You Have a Decision To Make - Full Speech at #AmFest2025

Summary

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Podcast Summary

I Don't Have Enough FAITH to Be an ATHEIST

Episode: You Have a Decision To Make – Full Speech at #AmFest2025

Host: Dr. Frank Turek

Guest: Charlie Kirk (co-narrator and subject)

Date: January 14, 2026

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Main Theme & Purpose

In this powerful speech recorded live at America Fest 2025, Dr. Frank Turek delivers a moving and deeply personal message about the significance of the resurrection of Jesus, the nature of truth and faith, the fragility and purpose of life, and the enduring legacy of the late Charlie Kirk. Speaking to a somber audience just months after Kirk’s tragic death, Turek draws from the pain of loss to underscore Christianity’s promise of eternal life and the pressing need to stand firm for truth in a world of cultural confusion and moral relativism.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Truth Versus Cultural Relativism (00:30)

• Turek begins by rejecting cultural relativism, emphasizing the existence of objective truth:

  • “There’s no such thing as my truth or your truth. There’s just the truth.” (00:35 – Dr. Frank Turek)

2. The Centrality of the Resurrection (00:47)

• Turek stresses that Christianity is grounded not in a book, but in an event: Jesus’ resurrection. Without it, life is ultimately meaningless.

  • “Everyone you love will die. Everything you build will crumble. Everything you say will be forgotten...Your life is meaningless.” (01:31 – Dr. Frank Turek)
  • Interjection by Kirk points to the resurrection as the turning point:
    “Unless the resurrection is true.” (01:49 – Charlie Kirk)

3. Origins of Christian Belief — It Started with an Event (02:24)

• Turek shares his personal mentoring relationship with Charlie Kirk, including their deep discussions about evidence for Christianity and the resurrection.

  • “There’s only two facts you need to establish to show that Christianity is true. Number one, God exists. And number two, Jesus rose from the dead.” (03:24 – Dr. Frank Turek)

4. Evidence for God and the Resurrection (03:50)

• Presents cosmological evidence: the universe exploded into being from nothing, requiring a cause outside space, time, and matter.

• If Genesis 1:1 (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”) is true, miracles—including the resurrection—are possible (04:19).

• Discusses the credibility of New Testament accounts:

  • “None of the sources in the New Testament are Christian sources. They're all Jewish sources... Why would they invent a resurrected Jesus...that got them kicked out of the synagogue and then beaten, tortured, and killed if it wasn't true?” (04:43 – Charlie Kirk & Dr. Frank Turek)

5. Personal and Historical “Impact Events” (05:15)

• Turek explains by analogy to remembered tragedies (Kennedy assassination, Challenger explosion) that the resurrection was the ultimate “impact event.”

• Kirk shares his proximity and witness during Charlie's murder, linking this to the powerful memory of the resurrection’s eyewitnesses.

  • “I was 25ft to his right, off his right elbow, and...when we got him in the car, his eyes were fixed....He was looking right past me into eternity.” (06:25 – Charlie Kirk)

6. Life After Death — Near-Death and Deathbed Testimonies (08:07)

• Turek and Kirk recount “veridical near-death experiences” and “deathbed visions,” arguing for the existence of the soul and an afterlife.

• 88% of hospice patients reportedly see deceased relatives before dying (09:26).

  • “You're not just a molecular machine. You're not just a moist robot. You're a mind and a soul...you have a decision to make.” (10:44 – Dr. Frank Turek)

7. Charlie Kirk’s Legacy and the Need to Persevere (11:36)

• Emotional tribute to Charlie’s widow, Erica, who was handpicked by Charlie as his successor.

• Praises her grace, resilience, and public act of forgiveness:

  • “She comes out and she says, I forgive his killer....That’s the fruit of the spirit rather than the fruit of Satan. And that doesn’t mean that Erica has good feelings, because forgiveness doesn’t require feelings. It requires a choice.” (13:12 – Dr. Frank Turek)

8. Building Up Versus Tearing Down (14:09)

• Turek points out that evil is “anti-creation,” and encourages continued building of Charlie’s legacy in the face of tragedy.

  • “Charlie built not only an amazing organization, he built a team that I think is the best team I've ever seen.” (14:41 – Dr. Frank Turek)
  • “Over 1.2 billion people have seen it online—all because of Charlie Stevenson team and the fact that God can bring good from evil.” (15:19 – Dr. Frank Turek)

9. The Importance of Political Engagement for the Gospel (16:40)

• Stresses that preaching the Gospel freely depends on political liberty.
• “Politics is not our first duty, but it helps us do our first duty...to make disciples of all nations.” (17:36 – Dr. Frank Turek / Charlie Kirk)

10. Call To Action — Personal Decision and Perseverance (17:38)

• Squarely challenges listeners: What will you do now that a leader has departed?

