JERUSALEM, Israel – The impact of Charlie Kirk’s death from an assassin’s bullet continues to grow. We are also learning more about what profoundly changed him through his new book, Stop in the Name of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life.
CBN News spoke to Kirk’s pastor and attended a Shabbat dinner in Israel to learn more.
Kirk’s pastor, Rob McCoy, told us, “It’s an amazing book. Charlie was so excited about it being published. I was with him in Korea when they gave him it – it was the last thing he had to sign off on, and it, really, it changed him in a profound way.”
Before his death, Kirk spoke of how his favorite trip was to Israel. Pastor McCoy believes that a major reason is that Kirk learned the importance of keeping the Sabbath.
He was at a place where it was a crisis, that he just had so much to do. And, you know, the barrenness of a busy life. Reaching out to one of his pastor friends, he commented to him, Dave Engelhart. David, who is on the board at Turning Point. And David said, “Have you ever considered taking a Sabbath?”
The Sabbath, or as they call it in Israel, Shabbat.
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Micha’el Ben-David, a Messianic Jew living in the Galilee, explained, “You know, Shabbat is the Kingdom of Heaven’s deepest secret that’s been hidden in plain sight. It’s right there from Genesis one.”
Keeping the Sabbath holy is also the fourth commandment. Across much of Israel, daily activity basically stops from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday.
In many Jewish homes, such as the Ben-Davids’, dinner is prepared, candles are lit, and the bread and wine are blessed.
Ben-David told us, “You approach it with great holiness and great reverence, and you acknowledge that God is our provider.”
“And Charlie started to research that and go into it,” Pastor McCoy explained. “He started to realize that keeping the other commandments is imperative, that you keep the commandment to honor the Sabbath. And so, he would just turn off his phone, be with his family.
Focusing on family is a key part of the Sabbath.
During Shabbat, Ben-David prayed over his wife, asking the Lord, “Bless her to be a blessing all the days of her life.”
He stated, “So, you go through this procession, through the blessing, to the welcoming of the angels, and to blessing your wife singing Proverbs 31 over your wife. It’s the time to honor her.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” he added, “And we get to bless the children.”
In Israel, Shabbat Eve on Friday is often a feast.
Shabbat Saturday is all about rest: no driving, no working, no electronics.
“God has given us a blueprint,” Ben-David observed. “There’s a pattern in creation. There’s a pattern in the Bible, and if we follow it, we will enter that rest. That’s why Hebrews 4:12 says, ‘There still remains a rest of the people of God.'”
But according to Kirk’s pastor, Charlie was getting very little rest. He was traveling, hosting multiple programs, answering hundreds of messages, and doing it all non-stop.
McCoy contends that when the Kirks started observing the Sabbath as they do here in Israel, everything changed.
McCoy recalled, “And he saw Sabbath for the man, not man for the Sabbath. So it wasn’t it wasn’t legalistic for him, but it was his idea of stopping and resting, being with God, focusing on the Lord and focusing towards your family, slowing down for a day and not letting the barrenness of a busy life overwhelm you because he saw that it was just detrimental to his health and to to the health of his family and his relationship with the Lord.”
Ben-David quoted the Lord. “He says, whoever honors me, I’ll honor. And Shabbat is honoring Him.”
On his Turning Point USA podcast shortly before he died, Kirk declared, “If you are feeling overrun by society, might be feeling depressed or anxious, here is one way you might be able to improve: turn your phone off for one day – no content, no social media, no work. Your mental health will improve dramatically.”
“So, he got it,” McCoy said, “And that inspired him. He just did a deep dive study, like he does with everything. And then, he wrote the book that is now being published posthumously. It was his, you know – magnum opus, so to speak. “Stop in the Name of God.”
So he got it. And that inspired him…. He just did a deep dive study, like he does with everything. And then he wrote the book that is now being published posthumously. It was his, you know, magnum opus, so to speak. Stop in the Name of God.”
