, effectively mobilizing congregational networks across multiple denominations.

• Evangelical / political influencer alliances

• Kirk’s influencer-driven network (e.g. Isabel Brown, Brett Cooper, Allie Beth Stuckey) often echoed themes of church + nation, suggesting that his alliances extended into media / Christian influencer realms.

1.8. The Martyr of the Republic.

Kirk is frequently hailed as a martyr. Martin Isles is a prime example of such veneration.¹⁶ Isles does not seem to show any discernment of Kirk’s theology beyond expressions such as “There is a gaping hole in christian activism...Charlie Kirk preached the gospel over and over”. Given the points made above, and that there is no biblical example of political martyrs being portrayed as martyrs for Christ, such veneration is verging onto idolatry.

After Kirk’s death, the movement’s memorials effectively canonised Kirk as a national saint. Stadium services merged revival imagery with political lament. Religion News Service noted that Scripture was read “as campaign anthem.”¹⁷ Calvin’s polemic against Rome’s cult of saints applies exactly here: to venerate a hero as mediator of divine destiny is to misplace glory.¹⁸ The Reformers abhorred precisely this translation of piety into patriotic liturgy. WCF 2.2 forbids giving “religious worship to any creature.” What a contrast with Calvin’s desire to be buried in an unknown grave with Kirk’s televised memorial service!

The hero-veneration by churches of Kirk has thus become a form of Protestant hagiolatry. This “evangelical hagiolatry” betrays the fifth Sola, Soli Deo Gloria. God alone deserves glory; all secondary causes are means, not mediators. Machen’s critique of liberalism echoes the same point: whenever Christianity becomes the celebration of man’s achievement, it ceases to be Christianity.¹⁹

Conclusion to Part 1. The Five Solas and the Public Catechism

This has been only a brief review of Kirk’s platforms and his revealed theology. Each element of Kirk’s theology and activist gospel, politicised church, optimistic anthropology, conditional prosperity, influencer discipleship, triumphalist eschatology, syncretic coalition, and patriotic hagiolatry contradicts one or more of the Reformation’s Solas.

• Sola Scriptura is undermined when political strategy and charismatic rhetoric claim revelatory authority.
• Sola Gratia is denied when national virtue becomes the ground of divine favor.
• Sola Fide is obscured when faith means civic resolve rather than resting in Christ’s righteousness.
• Solus Christus is displaced when movements and leaders become mediators of hope.
• Soli Deo Gloria is forgotten when applause rises for the nation or its champion.

In Calvin’s language, these substitutions “transfer the honour of God to the creature.”²⁰ The Westminster divines would have diagnosed Kirk’s movement not as heresy in scholastic form but as practical Arminianism. It is a system in which human initiative determines divine blessing. The Reformed response remains unchanged: the Gospel is not advice about saving civilization but news of a Saviour who saves sinners.

Part II — Doctrinal Conflicts vs Calvin & WCF.

The preceding survey of Charlie Kirk’s public platforms established the contours of a populist theology that borrows Christian vocabulary whilst remaining detached from Reformed substance. Part II examines how those statements, slogans, and mobilizing tropes contradict the doctrines articulated by John Calvin in the Institutes of the Christian Religion and codified by the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF). Each subsection isolates one doctrinal axis where Kirk’s message departs from the Five Solas: Scripture, Grace, Faith, Christ, and the Glory of God, and from the Reformed view of the church’s spiritual mission within the twofold kingdom of Christ.

2.1. Church and State Collapsed

Kirk’s rejection of “separation of church and state” recasts Christ’s kingdom as a partisan instrument. However, conservatism should not be equated with Christianity. Calvin insisted that the civil and spiritual jurisdictions “must always be examined separately.”²¹ WCF 23.3 echoes Calvin: the magistrate “may not administer the Word or sacraments.” By demanding that churches become centres of political organisation, Kirk reverses this order, subjugating the church’s ministry of Word and Sacrament to civil ends. In Reformed polity, the sword and the keys belong to distinct offices; Kirk’s fusion effectively hands the keys to Caesar.²² The consequence is a politicised piety that measures faithfulness by activism rather than repentance.

2.2. Sola Scriptura and the Seven Mountains

At Conservative Political Action Conference 2020, Kirk praised a president who “understands the seven mountains of cultural influence.” The theme of the conference was America vs. Socialism. Main participants were President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Charlie Kirk (Turning Point USA), Candace Owens, Sen. Ted Cruz, and numerous media and religious figures. The conference centred on opposing socialism, defending free markets, and promoting conservative social values. The Seven Mountains schema, imported from the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), claims revelation of seven spheres Christians must conquer. C. Peter Wagner²³, Lance Wallnau²⁴ (leaders in the NAR) and Bill Johnson (Bethel Church, Redding) have popularised the idea as a prophetic “7 mountain mandate”.