• Repeats the urgency of making a personal decision regarding faith:

  • “Everyone you love will die, including yourself. But everyone’s going to live forever after that. The only question is, where are you going to live?...God is not going to force you into heaven against your will.” (18:59 – Dr. Frank Turek / Charlie Kirk)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Christianity did not start with a book. Christianity started with an event. The Resurrection.” (00:40 – Dr. Frank Turek)
• “Love is a decision to do what's right for the other person according to the will of God.” (13:34 – Dr. Frank Turek)
• “It's easy to tear down. It's hard to build up. In fact, if you want to know what evil is, evil is anti-creation.” (14:10 – Dr. Frank Turek)
• “Charlie accomplished more than any 10,000 people I know accomplish in 80 years.” (16:19 – Dr. Frank Turek)
• “What are you going to do now that our leader of TPUSA has gone to be with Jesus? You're not just going to pack up and say, we're defeated, are you?” (17:38 – Dr. Frank Turek)

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Important Timestamps for Segments

• 00:30 – Truth vs. relativism; origins of Christianity
• 03:24 – The two central facts for Christianity’s truth
• 04:19 – Cosmological evidence and possibility of miracles
• 04:43 – New Testament as Jewish eyewitness testimony
• 05:15 – Impact events and the power of memory
• 06:25 – Firsthand account of Charlie’s death
• 08:07 – Near-death and deathbed experiences
• 11:36 – Honoring Erica and legacy leadership
• 13:12 – Forgiveness as a Christian imperative
• 14:09 – The nature of evil and building legacy
• 16:40 – Political engagement for Gospel freedom
• 17:38 – Call to action: what now?
• 18:59 – The great decision: eternal destiny

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Tone and Style

Dr. Turek balances sober reflection, personal anecdotes, and apologetic teaching—moving fluidly from philosophical argument to personal tribute. The somber, urgent tone reflects the gravity of recent loss while imbuing hope through the resurrection and the enduring call to faith and action.

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For anyone seeking hope, evidence for faith, or a charge to persevere in times of suffering, this special episode serves as both memorial and rallying call.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Welcome to a very special bonus episode of I Don't have Enough Faith to be an atheist. Dr. Frank Turek, recorded live at America Fest 2025. Today's message dives into the heart of the resurrection. Why it matters, why it gives life meaning, and why faith isn't just a concept, but the foundation of hope itself. Stay with us as Dr. Turek unpacks these truths in a way that will both strengthen your faith and stir your heart. Let's dive in.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

Love always perseveres. You don't protect people. When you're approving of the evil they're doing, you're doing the opposite. Knock it off. I know this is not popular in our culture today, but there's no such thing as my truth or your truth. There's just the truth. I think it takes more faith to believe that we would have the kind of Christianity that came out of the first century today if Jesus hadn't risen from the dead. Because Christianity did not start with a book. Christianity started with an event. The Resurrection. Ladies and gentlemen, everyone you love will die. Everything you build will crumble. Everything you say will be forgotten. Everything you do will come to nothing. You and your identity will die and vanish. Your life is meaningless.

[Charlie Kirk]

Unless the resurrection is true.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

The resurrection was on Charlie's heart. He contacted me almost six years ago.

[Charlie Kirk]

Because he knew I had been on.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

College campuses presenting evidence for Christianity and answering questions. And he wanted to get better at answering questions related to Christianity. So he asked me to mentor him. It can be difficult to mentor somebody.

[Charlie Kirk]

Smarter than you, but the only thing.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

That exceeded Charlie's intellect was his humility. Unlike me, because I just wrote a book, 10 Steps to Humility and How I Made it in Seven.

[Charlie Kirk]

Which is.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

Very humble of me because I actually made it in six. So this past summer, I came to Phoenix on four occasions so Charlie and I could refine our answers to these difficult questions. We'd have these in office sessions, and then at night, Charlie would say, hey, Frank, after I put Gigi and Mac to bed, let's go for a walk. So we would walk through the streets of Phoenix With a 300 pound bodyguard.

[Charlie Kirk]

Behind us, and we would talk about all these issues.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

And two nights before the murder, Monday.

[Charlie Kirk]

September 8th, we're walking through Phoenix, and.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

Charlie wanted to hear more about the.

