The Chosen

The Chosen’s Problem with The Bible

/ toseealife / Leave a comment

I’ve written about the Chosen before (see The Chosen). I started out liking the show but after season 3 I had problems with it, and now, I’ve had to watch season 4 as part of a Church thing (not because I wanted to).

And I think I now have a better idea of what I think about it than before, and I am more sure that season 3 was not just a fluke. Season 4 was already on shaky ground, but after the death of Raymah, and subsequent alterations they made to match that, it has completely derailed from scripture.

Even where the Word says that Jesus lost none of His followers. [See John 16 and 17:6-12 especially vs. 12.]

I think the Chosen has a real problem with certain parts of the Bible, and the Faith of Christianity and I’m going to detail why in 10 points.

So let’s do this thing:

1. Sometimes it’s more risky to show miracles then it is to show tragedy.

    Actually, it’s always more risky.

    It’s a strange truth about human beings, we find it easier to accept bad things happen, then good things.

    The easiest way to prove this is to ask yourself how your expectations are effected by a positive or negative outcome of any situation.

    When something ends badly, and the same situation repeats itself again, is your first thought to expect it to go wrong? Or do you clear the board and have no expectations?

    And conversely, even if it goes well, do you still think it will go badly the third time? Or, at least, are you just as worried about it?

    How many good experiences does it take to cancel out a negative one?

    And how many negative experiences does it take to ruin something for you?

    The problem is that many people treat God like this.

    When I looked at the controversy around Season 4’s killing off of Raymah, (who was not a biblical character to begin with, so I guess they thought they could get away with it) the most common defense fans made of the decision was that it was a good risk to take in storytelling, and that it was good to depict that God does not always answer prayers.

    Which is a rather presumptuous statement. How do we know that God does not always answer prayers? The answer may simply be one we did not understand.

    It is true that we don’t always get what we want.

    Therefore, according to the writers, it’s okay to change the Word of God, as long as it makes a point that is not found in scripture, but is a common teaching of the modern church.

    The Chosen writers claim they are not changing the Word of God, that they are simply depicting the story.

    What I find interesting about this claim is that it’s like they think as long as they are not writing the words into the physical Bible, they are not changing the Word of God.

    Did they forget that the stories of Jesus were originally passed down through oral tradition, just like every other religion’s stories. The Gospels were not written for a few decades after Jesus died. (Probably they were written because many of the first Disciples had died and so there were less people who could tell eye witness accounts of it, and the writers of the Gospels realized they needed a record of it.)

    But for the first 20-4o years, all we knew about Jesus was by word of mouth. And that was enough.

    So it was crucial that they told it accurately.

    And the writers of the Chosen also seem to ignore that most of Jesus’ teachings were in story form: Parables, and that changing the words Jesus used would change the parable’s meaning.

    Not to mention how often both Jesus, and other prophets used visual teaching aids to make their point. Temples, rocks, trees, dust, etc.

    So yeah, the Bible has always been passed down through oral and visual means, not just the written word, and if you change it in spoken or visual depiction, which a TV show would be, you are still changing the word of God.

    Words are spoken before they are written aren’t they? If you change what God said in what you speak, performance or otherwise, you are changing his Word. Like a false prophet would not give accurate prophecies.

    This is not to say nothing the chosen has done has ever not been good. They do show some things as they happened, and that is going to have power, no matter how mutilated the rest of the show is…

    But that does not excuse it.

    The thing is, even if the imitation has some power, the unfiltered word of God always has more power than a paraphrase. The real thing is always better. And this is true of all things.

    You’ve seen copies of great art, or remakes of movies, even when they are good, do they ever hit you quite the same way the first one did? No…there’s a freshness in originality that moves us more than imitating it does, no matter how well we do it.

    Knock off brands are never as good as name brand food, or clothing, or medicine, or anything.

    Iconic things are iconic for a reason.

    2. The Pride of Assuming we can make God’s point better than He can.

    The disturbing thing about people’s justifying changing the Word of God because it’s more ‘realistic” is that it’s very arrogant to assume we just know what God thinks about things.

    Tragedy is real, I’m not the type to ignore that.

    But the whole story of the Bible is about how God will overcome all evil in the world, including the evil of loss.

    So it was important that Jesus overcome all evilest he was faced with, in His time on Earth.

    The only time Jesus ever failed was when it depended on people’s free will to accept him. Which healing and resurrection do not. That is a different matter.

    But when it came stopping to the things that plague our world, Jesus never failed to do that. You won’t find one story incident of Jesus saying no to someone who asked for healing, or failing to resurrect anyone he wanted to.

    In fact, it’s kind of surprising that Jesus never once said no…almost like it wasn’t about worthiness.

    (BTW, Jesus raised at least 3 people from the dead. The Chosen and most other depictions of the Gospels leave out the widow’s son for some reason.)

    What I find odious about what the the writers of the Chosen are doing is that they are using the Word of God, which God meant for His own purpose when He had it recorded and told tho the world, to instead teach a message of their own.

    It really wouldn’t matter in the least if they are right or not about they way God sees loss. I think it’s not really as simple as they made it out to be.

    People like to act as if there is only one reason anyone ever dies, but the Bible actually teaches clearly that there are many reasons someone can die. Sometimes it’s sin, sometimes it’s just their time, sometimes it’s evil on someone’s part, and sometimes it’s so that God can do a miracle (which is the most rare, but happens.)

    Or some may give up their life willingly as an act of sacrifice.

    God seems to see death as a complex issue, and since, to us, it certainly is complicated to experience loss, I’m glad the Bible does not give a generic answer to the problem. That would be kind of silly. And show it was not a true faith.

    That said, the Chosen has no business trying to simplify it either into something so packaged and vague that you can’t ever say for sure if it’s legitimate or not.

    The reason for not raising Raymah from the dead given is that “it’s not her time.”

    But, God no where in the entire Bible, not just the Gospel, says that it’s not someone’s time to be resurrected. That reason never comes up, there’s not that many cases of resurrection in the Bible, but none of them contain that.

    God also, to my knowledge (and I did look it up to be sure), never even says that there is a set time for people to be raised to life, aside from the final ressurrection, which is of a different kind.

    So they are making this up as way to explain to people why they do not get what they want.

    Because, you know, so many of us ask for resurrections on a regular basis…

    Yeah, I’ve never asked for that.

    Making the lesson about resurrection is suck a presumption because it’s a mystery even in the Bible why and how God does it.

    Now the message bout not all prayer being answered (at least right away) could be addressed, but it should have been around something that the Bible addresses itself, not something that we have no authority to speak on. Because, we really don’t. We don’t know the rules. We shouldn’t presume to know God’s reasons for things when He does not outright give them to us.

    Do you think I’m being a snob? But God says in His word: “My ways are Higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.” [Isaiah 55:9]

    I’m showing the respect to God that I think He deserves.

    And I don’t set up my own wisdom to be the authority on God’s ways. I only know that by His own Word, which He gave us to judge by, this does not line up.

    And that should really have won the argument right there. That anyone can even still supports this is telling about how little anyone in our cultural respects the Bible anymore.

    There are a few people who agree with me, but, they seem to be in the minority, even out of the Christian audience.

    3. Our own lack of faith is being used to justify this writing decision.

    Because we find it hard to believe in miracles we don’t see everyday, that makes it okay to say Jesus would not have always done them…because that sounds too good to be true.

