Dear Gen Z Christian

Dear Gen Z Christ-follower,

It has been just over a week since a bullet exploded across a college campus in Utah and shook the world.

You witnessed the reality of murder played out before your very eyes.

You saw an act of pure, unadulterated evil.

But evil didn’t stop there.

Since Charlie Kirk’s bloody assassination just over one week ago, you have continued to watch evil march across this nation.

Evil has not stopped with that assassin’s bullet.

This last week, you’ve watched evil openly celebrate Kirk’s murder or at least somehow justify it. I wish I could say these celebrations came from deranged fringe groups. Instead, it was medical doctors, nurses, government officials, fire fighters, professors and even elementary and high school teachers—the very groups you depend on for health care, law and order, emergencies, and education.

This last week, you’ve watched evil kick over, stomp on, and vandalize Charlie Kirk memorials, including the one in front of the Turning Point USA headquarters. You’ve watched evil interrupt prayer vigils by shouting “Bella Ciao!” (a lyric from a World War II anti-fascist song which, by the way, was etched into one of Kirk’s shooter’s bullet casing), as well as singing little ditties with lyrics like “I don’t want your salvation. I want you to f*****g die. We’re not going to give you a second chance, even when you beg for it.”

You’ve watched evil’s art of deception as the media and “influencers” attempted to establish the lie that insisted the shooter’s motives are still unknown or that he was a white, Christian, and straight even though the Orem police and the Utah governor have confirmed that he had a trans lover and had been radicalized by leftist ideology.

You’ve watched evil deflect and attempt to shift blame: trying to push the “both sides do it” argument or steering the debate to gun control, blaming Trump or those who voted for him, playing victim and establishing a martyr for their own cause (enter here: Jimmy Kimmel).

In short, you’ve watched evil spew chaos.

Currently, you are watching evil march across the hearts of far too many people.

I know it seems confusing and hopeless.

However, in one week, you have learned what it means when Jesus said that the world hates us because it hated him first (John 15:18).

You learned this last week that if you stand for truth, there are far too many on the left that believes it would be okay to kill you where you stand.

You’ve what happens when moral clarity is lost.

You’ve seen the outcome played out when the serpent tempts Eve that she would become like God, knowing good and evil.

Have you ever wondered why the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden was called the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”?

Does that mean even “good” knowledge is bad? Does that mean that the Bible is anti-intellectual and that God wants you stupid?

Far from it.

The serpent’s temptation takes Eve’s eyes off of God as the origin of all things in the universe—including the moral code—and makes her look within herself as the creator.

By eating of the fruit from that tree, Eve alone gets to decide what is good and what is evil. She no longer needs God the moral author to define good and evil. She now gets to that all by her little own self.

Now multiply that by the billions of people who have lived on this planet.

Each one truly believing that he or she fully has the capacity to define what is good or evil to them—no matter how asinine, bizarre, or contradictory.

Where murder is ok so long as it is the right person getting shot.

Where your opinion or worldview can earn you a death sentence.

And where the logic wouldn’t apply if it were reversed (say, my definition of right and wrong would justify me shooting you because I find you abhorrent).

Where free speech is suddenly an issue when one loses their job for saying something vile on social media yet it wasn’t when someone loses their life for crime of speaking. (The irony is thick so here.)

Where Jimmy Kimmel becomes a martyr of free speech for his show being suspended yet Kirk is not for his life being terminated.

Where nearly two weeks following the assassination, after police release incontrovertible evidence as to the killer’s motive, the left as well as the media is twisting themselves into pretzels to maintain the motive remains unclear.

We live in difficult and confusing times, where truth is bent to the narrative.

Gen Z believer, you have unfortunately been called to traverse this dumpster fire called Planet Earth. You have seen—and continue to stare into—the face of evil, and you are called to be the salt and the light.

And believe you me: we are in a dark and spoilt world. It might feel easier and safer to hide.

No. You must press forward.

Satan will try to move the world passed this as quickly as possible.

Don’t let him.

In Luke’s Gospel, after Jesus’s disciples returned from being sent out, they were amazed that “even the demons submit to us in your name.” Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” (Luke 10:17-19)

Now, Gen Z Christ-follower, it is on you. Be strong. Fight the good fight.

As one who has worked closely with Gen Zers, I believe in you. I see your heart. I have seen how the face of evil has effected you. Sometimes, I have seen you overwhelmed by shyness or a lack of confidence. But I also have seen you break out of apprehension and overcome in a big way. I have seen you pursue the face of God and do everything to make him real in your life.

The world needs you to do it now.

Evil is spreading.

The only way to fight it is Jesus, a name by which the demons flee and the captives go free.

I have zero hesitation that you will step up to the challenge.

Let me know what I can do to pour fuel on the fire.

In the name of Jesus, before whom every knee shall bow,

Dan