Hello readers,

Well, work has ended for the year for me! I’ve been meaning to do some more writing, because I’ve got a few things to write about!

Today I want to briefly talk about “The Chosen”… I’ve recently seen some advertisements for “Christmas with the Chosen”… and I want to warn you about this show.

No I don’t watch it, but I have done some due diligence. And these are my thoughts on it… or some of them.

You can take it or leave it, it’s my opinion based I believe on scripture and if you watch the show… ok? You can do what you like! I won’t think less of you, and I believe it’s good for people to make decisions for themselves.

It’s important to write about, because a lot of people are seemingly into “the Chosen”. And it’s having quite a big influence on professing Christians.

If you don’t know… “The Chosen” is basically a tv show about Jesus Christ. And it all seems well and good, innocent, well meaning and well intentioned.

As long as your heart is in the right place… right? As long as you mean well that makes it ok… right?

But the thing is, and we’ve gotta get this down at the outset… the ends don’t justify the means! One thing we learn quickly about God is that there is a specific way to approach and worship and serve him, and we are only accepted by him through obeying him. It’s not acceptable to worship God just however we want, neither adapt worldly methods to do so. Just read Deuteronomy 12:1-14!

And I can sometimes be too cynical, but I always doubt just how noble people’s intentions really are… because money and fame are usually the big drivers aren’t they… I mean people that really love Jesus and are Jesus, Jesus, Jesus… generally really aren’t. Nobody is that spiritual let’s be honest.

And there’s a reason Jesus didn’t commit himself to man… just read John 2:24,25 “But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.”

None of us are that good! Those are good verses to hone in on… because God doesn’t need a TV adaptation of his Son… he needs people to believe the testimony he gave us… his word. His unadulterated by man word!

And really at the heart of my response to this show is the fact that God has already provided the best way to know him… his Bible… and only his Bible. He doesn’t need help… particularly in this manner. The reason why God’s word is so great is because it’s not from man… it’s God’s word.

But if the people producing this show really were that well meaning and well intentioned, and their hearts were so in the right place… well still… that doesn’t make it right! Our Christian life cannot be based on our heart… or rather, what we think our heart is….

… Because we can be deceived about our heart and other peoples hearts. The Bible warns about trusting our heart for a reason… because “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

And if you go back to Genesis, when Cain offered his sacrifice to God, he appeared to be well meaning and his heart seemed to be in the right place. He was trying to worship God! He was offering to God!

And yet he sure turned on God quickly when he was told it wasn’t right! Hmm, so when confronted with the truth… suddenly his heart wasn’t so golden… in fact he was quite black hearted wasn’t he.

And lot of these people loving on Jesus with all these mushy heart strings tugging tv shows sure turn on God’s word. … Remember, Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. The biggest betrayers of Christ are those that appear to love him so much.

… Anyway, viewers are encouraged to get into the Bible for themselves! And it’s sold as a sort of entry point or pathway into God’s word and a deeper connection with Jesus Christ.

… But I wasn’t aware that God’s word and the moving of the Holy Spirit upon the pages of scripture is insufficient for my walk with God!

… I wasn’t aware that our Christian walk needs to be supplemented by the creative licenses of a movie director!

Because it doesn’t. All you need for your Christian life is your Bible and a heart to believe and obey it. Consider these verses…

2 Timothy 3:15 “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”

2 Timothy 3:17 “That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

Get these verses down and you’re miles ahead.

But if the tv show does encourage you to get into the Bible… and you did… then you would see the problems with the show! Surely!

I think of the whole using the show to tell people to read their Bible a little bit like the little warning “smoking kills” on cigarette packets, or the “please gamble responsibly” at the end of betting ads…

… in that it sounds good, but the reality is, it’s a deceptive little trick to disarm you and your mind which may go “hang on, somethings not right here”. It’s just words.

And let’s be honest, it’s not getting people into the Bible more. People have never been further from the truth mostly. And more opposed to it too! They like the Jesus of the Chosen… but they can’t stand the Jesus of the Bible!

But say you do take inspiration from the Chosen, and you did get in your Bible more… then you’d find that graphical depictions of God are expressly forbidden!

Israel at the mount heard words. And God spoke to Moses. And Moses told them what God said. And God said don’t make anything representative of me to worship. Believe and obey the word is our mandate! But we like to pin faith and worship on a thing rather than the promise!

And remember Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17:20 “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;” Is the word enough for you?

