More Thoughts on "The Chosen" Series

The following is excerpted from The Berean Call Newsletter, April 2022.

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There is another development of late that is overwhelming Christendom and denying the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures. I’m referring to the movie series called The Chosen, which we’ve addressed in part in previous newsletter articles—and its popularity is growing exponentially. You may ask, “How does the film series deny the authority and sufficiency of God’s Word?” 

First of all, it creates scenes featuring Jesus and his disciples conjured up by a screenwriter who provides dialogue for them (words that were never spoken in Scripture). The screenwriter and film director have the actors portraying Jesus and his disciples doing things they never did. The Bible claims to be our authority regarding what Jesus said and did. That which the screenwriter writes, and the director directs, therefore subverts the authority of God’s Word. As viewers fill their minds with the endless unbiblical scenes that The Chosen presents visually, that is what becomes their authority.

What then of the sufficiency of God’s Word, or lack thereof? The intent of The Chosen’s producers was to supply for audiences that which evidently the Holy Spirit was unable to communicate effectively through words actually contained in the Bible. Just as Christianity had to wait nearly 1900 years for the arrival of Christian psychology to meet the psychological needs of Christians, the church had to wait nearly the same amount of time for the invention of motion pictures in order for Christians to relate to the personal character of Jesus. 

The medium of film was also necessary in order to make the Jesus of Scripture more acceptable, more human, and less “stoic,” as The Chosen’s producers claim. Make him “more authentic.” We’re told by The Chosen Mormon producer, Derral Eves, that “The whole purpose of the show is to have people experience an authentic Jesus.” Written words that have to be read were obviously not sufficient for one to get to know the real Jesus. A common response from the millions of viewers (this one from a Mormon student cited in a BYU magazine) was that “she loves the show because it helps viewers see Christ as a real person. It helped me recognize that he was a regular (though perfect) guy who likes to joke with his friends, loves his mom, and has a special connection with the little children.” Those “authentic insights,” however, were supplied not by the Holy Spirit but by the series’ creative production people. Although the writer/director of the series, Dallas Jenkins, claims that God had told him regarding the production of The Chosen that He wouldn’t let him “screw it up.” Jenkins has done that and worse.

Scripture warns us to try the spirits “whether they are of God…” (1 John:4:1). The Chosen, from beginning to end, is a lie (Proverbs 30:6), and it adds man’s ideas to God’s Word, especially the Person of Jesus Christ, which is condemned (Deuteronomy 4:2,12:32, and Revelation 22:18). Its content is at odds with and contrary to what the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, has communicated in the Word of God. Furthermore, the Bible makes it absolutely clear that those who add to what is written in God’s Word have not the Spirit of truth, nor can they receive the things of God, neither can they know them, “because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Those things are clearly contrary to what the true Author of the Scriptures has communicated, the very One whom Dallas Jenkins claims had spoken to him.