[Charlie Kirk]

Evidence for the resurrection.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

And I pointed out there's only two facts you need to establish to show that Christianity is true. Number one, God exists. And number two, Jesus rose from the dead. If those two facts are true, ladies and gentlemen, you can show the Bible's the word of God and Christianity is indeed true. Now, with regard to the first fact, even atheists now are admitting that the universe exploded into being out of nothing. Once there was nothing, and then the whole space time continuum came into existence. And if space, time and matter had a beginning, whatever created space, time and matter has to be outside of space, time and matter. In other words, the cause must be spaceless, timeless, immaterial, powerful, personal and intelligent in order to make a choice to create the universe out of nothing. So if Genesis 1:1 is true and.

[Charlie Kirk]

Even atheists are admitting the evidence for Genesis 1:1, then every other verse in.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

The Bible is at least possible. Resurrections are possible. So what is the evidence the resurrection took place? I can't trust these Christian sources that you find in the Bible, that you find in the news. New Testament.

[Charlie Kirk]

News flash, ladies and gentlemen, none of the sources in the New Testament are Christian sources. They're all Jewish sources.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

Oh, yes, these men became Christians, but they all started as Jews. Why would they invent a resurrected Jesus, a brand new religion that got them kicked out of the synagogue and then beaten, tortured and killed if it wasn't true? They wouldn't.

[Charlie Kirk]

In fact, if you want to know what happened, I need to ask you a question. Only a few people in this room will be able to answer this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

If you can remember where you were and what you were doing November 22, 1963, hold your hand up and hold it up high, ladies and gentlemen. See these people with their hands up?

[Charlie Kirk]

These people are very old.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

November 22, 1963, is when President Kennedy was assassinated. It's my earliest memory. I was two years old in two days. And I remember my mother crying on an ottoman in front of a black and white TV in our home in Wanamasa, New Jersey. It's my earliest memory. I don't remember anything before that and very little after that. It was what we call an impact event. Where were you when the Challenger exploded? Where were you when the second plane hit the tower? Where were you a year and a half ago when President Trump was shot? Where were you on September 10th of this year when you heard the news that Charlie had been shot?

[Charlie Kirk]

I was 25ft to his right, off his right elbow, and I heard the sound and I saw him go down. And when we got him in the car, his eyes were fixed. He wasn't looking at me. He was looking right past me into eternity.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

But we did what we could to.

[Charlie Kirk]

Administer first aid and we got him to the emergency room. Seemed like they weren't ready for us. But within a couple of minutes, they started to attend to him. And they got a heartbeat. They got a pulse. And the doctor later told us because Charlie was healthy and young, they could get a pulse even though he had already expired. And then it was about 20 minutes later, after they went into surgery, Doctor came out, and with the subtlety of a brick, he said, he's dead.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

He didn't say, I'm sorry. We tried everything.

[Charlie Kirk]

He just said, he's dead. And what we had feared had come true. But if Christianity is true, and it is, ladies and gentlemen, people don't die.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

They just change location.

[Charlie Kirk]

The minute Charlie was hit with that weapon, the doctor told us he didn't feel a thing. He was gone. He was absent from the body, present with the Lord. And by the way, this isn't just in the Bible. Do you know that there's been many.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

Near death experiences where people have remote viewing where their body leave or their soul leaves their body, and they witness things going on that they couldn't see if they were on the table. There's over 300 of these. They're called veridical near death experiences. And then when the doctors revive the person, they say, hey, I just saw an accident on third in Maine.

[Charlie Kirk]

And the doctors go, how could you see an accident on third in Maine? You were on the table the whole time. Then they check it out. Yeah, there was an accident on third in Maine between a white Honda and a blue Cherokee. How did this guy know this? Because he was separated from his body. And then there's, even now death visions.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

There's many more occasions of death visions. They go into hospices and they ask.

[Charlie Kirk]

Hospice people, if you start seeing your relatives coming for you, would you tell us?

[Dr. Frank Turek]

If you see angels coming for you.

[Charlie Kirk]

Would you tell us? They did this in a New York Hospice. 88% of the people that died told them that they saw their relatives coming for them just before they died. And in fact, it's always deceased people. In fact, one lady, her name was Doris, was in hospice, and she starts to die, and she says, there's mom, there's dad. What's Vita doing there? Vita was her sister who had died two weeks earlier, but she didn't know it. They didn't tell her that her sister had died because they didn't want to kill her with the bad news. How could she see Vita unless Vita had passed on and she didn't know Vita had passed on. People have a soul and when you die, your soul is going to go to one of two places. The only question is, where are you going to go? I submit to you, given the evidence we have now just from the Bible, but from science. Charlie saw us attending to him. He saw Erica collapse in the parking lot. Because, ladies and gentlemen, you're not just a molecular machine. You're not just a moist robot. You're a mind and a soul. You're a body and a soul. And while we're here, you have a decision to make. Now, where do we go from here? Charlie was so interested in ensuring that people knew about the resurrection. Charlie wanted to do two things. He wanted to save souls, and he wanted to save the country. And Charlie handpicked an unbelievable team. There's no way to replace Charlie, but there is a way to keep his legacy going.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

I don't know how many of you.

