The Spiritual Warfare of an Assassination

It's still less than a week from the tragic news of Charlie Kirk's murder on September 10th, 2025.

In the response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk — particularly in social-media circles of ministry — I have often heard this Scripture quoted:

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12)

That passage raises a question for me.

It’s a big question that on the surface seems simple. We see the horror of this sin and know it is evil. Evil at this level is often called demonic. Yet we don’t normally label all sinful behavior as directly caused by spiritual forces. Sometimes, as fallen and broken human beings, we willfully choose sin. Satan doesn’t always have to work overtime to trip us up.

A college friend once preached a sermon with this central line: “The devil I never knew was the evil inside of me.” I find that helpful. It reminds us that human responsibility and spiritual influence are not mutually exclusive, and that the obvious presence of evil doesn’t automatically prove demonic possession.

There is a spiritual world, it's real and it influences our physical world. And we I say demonic I am specific referencing the spiritual evil forces that exist to steal, kill and destroy what God made beautiful. And not every choice by sinful man is directly incited by these forces. Sometimes we are the cause of our own sin. 

So I don’t know that you or I can say the shooter’s actions were specifically influenced by demons in the way Jesus confronted the “Legion” (the man in Mark 5 / Luke 8) or the boy who threw himself to the ground, foamed at the mouth, and gnashed his teeth (Mark 9). Those are instances of clear demonic possession described in Scripture.

What I am hearing in responses to Charlie Kirk’s assassination is language that describes the rhetoric and ideologies that supported the assassin’s motives as “demonic” in nature. Paul warns about deceptive ideas that capture people: 

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ." (Colossians 2:8)

There are clearly ideologies and philosophies in our world that are harmful: harmful to health, relationships, finances, and our relationship with Jesus. Those ideologies can also lead some people to harm others. That seems to be what the young man accused in Charlie Kirk’s murder was allegedly influenced by last week.

Those influences are different from ordinary political disagreements about tax rates or trade policy.

The reports about the suspect continue to unfold, and they suggest that despite a conservative upbringing, he was taken captive by a philosophy that led to death — the death of another and potentially his own destruction.

That pattern — a person consumed by ideas that bring death — feels demonic.

Chad Ragsdale, academic dean at Ozark Christian College, posted some thoughts on how we ought to identify, speak against and avoid being taking captive by these hollow and deceptive. 

What do you think? Was the assassination of Charlie Kirk demonic?