Why did God bury the body of Moses in an unknown grave (Deuteronomy 34:1-6)? Furthermore, why did the devil dispute with the Archangel Michael over the body of Moses (Jude 1:9)? Was it not because of the fact that if Moses’ grave was ever found the devil would have turned it into a monument, where multitudes would have gathered to idolize the Moses of God rather than to worship the God of Moses?

You and I find ourselves living today in a celebrity culture. Indeed, we live in an idolatrous world that idolizes celebrities, turning the famous into fetishes upon which the masses are fixated. By idolizing celebrities, especially when they readily receive rather than remonstratively repel people’s reverence, celebrities usurp the place of Christ in their worshipers’ lives and their worshipers give to them the worship of which Christ alone is worthy. Tragically, our world today has plenty of Dariuses—those willing to be worshiped as God—but a scarcity of Pauls—those who cringe at being worshiped and call upon all men to worship God alone (Daniel 6:6-9; Acts 14:11-16). 

Anything, even a good thing, or anybody, even a good person, becomes an idol the moment it or them distracts us from Christ and receives from us the devotion due to Christ alone. In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, I’m afraid we’re in danger of turning his grave into a monument, where we gather to idolize this faithful follower of Christ rather than to worship the Christ Charlie followed. For instance, many are presently proclaiming the death of Charlie Kirk, at a Turning Point USA event on the campus of Utah Valley University, not the death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary for the sin of the world, to be earthshaking and world-changing. Furthermore, they are calling for Charlie’s mission, to spread his message, rather than for Christ’s Great Commission, to spread His Gospel, to sweep the globe.

We must not, as I’m sure Charlie would be appalled by, confuse him with Christ. Neither our world nor our country will ever come together and be untied around Charlie Kirk and his death. Instead, mankind’s only hope of coming together and being united is for all men to come to Jesus Christ, who alone died to redeem and reconcile us, not only to God, but also to one another.