    Newsflash: Jesus is supposed to sound too good to be true. That’s how we know He was God in the flesh. If he wants limited the way a man is limited, we’d know he was just a prophet, which is what the Muslims believe.

    But we believe He was God, so you cannot limit Him like a man.

    Case in point: When Jesus cast a demon out of a boy his disciples couldn’t cast out, He was able to do it easily, He had more authority that His disciples who He said would need to have prayed more, and fasted, in some versions, to do it.

    Almost like Jesus, the one who gave them authority, inherently has more authority than them. Who is greater? The one who bestows authority? Or the one it’s bestowed on?

    Heck, even Disney’s Aladdin got this right. “The [genie] gave you your power, he can take it away.”

    4. The Chosen plays it safe.

    While it has no problem putting in things that out right contradict scripture, the Chosen also is omitting everything in the Gospel that would actually be difficult for the moderm audience.

    As I said, it’s astonishingly easy for people to accept tragedy. As evidenced by how many people accepted Raymah’s death, and who are showing disgust with those of us who think it was wrong to write it in.

    But strangely, the topics Jesus taught on that would really be a problem for our modern culture, they have been omitted from the entire show.

    I kept expecting them to start including more stories and sermons, but they haven’t.

    Like Jesus’ teaching on marriage, it would not be popular now, so they omitted it.

    They omitted His teaching on any and all political issues, which He didn’t cover a lot, but did a few times.

    They omitted His teaching on hell entirely, which does not surprise me. Most people do when they cover the Gospels.

    The omitted His teaching on many other things, his parables of the talents, the poor stewards, the last days, the servants, the straight and narrow way to life…anything that might make anyone uncomfortable.

    By contrast, teachings about forgiveness and acceptance of differences never really bother that many people. There are some who think it’s too lenient, but in our culture, for the most part, it’s approved of to preach acceptance and forgiveness.

    And those are important, and undoubtedly the best parts of the Chosen, when they do focus on it. But they waste so much time on things that never happened, and they don’t cover many things that did.

    Jesus did so, so much more than what they’ve shown.

    And you may say: “Well they don’t have the budget to show all of those things.”

    I’m aware they don’t. No one could…but it would take less budget to pay for people to just sit and talk, which most of the preaching would be, or to show parables, when they are very simple stories, than it would to pay for all these action scenes that were never real.

    And to me, it’s disrespectful, it’s like saying Jesus didn’t do enough things worth talking about for them to cover, they have to add all this stuff He never did, to make it more interesting…because the Gospel was not interesting enough already.

    And yes, it may not interest everyone…but if people are watching the show to learn about Jesus…then they need to learn about Jesus.

    But the story is supposed to be about his followers!

    The show says it’s about the lives of the people He called…but what were they learning?

    Peter said Jesus had the words of life?

    If we’re going to show the disciple’s lives, it’s imperative that we show what they were really hearing and experiencing, not making up stuff that never happened to them.

    (FYI, they were never stoned either. The attempt was made on Jesus, alone, but, He escaped, and none of the disciples were injured at any point. That was all a flat out lie.)

    And I don’t object to then the how just covers them having fun with each other, or having asides that do world building. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you can stay within the realm of possibility based on the Gospels, without committing heresy and blasphemy by portraying Jesus incorrectly.

    And it is, whatever they say, incorrect. If you cut out all the hard things Jesus taught, like about divorce, and hell, and judgment…then you cut out part of Jesus…and that cuts out some of the power of His message and life.

    And without the full power of it, what are we basing our lives on?

    5. What this twisting of the story is really doing:

    I hope that all this is not intentional on the writers’ part…

    But unfortunately, I kind of think it is.

    I don’t see how it couldn’t be. They are studying the Bible to write this show, they know what they are doing is not biblical. They know it’s changing the events of the Bible to suit a more ‘dramatic narrative.”

    But they are also changing it so that it matches more their image of God.

    Someone who is patient.

    Someone who confronts people who are judgmental, the pharisees, but only for the reasons we are okay with. Like objecting to healing.

    Never for the reason that we don’t like, like think they know God better than Jesus did…

    Wow…something that might actually make us question the writing of the show.

    I mean, clearly, the writers of the Chosen just understand Jesus better than us. They’re doing all this research…you know, with non-Christian scholars (look it up), to really understand what the founder of our faith was all about.

    And they clearly leave out half of what He taught (if not more) because they just understand what we need to see about Jesus, more than we do.

    And heck, they know most people no longer read the Bible or care what it says, so they’ll get away with it.

    And that’s not exploiting the ignorance of the population, and the gullibility of new Christians who don’t know better yet, in order to make money…Since they run this thing on donations.

    And of course, us all subscribing to it on our streaming platforms….

    I mean, there’s no ulterior motive here at all.

    (I notice they also left out Jesus’ teaching about money for the most part….though they do represent greed as a bad thing…I think. But more sympathetically than other sins.)

    6. What this show represents is False Gospel.

    And people being okay with it because they think it’s a better story show two things:

    a. We have fallen very far off track in the Western church and our love of scripture. We don’t love it anymore, we’re embarrassed by it. Because all of it does not fit pop culture. So, changing it is for the best in our eyes.

    b. People do not really understand the beauty and wisdom of the Gospels.

    I’m a simple woman in one way only: If I say I believe the Bible, I mean I believe all of it. Even the parts I don’t like, the parts that confuse me, and the parts that seem hard.

    Because, I accept that I am not all knowing. That God has always seemed difficult to understand to all poeple, in all times…but that is not unusual in life.

    All the most real and beautiful things in life are hard to understand.

    Love is.

    Great art is.

    Wisdom that really works for life is.

    Life itself, with all its complex functions, is hard to understand.

    So is the biological life we experience, and the natural world, they are hard to understand.

    Even the things that are unpleasant have a purpose, and thousands of years ago we did know what many of them were, but we do now.

    Why should God be any different? How could He be? He made the other things.

    So yes, I don’t understand it all…but I don’t need to.

    I accept God’s real because I have seen Him work in my life and the lives other, and I know He is real and true. so I can accept what I don’t know.

    Not being able to do this, either on in a show,or in real life, seems to show a lack of faith to me.

    Also a lack of sincerity.

    If it it’s so hard to believe that Jesus was as powerful as He was, but that in our lives, we don’t get everything that we want…well…

    Tough.

    7: A response to these issues

    See, our loss does not make it okay to scoff at someone else’s blessing. No more in the modern day than it did 2000+ years ago.

    Just as Peter asked if John would die for his faith, as Jesus warned Peter he would, and Jesus said ” What is that to you? You follow me.”

    See, John did not die for his faith, he was the only one who did not.

    Peter picked the right one, I guess.

    John was exiled,but, he died of old age.

    Would it really have made Peter feel better if he knew John would die also?

    Is someone else sharing our suffering necessary for us to bear it?

    I think not. I think that’s selfish.

    And Jesus told Peter He wouldn’t answer that.

    And that the same for us, I think.

    No, we do not all get the same miracles… We all get our own. However many we get.

    And more than we like realize, since we’re not privy to all things that could be trying to harm us in our lives.

    But, that does not mean we should presume to know why.

    Jesus didn’t explain Himself.

    I think that it did not need to be explained.

    God knows the allotment of suffering we all will get.

    Yeah, it’s disproportionate…but, what in life is ever in equal amounts to all people’?