A brief summary NAR’s ideology of The Seven Mountains (sometimes called Seven Spheres of Influence or Seven Cultural Pillars) builds upon claims that in 1975, God revealed to Bill Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ) and Loren Cunningham (Youth With A Mission) that Christians must “take back” seven key sectors of society to transform nations and establish God’s kingdom on earth. These 7 mountains cover every area of society.

1. Religion (Faith) : The church and all spiritual institutions; shaping moral and theological authority.
2. Family: Marriage, sexuality, and child-rearing; preserving “biblical family values.”
3. Education : Schools, universities, and curricula; promoting a Christian worldview in learning.
4. Government: Law, policy, and civic leadership; placing “righteous leaders” in authority.
5. Media: News, journalism, and social media; controlling narratives and moral messaging.
6. Arts & Entertainment: Film, music, and culture; reclaiming creativity for “kingdom purposes.”
7. Business (Economy): Commerce and finance; generating wealth to fund the kingdom mission.

The purpose behind 7MM thought is the idea that Christians should conquer or influence these seven cultural “mountains” so that God’s kingdom can be manifested on earth before Christ’s return. It is a postmillennial or dominionist vision. Believers are called to “take back” these seven mountains to establish God’s kingdom on earth. Reformed theology calls such private “mandates” additions to Scripture. WCF 1.6 forbids “new revelations of the Spirit.” Calvin’s axiom, that Scripture is the “school of the Holy Spirit”, confines revelation to the written Word. Kirk’s embrace of 7MM dominionism trades exegesis for strategy: a pragmatic canon that baptises worldly success.²⁵

2.3. Grace Displaced by Moral Activism

Kirk’s frequent exhortation that America will be saved “if Christians simply stand up”²⁶ reduces grace to a cultural incentive. The Biblical concept of grace is robbed of all God-honouring content. The Reformed doctrine of grace begins with divine initiative: “By grace you have been saved … not of yourselves” (Eph 2:8). Calvin rebuked any scheme in which God’s favour is “earned by the zeal of men.” WCF 11.3 teaches justification “is not by infusing righteousness into them.” Kirk’s rhetoric reverses that logic; the nation becomes the object of salvation and activism its sacrament. The danger is moralism with a red flag. It is religious vocabulary emptied of gospel content.

2.4. Faith Reduced to Patriotism

In numerous Freedom Night sermons²⁷ Kirk declared, “Faith means being willing to fight for what’s right in this country.” This collapses fiducia, trust in Christ’s finished work, into civic courage. WCF 14 defines saving faith as “receiving and resting upon Christ alone.” Calvin calls faith “a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence.” Patriotism, however laudable, is not salvific confidence. When belief is equated with nationalism, the cross becomes a banner and justification yields to activism. Israel learnt by judgement that nationalism is foreign to faith in Christ.

2.5. Christ’s Mediatorship and Civil Religion

Kirk’s civil-religious language—“God has chosen America for a special destiny”—assigns to the republic what Reformed theology reserves for the Mediator. Calvin warned that “Christ’s kingdom is not of this world,” citing John 18:36. WCF 8.1 grounds all redemptive mediation exclusively in the God-man, not in pseudo political covenants. The notion of a chosen nation replays Old Testament typology without the covenantal qualifications of grace and faith. Such rhetoric breeds triumphalism: the nation, rather than the church, becomes the visible body of election. It usurps the revelation of God, for the political agenda of man.

2.6. Glory Diverted from God to Movement

At stadium memorials, Kirk’s followers chanted slogans about “continuing his mission to take back the country for Christ.” Whatever the sincerity, the effect was to ascribe salvific significance to a movement. The fifth Sola—Soli Deo Gloria—demands that all praise terminate on God alone. Calvin wrote that “the glory of God is the chief end for which we are created.” WCF 2.2 condemns any elevation of creatures or causes as mediators of that glory. By canonising Kirk as a martyr, as the secular media and many professing Christians have, Kirk’s admirers have enacted the very idolatry the Reformers abhorred in Rome’s cult of saints.

