Current Events & Trends: November/December 2025

Charlie Kirk assassination and memorial

On Sept. 10, an assassin’s bullet ended the life of 31-year-old evangelical and conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, as he spoke to an audience at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He had become well-known for the organization he founded, Turning Point USA, dedicated to dialogue and debate on university campuses to pull young people back from socialist, anti-God, anti-family indoctrination. Its aphorism: “Get married. Have children. Build a legacy. Pass down your values. Pursue the eternal. Seek true joy.”

We’ve seen a rise of assassination attempts and political violence, but the attempt to silence this conservative Christian spokesperson actually backfired, with Charlie Kirk and his message being catapulted into far greater attention than ever before. There were commemorations and prayers around the world, including in many foreign governments. Whereas there were previously around 2,000 TPUSA chapters, requests shot up to around 65,000 after the assassination, and that doubled following the Sept. 21 memorial.

The memorial was on a scale rarely seen except in state funerals. Kirk was friends with many in the U.S. presidential administration and Congress—many who were in attendance, along with millions watching around the world. And the content at this scale was like nothing ever seen before—with many proclamations from the nation’s leaders of not just the sovereignty of God, but of Jesus Christ, hailed unabashedly as King of Kings. Clearly, the desire of the assassin and others on the anti-Christian left to root out biblical values was completely upended.

This assassination felt personal for so many because the victim was not a government figure but a citizen speaking out—and many saw that they themselves could end up in such crosshairs. Kirk was a person willing to stand boldly for the truth as he understood it. There’s a lesson there of being willing to endure mistreatment and even martyrdom for proclaiming what’s right. While he did not fully understand the message of Scripture, in line with much of mainstream Christianity, he nevertheless promoted many important ideas. We can also see from his work and the fallout of what happened that people are hungry for truth—and we need to stand ready to respond.

The memorial brought religious values to the fore in the nation and in other countries. We of course don’t know what was in everyone’s heart, but there were many remarkable professions of faith even through there was not full understanding of Scripture, particularly in terms of life after death, with so many imagining Charlie Kirk now conscious and active in heaven. He is not, as the Bible makes clear. The truth of the coming resurrection is much more comforting. (Read our free study guide Heaven & Hell: What Does the Bible Really Teach?)

There were direct calls to repentance and discussion of sin. This is of course very good, but there is a need to go further—particularly in recognizing what God requires of us in choosing right from wrong. Amid numerous mentions of the gospel of Christ and declarations of God and Christ as King, it would have been wonderful to hear mention of Jesus Christ’s return to set up His Kingdom or rule over all nations, as part of the true gospel message of the Bible.

The closest to that came in these astonishing words from the highest-ranking Cabinet official in the country, Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “The movement that Charlie Kirk led and started and gave fuel to was about politics but not only about politics. It was deeper. It was broader. And . . . I’m confident he would agree, one of the things he wants us to take away from . . . all of this is the following: his deep belief that we were all created, every single one of us . . . by the hand of the God of the universe, an all-powerful God who loved us and created us for the purpose of living with Him in eternity. But then sin entered the world and separated us from our Creator. And so God took on the form of a man and came down and lived among us, and He suffered like men, and He died like a man, but on the third day He rose unlike any mortal man. And then to prove any doubters wrong He ate with His disciples so they could see, and they touched His wounds . . . And then He rose to the heaven, but He promised He would return, and He will. And when He returns—because He took on that death, because He carried that cross—we were freed from the sin that separated us from Him. And when He returns there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And we will all be together. And we will have a great reunion there again with Charlie and all the people we love. Thank you, and God bless you.” Again, astonishing.

As we’ve noted here before, God gave an important principle in 1 Samuel 2:30: “Those who honor Me I will honor.” He further says in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that if the people of the nation will pray and seek His face and turn from their wrong ways that he will forgive their sin and heal the land. May we all keep praying for that.

It was remarkable to see Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, publicly forgive the assassin as Jesus forgave those who crucified Him (Luke 23:34). While the state is given responsibility to execute judgment as a deterrent against evil, as was also stated (Romans 13-1-4), personally we should bear no grudges. This was a hard thing to do. In her mind, she wanted nothing preventing her from being reunited with her husband. There’s a bigger subject here about God’s plan and everyone’s accountability, but we can be thankful that she will see her husband again—and so will all of us see our loved ones again whom we’ve lost.

What about the wider nation? This could be a turning point—of moving back toward God and His ways or to worsening evil. Sadly, there have already been other killings of people over their views and beliefs. On a broad scale, nations are blessed or cursed in the degree they submit to or turn against God. It is good to see people promoting biblical values and combating wrong even without full understanding (compare Luke 9:49-50). There can of course be much false pretense. As Jesus said, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8). We shouldn’t assume that about everybody, but fruits of deeds and eventual words demonstrate where people really stand (compare Matthew 7:16-20; Luke 6:45).

