Blog

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you may not know that there is a hugely popular show streaming right now called “The Chosen”. This show is produced by Angel Studios and is directed by Dallas Jenkins. It’s about the life of Christ and his apostles during Jesus’ three year ministry. Actor Jonathan Roumie portrays Jesus, and honestly, he has become my no. 1 favorite on-screen Jesus. In fact, I consider The Chosen to be THE best adaptation of the life of Christ ever made. ^[1]For the longest time, I couldn’t articulate why I thought this. But the YouTube channel The Snipe Life has a series comparing episodes from the gospel adapted by The Chosen compared to The … Continue reading. However, over the past year or two I have seen this show come under heavy criticisms from Christians. These brothers in Christ are well meaning, but unfortunately, all of their reasons for “Why you shouldn’t watch The Chosen” don’t seem reasonable to me. I’ve put off writing this blog for a while as I thought it an ill fit to defend a television show on a website devoted to Christian Apologetics and theology, but given that some BAD theology lies behind some of the reasons for shunning this show, and given the fact that I just want Christians to be better thinkers in general, I’ve decided at last, to put my thoughts into writing. So join me as we use the brains that God gave us.

Objection 1: The Chosen Is Not Biblical

By far and away the most repeated criticism I run into is that this show is “not biblical” or “It fabricates events”. Now, when you hear something is “not biblical”, you should immediately ask “What do you mean by that?” Because this term can mean different things in different contexts. It could just mean that it’s something not derived from The Bible. The crucifixion of the apostle Peter upside down is “not biblical” in that the historical documents of The New Testament don’t record it. You need to go to extra biblical sources to learn about how Peter died. On the other hand, “not biblical” could mean that something contradicts what scripture teaches on a given subject. For example, that your good deeds outweighing your bad deeds will keep you out of Hell is not biblical, because in places like Ephesians 2:8-9 and Romans 4, salvation is clearly said to be a gift given to us to by faith rather than by works. “Salvation is a gift for the guilty, not a reward for the righteous” as the popular preacher’s slogan goes. So, in what sense, if either, is The Chosen “not biblical”?

It is the former. The Chosen does “fabricate events”. For example, in the first couple of episodes, Simon Peter (played by Zohar Isaac) is stressing out over not being able to pay his tax debt. If he doesn’t, the Romans are going to come and cease his house and boat as tribute. In desperation, Simon does things like fish on the Sabbath, which Jewish law prohibits. He even intends to sell out some other Jews in order to possibly earn the Romans’ favor. Later that night (the night right before the deadline), Simon’s brother, and his friends John and James, the sons of Zebedee (portrayed by George X. Xanthis and Shayan Sobhian), come visit him in their own boat to help him out. They spend all night fishing and catch nothing. The next day, Jesus (Jonathan Roumie) comes and tells Peter to put the net back into sea. Peter/Simon does so and then comes the great catch of fish. It’s so heavy that it causes the boat to lean over. Peter calls to John and James to help him and Andrew get all the fish into the boat. Afterwards, Peter falls to his knees and tells Jesus to depart from him because he is a sinful man.

The latter half of this summary is clearly biblical. In Luke 5:1-11, we read; “One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘“’Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’”’ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’ For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.’” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.”

So, in this story, which if memory serves, spans the first two episodes of season 1, we do indeed have the story of the great catch of fish as it is in found in the gospel of Luke. However, what isn’t in any of the gospels is why Peter was out all night fishing. The Chosen gives us an answer to this. The Chosen tells a story not derived from the gospels and weaves it (seamlessly so) into what the gospels do say about Peter’s calling the miraculous fish catch. It is the gap-filling explanation that Christian critics of The Chosen object to.

Or again, Mark 16:9 and Luke 8:2 mention that Mary Magdalene was a demon possessed woman whom Jesus had performed an exorcism on. However, the gospels don’t tell us much about Mary other than that she was a follower of Jesus, what her problem was prior to meeting Jesus, and the most attention that she gets in the gospels is during the empty tomb narratives, specifically in John 20. The Chosen spends an entire episode dedicated to showing Mary (Elizabeth Tabish) as this outcast woman living in a run down shack who, every day, brings out a piece of paper her father had given her that has Isaiah 43:1 written on it. She would cite it to comfort herself during her sober moments. This is all in episode 1, by the way. She frequently attended a tavern to drink her troubles away. She went by a pseudonym in “The Red Quarter”; Lillith. So, the first time I watched that episode, I didn’t even know it was Mary Magdalene. Not until the end of the episode where we meet Jonathan Roumie’s Jesus for the first time. He comes into the tavern and attempts to speak to Mary, but she leaves. Jesus calls her by her real name “Mary” which stops her in her tracks. Jesus then cites Isaiah 43:1, there’s some dialogue, and Jesus embraces her, casting out all of the demons. Now, none of what I just described is told in the gospels. Again, Mark and Luke just casually mention that one of Jesus’ female followers was Mary Magdalene and that he had cast these demons out. There’s a lot of historical speculation and poetic licensing taken right in the very first episode.