2.7. The Spirit Misapplied

Kirk’s repeated claim that America is in a “spiritual war” conflates the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit with the passions of political struggle. The Apostle’s armour in Ephesians 6 protects believers against the devil, not against rival political agendas. Calvin defined the Spirit’s ministry as “illumining hearts to receive the gospel.” WCF 13 and 18 tie sanctification and assurance to that inward grace, not to patriotic victory. By relocating the Spirit’s field of operation from the conscience to the campaign, Kirk converts Pentecost into propaganda. For anyone caught up in the lie that political conservatism equates with Christianity, this is difficult to detect. There is only one answer to this. Head for the hills, or as John put it in Rev 18:4:

“Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.’”

2.8. Election and National Destiny

Kirk’s suggestion that America was “chosen by God for such a time as this” re-casts election in collective, national terms. The Reformed doctrine of election concerns individuals in Christ, not temporal states. WCF 3.5 insists that God chose His people “in Christ unto glory.” Calvin called corporate election “a pretext for pride.”²⁸ When applied to nations, it yields chauvinism in place of gratitude. By contrast, Reformed eschatology expects the church to be a pilgrim people, not a chosen empire.

Such rhetoric nullifies the Scriptures. Exhortations to test every spirit must be denied and the guide for authenticity now becomes the political handbook. The idea that “America was “chosen by God for such a time as this” cannot be tested according to the Scriptures, 1Thes5:21. It must be regarded either as an addition to Scripture or be allowed to supplant Scripture.

2.9. Justification by Faith Alone vs. Civil Righteousness

Kirk’s program of “restoring virtue through good citizens” replaces justification with civic merit. WCF 11.1 teaches that God “pardons their sins and accepts their persons as righteous … by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ.” Calvin derided any system that makes “good works the ground of divine favour.” The moral patriot may be admirable, but apart from imputed righteousness he stands condemned. The Reformed view insists that the Gospel justifies the ungodly, not merely the patriotic.

The consequences of trusting in civil entail the cancellation of anyone who does not meet with political approval. Our generation has witnessed the implementation of national surveillance in China, but the world has been warned previously. This is the situation John spoke of in Rev 13:16-17

“Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.”

Discussion of the “mark of the beast” may be scorned but all we need to remember is that the “mark” represents an outward sign of inward loyalty to the powers of the age, not necessarily a literal brand or implant. Historic Reformed commentators, like Beza, Cotton Mather, and Matthew Henry, understood this figuratively, as the worldly order that compels the conscience, in contrast to the freedom of Christ’s spiritual kingdom.²⁹

2.10. Authority and Tradition

Kirk’s openness toward Roman Catholic authority—evident in his use of the rosary³⁰ and sympathy for the papacy—contradicts the Reformed doctrine of sola Scriptura. WCF 1.10 declares that “the Supreme Judge … can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.” Calvin warned that to enthrone tradition beside Scripture is to forge “a double rule of faith.” While Kirk’s courtesy toward Catholicism is socially generous, doctrinally it blurs the sufficiency of the Word by giving authority to Rome. This is the deception of Ecumenism and it is a Trojan horse that undermines the hard-fought wins for the gospel our Reformers passed on as a legacy for us.

2.11. Revelation and Prophecy

In partnership with charismatic allies who claim new prophetic words for politics, Kirk normalises extra-biblical revelation. WCF 1.6 and Calvin’s Institutes 1.9 teach that revelation ceased with the apostolic age. To call political strategy “prophetic” elevates expediency to inspiration. The Reformers would see such speech as a return to the “enthusiasms” they battled in the sixteenth century. The canon is closed; the Spirit illumines; He does not dictate campaign slogans.

An example of Kirk’s normalising extra-biblical revelation is shown in his of Platforming NAR “prophets” and Seven-Mountains advocates in TPUSA Faith podcasts.³¹ Kirk repeatedly intersected with Lance Wallnau (a leading 7MM advocate frequently called a prophet) via interviews and advertised speaking slots for TPUSA Faith Pastors’ Summit. Such events spread 7MM prophetic paradigms among pastors. Hosting and promoting these voices in pastor-facing events normalises their revelatory claims inside church networks.

2.12. The End and Purpose of Religion

Finally, Kirk’s fusion of nationalism and revivalism substitutes temporal glory for eternal beatitude. Calvin insisted that “the end of our faith is that God alone may be glorified.” WCF 33 looks to the final judgment, not cultural triumph, as the church’s vindication. When Christians are trained to seek the kingdom through elections, they lose the pilgrim hope. The Reformers’ eschatology offers no earthly utopia; their church awaits the appearing of the King, not the polling of a people on election night.

