Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Well, today's Ascension Day, the day set aside in the church calendar, to remember when Christ returned to the Father's right hand in glory 40 days after his resurrection.

Ascension Day is still a public holiday in many European nations,

and it marks the end of the Easter season. Of course, most American Christians think of Easter only as a single day,

and of Ascension Day is barely a blip on the calendar. However, in different times and places, Christians put a high priority on the Ascension.

In the first few centuries of the church, for example,

it was celebrated along with Pentecost as part of the Easter season. By the late 4th century,

some believers observed the day on its own, with celebrations that included prayer and processions,

as well as visual representations of the ascension and reenactments.

But even more importantly than what we can learn from church history,

Ascension Day is a pivotal event in the biblical story.

It was foretold throughout Scripture.

At the ascension, Christ completed his work,

the work begun at the incarnation,

and the work promised long before to Adam, Abraham, David, and Isaiah,

among others. The ascension wasn't merely about Jesus leaving the earth. It was the God man

taking authority and power on his eternal throne. The ascension is the coronation of Christ

as king of heaven and earth. The ascension also fulfilled biblical prophecy, including Psalm 2 and

Psalm 110, where the anointed one of God, David's greatest son, puts his enemies under his feet.

In the Apostle Peter's Pentecost sermon recorded in Acts 2, the ascension is ultimate proof

of Christ's superiority. In Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul described the ascension

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