Now, is this a problem? I don’t think so. Yes, there are scenes and dialogues that aren’t taken from the gospels. That’s true. Jesus never said “Get used to different” and we don’t have Mary’s exorcism narrated for us. But is this reason to stay away from The Chosen? I’m not convinced that it is. This is par for the course for cinematic and novelist retellings of history. Historical movies or novels recount historical events, but may “fill in the gaps”. For example, a novel or movie about Abraham Lincoln that culminates in his assassination may have Lincoln say to his wife something like “Woman, you’re going to be the death of me”. This would be dark humor foreshadowing his death, but everyone reading or watching knows “Lincoln probably never said this”. It’s a way of telling history as an entertaining story. Why would we not object to this hypothetical movie about President Lincoln but we do with The Chosen? The obvious answer is that the history the gospels recounts is considered sacred. It’s a crucial part of redemptive history. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is what the entire Old Testament history has been leading up to. Nevertheless, for me at least, as long as The Chosen doesn’t contradict what is in the gospels, and what they make up is both historically plausible and seamlessly weaves into the biblically canon material, I think it’s ok. It’s historically plausible to think that Simon could have done these things. The Romans were ruthless and they did tax the Jewish people harshly. It’s plausible to say that that could have been the reason Peter fished all night long the night before meeting Jesus. Or maybe in reality, the historical Peter just had a hard time getting to sleep. And again, there’s no reason to think Jesus’ meeting with Mary couldn’t have gone down the way The Chosen depicts. It’s a plausible scenario. It could have happened that way.

Now, one potential pitfall could be in people who watch The Chosen as a substitute for reading the gospels. Especially if they’re biblically illiterate to begin with. In this case, they wouldn’t be able to tell biblical from non-biblical material, and might be mislead into thinking “This is exactly how it went down” when it’s either historical speculation or paraphrasing. Nevertheless, I have seen Facebook comments from many people who have said that The Chosen has gotten them interested in reading the gospels for themselves. And some have even become Christians in the process! I think this is something that should be celebrated, as God loves the world (John 3:16) and died for the sins of all people (1 Timothy 2:6, 1 John 2:2), because He wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (2 Peter 3:9, 1 Timothy 2:4, Ezekiel 18:23, Ezekiel 33:11). The Chosen is only a problematic show if you use it as a substitute for Bible study rather than as entertainment. But then, I don’t see this as a problem with the show, I see this as a problem with some of the potential viewers. If you’re someone who uses The Chosen as a substitute for reading scripture, stop that.

Objection 2: The Chosen Was Produced By Mormons

Yes, the set on which The Chosen films is owned by Mormons. That much is true, yet that is the extent in which the the claim “The Chosen Was Produced By Mormons” is true. Doug Huffman, who is currently Professor of New Testament and Associate Dean of Biblical and theological Studies at the Talbot School of Theology, part of Biola University. He also happens to be one of the script consultants for The Chosen and previously had the show’s creator and director, Dallas Jenkins, as a student. This is what he said in an interview with Garry R Morgan of Faith Bible church;

“Even though it is produced outside of the Hollywood and New York studio systems, The Chosen is nonetheless a professional television production. This means that, like hundreds of other television shows that are independent of the big studios, The Chosen utilizes professional television personnel (cast, crew, production staff, etc. – some who are Christians and some who are not), professional resources (like cameras, film, costumes, airplane transportation, etc. –many of which are not made by, or provided by, Christians), professional sets (which may or may not be constructed by Christians), etc.

Given its subject matter, there are, of course, a number of Christians involved in making The Chosen, but there are a number of non-Christians involved in the television business as well. One of the things that makes The Chosen different from many other independent television shows is that, rather than mere entertainment, it has an explicit Christian message pointing people to Jesus; in some ways, this is rather remarkable for a television show in today’s world.

