Thrive: Perspectives

Thrive Today
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This is Thrive: Perspectives. An ever-growing discussion about the issues that shape our lives with your guide Dr Matthew Jacoby. www.thrivetoday.tv

  1. Aug 13

    Doomsday Gloom & The Hope of Christ

    We’re exploring the striking rise of doomsday books, movies and academic commentary—dealing with collapse, catastrophe, survival and the end of the world as we know it. Why are these stories everywhere right now? Why do audiences keep returning to visions of ruined cities, failed systems, rogue technology, climate disaster and desperate communities trying to endure? It reveals something deeper about the human heart: our fear of judgment, our longing for rescue, our awareness that the world is not as it should be and our hope that history is moving toward more than chaos. Christianity has always taken the end seriously, but not with the despair that often marks modern apocalypse stories. Scripture speaks honestly about brokenness, evil and coming judgment, yet it also points to redemption, resurrection and the renewal of all things in Christ. Join us as we ask what today’s doomsday boom tells us about our culture, where it diagnoses real anxieties, where it distorts hope and how, as Christians we can respond with clarity, compassion, and confident hope. The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future - David Wallace-Wells The Road - Cormac McCarthy Eaarth Making a Life on a Tough New Planet - Bill McKibbenCollapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive – Jared DiamondThe Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous : Henrich, Joseph: Amazon.com.au: BooksInventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism - Book by Larry Siedentop

  2. Jul 30

    Worship Wars

    What makes worship “good”? Is it the sound, the songs, the lighting, the silence, the feeling in the room, or the theology underneath it all? Why does one person walk out of a service saying, “That was powerful,” while another quietly wonders whether it felt more like a concert than a congregation? And here is the tension: corporate worship is not a machine that manufactures worship on our behalf. It is a collection of people—each one bringing attention, affection, repentance, faith, fatigue, distraction, desire, and obedience—worshipping together. The gathering can provide an environment that helps us worship, but it cannot worship for us. So, what responsibility belongs to the room, the music, the leaders, and the liturgy—and what responsibility still belongs to each of us? So, join us in this conversation, not simply asking whether contemporary worship is better than traditional worship, or whether stained glass is holier than an LED wall. What is worship forming in us? When does beauty become a window to God, and when does it become a mirror reflecting our own preferences back at us?

  3. Jul 16

    Degrees in Hell?

    One of the most sobering questions Christians sometimes ask is whether Hell is the same experience for everyone, or whether there are degrees of judgment within it. The question is not merely speculative. It touches the character of God, the seriousness of sin, the responsibility that comes with revelation, and the urgency of the gospel. Scripture does not give us a detailed map of Hell, but the Bible does to teach that final judgment is both real and proportionate.

  4. Jul 2

    Heaven Isn't Flat?

    Most of us grow up with a simple heaven framework: you either get in or you don’t. End of story. Cross the finish line, pass through the pearly gates, and from there it’s one big undifferentiated eternity—same heaven, same experience, same everything for everyone who accepted the grace offered through Christ. But what if Scripture won’t actually let us keep it that flat? What if “getting in” is only the beginning, and the Bible’s language about reward, loss, “least” and “greatest” means that what we do now really does shape how we step into forever? In this episode, we’re going to walk straight into that tension: Jesus talking about “least” and “greatest” in the kingdom, Paul warning that some believers will “suffer loss,” and yet the same Scriptures insisting that salvation is a gift, equally shared by all who are in Christ. We ask the unsettling questions: Do my choices now actually echo in eternity? Are there “degrees” of reward and punishment without turning the afterlife into a spiritual caste system? If you’ve ever wondered whether faithfulness still matters once grace is on the table, stay with us—this conversation might permanently reset your assumptions about heaven, hell, and everything in between.

  5. Jun 18

    Who Defines Justice? Pt. 2

    What if justice isn’t just a political buzzword or a hashtag people weaponise when it suits them? What if it reaches deeper—into the way we see human dignity, power, poverty, guilt, and responsibility? In this episode, we take on the raw, uncomfortable question of what justice actually demands when every human life carries real worth and grace refuses to let us stay detached. This is not a safe, sanitised conversation. We’re pushing past the tired left-versus-right script and asking harder questions about injustice, generosity, systems, and what it means to stand with people who are easy to ignore. So, if you’re tired of hollow outrage and faith that stays theoretical, join us as we talk about a vision of justice that is fierce, costly, and impossible to ignore once grace gets hold of you.

  6. Jun 4

    Who Defines Justice? Pt. 1

    Everybody’s talking about “justice” right now—social justice, racial justice, climate justice. Your feed is full of call‑outs, hashtags, and hot takes. Modern Social Justice Theory tells you the world is a battlefield of oppressed vs. oppressors, where morality is measured by where you sit on the grid of race, gender, and sexuality. It gives you a language of systems, privilege, microaggressions—and a mission: dismantle power. But there’s an older, sharper word sitting on the table: justice in the Bible. Not just “be nice,” not a thin “God loves everybody,” but a thick, demanding vision where God Himself defines right and wrong, defends the poor, confronts the powerful, and calls everyone to account. A justice that sees sin deeper than systems, grace deeper than guilt, and hope bigger than the latest revolution. An Introduction to Foucault's ThoughtDialectic of Enlightenment Enlightenment Now

  7. May 21

    Mission: People not Projects.

    Western thinking inherits a “modern worldview” that separates what is spiritual from what is material—producing false dichotomies such as evangelism vs social action, “saving souls” vs “meeting needs,” and church ministry vs development work. In this episode we discuss how God’s reign encompasses bodies and bread, worship and justice, reconciliation with God and repaired relationships within society. Christian mission offers a coherent presence—serving without condition, speaking with humility, praying with consent, and inviting discipleship as a response to God’s grace. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara KingsolverThe God of the Empty Handed - Jayakumar ChristianMurriyang: Song of Time - Stan GrantEternity in their Hearts - Don RichardsonOrientalism – Edward Said One Blood: 200 Years of Aboriginal Encounter with ChristianityThe New Shape of World Christianity

  8. May 7

    Catholic. Protestant. Orthodox.

    In this episode we discuss the 3 primary Christian traditions: Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox—three accents, one confession: Jesus Christ is Lord—crucified, risen, reigning. Absolutely, the differences matter—authority, sacraments, salvation—real history, real bruises. But the centre holds: Trinity, Scripture, baptism, prayer, worship, and grace that moves first. Of course, we affirm the Protestant position on the ultimate authority being the Word of God, but let’s drop the caricatures as we reaffirm that unity doesn’t mean uniformity. Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism - Book by Larry Siedentop

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Ratings & Reviews

5
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About

This is Thrive: Perspectives. An ever-growing discussion about the issues that shape our lives with your guide Dr Matthew Jacoby. www.thrivetoday.tv

Information

  • Creator
    Thrive Today
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    132
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    Thrive Today© 2020
  • Show Website
    Thrive: Perspectives

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