How we think our story is going to end has massive implications on the lives we live today. Is the outcome certain or left contingent on the rises and falls of social opinions and actions?
On the right and left we face stories of utopia and dystopia with no clear vision of a bright and beautiful destination. But advertisers are keenly aware that there is power in our telos stories to shape our behaviours, and we want to shape our work on the proper vision of the end.
Join Peter and Jo as we wrap up season two’s march through the God story. We turn our attention to judgment and paradise, to the New Jerusalem and garden city, and to resurrected life with our King Jesus in the here and now and what’s still to come.
Introduction (00:00)
00:15 We’ve reached the end of season 2! Stay tuned to beinghu​man​pro​ject​.co​.uk
01:24 We close our journey through the God story by looking at where this is all heading and how the story ends.
04:00 The advertising industry has built itself on the notion that if you change the story, you can change lives and behaviours. Stories shape us whether we realise it or not.
Act I (09:03)
09:13 Our culture tells telos stories that shape our lives based on how things will end. The most common scientific story ends in annihilation and destruction.
11:44 Yet the common progressive story ends in utopia and has led many to trust in social reform and education to get us there.
13:01 On both the right and left of the political spectrum, we’re presented with variations of utopia and dystopia at the end or telos of our story. Neither offers great hope or surety.
Act II (14:56)
15:06 We’re all looking for an arrival at home at the end of the story, and the God story offers us the certainty that cultural stories can’t offer.
17:33 Despite some version of Christian end stories that leave us with doubts about the future, the overwhelming trajectory of the Bible points toward victory and beauty.
20:47 Our trajectory toward the New Creation in the Kingdom of God gives us vision and purpose for our work here and now.
Act III (25:31)
25:41 The book of Revelation paints a vivid and dynamic picture of our eternity in the presence of God with resurrected bodies in a renewed creation.
27:37 The end of the story also includes judgment on those who chose the love of self above all else and separate themselves from the beauty of life with God.
Conclusion (29:42)
29:52 We find great hope in the crescendo of the biblical story into the beauty of the King and His Kingdom.
31:52 We have work to do to get our narrative right, because the story we believe shapes our lives today. Stay with us as the Being Human project develops, as we keep pressing in.
Being Human
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