    Never in nature, only humans ever try to give everyone the same amount, and how often does that backfire as we realize that not everyone can have the same amount.

    Two people can eat two different amounts of the same food.

    Some people can’t even eat some foods.

    We’re not all ready for the same thing. We’re not able to do the same things.

    People who lose people in their lives now and feel the need to project that into the Gospel to feel validated…well, they are playing a dangerous game.

    Both the writers, and often the fans.

    I can’t stress this enough: THE GOSPEL IS NOT A VEHICLE FOR YOUR PERSONAL PROBLEMS AND YOUR ATTEMPTS TO RECONCILE THEM WITH YOUR CONCEPT OF GOD.

    You learn from the Gospel, you do not use it to promote your own solutions to things that are not officially in the faith. Not as if they are doctrine, anyway.

    Do we really need something so pathetic as needing to think Jesus let people die who were following him, in order to feel better about our suffering?

    As if we’re the same as those people?

    We’re not in the same time and place they were.

    Some times just have more protection then others.

    (Though, in my life, I’ve heard probably hundreds of stories by now of people being held, and even of being resurrected a few times and either I assume every single person was lying, even ones I know personally to be honest people, or, I assume that God still–shock–does miracles.)

    I don’t see this as an issue.

    And I don’t think they needed to waste our time with lies, just to push some half baked doctrine.

    There are some passage in the Bible about prayers not being answered right away, but they are for more than one reason.

    It can be lack of persistence. It can be the prayer is delayed by evil forces in the world (see Daniel). Or it can be God says no…but that’s rarely the reason given (to David and Paul are two of the only examples I can think of, for different reasons). Usually, it’s just not the right time.

    8. Is everything in the show bad?

    I don’t want to go that far. I might make the error of sinning in the opposite way if I do.

    Being too judgmental and eager to quench any good the show may do, is not a good attitude to have.

    But I must point out some things.

    I rarely hear this taught on (only by John Bevere, actually), but not all good things are necessarily God.

    At least, they may seem good, but that doesn’t mean they are good.

    See, often poeple can start with a good message, or good deed, but do it only to do a worse evil.

    Like how a child predator will use affirmation and rewards to lure a child in…but then do unspeakable;e things to them.

    And if you think that’s painting it too strong, the word says that Jesus compared twisting His word and causing people to stumble, to misleading and sinning against children, and said it would be better to be drowned with a heavy stone, then to do something like that.

    So if Jesus takes false teaching that seriously, then I think we probably should not be so flippant about how media is treating it.

    Media like the Chosen takes some good things from the Bible, and dangles it in front of the Christian audience, who are starved of it, because the World tends to mock us and tear us down in entertainment.

    So we’re desperate already.

    And then they mix in their own twist on it, just when we’re not looking, and start threading it with things that really did happen or are really Biblical, we may not even notice.

    The devil loves to use Scripture out of context, He tempted Jesus that way in the wilderness, so why not us?

    [Another thing the Chosen constantly does is take the stories of Jesus out of the context he spoke them in, rendering the meaning utterly different. Just recently they did this with the story of the final judgement of the Sheep and the Goats. They made it seem like he was teaching this to explain the idea of the coming kingdom, but He told that story as a warning to His followers, not to correct misconceptions about him. He did address those at other times, but that’s not where this teaching fits into the Bible. It had nothing to do with Mary and the oil. It took place a few days before that on the mount of Olives, and there were no pharisees present, just him and His Disciples, which Matthew 24:3 makes a point of making clear. They ruined the moment of Mary’s anointing just for more e’em impact…but I thought it took away the emotional impact to mix it up with the politics.]

    9. What is the Chosen even really about?

    I challenge you all to look very carefully at what the message of the Chosen has really become.

    Consistently, it is only a message from the most flimsy parts of Christianity (by which I mean, they are making it unbalanced), and hardly even Christianity anymore.

    It does focus on the healing and kindness of Jesus to a few people, yes, but, it ignores the main thing He taught.

    That His real purpose was to teach us how to follow God the best way, which has not been covered at all by the show.

    Not how to pray, how to worship, how to fast, none of the things Jesus said about serving God.

    Not even his speech about loving the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength”

    None of His new teachings about being closer to the Father. Like “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.

    But Jesus’ whole ministry was to reconcile us to the father.

    His healings were part of that. Since physical and demonic ailments often are a hindrance to being close to God. (Also He was compassionate. It can be more than one thing.)

    Since all that is gone, the show is very superficial.

    It centers around what Jesus did for his disciple, and what He didn’t do…that’s it.

    It’s not about God’s glory. It’s not about Jesus’ heart for His father, or His passion for His name.

    They have no had the Temple Cleansing scene yet, I’ve heard that they will in season 5.

    The issue is that, with the way they wrote this, they are going to make it look as if Jesus did these things just to anger the Pharisees. And the temple cleansing is Him adding to that.

    But that was not why Jesus did it, at least, we’re given no hint that it was. It was Him showing zeal for Gods’ house, not to anger the Pharisees.

    They take away huge parts of Jesus’ character, and by existence, His Disciples.

    It’s not okay to ignore that they were real people.

    Jesus is not just an idea you get to use to show whatever side of Him you are comfortable with.

    He is His own person, and you should show Him in His own words and deeds.

    Who can explain God better than Himself? And who can possibly hope to undrstand Him but Him?

    So how can we think changing Jesus, in any way, is acceptable.

    I don’t think they need to show ever sin thing He did, but what they do who’s should be what He did, and what He was like, not what we think He should be like.

    A if we could ever know that, apreit form Him.

    AS C. Lesis wrote, we shold pray to God “not to WAht I think Thou art, but what what Thou knowest Thyself to be.” IF w’re to be really honest about it.

    10. My conclusion about the show

    Boldly, I think no Christian should support what the Chosen is doing.

    The good they have done, I question how good it really can be.

    How can showing people a fake version of Jesus really help them?

    Yes it may get them to read their bible…

    But the thing is, that doesn’t help them, if in doing it, it has taught them to read it looking for the version of Jesus they’re seeing on the screen.

    To read it with a bias, and filter out what they don’t like.

    And if you think a show could not do that…then you don’t understand psychology. Because media does that all the time to us, and we’re lucky if we’re at least aware of it.

    Movies try to make us feel most things are the way they show them, and it’s convincing.

    Bad enough they corrupt sex, family, dreams, and art, but, you stay away from my Lord and Savior, you liars.

    People will always try to twist Jesus to suit them.

    But I must say, I’ve never seen anyone do it so openly, and gt so little flack for it from even Christians.

    Yes, skeptics often praise watering down Jesus because they don’t like Him the way He is, but I expect that. Though it annoys me.

    But those of us who are supposed to love Him, if we don’t really love Him, as He is…What are we even doing?

    Why call yourself a Christian if you don’t like Christ?

    No one seems interested in answering these questions who supports this show…

    But I still have to keep asking them. I can’t afford to let myself be hypnotized by fancy special effects and decent acting to accept things that are not true.

    And no one else should either. You have a responsibility to crack open your bible and find out if this show is right or not.

    And not to just to look for it to confirm what you’re seeing, but really, really look.

    And sorry to the writers , but any real perusal of the Gospel will show clearly that Jesus is not like what they are showing.

    At times, yes, He may be something like it…but never as cut and dried as they want. Never as non-confrontational, or non-controversial.

