 The first few episodes of the chosen season four are going to be premiering this week and that's going to stir up a number of folks that love the chosen so dearly and folks that hate it with all their guts and think it is wrong. I've felt conflicted about the chosen for quite some time and in this video I'm going to share with you my pros and cons list about what I appreciate about the chosen and what I think is a little bit damaging and my problem and also at the very end I'm going to share with you the controversy list of some of the controversies that the chosen has been through how they've navigated them and my perspective on them. I don't want this video to feel like an attack from me because it's purely me sharing my perspective and why I'm conflicted about this whole thing and maybe you'll get something from this too. It'll ease some part of your conscience or stir something up that needs to be stirred up. For some background I'm not coming into this discussion cold I've actually seen the first second and third seasons of the chosen as well as following Dallas Jenkins the director and creator of the chosen. I followed him for a number of years so I'm pretty up on all the conversation around the chosen and the controversies that have surrounded it so just know that I'm not commenting on this having never seen it. I've seen all of it. Okay let's get into the pros and cons list. The first pro is that the stories feel real the stories come alive even from the very beginning all of a sudden you're brought into this place of music and feeling and texture and people that it just feels real and often for me at least when you're reading the bible you're not as equipped in picturing the things that you're reading and that's one of the things that the chosen does really really well. It's not the corny Jesus films that you've seen in the past I know some people still think it's a little bit corny but they do a tremendous job comparatively to the stuff that we were given previously where it didn't really feel real it felt like a bunch of British guys in you know togas and and old clothes that you wear in the Middle East and Jesus is giving the sermon on the mountain a British accent so that that provides a clear disconnect to what actually happened the chosen doesn't do that. That being said they've also taken it a step further which is one of the cons is that they've put words in Jesus' mouth and that sounds bad and maybe if you're a real proponent of the chosen you really enjoy it you don't like it painted that way because it does sound bad that's the truth of what's going on and a very clear scripture here is in Proverbs 30 it says do not add to his word lest he rebuke you and be found a liar. Now I know if you'd ask Dallas Jenkins the creator of the chosen and and one of the the script writers he would say hey look the chosen is not the Bible okay we're not trying to replace the Bible we're not trying to you know get people to watch this and believe that it's the Bible the tricky thing is is that when you are putting words in Jesus' mouth people are listening to those words right even if they know okay yeah this isn't exactly what he said or this isn't the Bible but they're still understanding that okay this is Jesus and this is what he's saying to me that's why I just feel uncomfortable about it now people will defend and say okay well you know Jesus the words that are added aren't really that important it has the meat of scripture then all this other additional stuff that that doesn't really you know it's not life or death and so if Jesus said it or he didn't say it's not that big a deal but Jesus does actually within the chosen get into heavy theological issues one example of that is in season three when little James comes to him and he has a limp and he asked Jesus Jesus why do you not heal me now this encounter never happened in the Bible and yet some will speculate okay maybe maybe something like this happened and Jesus had this conversation perhaps okay but they say okay what did what did Jesus say to this and he gives a very pastoral answer to this he says little James I trust you you're able to show the world a different story a story of somebody suffering and yet glorifying God and worshiping him and honoring him even though they don't receive exactly what they want and I think in general that's a pretty good answer that being said is that you are using Jesus here to be kind of a minister of a very pastoral answer to this question okay I understand that but that's giving yourself a lot of power okay because there was a possibility in there that your script writers um you might have got a little bit wrong or you said something out of turn you're using Jesus as your your your hobby horse basically to to teach these theological lessons that maybe you would say okay well hey this is in the Bible but Jesus didn't address this specifically in this context but we're kind of using him as a vessel to get across what we think is biblical it's a dangerous place to be because you're just you're putting words in Jesus mouth you're using analogies you're using phrases you're using words that Jesus didn't use and maybe you're intermingling stuff that he did say but like I know they believe that they're that that it's worth it it's dangerous it's dangerous that's part of the reason I'm conflicted