Episode Details

The Ascension of Christ is observed on the church calendar forty days after Easter, yet for most evangelicals it passes with barely a mention. What does it mean that the risen Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father — and why does it matter whether we believe he rules from there now or only after some future return? This episode, recorded on Ascension Day 2026, takes up a doctrine that has been quietly evacuated of its meaning in much of modern Christianity, leaving behind an impoverished understanding of Christ's authority, the church's mission, and the future of the world.

Host Andrea Schwartz and Pastor Charles Roberts argue that the neglect of the Ascension is not an innocent oversight. When Christ declared "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," he was not describing a future state — he was announcing a present fact. The Ascension is the installment of the King: his session at the Father's right hand is active, continuous, and comprehensive. The eschatology of defeat so common in popular evangelicalism — the expectation that the church should shrink rather than advance, that things must get worse before a rescue — is directly traceable to a loss of this doctrine and its implications.

For those who understand Christian Reconstruction, the Ascension is the theological foundation of everything: there are no crown rights to proclaim, no Great Commission to obey, no civilization to build — without a reigning King. This episode calls Christians to recover what earlier generations knew: that Christ ascended not to escape the world but to rule it, and that his church has been commissioned to make that rule visible in every area of life.