    It’s His teaching that still offends us to this day that gives us a real taste of what it was like to follow him.

    And they should cover it, or they should shut up about it, because Jesus does not need you to show only part of who He is to the world. The world can do that itself.

    It’s our business to show all of Jesus, as much as we can, since we are entrusted with the spirit and knowledge of Him to do this.

    And throwing that away, frankly, makes me wonder if the chosen writers ever really had it to begin with.

    But that’s not for me to say. I only wonder how much they can love God, if they would not even show God in the most simple way we have, His word is as simple as it gets, every other experience of God is harder to endure than that, so if you can’t even get that right…

    Well, I don’t know. God knows their hearts. Maybe they are sincere.

    But it looks bad.

    And even if they were, it doesn’t make right, only makes them seem more sympethic.

    That said, I urge you all to be careful about this show. Even approving of it partially is still sending a message to the world that we really, honest;y, don’t care that much about our Bible.

    And they may like that…

    That’s exatly why we shouldn’t be doing it.

    Untit next time, stay Honest–Natasha.

    I review more of the Chosen (i. e. banging my head on an imaginary desk)

    / toseealife / Leave a comment

    [This was going to be published sooner, but the site started giving me editing trouble, so sorry for the long absence, peeps.]

    I enjoy The Prince of Egypt, the Nativity Movie, many smaller portrayals of Jesus in film, and Veggie Tales, which is not words for word.

    Back with another post about the Chosen.

    Sine my last one–which didn’t get a great response, but oh well– there’s been two more episodes, and I was hoping the problems I had with it would get better.

    But they got worse.

    I honestly don’t want to dislike this show, so I tried to keep an open mind, but episodes 6 and 7 of season 2 were just too much.

    Ep 6 was fluff, pretty much. A couple interesting things, but mostly just made up stuff that’s not based on Scripture.

    Ep 7 has gone way, way off the charts for what I think is outright heresy.

    But let me explain:

    I don’t throw the word heresy around. I’m the kind of Christian who other, more conservative Christians think is too lax. I watch anime, Disney, and read books with magic in them.

    I once had a lady tell me that Disney was evil, and writing stories (as I do) with magic in them was wrong.

    This homeschooled, sheltered, raised on C. S. Lewis kid thought she was nuts. Though I appreciative high standards, I do not think Disney is evil.

    But hey, if you don’t want to watch it, and that’s your conviction, I have no issue with that.

    And I generally take the same attitude to things other Christians I know enjoy. I know some fellow homeschooled girls who like Queen though they feel the church would frown on it because the band is gay.

    I don’t really like gay artists for the most part, if I know the song is about that, but I don’t avoid all art by LGBTQ people. I watch Sanders Sides, and plenty of anime fan art is done by people in that category. I don’t think turning something down and denying its quality because you dislike the person’s life style is something you should do. It’ s like saying no good can ever come out of sinful people.

    What good can come out of any of us, then?

    Plus, if I truly applied that rule, I’d not be able to live in this world. The laptop I’m using is probably made by companies exploiting other people. We all know it.

    But the world is built on that, we shouldn’t practice hose things ourselves, but Paul wrote to us

    “I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.

    For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?  But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-13)

    A lot of Christians fall back on the commandment not to judge, ignoring this passage where Paul clearly says, we are to judge people in the church if they do things Christians are not supposed to do.

    But we are not to judge the world, we can’t get away form it, he’s realistic about that. This is just plain hard common sense.

    So, no, I don’t avoid worldly things all simply because they are of the world. I can’t.

    But I hold Christian things up to a higher standard.

    A person outside the Faith can portray our faith badly, and I won’t like it, but, I will shrug it off, the world will do what the world does. I can’t change that.

    But someone in the Faith, who portrays it falsely, we are told no to even eat with such people. That’s pretty stiff. It’s the cultural equivalent now of blocking their number, blocking them on social media, and avoiding them in person. Cut them off completely.

    It’s saddening to me to watch the comments under the Chosen whenever anyone brings up a Scriptural or Doctrinal concern with what is being shown, and people rush to say “Hey don’t judge.”

    We are supposed to be judging.

    The Bible says also to test every spirit, and not to belie anyone, whether it be a teacher you’ve known for years, or an angel from heaven, if they preach any gospel to you other than the one you’ve heard.

    That’s very heavy. Changing the Gospel is one of the worst crimes we can do… but many, many people do it. That’s why we’re are all supposed to study and know it by heart, we are told to “be careful lest any man deceive you.”

    What many people don’t understand is that when Paul and Peter wrote that to the young church, they were in a similar situation to us where information was concerned. Many of them didn’t meet Jesus. And like us, didn’t have access to the Gospels yet. Those were all written after the Apostles letters.

    So like us now, people mostly just had the testimony of those who had seen Jesus, and their own experience of him.

    We could have the Bible, but as many of us do not read it, or do not read it carefully, we might as well be without it.

    So it is even more important to have parameters to judge by. You’d better know your actual doctrine if you refuse to read about it.

    The Bible gives us a few criteria.

    One things is if anyone adds to or takes away from Jesus words. (Revelation)

    Another is if any spirit (or person) does not confess (proclaim) that Jesus came in the flesh and was the Son of God.

    And other, is to simply test it. Get a feel for it.

    Another is if they change the Gospel.

    These are our four parameters.

    But I’m not trying to be too legalistic. I don’t think every rendition of Jesus or the Bible that changes a few details is necessarily blasphemous.

    I enjoy The Prince of Egypt, the Nativity Movie, many smaller portrayals of Jesus in film, and Veggie Tales, which is not words for word.

    But the reason I don’t count those is that nothing essential is added or removed from the Bible in those stories.

    A few framing details are changed in the retelling. Certain events may be changed or combined, but, what we are seeing either actually happened, like the slaughter of the innocents in the Nativity movie, or the visit of the three kings–or it wasn’t important. Imagining what Mary was like as a person, while not useful to our theology, makes for a better movie, and is not blasphemous. We’re not claiming it’s beat for beat scripture.

    The words she uses are taken from the Bible in the scenes that are based on the Bible, and there is no change of Mary’s faith, philosophy, or lifestyle that suggest anything not in scripture to be true.

    In Veggie Tales, the story is retold for kids, so a direct quote isn’t necessary, but they always bring it back to Scripture at the end and these stories are not supposed to be portraying it as it was. Kids know that. But, again, essential doctrine is not changed. Josh and The Great Wall doesn’t become a story about building cities. Dave and the Giant Pickle isn’t a story about Social Justice.

    It’s still about what it’s originally about.

    I hope you are starting to catch my drift.

    I don’t think it is adding to Scripture to retell it in a new way. Jesus told many different parables about the same point.

    But, I do think the Chosen has gone too far.

    They have kept saying that it is not replacing the bible, but to use that as in excuse to make crap up, when you are allegedly telling a story about the Bible…

    Well, let me put it this way. I write Fan fiction that I set in Japan, because that is where the show takes place. (Other times I set in in fictional countries but other people’s ideas of them) Suppose I write in the fic that in Japan, it is normal to cut off the limbs of your child if they misbehave.

    It has been appropriate to do that in the past, with thieves, so you could say, I was basing it off actual culture, whether of Japan or some other Asian or Middle Eastern country, it might be hard to say. I just took it a step further.

    Is that, or is that no, misrepresent Japan in an irresponsible way?