And yet Israel as a nation had so much trouble with “images”… and we as Christians are back here again now!

I haven’t quite fleshed out the thought entirely, but the imagination of man is very problematic. We are meant to cast down imaginations, we read about the wickedness of man’s imaginations before the flood in Genesis 6… and the Chosen is based on imagination and feeds the imagination.

When they introduce all their imaginative storylines to make it a tv show… its putting images in your head that doesn’t come from the Bible… and they warp your view of scripture and what the words actually say from then on.

And as for the creative license they take with Jesus and the stories of the Bible… well that is forbidden too.

But it is fitting! Because think of how much “creative license” they take with modern Bibles… little wonder they take creative license in the Chosen!

And so the Chosen portrays an image of Christ from the imagination of man, a confusing mix when it uses trace elements of scripture with it, but nonetheless it comes from the imagination of directors and script writers and actors… not from the word of God.

And if you’re needing to humanize Jesus, or relate him better to everyone… that’s you saying the Bible isn’t good enough!

And that’s where this tv show is coming from… the Bible isn’t enough. They’re dissatisfied… and dissatisfaction and disillusionment with God’s word is always behind this sort of stuff.

And if you’re trying to make Jesus more accessible to people… well the problem isn’t that he’s not accessible… the problem is that people don’t want to go through the strait gate and won’t hear his preachers. The Chosen is just trying to widen the gate and broaden the way, and can barely disguise that fact… trying to widen Jesus’ accessibility and appeal.

I saw some amazing parallels recently in scripture of “the Chosen” to the golden calf in Exodus 32.

You know that the golden calf was crowdfunded? Well so is the Chosen. It’s amazing how people will contribute to religion! Israel in Exodus 32 so eagerly and enthusiastically gave to the work of the golden calf! “And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.”

And I’ve been hearing about how church leaders are getting people to Bible study etc by showing an episode of the Chosen. People that wouldn’t come for the reading and honest dissemination of scripture come for the entertainment! “And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings…” There was a real Jesus movement going on here!

In Exodus 32, the golden calf was a graphical portrayal of their God “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” and so is the Chosen.  But it was a degraded perverted graphical portrayal wasn’t it. Because man cannot portray Christ better than God’s word does… the Chosen is not an upgrade, it’s a radical downgrade from the pure words of scripture. And it produces a degraded faith and degraded behaviour… like they were doing.

It’s interesting that all their gods were worshipped in one calf. That’s instructive. We are seeing a big push to combine all denominations and religions together… by combining everyones own gods into one god we can all get behind.

Remember that the golden calf was an “everyone’s contribution” god… and look at all the different contributors, human contributors to the show and it’s script. Everything “melted” and mixed together. This show is the work of men’s hands, and if you didn’t know anything else… the heavy Roman Catholic and Mormon presence and influence on this show would surely make you suspect.

And the fact the RC church is involved in this show should make you take notice. After all, they’ve done as much to persecute Christians as anyone else. Now they’re helping translate our Bible and presenting TV shows and films of Jesus? It reminds me of Sanballat and Tobiah and how Nehemiah must have felt when he returns and finds Tobiah with a chamber in the courts of the house of God,… this guy who had opposed the rebuilding of the wall and God’s work the whole way… what’s he doing in there?

But the Bible says Aaron “fashioned it” when he made the golden calf. And how fashionable this show has made Jesus to people that really are enemies of the cross! How many people have the Bible as so out of fashion and yet this is so fashionable at the moment.

And remember, it was a weak man pleasing worship leader who made this happen. Aaron took direction from the people, he was meant to know better and do better.

And the end result is confusion, because the golden calf was confusion. Aaron built an altar to it and said “To morrow is a feast to the Lord.” Ah! We are worshipping God! How much modern Christianity is golden calf worship saying you’re worshipping Jesus!?

Anyway they’re just some of my thoughts. I think the worst thing is that I believe this show is causing spiritual adultery. Think about it. Jesus is not a dead deceased figure. He’s just alive now as he ever was. So what does he think when someone else is playing him and people are adoring that bloke? Some impostor? When you pray to Jesus do you now have the image of the bloke who plays him in your head? If you’re married to someone and you start loving on someone else, the person you’re married to might just get jealous and with good reason!

It’s going to take you from Jesus to a false Jesus that doesn’t exist. But that’s just what I think. You do what you want to do. I’m sure there are real believers who watch it, and I don’t doubt some people are well meaning in it… but I’ll stick with the Bible thank you!

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