[Charlie Kirk]

People know this, but Erica was a successful businesswoman before she ever met Charlie. She had two amazing businesses, and then she became a mom. And Charlie said, as John just said, that if anything ever happens to me, I want Erica to take over. Erica is a woman of tremendous grace and tremendous insight, and we're going to get behind her and we're going to make sure this legacy goes. Goes forward.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

To just a brief rewind over the.

[Charlie Kirk]

Past three and a half months. We had a murder on nine, ten. What have we seen since then? We've seen lies, we've seen accusations, and we've seen slander with no evidence.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

Yeah, I'm talking to you, Candace Owens. You're no friend of Charlie if you're.

[Charlie Kirk]

Running down her widow without evidence. Now, you compare what's going on with.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

Regard to the lies, the slander, and the accusations.

[Charlie Kirk]

And you see a woman who just.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

Lost the love of her life, the father of her children, nine days after.

[Charlie Kirk]

His murder, she comes out and she says, I forgive his killer.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

That's the fruit of the spirit rather than the fruit of Satan. And that doesn't mean that Erica has good feelings, because forgiveness doesn't require feelings. It requires a choice. Love doesn't require feelings. You can't love your enemies if you have to feel good about them. Love is a decision to do what's right for the other person according to the will of God. And Erica is displaying love. She's displaying the fact that she is a true Christian with the fruit of the spirit, just like Charlie had the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness.

[Charlie Kirk]

And so we need to support what she's doing.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

You know how easy it is to tear down things. It's easy to tear down. It's hard to build up. In fact, if you want to know what evil is, evil is anti creation. God creates a good thing. He creates a wonderful man like Charlie Kirk. And then a murderer takes Charlie down. He destroys at least his body. The creation that God had created. It's very easy to tear down. It's hard to build up. It can take you years to build a home. It can take you five minutes to destroy it. Charlie built not only an amazing, amazing organization, he built a team that I think is the best team I've ever seen. Can you imagine what it must have been like to organize a memorial service nine days after your boss and friend was brutally murdered for everyone to see?

[Charlie Kirk]

And then over 200,000 people showed up.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

100 million were watching live on online. And then I just Learned More than 1.2 billion people have seen it online, All because of Charlie Stevenson team and the fact that God can bring good from evil, and he did bring good from evil. There's always a ripple effect. Whenever there's evil, God can bring good from it. In Charlie's case, it's been a tsunami of good.

[Charlie Kirk]

Charlie, just before he died, you probably saw the podcast. He probably a month or two before he died, he was asked by a podcaster, how do you want to be remembered? He said, I want to be remembered for my faith, having courage for my faith. Charlie accomplished that at 31 years old. He accomplished more than any 10,000 people.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

I know accomplish in 80 years. As tragic of an event that occurred on 9, 10. Do you know what is equally tragic?

[Charlie Kirk]

Living 80 or 90 years and doing nothing for the Lord.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

Charlie believed that the purpose of life, as the Bible says, is to know God through Jesus and to make him known. And the reason we have to be politically engaged is because politics affects our ability to preach and live the gospel. If you don't think so, go to some of the countries I've been to. I've been to Iran. I've been to Saudi Arabia. I just got back from Egypt. You know, there's no First Baptist Church of Tehran. There's no Calvary Chapel of Mecca. Why? Because politically, they've ruled it out. If we don't engage the culture, if for no other reason to keep our ability to preach and live the gospel, we're going to lose a precious, our precious ability to actually do what Jesus wants us to do. That's why Charlie said that politics is not our first duty, but it helps.

[Charlie Kirk]

Us do our first duty.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

And that is to make disciples of all nations. So my question for you is, what are you going to do now that our leader of TPUSA has gone to be with Jesus? You're not just going to pack up and say, we're defeated, are you? We are going to get behind Erica. We are going to get behind this team. We're going to double our efforts because Charlie is looking down, going, I did.

[Charlie Kirk]

What I could do. The team that I put in place, that I handpicked can take it from here. But he needs your help. And, ladies and gentlemen, everyone you love will die, including yourself. But everyone's going to live forever after that. The only question is, where are you going to live? Are you going to repent and accept Jesus and be with Charlie and the other saints, or are you going to reject the only way that an infinitely just God can let you off, and that is to punish an innocent substitute in your place? That's what Jesus did for us. You can either accept that and be with Jesus, your loved ones, and Charlie, or you can reject that, because God.

[Dr. Frank Turek]

Is not going to force you into.

[Charlie Kirk]

Heaven against your will.