    I’m sure the SJWs would jump all over me if I did that for disrespecting their culture, blah blah blah, and I’d have to agree with them in this case. I’m told everyone in other countries thinks all Americans are gun waving extremists…yeah they don’t really teach respect for other cultures in most places around the world.

    The point is, I’d never get away with that in today’s political climate.

    But misrepresenting Japan, a country is arguably less bad than misrepresenting the story of our Lord and Savior, as in the end it’s just country. It won’t probably ruin someone’s life in the hereafter to not understand it right, but, it could if they do not understand our lord.

    And so, any misrepresentation of Jesus is to be taken seriously.

    What is and is not misrepresentation?

    Opinions will vary on it, but in my estimation, there are just two main schools of thought on it.

    1: Jesus must be shown exactly as he is in Scripture, but, how you enact that is up to you. If you think Jesus is harsh, then you tend to lean more into the preachy, judgement personal of him in your portrayal.

    2. Jesus can be shown doing other things, as long as they do not contradict Scripture. Like, we can show him eating with his disciples, we know that happened, even if every singly meal is not recorded for us. We can add miracles that are not on record, because the Gospels tell us he did many, many more than they could write about, so adding some is not unbiblical, as long as it’s nothing too off the wall that would have changed the events of the bible, like defeating a whole army in one word. That would not make any sense to add because Jesus could never have been treated the way he was then. But healing a man we don’t have on record? Sure. It’s not unbiblical.

    I’m in the second camp, but in the first, there’s still a lot of room for interpretation. Some people show Jesus as kind, gentle, and meek. Too meek most of us think. Others show him as far too harsh.

    However, what’s important about either view is that neither is unsupported by scripture. Jesus being outspoken is biblical, Jesus being kind and gentle is biblical. We shouldn’t leave out one or the other, but no one nails both perfectly, and there’s some margin for error. I don’t think God expects us to be able to know exactly how Jesus said everything, but to do our best to look at all of what he said and not leave stuff out.

    The point is, while people disagree about it, no one can say it’s not biblical.

    The second view can be biblical if we know Jesus would have done those types of things, but not if we know for a fact he couldn’t or would have.

    And that brings us up to S2 E7 of the Chosen.

    I was shocked when I saw Jesus actually getting arrested about 2 and a half years too early…to be questioned.

    The Romans ignored Jesus up until the end of his ministry, for the most part. Some of them even followed him. They would not have questioned him. If they had that early on, then what followed could only have led to his arrest much, much sooner than it happened.

    The Pharisees didn’t like him from the start and tried to arrest him multiple times on record, but that was different, they lacked the power of Rome to enforce all that easily.

    If Jesus was taken in for questioning so early, it would certainly have been mentioned by his disciples. This is not just filling it out to make it seem more natural, this is straight up adding something that makes no sense, and would have changed the trajectory of Jesus’ whole ministry.

    The fear his disciples express later on in the Gospel would have been there sooner.

    And my sister pointed out to me, if they are learning this early how to handle it, it makes them look even worse for abandoning him later like we know hey do.

    And having Jesus speak about it to them, words he never said, and saying to the Romans words he never said…is adding to Jesus words.

    I don’t take issue when they make Jesus talk to people naturally, as he would have done that. But when they create confrontations that never happened, they are setting up a precedent of a Christlike way to handle those that no tall Christians agree on, and that are not Divine guidance. We cannot imitate it.

    And what scares me most of all, is how little anyone minds. People talk about how relatable the Disciples are. No one is saying “Wow, I want to be more like Jesus.”

    Jesus is written too weirdly to really want to imitate time. I can’t get a read on him enough to do that.

    The Gospel Jesus, I may not understand, but I see his pattern. Help the weak, heal the sick, confront hypocrisy, What pissed him off is what pisses me off, or it should.

    But Jesus letting himself be arrested early? Why? It makes no sense. It adds nothing useful to the story, and…it’s lying.

    I mean, people, at what point do we just call it what it is? Lying about Jesus.

    Sure, tell people to check the Bible and see if it’s right. That’s like a professor telling you to check the textbook or a different textbook not in the course to make sure that what they say is correct.

    I have had to do that, but I really shouldn’t, should I? If you are not professing what you know to be true, you should not be professing at all.

    That Jesus cast out demons, healed the sick, and anger pharisee, we know to be true. We can profess it in different ways.

    That he faced the Romans over his following, we do not know to be true. In fact, we know it to be false. So what, I ask, is the point of professing it.

    I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. The Chosen is fan fiction based off the Gospel, and the based off part is shrinking in every episode.

    And for what reason? Padding? There are so many miracle and stories that are in the Gospels that they could have put in to fill that run time if they really insisted on leaving the sermon on the Mount for the end of Season 2.

    As a writer, I can’t imagine why they left it for the end, since it’s one for the very first recorded things in the Gospels, and they’ve put other events out of order because they wanted to wait for it.

    People will say, the order doesn’t matter. Those people are fools.

    The order does matter. Jesus planned his ministry to be at the right time we know that from what he said to Mary, his mother.

    He knew his allotted time to die. We know that.

    He knew when to go to different cities.

    The sheer arrogance of saying that the order of those events does not matter for the message and purpose of his ministry….it’s unbelievable.

    For example, Jesus choosing to leave certain places because his following there was getting too big, that has been left out. That happened because of John’s ministry. After the Sermon on the mount. But now John’s been arrested too early, and none of that is going to happen.

    They are purposely making the ministry small so they can accommodate focusing on a smaller cast, but that is simply no excuse to leave out what Jesus did, and then add in a bunch of stuff he didn’t do, that is lying about him.

    I’ve never used the word Heresy so much about anything Christian made. That’s how shocked I am that this is even happening.

    And that thousand of people are approving it, no less.

    There are some who point out the problems, but they are being ignored and called judgmental.

    There is no power in this Gospel they are showing.

    It bothers me that people are saying the feel the Holy Spirit in it, and they feel they are closer to God.

    I’ve grown up in Church, I’ve heard that one too many times from people in the Charismatic movement. My dad would say it all the time, and two days later he was the same as he always was, if not sooner.

    He got worse, if anything the longer he was in that church environment.

    I listened to other people in my youth group say God has touched them so much…and then they acted the same.

    Meanwhile, I, a person who hardly ever has emotional experiences while worshiping at Church, and has never gotten into he Camp spirit, and who did not go into those long speeches about how God touched my life–have seen myself change completely from who I was back then to who I am now.

    Any observant person will tell you, it is not the people who feel closer to God and get the emotionally charged times with Him who are often the most holy.

    In fact, may of those very people are the ones who were the biggest jerks to me in the church. And still are. I was treated very badly by one worship leader, and some pastors who were all up on those spiritual experiences.

    While the quiet, unassuming , non-emotional people were the kindness and most compassionate and loyal to me in the long run. Sometimes the people who live in the most sin are even the most forgiving, oddly enough.

    And Jesus… really doesn’t read as the kind of person who got emotional reactions of that nature from people a whole lot, and when he did, it is most often that they were mistaken.

    Peter’s most emotional reactions to Jesus are usually right when he is wrong about something.

    I won’t say emotional responses to God are bad. I’ve had them, in private usually. But the valuable ones are usually accompany with a clarity of mind that shows in a change of actions. I was different after I had those moments. kinder, strong, braver, wiser.

    When I feel close to God is not always when I act the most like Him.