Usually the questions about Mormon connections to The Chosen arise when people hear that VidAngel – one of the original professional production companies sponsoring the show – is owned and operated by people who come from a Latter-Day Saints faith background. It is important to note, however, that the VidAngel company is not owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Thus, The Chosen is not an official ministry of the LDS (which, of course, is what people can assume when they hear ‘produced by Mormons’).” ^[2]Doug Hoffman, in the article “Is The Chosen Produced By Mormons?” by Garry R Hoffman, May 22, 2022 — https://fbchurch.org/resource/chosen-produced-by-mormons

Another argument that attempts to prove “This show is Mormon!” is taken from a line in season 3. The scene is Jesus preaching in the Nazareth synagogue. He has claimed to be the Messiah after reading the Isaiah scroll, and the pew sitters and synagogue leaders aren’t too happy about it (This is biblical as it comes from Luke 4:14-30). Eventually the synagogue ruler says “If you do not stop, we’ll have no choice but to obey the law of Moses” to which Jesus responds “I am the law of Moses”. This line wasn’t just in the show, but in the trailer to the show’s third season. And it caused Christians all over social media to have a melt down. Why? Because, it is said, that this is a line from the book of Mormon.

There are two things to be said here. First, even Mormons deny that this is a direct quote. ^[3]See the article “Is There A Book Of Mormon Quote In ‘The Chosen’ Season 3?” by Haley Lundberg, October 27th 2022 —  … Continue reading 1 Nephi 15:9 from The Book Of Mormon says “Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.” Secondly, Dallas Jenkins doesn’t seem to know much about Mormonism and this is painfully obvious in the videos he puts out. So I believe him when he says ““It’s not a direct quote,” Jenkins said. “It wasn’t referring to the law of Moses in that quote. … And I have never read the Book of Mormon, to be honest with you.” When someone told me, ‘Hey, that’s from the Book of Mormon,’ I was like, ‘OK,’ and I went and looked it up. … It’s a cool line. … It’s in the show because I believe it’s a really great line, and I believe that it’s also theologically plausible. … The point is God is over these things. Jesus is over these things. He is these things. He owns these things. They came from him. Jesus makes many ‘I am’ statements and is called the ‘Great I Am.’ So no, I didn’t pull this quote from anywhere else. … It’s a theologically plausible line and, I believe, a cool, Jesus-as-king moment, and that’s it.” ^[4]quoted from ibid.

As I have said to people in Facebook conversations, even if this was taken from The Book Of Mormon, it’s the least theologically objectionable quote you could give. It would be like if a TV police offer says “I’m the law around these parts.” Jesus is God, God gave the law of Moses, and so, in the same way that a judge or a cop could said to “be the law”, Jesus can be said to “be the law”. It makes perfect theological sense. I’ve said to people “I will concede The Chosen is Mormon when Jesus encounters Satan and calls him his brother.” ^[5]Mormons teach that Jesus is a created being and that Satan was his literal brother..

It certainly emphasized the deity of Christ in one episode. Mormons, like most cultists, do not believe that Jesus is Yahweh incarnate. They believe he was a mere human prophet, no more divine than Isaiah or Jeremiah. In the first episode of the second season, Jesus is to read some scripture at a synagogue. He is talking about it to John. Jesus asks “What do you think I should read?” John replies “I couldn’t. After today, after yesterday, I do not feel very much worthy.” Jesus replies “Who’s worthy of anything?” to which John says “You…but no man, apparently.” Jesus then turns to John and looks at him for a second before saying “I’m a man, John.” John then replies “And yet…” which follows a pause. After the long pause, Jesus turns straight to John, looks him in the eyes and says “I am who I am.” biblically astute viewers will remember that Jesus used this in John 8:58, and that this is the name of God that God gave to Moses in Exodus 3. In Exodus 3:13-14, we read “Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Not only did the dialogue hint at Jesus’ deity, it explicitly affirmed it. Jesus said he would read the creation account in Genesis, and called it “a favorite memory”. And in case the viewer’s didn’t catch it, we shift to a back-and-forth scene of Jesus reading from Genesis in the synagogue and John in the future writing the prologue of his gospel, John 1. You can see this in a clip on YouTube by clicking here.

What does John 1 say? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-4). Then in verse 14, John writes “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (verse 14)

So, clearly, The Chosen has a very high Christology. The Chosen has an orthodox Christology. Regardless of the fact that they may get some of their props from Mormons, the messages in the show are completely Christian in nature. And for me, the end product is really ultimately what matters. This leads me to address the next criticism.