it's dangerous what they're doing one of the things that struck me so deeply about the chosen was that Jesus feels real Jesus feels real that was always something that was so hard for me to imagine and picture in my Christian walk is recognizing Jesus loves me that he is real and he's tender and he is a good father and like all these things that you want to really just see with your eyes and yet you're not given that privilege and so what the chosen does is it basically gives you somebody you know the actor that plays Jesus to see his tenderness to see his compassion to see him interacting with those around him so gently and truthfully and it touches your soul it really does I think back to season one where he is you know confronting Mary Magdalene that was like a super super powerful moment to me now with that being said is I've heard numerous people and I've kind of struggled with this too in a sense when especially when I'm watching the chosen or binging the chosen is you begin to think of Jesus you begin to picture Jesus as Jonathan Rumi the guy who plays Jesus it's just inevitable I know people that that when they pray they think about they picture Jonathan Rumi they they picture him and you know Jonathan has admitted this himself that you know people come up to him and they'll they'll treat him like Jesus and they'll say Jesus can I have a hug and all this can think this is really scary this is really dangerous that a man all of a sudden kind of holds this power holds this identity this public persona to so many people as Jesus right and and now he not only holds this power in the show but he holds this power outside the show and when you look at his faith background okay Jonathan Rumi is Roman Catholic and I don't have some Catholic folks that watch this channel but just to be frank to be honest Catholic doctrine is not consistent with the Bible okay I do believe that there are Catholic folks that are Christians because the grace of God covers a lot especially a lot of bad theology but but if he is teaching and he's a spokesperson for Roman Catholic theology and he's promoting it and people are looking into okay what is what is Jesus belief and they are listening to him and hanging on his every word that's giving a lot of power to one particular man there's a real truth to the fact that God did not reveal to us what Jesus looked like okay there's something significant there when Jesus talked about blessed are those who don't see and yet still believe that don't you know stick their finger in his hand that don't put his their finger in his side and yet still believe he said that to the apostle Thomas there's something to that and I know they're trying to bridge in a sense that gap to make it easier for people to picture him to to understand him and see his compassion and see his love but is it worth it in comparison to all the folks that are now looking to Jonathan Rumi as being Jesus that that's a tricky that's a tricky thing hear me in the midst of this that all of this is not to blame necessarily on the creators of the chosen or those involved in the chosen a lot of the blame goes to people that are in taking this content and watching these things and taking it too far all of a sudden okay you know you see this thing you know it's fake you know it's you just it's not real this isn't exactly what happened and yet you're taking it as gospel and yet you're taking it in a way that it's not meant to be taken and you're seeing these characters and they are actors and they're honest about that but that's not really Jesus that's not really Peter and yet you were you're seeing them that way and you're behaving that way and you're thinking that way a lot of that is on the viewer as well so hey you know there's there's equal blame to be put here on some of the the negative things about the chosen a pro is that many people are learning the story of Jesus that's awesome that's so exciting and yet a con is that they're now recalling the chosen and moments in the chosen and things Jesus said in the chosen that aren't necessarily even in the Bible as opposed to knowing what the Bible says and recalling stories from the actual Bible I know we all start somewhere for me it was starting in Christian podcasts listening to people talk about Jesus and then it eventually got me to look into the Bible and what does the Bible actually say as opposed to just listening to people to people talk about the Bible so I know there is a place for maybe this is a gateway for people to understand you know these different stories and stuff like that some people take it as an opportunity to go deeper in the word and some people use it as an excuse to read their Bible because I watched the chosen today or something like that you know now for the part of the show where I go into some of the controversies that the chosen has experienced I'm not gonna nearly have enough time to hit on all of them or go in depth in any particular one I can make a video on each one of these and that's not the point of this channel that just should be contained in this video so let's dive in Angel Studio is run by Mormons now when it comes to making content making movies making tv series streaming all that sort of thing it gets very complicated in terms of what different people are in association with it what you know studios are over top