    So, if the only argument for the Chosen is people are feeling like it’s helping them…I’m not convinced. Show me the proof.

    This so going to sound terrible, but, just because you watch something, and you feel like God loves you, and you feel good about Him…doesn’t mean that it’s true.

    I once a had a really unsettling experience with this, I can’t go into full detail, but, I was deceived by some one thing claiming to be speaking of God, and saying nice things to me, and it felt good. I remember, my heart lept up inside me–but hours later, I saw that what was being said contradicted the Bible, and The bible says even if it’s an angel of light who preaches to you, do no believe it if it contracts the Word.

    I was only deceived for one day, though. Some people are deceived for years.

    Mormons are supposed to know Mormonisms is true because they will feel a burning feeling while reading the scriptures, and many of them report having that.

    But Mormonism is not true. There is no life in it. People leave it realizing that.

    We tend to be so naive, like, you think the devil cannot fake a religious feeling?

    Sure, when you do feel the real thing, it’s unmistakable. But, you can still mistake other things for it.

    Like, if I take a bite out of vegan burger, I allegedly can not notice it’s not real meat. It can taste similar enough to fool me, even if it’s a little off, many the meat was just prepared a weird way.

    But no one ever takes a bite out of a beef hamburger, and says “Wow this is totally vegan!”

    It doesn’t happen.

    In the same way, a fake Spiritual feeling can fool you, it can taste kind of like God, the texture may be similar, but then something is just a little off and you realize it.

    But the Real God cannot be mistaken when He does show up.

    It can seem unfair, because the real experience may not ever come to you if you don’t seek it, but the fake most certainly can, and will. But that is Life.

    I’ve been fooled once, I don’t want to be fooled again.

    Perhaps to the non Christians, who may be reading this, this all sounds a little weird.

    I guess it is, Christians ourselves don’t really think of it as all that normal. But it is a part of life. Either you deny it or you don’t.

    I dont expect the non-Christians to care if this show is accurate or not anyway.

    But those are my reason for decrying it. And I think everyone who read the Bible should be doing so.

    I may drop it. I’m getting tired of this. And if it’s not profiting me to watch it, then what’s the point. But on the other hand, I do wonder if I should keep pointing out it’s problems in the hopes that some might be convinced not to heed it.

    I don’t know what I’ll decide.

    If you have any thoughts about the show, feel free to comment, I usually reply to all my comments if they aren’t spam.

    Utnil next time, stay honest–Natasha.

    The Chosen

    / toseealife / 1 Comment

    I recently joined the millions of other Christians in my country who have been watching the new series “the Chosen.”

    Some say it’s the best show about Jesus to come out.

    And I’ve made it through all the available episodes, and I’ve been enjoying it.

    This wouldn’t be a very interesting post if that was all I had to say though, and unfortunately, my impression of it is not all positive.

    I’ve been reading the Bible since I was a child, and have read the Gospels many times, which is the main source material for the show. I’m not a bible scholar officially, but I’m about as scholarly as laymen get.

    And since I am the target audience for this show, a young woman who is always open to getting a better understanding of Jesus, I think my opinion ought to interest some people.

    That out of the way, let’s begin:

    What I like

    I don’t need a lot of time for this part.

    I love the sets and backdrops of this show, I can’t figure out how a webseries has the budget for those sets and constumes. They’re beautiful and very real feeling, maybe not dirty enough always, but I’m not one to complain about that.

    A lot of beautiful locations too.

    Also, the acting is good. It’s not the best I’ve seen, but it’s believable most of the time. The actors clearly enjoy their roles.

    Jesus ins’t a stiff, I like that. I mean, he’s alive again for a reason, people. I’ve never been of the party that thinks Jesus doesn’t have a sense of humor, or that God doesn’t. I have pets, I know God has a sense of Humor.

    I do enjoy the miracles too… well, some of them. It’s very cool to see that with better technology than we used to have to depict these things.

    What I don’t like

    “Dislike” can be a strong word. Most of the things that I didn’t like about the show were minor annoyances that I was williing to let go of.

    Again,I’m not a stickler for presenting Jesus as “holier than thou” super serious, and a buzz kill. I never have liked that version of Jesus.

    As for the internal conflict, one of the other main complaints about the plot, I mostly don’t mind that either. We know from the Gospels that the disciples had clashes sometimes. They argued about who was the greatest.

    If anything, they are a little too mature in this story because it’s hard to picture these guys having such a stupid argument. I guess we all stumble.

    But there are some things I don’t feel right just glossing over as flaws in the show. Some because they are writing errors, and others because I am concerned they are going agaisnt scripture.

    The smaller concern is the writing errors.

    It’s not the most important thing, but approaching the Gospel and taking the stories out of order and giving the characters motivations not specifically denoted in the Bible creates problems.

    The first being, the timeline is totally messed up. John the Baptist has been in and out of imprisonment, and has no disciples following him at the current point in the story, and this is kind of a problem if they wish to accurately portray the real issues he and Jesus had in the Gospel. When his disciples came to ask Jesus if he was the one, or if they looked for another.

    Jesus responded them “Tell John, the blind see, the deaf hear,”

    I wonder if John really doubted, or if his disciples did and he sent them to Jesus just to see what he’d tell them. Haven’t we all set up people to get a verbal set down at least once?

    Even if John doubted, it was while he was in prison. Not before. This time line has become very confusing.

    Also, I’m not sure that Jesus even met Mary Magdalene before he called the 12. But, that’s not something we can verify, so I’d let that one slide.

    The real issue is being in season 2 and not having all 12 disciples together yet. A lot of Jesus ministry hasn’t even started, because most of it happened after he had the 12, and a large amount of other followers.

    He sent out 70, if I remember right, to prepare the way for him. He hasn’t collected even half that amount now. And that wasn’t that far into his 3 year ministry.

    They could decide to remove this, but since this is a very detailed version of the story, it would be odd to do so. Most depictions of Jesus only focus on his miracle, or His death. They don’t try to cover all the in between.

    And there’s a good reason for that.

    The disciples themselves who wrote of his deeds said if they included all of them, the world couldn’t hold the books.

    It’s hard to picture just how constant Jesus’ works must have been, for them to say that.

    So, sadly, any depiction of him as he lived his dilay life, is never going to be able to fit in all that he did.

    The problem this presents us is that, it is impossible for it to be true to Jesus’sexperiences under such limitations.

    But I think that the show maybe be making the problem even worse by spending so much time on Jesus doing very little.

    Case in point: Episode 5

    This episode annoyed me, not because of them partying, but because they portrayed a side of him that wouldn’t have existed unless they wrote it in.

    When John and Jesus are talking about his ministry, John asks Jesus why he isn’t doing more, why he doesn’t call out the sins of the people more, the corruption at high levels.

    And Jesus seems to be a little hesitant about answering, and cautioning John not to call out Herod’s sin.

    I’m sorry, Jesus? Our Jesus? The Jesus that preached against sin constantly? That Jesus? Is telling John not to do this?

    Is Jesus confused?

    I know that I would get called uptight for complaining about it. Because “oh Jesus was human, they’re just showing him and John as human.”

    I guess “human” now means uncertain of what to do in life. But that’s not what it used to mean.

    What gulls me about this is that there is no biblical foundation for that scene whatsoever. And, the circumstances prompting it, John’s questions, would not exist, has Jesus been doing as he actually did in scripture.