Objection 3: Not All Of The Actors Are Christians

This one is really bad. The complaint that not all the actors are Christians should not be a relevant factor at all. Dallas Jenkins is not running a church, he’s making a television show. People like Jonathan Roumie and Zohar Issac are actors. By definition, they are playing a part. As long as they can act well and remember their lines, that’s really all that should matter, should it not?

We don’t expect Keanu Reeves to actually be an assassin with insane marshal arts skills in order to play John Wick. And Drake and Josh aren’t actually step brothers. Can they act? Do they do justice to the roles they auditioned for? That’s all anyone should care about. To use a historical figure (as Jesus is), would we have a problem with a liberal actor playing Abraham Lincoln who was a Republican? I wouldn’t. Not unless he didn’t portray Lincoln well and accurately.

Likewise, the religious views of The Chosen cast shouldn’t be an issue. Some of the cast are Christian. Some are not. But who cares? Again, that has no bearing on the final product that is The Chosen.

Objection 4: The Chosen Violates The Second Commandment

This one isn’t unique to The Chosen, but it is one that I’ve seen come up. Some Christians are under the impression that any visual representation of Jesus is a second commandment violation.

I don’t think Christians who get offended at Jesus paintings and Bible movies really realize how radical their (false) interpretation of the second commmandment is. If the prohibition was against mere images, you couldn’t even have a statue of your dog. Indeed, some second temple Jews considered the image of Caesar on their currency to be graven images.

I mean, it does say not to make an image of anything, on the Earth below, or in the seas, or in the sky. A statue of your dog would be “an image of something on the earth below” would it not?

Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”

The truth is, the second commandment is an extension of the first. It’s about idol crafting. We know this if we just keep reading.

Exodus 20:4-5 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,”

No one is violating the second commandment unless they’re worshipping Jonathan Roumie on their TV screen. These folks need to learn to read their Bibles better, honestly!

And another thing is that Jesus Christ is a human being. He’s God, yes (Mark 14:60-64, John 1:1-3, Hebrews 1). But he is God INCARNATE (John 1:14). He’s as fully human as he is fully God. And human beings have physical forms that can be visually depicted in art. When Jonathan Roumie plays Jesus on The Chosen, he is not representing the divine Logos, but the human Jesus of Nazareth.

Before anyone says anything, no, this is not Nestorianism. The Athanatian Creed explicitly says Christ has two natures. Click here to read it. Jesus is one person with two natures; a divine nature and a human nature. This is perfectly within orthodoxy. Bible movies, Jesus paintings, and front yard Nativitys are not attempting to depict the Godhead like “old man Yahweh” cartoons. They are depictions of the human Jesus of Nazareth who walked this Earth.

As Colossians 1:15 says “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God”.

Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). Jesus could be seen. He was human! He walked, he talked, he ate. He had a face. He had arms and legs. It is not Nestorian to say Jesus has two natures. Nestorius taught that in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, there were two distinct minds; a divine mind that belonged to the Logos, and a human mind that belonged to Jesus of Nazareth. But I do not hold that view. Jesus is ONE, count em, ONE person. This one person has a complete divine nature, and a complete human nature.

I can appreciate an aversion to depictions of the Trinity where Jesus is accompanied by an old man with white hair and a white beard, and a dove. Even then, I’m not convinced its a 2CV (because, again, it’s tied to idol worship), but it’s definitely a caricature. No image can fully capture God’s transcendent divine nature.

But Jesus was a man like you and me. He wasn’t just God. If we’re going to accuse each other of heresy, then it seems the 2CV Violation accusers’ view borders on docetism. If Jesus was fully human, then that human image can be depicted. Just as we have statues of Abraham Lincoln and a bust of Socrates and paintings of the apostle Paul. The 2CV Accusers’ view logically entails that if I went back in time in a time machine, and snapped a photo of Jesus, then came back to the present and posted that pic online, I’d be violating the second commandment. I hope you can see how absurd this is.

The second commandment is clearly about idolatry. Let’s take it from the top; Exodus 20:4-6;

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. YOU SHALL NOT BOW DOWN TO THEM OR WORSHIP THEM; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (caps for emphasis)

The second commandment is also tied to Ancient Near Eastern cultic practices where pagans would carve a statue of the god, install it in a temple after an inaguration ceremony, and do a “mouth washing” ritual so that when the spirit of the god came in to inhabit the statue in the temple, it could receive food and drink from the worshippers. Old Testament scholar John Walton covers this in his book “Ancient Near Eastern Thought and The Old Testament”.

Does the above sound anything like when a Christian watches “The Chosen”?