who has creative control all that kind of thing and I was nervous about this for quite a long time and it still makes me a little bit nervous where you have one of the big studios that is over top of the chosen and people say hey they don't have creative control over what we're doing okay I understand that but they are Mormons so they say hey you know what they don't have creative control over what we're doing and the theological experts that we're bringing into consults on these things not one of them is a Mormon the truth is if you look at Mormon theology it's not consistent with biblical theology at all they believe that as Jesus is now we can become and that is just totally false we can't become God we can't become a god of our own planet so I don't believe Mormons or Orthodox Christians at all and so you can argue about the input that having that you know overarching studio on the chosen has on them makes me nervous for sure to be honest my hope is that that's the truth that we're not going to see Mormon theology slip through the chosen that would just be awful that would be really bad and I don't think we've seen it up until this point I know there's been some accusations of some different parts I've seen Dallas kind of address those things and I and I'm pretty much at peace with believing that so I don't think it's seeped into the chosen but but I'm still on guard and I'm still a little nervous about it one of the more recent controversies was people seeing a pride flag on like a cinematographer's little bag during a behind-the-scenes thing and to me it comes down to this it's pretty simple they allow non-christians to be on their set and they don't really necessarily like police what is on their their bags or their setups and stuff like that and so this person had a little pride flag it was not cut out in the behind the scenes I think that's the biggest problem because you have to steward that influence that you have you have a massive audience and so by not cutting that out and they I think they admitted that that was a mistake they didn't intentionally put out this pride flag this little clip with this little pride flag in there they didn't intentionally do that because they want to steward their influence they don't want people to say oh you know what Jesus and and you know the LGBTQ community are in total peace and Jesus is for all that it's like no and I don't think they would I know they wouldn't say that that's true so there needs to be a clear distinction between what actors say and and people on set do and say versus the show itself and those who created the show and those who are guiding the show one of the biggest controversies of last season I I believe it was was that Jesus said that I am the law of moses jesus if you do not renounce your words we will have no choice but to follow the law of moses I am the law of moses now uh this is not found in the bible jesus didn't say this is one of the tricky things when you insert words into jesus mouth um and now I think dallas said at some point I saw in an interview that he had mentioned that maybe charles spurgeon might have said this okay so he was trying to use some deep uh you know theologically reformed guy as backup saying hey back off me guys this guy said it too I've not found that quote okay but I'll I'll trust him that maybe charles spurgeon did say that um like I would just disagree with that right and maybe there's there's um you know if you really understand it a particular way then you can make sense of it I have not because you see the law of god is a mirror it is something that convicts us of our sin and shows us our separation from god we can't obey the law perfectly and yet jesus came to fulfill the law he satisfied the law fully that it wouldn't have power over us anymore jesus and the law they're not the same thing in that in that sense and so believing that jesus is the law of moses is like okay maybe you can understand in a particular way meaning that jesus is the law of moses because he fulfills the law that seems like a stretch to me so it's like we're debating about something that jesus said that he didn't even say which I think is kind of silly okay that was a lot thank you for sticking with me in that to end this here I just want to answer the question will I keep watching the chosen and the answer is probably I'll probably watch it I might um one of the things I want to encourage you to is to not go against your conscience so if it's against your conscience to watch the chosen if you really feel like hey this is creating a graven image this is showing god in the flesh and um you know I just can't remedy this with what the the commandment of god says I can totally understand that I felt that way sometimes and I've not watched the chosen I think there's a place of saying that okay hey you know what god can do amazing things with something that's not perfect I think that's that's a piece too but that doesn't mean that we aren't continually striving to be in accordance with god's word I hope you gods believe from this video huge shout out to my patrons on patreon I know you guys have different opinions on this and I appreciate you supporting the ministry regardless of kind of where you line up on this one be sure to subscribe because I'm putting on new content all the time and until next time god bless