    Jesus called out the sins of the pharisee very early on in his ministry (something I cannot even see their version of him doing so far). He called out the secret sins of the heart in one of his first recorded sermons, the sermon on the mount, Matthew 5-7.

    What puzzles me is that the writer have knowingly rearranged what Jesus did, and now, are making excuses for it, with his character. As if John is being used to lampshade their own show by asking what the audience might be asking, like “uh, why are we not getting more than one miracle per episode, save for the one with Mary.”

    A good question. Jesus did miracles constantly, and he’s barely done any, yet most of his disciples are gathered..?

    Yeah, if I were John the Baptist, and had read the Gospel, I’d be wondering what was going on with this version of Jesus too.

    See, it’s actually bad writing to create problems, and then use characters to argue over those same problems, in an adaptation, because it would not have been there had you stayed true to the source materials. If you have to change the characters and actions so much to create conflict, you are doing something the author never did, and people don’t always read the source material, and will blame you for doing it.

    Like those awful changes they made in the Narnia movies that made no dang sense…

    I have another problem with John questioning Jesus at all and actually telling him what to do.

    John, the same John who says “whose sandals I am not worthy to untie?” Is going to tell Jesus he’s dong it wrong.

    John is the one who said “The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

    I won’t say John never had doubts or questions, but it’s one thing to wonder, it’s another to go so far as to reprove Jesus. The one John believed was the son of God before anyone else did, even. An often overlooked fact.

    Who said “He must increase, I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

    Oh, and yet another problem here.

    By the time John got arrested by Herod, Jesus already had a huge minority. We know this because he had began baptizing people, (his disciples had, John 4:2 ), and some of John’s were going over to Jesus. John said this was how it should be. That is was the natural order of things, basically.

    Jesus had way more followers by that point. And John got arrested after that.

    It would not have been when he still had less than 20. And hadn’t started doing a lot of miracles yet.

    So between the timeline being messed up, and deviating from scripture, we have a serious problem.

    Now John saying that isn’t going to make any sense, I doubt it will even happen, since he’s going to get killed by Herod (spoiler to no one who’s read the gospel.)

    And that’s a key thing about ministry that will not get to be included in this show.

    They changed John from the Bible.

    And you may say that it’s not a big deal to change it. I’d counter that it’s too much change for a historical figure. A good example would be if someone made a movie about Martin Luther King Jr. and portrayed him as being racist against Mexicans, or mistreating other black people under him. It’s just not his character. Wouldn’t that get a real rise out of people?

    But we can’t prove he wasn’t like that…

    We can’t prove he was either.

    And they changed Jesus, who never once doubted his own actions on record.

    We attribute human weakness to Jesus because we know he was tempted like we are, but there is a reason He is not recorded as saying them.

    Words have power. Jesus’ had more power than anyone.

    Whatever he sometimes felt and thought, he would not have voiced doubt in God, until that moment on the cross when it was part of completing his desolation.

    Once you speak doubt, it takes a much firmer hold on you. Even a psychologist would tell you that.

    And, as a writer, I also know that using doubt in a story can be complicated. I actually stay away from it unless it serves a specific purpose.

    Call me crazy but doubt doesn’t make me relate to characters more, or like them. I want to be confident in what I’m doing. I hate doubt.

    And I get annoyed when characters obsess over it. For crying out loud, if you’re that unsure, I’m not sure you’re the right person for the job. (No disrespect to Moses or Gideon, there’s exceptions, in God, but He does tells us not to doubt. God treats doubt as an evil He sometimes has to get around, but mostly will just not tolerate.)

    I find other elements of the show weird, like their portrayal of demons. Anyone who’s actually witness deliverance ministry knows it’s nothing like what they are showing. How it would be for Jesus, I don’t know, but the whole “false name thing” has no scriptural foundation. Demons have names, but people possessed by them don’t change their names. It’s doubtful if they even remember them half the time.

    Also, calling out someone’s true name is not how you free them from a demon. It can be part of healing and other forms of ministry, but only Jesus casts out demons, and only His name is able to overcome them, not ours.

    The Bible says God “gave him the name is above every name” for a reason.

    That’s not the biggest problem, it’s just weird.

    But the biggest problem is what I already mentioned. Going too far from scriptures.

    I was watching the live chat for the episode, and someone said “This is like historical fiction for the Gospel.”

    Right. That’s exactly right.

    Actually, it’s more like fan fiction.

    Historical fiction doesn’t change how real life people acted, usually. It is set around someone who didn’t actually live then, experiencing it. And while they may give real figures in history more personality, they don’t change their actions, because that’s not historical then.

    Fan fictions, on the other hand, is where you change canon characters and how they act and what they feel and what their backstories are.

    And now my question, a serious one, is: How is Historical Fan fiction about the Gospels actually helping us?”

    I can’t be the only one who wonders what the point of this show is.

    The first season diverged less from “canon” if you will, but season 2 is taking some big creative leaps.

    And why?

    I believe strongly in the potency of the Gospels, as being God inspired for accuracy and power, and many people have been changed by reading them.

    I don’t believe nearly as much in the power of a “good example” to win souls.

    We are called to be a “good example” of course, or we are hypocrites. And sometimes that’s the only witness we can have.

    But the primary commission of christian is to preach, heal, and free people. Jesus told us to do that.

    And so, telling an accurate account of him is very important if we’re going to go everywhere and preach about Him.

    You see, I don’t need “one interpretation” of Jesus. I need Jesus. I need Him as he was, what he really said, because I believe He said it for a reason. I believe there’s power in his words that there is not in ordinary men.

    Changing what He said, and how He said it, to me is a great affront to Jesus, because it is as if we think we can explain what He meant better than he can.

    Paraphrase, sure. Use an analogy to help people, absolutely.

    But base it off what he actually said.

    And when you have Jesus portrayed by an actor, being in His time, in His place, then changing what he said is a very problematical. It’s wrong, sometimes.

    I noted it when he healed the man who was lame for so many years too. he didn’t say the same things to Him.

    I for one, don’t think Jesus needs to really explain what He’s going to do, He just does it. I think it takes away form the power of what He says if you add all these weird explanations He never gave on record of why He said it.

    To Jesus, healing the man was a simple as telling him to get up and walk. He didn’t have to say “I’m what you need” because He was what He needed. You don’t have to tell someone that if it’s obvious.

    Please.

    It sounds like I’m nitpicking, and that’s because it’s very hard to convey what I mean. It’s something you almost have to know God already to know is true.

    If you know Jesus, deeply, you know he is direct.

    I make up reasons, I make up explanations, I make up a backstory for what He’s telling me, I may be right, I may be wrong.

    But He just tells me. Jesus isn’t vague.

    If I’ve learned one thing from reading Jesus and imitating Him when I write, it’s that, when He is vague, He is actually being the most direct. It is only vague because we don’t understand it.

    If a scientist said to you E=MC squared, with no context, you might say “that was really vague and cryptic.”

    But to the scientist, that makes perfect sense. It’s actually a very exact answer to them. Because it’s an equation. There is no room for interpreting.

    When Jesus called out sin, and told us what it meant to be right now, I don’t think He intends us to try to interpret it away.

    Some things require context and research now that’s it’s been 2000 years, but it’s important to remember, when they were spoken, that was not the case. I suspect it was crystal clear to them.

    When Jesus was vague was with Parables, and those are not really that vague, just hard to grasp in fullness.