So from both the immediate context as well as the cultural context, we can see that a painting of Jesus preaching the sermon on the mount, crucifixes, paintings of Jesus resurrecting and leaving the tomb, etc. etc. etc. are NOT violations of the second commandment. This view is completely and utterly indefensible. It’s nonsense.

The second commandment is not God saying “No pictures, please!” like an embarrassed celebrity in front of Paparazzi. It’s about not making physical gods for yourself to worship in Yahweh’s stead. Think more “Golden Calf” instead of TV Jesus.

Objection 5: The LGBT Flag On Set

If you don’t know what this controversy is all about, a while back The Chosen released a behind-the-scenes video, and for a brief second an LGBT flag was spotted. You don’t see it for very long, but you do see it for a split second. This sparked a lot of controversy and it prompted Dallas Jenkins to release a 19 minute video on YouTube responding to it.

Jenkins explained that one of the crew members, who is considered an independent contractor, has a three-inch pride flag on his own personal equipment.

“To be clear there was no flag flown…and there was no statement made by ‘The Chosen’ about Pride or Pride month anything like that. There is no promotion of anything happening unlike some of the headlines,” he explained. ^[6]The Chosen YouTube Channel, “Pride Flag Controversy (Dallas Responds)”, June 4th 2023 — https://youtu.be/22GOv9cHVR8?si=Jno59cjtsv6Gb_cW

“For a long time, our cast and crew have wildly different beliefs. They run the spectrum. Sometimes they wear t-shirts or hats that go across the spectrum from a Pride flag or a MAGA hat or a ‘Jesus Saves’ shirt. No one on our set has been triggered and no one on our set minds,” Jenkins continued. ^[7]The Chosen YouTube Channel, “Pride Flag Controversy (Dallas Responds)”, June 4th 2023 — https://youtu.be/22GOv9cHVR8?si=Jno59cjtsv6Gb_cW

Jenkins went on to say, “We made it clear to each other, our cast and crew, and to you, actually, that we do not have a religious or political litmus test to hire and we also do not police social media or their own personal workspaces like their own gear, their own equipment, their own t-shirts and we made that decision years ago.” ^[8]Ibid.

“I don’t make decisions based on disagreements or how people might respond,” he added. ^[9]Ibid.

Jenkins went on to say that we Christians don’t like it when we’re denied job opportunities because of our beliefs, so he thinks he should treat non-Christians with the same respect as he desires to have.

He said a lot of other things in the video. If you have a problem with the show because of that gay pride flag, I really recommend you go check it out. I don’t agree with everything he said. I think Mr. Jenkins didn’t really exercise wisdom here. I think he probably should have not hired an independent contractor with LGBTQ beliefs given the nature of the project, or at the very least told him not to fly the flag. The Chosen gets a lot of criticism anyway, and there is something to be said about not even having the appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). If it were me, I know that the show is going to get a lot of criticism anyway. I would not risk needlessly giving the critics more ammo. But while I think that Dallas Jenkins acted a bit foolishly when it came to this decision, at the end of the day, it does not affect the show. It does not affect the theology of the show and the messages that the show is trying to produce. And that’s ultimately what we should care about.

Conclusion

I have been watching The Chosen since it first debuted, and I’ve loved watching every episode. I hope you can come to see that the most common criticisms this show receives are not sufficient to warrant boycotting it. I have been a Christian for nearly 14 years and I have studied Christian Apologetics, theology, and OT and NT scholarship deeply just as long. I’ve probably gone deeper in biblical studies than any Christian I know (excluding Facebook friends and people I meet at ETS and other theological conferences). I’ve even payed out the wazoo for an expensive Logos Bible Software package to take my studies to the next level. So I think I’m in a good position to judge that watching The Chosen is not problematic. It is not unbiblical (in the sense of contradicting what it written), nor is there any moral value from The Bible violated (e.g The Second Commandment).

That said, if, in spite of all that, I’ve said, you still cannot watch The Chosen with a clear conscience, then I recommend that you don’t. Romans 14 makes it clear that if you do some thing without a clear conscience, even if that thing is inherently innocuous, you’re still sinning anyway. You’re sinning because you believe X is a sin and yet do it anyway. This shows a mindset of rebellion. I have complete and full confidence that I am not displeasing God when I watch The Chosen. Ergo, I have no problem “binging Jesus”. And hopefully I’ve persuaded you that your conviction is groundless. But whether I have succeeded or failed at persuading you, do not violate your conscience.