As we watch the world around us, the more important thing is to make sure we watch ourselves—our own behavior and motivations. Are we ourselves right with God? As we consider that, each day should be a turning point in realigning with God. And pray that God’s Kingdom will come soon to bring true light and joy to the world at large. That is the ultimate turning point we long for.

Rapidly evolving AI-assisted cybercrime

Artificial intelligence is pushing crime to new depths. Experts have warned against AI viruses that keep changing themselves to breach cybersecurity. They’re increasing phishing attacks and spoofing websites to steal information.

In its Aug. 27 Threat Intelligence Report, the AI safety company Anthropic described “how criminals are embedding advanced models like ‘Claude’ into every stage of attacks—from reconnaissance and credential theft to ransomware and fraud . . . AI tools are now acting not just as advisers but as active operators in real-time campaigns” (“AI Is Being Weaponized for Cybercrime in ‘Unprecedented’ Ways,” The Epoch Times, Aug. 28, 2025).

The AI itself even generates “persuasive, psychologically targeted ransom notes” (ibid.). In another case, North Korean operatives used Claude to pose as software engineers at major U.S. companies, generating resumes, past coding assignments and performing technical tasks to receive salaries as remote workers.

“Anthropic said these examples illustrate a broader pattern where criminals with little training can now use AI to scale attacks once reserved for sophisticated groups. Amid such developments, defense and law enforcement are becoming increasingly difficult.

Another terrible earthquake in Afghanistan

On August 31, a devastating 6.0 earthquake hit Afghanistan. As reported a few days later, the death toll in the hardest-hit eastern province of Kunar topped 2,200, with more than 3,600 injured and 6,700 homes destroyed. This comes two years after a 6.3 quake struck the western part of the country, killing over 1,400 people (NHK World Japan, Sept. 4, 2025).

Other nations sent in aid, but pain and grief for many can’t be fully alleviated. Our hearts ache over the suffering many have endured, including the loss of loved ones.

Jesus Christ said that a marked rise in earthquakes would be part of the increasing troubles at the end of the age prior to His return (Matthew 24:7-8), but we should not just think about this in terms of statistics. The lives of many are in ruins.

To better understand why a loving God allows such widescale suffering at this time, request or download our free study guide Why Does God Allow Suffering? God does care, and He has a plan to save the world at large, including those lost to such tragedies.

Rampant killing of Christians, including horror in Nigeria

Following atrocities earlier this year, around 40 Catholic Christians were murdered while worshiping at a church in Komanda, Congo on July 27 (AP and other sources).

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) then warned in early August of a “silent genocide” in Mozambique, with Islamic State (ISIS) jihadis destroying churches, burning villages and beheading Christians. “The United Nations sounded alarms last August that ISIS was gaining strength in Mozambique and was close to gaining ‘effective control’ over a large swath of territory in West Africa and the Sahel” (“Islamic State Beheads Christians, Burns Churches in Mozambique Rampage,” Breitbart, Aug. 7, 2025).

ISIS more recently issued calls to Muslims to kill Christians and Jews in Western nations by any means—“by car, with a knife, a gun or by causing a fire” (“‘Especially in France’—ISIS Calls on Muslims to Kill ‘Christians and Jews’ in Europe by Any Means,” Breitbart, Sept. 21).

And shortly before came this shocking news from Nigeria: “Islamic extremists and radicalized herder militias have killed over 7,000 Christians within the first 220 days of 2025, a new report from a civil society organization estimates, as human rights advocates continue to criticize the Nigerian government’s inability to protect Christians” (“Over 7K Christians Killed in Nigeria So Far in 2025: Watchdog,” The Christian Post, Aug. 13).

Above that were 7,800 people abducted for being Christians. The report states that the brutal massacre translates to an average of 30 Christian deaths per day—more than one per hour—with an added 35 abducted each day, approaching two per hour. Further, Christians have been displaced from communities and farms—and there have been thousands of cases of sexual assault and physical abuse.

While some international observers say what’s happening amounts to severe religious persecution and genocide, the Nigerian government argues that the violence is not inherently religious, arising from decades-old farmer-herder clashes. Yet as the report details, Nigeria is providing safe haven to at least 22 Islamist terror groups, several with links to ISIS and World Jihad Fund, the aim of which is to obliterate or uproot non-Muslims across the country.

Many Muslims have been killed here as well, but as an earlier report detailed, of the nearly 31,000 civilians killed in the four years between 2019 and 2023, more than 6,000 were Muslims while nearly 17,000 were Christians.

It is dangerous to claim to follow Jesus Christ in many parts of the world, even if it’s just in name. Let’s pray for the day when Christ will return to set things right and lead all people into the way of truth and peace.