Charlie Kirk, Leviticus, and the Old Testament’s Place in Christian Faith
Clearing up confusion about how Christians should think about the Old Testament
So I made a YouTube video yesterday responding to the viral accusations that Charlie Kirk supported stoning gays because he described the Old Testament admonition against same-sex behavior as “God’s perfect law.” And a lot of people took that to mean that he was saying that it is true in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, present day and in the past, that gays ought to be stoned to death. Which is obviously a ridiculous conclusion if you apply the most minimum principle of charity and assume Charlie Kirk was a good Christian man who knew the basics of Christian theology.
So obviously endorsing executing gays is not what he was implying by quoting the verse in Leviticus and describing it as “God’s perfect law.” What he meant was not that the prescribed punishment was eternally perfect now and then, but that the Old Testament’s prohibition against same-sex behavior was based on the natural law, which flows from God’s perfect eternal law, which is true and applicable both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, just like it is wrong to murder in both the Old and New Testaments, present and past.
However, to my surprise, my video yesterday actually went kind of viral. And it was flooded with hundreds of comments of people failing to understand this basic point. And I realized that so many people are confused about how Christians understand the relationship between the Old Testament Mosaic law and the New Testament and whether and to what extent the New Testament has superseded the Old Testament and why God even had an Old Testament in the first place. People think Christians just “cherry pick” what they do or not like from the Old Testament to suit their bigoted biases.
And I realized that this is a massive stumbling block for so many people on why they are not Christian because they do not understand this relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. A lot of people really like what Jesus has to say but they just do not understand how that fits into the Old Testament and how you can be a serious Christian who takes the Old Testament to also be the word of God and not just the nice things Jesus had to say. For many people, the Old Testament Mosaic Law is simply too seemingly cruel to be considered as something that could possibly have come as divine revelation from an all-powerful and all-good God.
The Categories of Mosaic Law: Moral, Ceremonial, and Judicial
To understand this we have to understand that the Old Testament’s admonitions against same-sex behavior as found in Leviticus are not mere ceremonial or judicial precepts that were fulfilled and superseded by Christ. Rather they belong to the moral law which reflects God’s eternal design for human sexuality and is binding across both testaments.
Catholic theology drawing from St. Thomas Aquinas and consistent with church tradition distinguishes between three different categories of Mosaic law. There are the moral precepts dictated by natural law and are eternally valid such as the ten commandments. There are ceremonial precepts which are ritual observances like dietary laws or sacrifices which prefigured Christ and were fulfilled in him. And then there are judicial precepts aka civil regulations for ancient Israel adaptable to new societies. The moral law, including prohibitions against acts like adultery, murder, and same-sex relations, is not abrogated but perfected in the New Testament as it stems from natural law, which is the rational participation in God’s eternal law inscribed in human nature.
Why the Mosaic Law? God’s Progressive Revelation in Salvation History
But why did God give Israelites the Mosaic law in the first place? Why not just directly give them the teachings of Jesus from the very beginning? What is the whole point of having this whole Old Testament law Leviticus stuff? Why did God do it like that? Why not just have a consistent set of laws from the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament? Why is there such a seemingly stark difference between the Mosaic Law and the radical ethic of love as taught by Jesus Christ?
Well, Catholic teaching is that God progressively revealed morality through a series of stages in salvation history, beginning with the patriarchs like Abraham, where foundational covenants emphasized faith and basic ethical duties and advancing through the Mosaic law given to the Israelites at Sinai, which provided a detailed moral code in the Ten Commandments and Torah to guide communal justice, worship, and holiness amid their covenant relationship. Pope Benedict XVI describes this beautifully in Verbum Domini:
“God’s plan is manifested progressively and it is accomplished slowly, in successive stages and despite human resistance. God chose a people and patiently worked to guide and educate them. Revelation is suited to the cultural and moral level of distant times and thus describes facts and customs, such as cheating and trickery, and acts of violence and massacre, without explicitly denouncing the immorality of such things. Yet, even in its pages, the wisdom of God appears as the re-establishing of that right order which sin had disturbed, and of the process of redemption in which this re-establishing was brought about at a deepening level. Sacred Scripture is thus spoken of as ‘the words of eternal life’ (cf. Jn 6:68), so powerful as to set us free from the darkness of sin and enable us to live as children of the light.”