    I just wonder, if anyone watching The Chosen and truly walking away with a better understanding of Jesus.

    You see, The Chosen, is taking Jesus, and putting a modern spin on him. Changing his words, using our church cliches that no one really understands.

    And that might be okay as a paraphrase, but it’s not as a direct quote, if you catch my meaning.

    And what good is watching a paraphrase? Paraphrase is useful only for a few moments to help you understand the original meaning better, if you go to a paraphrase as your source of truth, you lose something in the translation. If you’ve ever read a “no fear Shakespeare” paraphrase, you know what I mean (ugh.)

    You see, someone who only watches the Chosen, as it is now, would be quite shocked with how Jesus is in the Bible.

    He would seem cold by comparison. Cold and judgemental.

    I believe you have to learn to read the Gospel and see Jesus for how He really was. Not turn him into what you think He should be like.

    I think, honestly, the problem is the whole concept.

    “Getting to now Jesus through the eyes of His followers.”

    I mean, when has that ever worked?

    It’s helpful to build each other up with our personal stories, and try to see each other in them, but, I have never truly been helped except by directly knowing Jesus himself.

    You an’t “know Jesus” through the eyes of his followers, if anything, that’s what we have too much of now in the Wast. We watch movies, read books, and hear sermons about what Jesus is like, but don’t get to know Him ourselves.

    A sermon is helpful, but it’s not the core of Christianity.

    We’re taking one thing that is meant to be a supplement, or at most, a portion, of our diet, and we’re making it the full meal.

    This is not the fault solely of the writers and directors of The Chosen, but its saddens me to see such a clear influence of that kind of culture in the show.

    I’m sure mine will never be a popular opinion, but I don’t expect it to be.

    Knowing Jesus, really, is not ever popular, is it?

    I initially was wary of this show because it was popular, because I felt any real depiction of Jesus cannot ever be widely popular, it would offend too many people to see Jesus as he really is. The world hates him, that’s in the bible.

    Then it seemed to be okay.

    But what bothered me was how little power I felt in it.

    Emotional response is not the same as power.

    A powerful scene can give you a new perspective after watching it.

    Just crying, and getting angry is not power.

    In fact that’s all we know how to do now, cry and rage and laugh at stuff.

    Even needing a show like The Chosen to give us an emotional background for these people, is just a sign of how emotional deprived we are.

    If reading the Gospel doesn’t invoke some feeling in you, and watching it portrayed how it actually was wouldn’t evoke feeling either, then…. that seems like a you problem.

    I think helping us understand what is in there between would be more beneficial than adding stuff to it.

    I know , I know, they are not trying to replace the Bible.

    But… just what do you think you’re going to do then?

    Get a bunch of people to read the Gospels, realize Jesus is not like that, and get angry, or say “I like the Chosen version of Jesus better.”

    What an affront to God if that happened.

    It probably already has.

    I hope it would not work out that way, but since he’s just so different, I can’t really believe it won’t.

    And, one last thing…

    Why do we need a show about Jesus’ followers anyway?

    Are they what matter? Should they be the main characters?

    It’s startling when you realize Jesus is actually a side character who’s barely in some episodes, and it very muted most of the time he is there.

    Jesus? A side character?

    What about “I must become less, and he must become great?”

    I question if there is any power or truth in focusing on followers.

    I don’t want people looking at my life and trying to understand Jesus through that. I can help them, but by directing them to Him, not to me. I’m not the answer.

    The motivation of this writing decision would baffle me if I didn’t have an all too common explanation:

    It resonates better with the audience.

    Because, it’s easier to swallow than the truth would be.

    And we’re used to the shallow and full spectrum of human weaknesses thanks to Hollywood.

    I don’t think we need to be competing with that in Christian media.

    I may have made the same mistakes in my writing, I can own up to that. But, I am avoiding portraying Jesus directly all that often. And I am not trying to put the gospel into a new suit.

    I use parallels, but that’s all they are. Like the Chronicles of Narnia. Parallels are powerful.

    I looked it up, and I did find one person who seems to have noticed the same thing I did about the show, and had more time to research it:

    “Quotes like “I came to know Jesus better through this show” and

    “I feel like I’ve been reading my Bible in black and white all these years and now it’s in color” have been circulating on social media by both the creators and fans of the show.

    The creator says he’s “trying to tell God’s stories in a fresh way”

    and “enhancing Scripture”.

    Those are all incredibly dangerous statements.

    Do you need something other than God’s Word to know Jesus? No. In fact, God’s Word is the only way we can know Jesus. Do we need anything to enhance God’s stories or tell them in a fresh way? Absolutely not. Only the Bible is the inspired Word of God and it needs no enhancing or modern re-telling by fallible men.

    This is one of many examples of him stating that Mormonism, Catholicism, and Christianity simply have minor theological differences. He calls them “different perspectives” that are “exciting to explore, not dangerous”. He consults a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi, and an evangelical christian after writing each episode to make sure they are “biblically accurate”. You can find him saying many times that we all believe in or that we all love the same Jesus.

    But do we? Both the church of LDS and Catholics believe in a combination of works and faith. Mormons believe that God attained His supreme status by righteous works and that Jesus is a created being and not equal to God. I could go into more details behind the errors of the Mormon and Catholic faiths and what makes them false religions, but I’ll save that for another day. However, the differences between the true Christian faith and the Mormon and Catholic faiths are essential, gospel issues and not simply theological differences we can brush over. And the bottom line is this: If Dallas Jenkins believes what he’s saying then he doesn’t understand the true Gospel. The Gospel that says there’s only one way. The Gospel that says we are forgiven on the merit of Christ alone and not of anything we can do. The one and only Gospel that is founded on the belief that Jesus is God incarnate.” Full article is linked here:

    The Chosen: Is It Biblical?

    I think she summed it up pretty well too.

    I do question the Show’s constant defensiveness about it not being “your bible.”

    Like, no one said it was. But is it too much to ask we stick to the source?

    As the Aesop’s fable goes, you cannot please everyone. If you try, you please no one.

    But the show will have mass appeal, because it has values that appeal to the masses.

    Jesus promoting women is biblical, and the article I linked has one thing wrong, Mary Magdalene and other women did travel with Jesus and supported him out of their own wealth. It was culturally inappropriate, but they did it.

    But there is no record of the other things listed. The author is right about that.

    I didn’t know about the connection to Mormonism and Judaism till now. But I can see it.

    I was in a Co-op with Mormons for quite a while in my teenage years, and I can say, there is definitely a difference between Mormonism and Christianity. They claim to be Christians, but they don’t understand the idea of grace at all.

    They also are not free thinkers, though they are very smart, educated people.

    Being a free thinker is not perhaps a biblical requirement, but it helps you not be swayed by peer pressure.

    I find the part where Dallas said he wants to “enhance” scripture to be the most disturbing, to be honest.

    Like this lady says, we’ll all have to decide for ourselves, I would caution any Christian who is watching it to fact check it by the Bible at the very least, and take what it is for what it’s wroth, but not as fact.

    Also, I think the show villainizing any Christians who complain about the biblical inaccuracy by saying that’s not their intention, are missing the point.

    Because, bro, if you don’t want to represent my Bible, of my Faith, accurately, then, stop claiming to be of my Faith. I don’t need you to speak for me, thanks.

    Don’t see why that’s so hard to understand.

    All right, I think that’ll do for this post, until next time, stay honest–Natasha.