We can go further here, though. Through union with Christ, our Lord God is building His eternal dwelling place with His people. This is an eternal spiritual kingdom that will be consummated when the elect have been secured and Christ returns. Equating nationalism with Christianity results in creating a people in our own image. It is the worship of man and his temporal system that changes from one generation to the next.

Conclusion to Part 2.

Treatment of each point above has, unfortunately, been necessarily brief. Across these twelve conflicts, Kirk’s theology in practice dismantles each of the Five Solas. Scripture alone is displaced by prophetic activism; grace alone by civic meritocratic moralism; faith alone by national resolve; Christ alone by civic messianism; and the glory of God alone by the glorification of movement and martyr. Calvin’s twofold kingdom collapses into a single earthly project, and the Westminster Confession’s careful boundaries between church and magistrate dissolve into populist fervour. The doctrinal consequence is not renewal but regression. It is a re-paganizing of Protestant faith into a civil cult. Machen’s century-old warning rings true: a Christianity of culture is “a different religion altogether.” Only by re-centering on Word, sacrament, and the sovereign grace of Christ can the church resist the siren call of nationalist revivalism and bear faithful witness in a passing world.

These deceptions did not die when Charlie Kirk was murdered; rather, they appear to have been amplified. We may sum up Kirk’s theology to the Church as “jump on board or perish”.

Let us conclude Part 2 with the Scriptures. When Jesus spoke the words of Matt 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”, believers have an assurance for a time like this. The rock Jesus referred to was Peter’s confession concerning Christ: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. That is the foundation of the Church. The “Gates of Hades” symbolises death, evil powers, and every opposition to God’s kingdom. This obviously includes earthly kingdoms, which are established in opposition to Christ’s spiritual kingdom. Those earthly kingdoms are powers of darkness and will never overcome Christ’s true Church. As Calvin said, “However the Church may be tossed about by the billows, yet shall she remain safe, because she is founded upon Christ.”

Part III — Kirk’s Roman Catholic & Mormon Leanings, Consequences, and Reformed Corrective

Introduction

Part III considers two further aspects of Kirk’s teaching that most clearly expose the gap between his civil religion and Reformed orthodoxy: his late Roman-Catholic leanings and his public praise of Mormonism. Both reflect the same impulse to subordinate theological truth to political coalition. Following this, a few concluding observations will be made. Measured against Calvin and the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF), these gestures dissolve the Reformation’s formal and material principles, Scripture alone and justification by faith alone, and invite the church to exchange evangelism for ecumenism of strategy.

3.1 Kirk’s Roman Catholic Leanings

Reports from September 2025 indicated that Kirk had begun attending Mass and praying the rosary and told Bishop Joseph Brennan that he was “this close” to becoming Catholic.³² The publicity surrounding those remarks re-cast him as a bridge between evangelicals and Rome.

From a Reformed perspective, such friendliness need not imply hostility toward Kirk or Catholics but it demands doctrinal clarity. The WCF 1.6 teaches that “the whole counsel of God … is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture.” Rome’s appeal to unwritten tradition as co-normative authority violates that sufficiency.

Likewise, WCF 11 confesses justification “by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ.” The Council of Trent’s canons on justification, still unretracted, anathematize that very doctrine. Calvin warned that to blend faith and works is to “obscure the righteousness of Christ.” ³³

Kirk’s ecumenical gestures blurred those boundaries before a vast evangelical audience. Without explicit catechesis on the Solas, public deference to Rome functioned pedagogically: it taught that the Reformation’s divisions were expendable in pursuit of national revival. Yet Reformed theology insists that unity without truth is false peace.³⁴

3.2. Praise of Mormonism

At Utah Valley University, minutes before the shooting that ended his life, Kirk praised the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its civility and missionary zeal, joking, “half my team is Mormon.”.³⁵ Mere courtesy would not offend; the problem was categorical confusion. Mormonism denies the consubstantial Trinity (WCF 2.3) and adds new scriptures, contrary to WCF 1.6. To commend the LDS Church as a Christian ally without qualification teaches audiences that heresy is another “denomination.” Calvin’s Institutes 1.13 insists that the Trinity is the boundary of Christianity itself.

Presbyterian, or any Reformed church, promoting Charlie Kirk, and by default, his theology, demonstrate a lack of familiarity with either the Bible or Mormonism. Either way, no excuse can be offered. From LDS Primary Sources can be read: “And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan … came before me, saying, Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son … Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, … I caused that he should be cast down.”³⁶ In LDS, interpretation, both Jesus (“the Beloved Son”) and Lucifer are presented as sons of God, implying a shared spiritual origin before Lucifer’s rebellion. Concerning Jesus, Mormons believe “The first spirit born to our heavenly parents was Jesus Christ. … Lucifer, another spirit son of God, rebelled against the Father and the Son.”