This progressive revelation of morality was necessary because God had to meet the Israelites where they were at the time as a culture when he first established them as His chosen people. Because due to the hardness of their hearts, the ancient Israelites were not immediately psychologically or culturally ready to hear the message of Jesus’s teaching on morality because Jesus set a very high bar on morality. The ancient Israelites were just not ready for as a people. They would just not have been capable of following Jesus’s teachings. So it had to be progressively revealed to them in stages.
As for the prescription of capital punishment, the Mosaic Law was given to the ancient Israelites in a specific time and place: a nomadic, tribal society emerging from slavery in Egypt, surrounded by pagan cultures, and without modern institutions like prisons or advanced legal systems. In this “might makes right” era, harsh penalties were necessary to deter chaos, protect the community’s moral and spiritual integrity, and ensure the survival of God’s chosen people as a holy nation set apart for His purposes. Without such measures, idolatry and immorality could have overrun the fledgling community, derailing God’s plan of salvation. Ancient societies universally employed severe punishments, and the biblical ones were not uniquely cruel but adapted to human limitations. God’s commands here reflect accommodation to human hardness of heart (as Jesus later references in Matthew 19:8 regarding divorce), not an endorsement of eternal cruelty.
This progressive revelation to the Israelites deepened over centuries via the prophets who called the people back to fidelity and foreshadowed a new heart and spirit of love. Ultimately, this gradual divine pedagogy culminated in the fullness of revelation through Jesus Christ, the incarnate word, whose teachings in the sermon on the mount and the gospels interiorize the law, transforming external commandments into a radical ethic of love for God and neighbor, emphasizing forgiveness, mercy, and self-sacrifice and thus perfecting human moral capacity under grace that comes from Calvary and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
A Deeper Dive: The Covenants in Salvation History
A good resource for understanding this progressive salvation history is the book Bible Basics for Catholics: A New Picture of Salvation History by Dr. John Bergsma. In this book, he presents the Bible’s overarching narrative as a progressive series of divine covenants, each building on the last to reveal God’s plan for humanity’s redemption through Jesus Christ. He identifies six major Old Testament covenants that culminate in the New Covenant, which is the New Testament.
In the Adamic covenant, God places Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as priest kings over creation, promising life and fruitfulness in exchange for obedience. Sin disrupts this, but it foreshadows restoration through Christ, the new Adam.
In the Noahic covenant, after the flood, God renews creation with Noah, promising never again to destroy the earth by water and establishing the rainbow as a sign. This washing up and starting over echoes baptism and universal salvation.
In the Abrahamic covenant, God calls Abram or Abraham to father a great nation, promising land, descendants, and blessing to all peoples. Circumcision seals it, pointing to spiritual fatherhood fulfilled in Christ’s universal family.
In the Mosaic covenant through Moses at Sinai, God forms Israel as a holy nation with the law, tabernacle worship, and the Passover, addressing sin through sacrifice. It prefigures the Eucharist and penance, but highlights the flaws of humanity.
In the Davidic covenant, God promises David an eternal throne and temple, establishing a royal priesthood. This dynastic pledge anticipates Jesus as the Davidic king and eternal high priest.
In the prophetic covenant, prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel foresee a heart circumcision in the internalized law and in the indwelling of the spirit with a new temple among the people promising forgiveness and marital intimacy with God.
These covenants all converge in the Eucharistic covenant, the New Covenant, the New Testament, where Jesus’s Last Supper, Passion, and Resurrection fulfill them all. The Passover lamb fulfills the Mosaic law. The new wine of the wedding feast fulfills the prophetic covenant. The royal banquet fulfills the Davidic covenant. And cosmic renewal of Christ fulfills the Adamic and Noetic covenant. The Catholic Church’s sacraments participate in this fulfillment and the Book of Revelation depicts its consummation in the Lamb’s wedding feast. Dr. Bergsma emphasizes how the Catholic Mass liturgically reenacts history, making salvation tangible for believers.
Wrapping It Up: How This Ties Back to Charlie Kirk and Beyond
Hopefully this was helpful to people to clear up confusion about how the Old Testament relates to the New Testament and whether and to what extent the New Testament supersedes the Old Testament. And hopefully this will help people understand why Charlie Kirk cited Leviticus and described it as “God’s perfect law” even though he did not endorse the idea that gays ought to be stoned to death because that specific punishment for that transgression has been superseded by the New Testament.