From a polite Reformed perspective, this doctrine denies the Creator–creature distinction. Christ is eternal, uncreated God, not a “spirit offspring.” Calvin calls any teaching that makes the Son “one among creatures” a blasphemy against his divine generation (Institutes 1.13.23). The LDS view thus undermines both the deity of Christ (Sola Christus) and Sola Scriptura, since it rests on extra-biblical “revelation”, the Book of Mormon.

Machen foresaw this temptation for the church: “Indifferentism about doctrine makes for the most tyrannical of religions, the religion of the majority.” ³⁷ For the Reformed, love of neighbour includes clarity about God’s nature; charity divorced from truth becomes deceit.

3.3. Networks and Diffusion of Error

TPUSA Faith’s “Freedom Night in America” explicitly instructs churches to host voter-registration drives and political education.³⁸ This conflates the church’s spiritual mandate with civic activism. Kirk’s reference to the “seven mountains of influence” at CPAC 2020 brought New Apostolic Reformation dominionism into mainstream evangelical discourse.³⁹ The pattern is consistent: private revelation and civil religion join hands to produce a counterfeit masquerading as church-shaped politics.

Memorial rallies after Kirk’s death intensified the trend. KJZZ (AZ NPR)⁴⁰ reported stadium services blending patriotic hymns and altar calls; Religion News Service observed that Scripture was treated as a campaign anthem.⁴¹ Le Monde and Vanity Fair described AI-generated “saint” imagery.⁴² WCF 25.2–3 defines the church by Word, sacrament, and discipline; these memorials replaced them with spectacle and sentiment. The Reformers would have called it idolatry of success in opposition to Christ’s true church.⁴³

3.4. Consequences for Evangelical and Reformed Communities.

As we move towards the conclusion, let us consider some consequences of turning a blind eye to faulty theology.

1. Doctrinal amnesia. When Rome and LDS are publicly praised without distinction, sola Scriptura and solus Christus are implicitly denied.
2. Sacramental eclipse. Freedom Nights and campaign Sundays replace preaching and the Lord’s Supper with activism. WCF 21; 27–29 locate true worship in Word and sacrament.
3. Militant piety. “Spiritual war” rhetoric trains believers to see political opponents as demonic. It alienates the non-initiated in congregations and creates a “spiritual” elite. Reformed spirituality instead centers on repentance, meekness, and love of enemies.
4. Youth catechesis by partisanship. TPUSA Faith’s media form younger Christians in outrage, not orthodoxy.
5. Division within confessional churches. Two-kingdom advocates are dismissed as “quietists,” while Christian-nationalist sympathizers marginalize historic confessionalism. The result is institutional erosion of Reformed doctrine.

3.5 The Reformed Corrective.

There is a Reformed corrective that has stood the test of time. Consider the 5 solas:

1. Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone binds conscience (WCF 1.6). Private revelation, prophetic politics, or magisterial punditry cannot supplement the canon.
2. Sola Gratia & Sola Fide. Grace creates faith; activism does not. Justification is God’s unilateral act (WCF 11). Patriotism is not a sacrament.
3. Solus Christus. Christ alone mediates redemption (WCF 8). No nation or leader is an “anointed” redeemer.
4. Soli Deo Gloria. The church’s worship terminates in God’s glory alone (WCF 2.2; 21.1). Political liturgies that center the nation are idolatrous.
5. Calvin’s Twofold Kingdom. The spiritual kingdom is governed by Word and Spirit; the civil kingdom by providence. To collapse them, as Kirk’s program does, is to “overturn the world’s order.”
6. Charity with Clarity. Reformed pastors must model love for Catholics and LDS while teaching why their systems deny the gospel. Catechesis on biblical doctrines remains essential. True evangelism is thus denied with Kirk’s theology.

Conclusion

Kirk’s Roman-Catholic sympathies and Mormon praise were gestures of goodwill but functioned as pedagogy: they instructed evangelicals that truth is secondary to coalition. Combined with NAR dominionism and TPUSA Faith’s politicized ecclesiology, this produced a “civil gospel” whose center is cultural victory rather than the cross. The Reformed answer is reformation itself: preaching Christ crucified, restoring confidence in Scripture’s sufficiency, and reviving the ordinary means of grace. The church’s hope is not national resurrection but the resurrection of the dead.