Should Christians Watch “The Chosen”?

Just who is this Jesus that is so wildly popular? Who is this Jesus who “gets us”? Who is this Jesus that wants to make us happy and never calls us to repent from sin or turn from the world? Who is this Jesus that gives us our desires and would never pour down His wrath on the earth? He is certainly not the Jesus of the Bible. If we are a Christian, oh, how deeply this should concern us! Today, we are going to focus specifically on The Chosen and the false Jesus they are presenting.

A few years ago, my oldest daughter, Jess (find her on Facebook and Instagram at Anchor for the Soul), wrote about this series that had taken the Christian world by storm. A month or two ago she mentioned that she thought it might be time for an updated post. Today she posted this update. She has kindly given me permission to share what she wrote with you here on the blog. (I like to do this because all of you aren’t on Facebook or Instagram and also because sometimes, even if you are on social media, someone you’d like to share this information with isn’t.)

I hope this post is a blessing as we seek to discern if The Chosen series is something we Christians should be watching. Here is what Jess found as she researched this series a little more closely than most of us have taken the time to do–

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The Chosen has been viewed over four million times and has gained an almost cult-like following since its premier in 2017. Its popularity alone should be a red flag. The Bible is pretty clear that Jesus Christ and true Christianity will be largely hated and rejected by the world. So when something about Jesus is accepted and applauded, it’s good for us to pause and ask why. Does this show glorify God? Does it accurately portray Jesus Christ and His Word? Is it something we should watch? 

I’d have to conclude that the answer to those questions is a resounding no. Here are eight reasons why: 

1. Dallas Jenkins – I’ve talked about this before, so I’m only going to touch on it. Jenkins is the producer and creative mind behind the show. He has made it clear that he believes Mormons, Catholics, and Christians “love the same Jesus” and have only a few minor theological differences. He put together a group of spiritual advisors to make sure “he gets Christ right” and that panel consists of a Mormon, a Catholic priest, and a Jewish Rabbi. Is it possible for any of those men to get Christ right? So how can we trust this show to accurately portray Jesus Christ? But God told Dallas Jenkins that this show was going to be a “definitive portrayal of my people” and that “He wouldn’t let him screw it up.” Spoiler alert: that wasn’t God speaking to him. 

2. Jonathan Roumie – Roumie is a devout Roman Catholic who plays the part of Jesus. He has a massive fan base and his influence is heavily promoted by The Chosen on social media. From his partnership with the Catholic, new age meditation app called Hallow (where you can pray the rosary with him or follow along with his guided meditations) to his deep love for the Pope to his weird practices (like laying on the grave of Lonnie Frisbee and praying to him for a sign before playing him in the Jesus Revolution movie), he’s really bad news and leading many people astray. 

3. Adding to the Bible – The writers will tell you that they’re simply using their imagination to fill in the gaps of the Biblical narrative. But is that okay? Proverbs 30:6 and Revelation 22:18-19 warn us not to add or take away from the Word of God. “Oh, but this show isn’t pretending to be Scripture or trying to replace the Bible!” And yet they are adding to the very words of Christ. Sit back and think about that for a minute. Sinful, probably even unsaved, men are adding to the very words of Christ. It’s a big deal, whether you think so or not. They’re adding man’s ideas to what God alone has communicated and therefore are distorting His Word. God told us exactly what He wanted us to know, no more and no less. 

4. Straying from the Bible – Dallas Jenkins claims to be portraying the “authentic Jesus” and insists that he stays true to what IS in Scripture while simply “filling in the gaps” with what isn’t. You would expect, then, that the show would portray any event or conversation specifically recorded in the Bible exactly the way the Bible describes it. But it doesn’t. 

Here’s just a few of the many, many examples throughout the first 3 seasons:

The show portrays the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus that we find in John 3:1-21. But the conversation is nothing like the passage. They added some things, omitted some things, (verses 19-21, conveniently) and ultimately distorted the entire dialogue. On top of that, Jesus asks him, “What does your heart tell you?” and when Nicodemus kneels before him, Jesus stops him. (Two things we know the true Jesus never would have said or done) 

For the scenes from the Sermon on the Mount, they obviously couldn’t include the entire discourse. But their jesus didn’t even preach the sermon in the same order as it appears in Scripture. He jumped all around. I’ll give you one guess as to what portions they chose and what portions they left out. (Hint: loving your neighbor, don’t judge lest you be judged, and the golden rule made the cut while the parts about sin, judgement, and the narrow way did not) 

In Matthew 11, John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” and Jesus’ response is recorded. The Chosen, once again, changes what is clearly written in Scripture. “Even he [John the Baptist] has questions!” is added twice, among other things. Verses 21-30 are left out entirely. 

John the Baptist is portrayed as disrespectful and headstrong. He responds to Jesus in frustration, “You appear not to be ready to get into specifics about a lot of things!” Then he marches to tell Herod off against Jesus’ advice with a spiteful “My followers will love it!” But John said he was unworthy even to untie the strap of Jesus’ sandal (John 1:27) and that “He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) John the Baptist would never have disrespected Jesus Christ nor made a contest of his followers vs the followers of Jesus. It’s all so absurd. 

The writers changed the order and manner in which the disciples were called. Mary Magdalene is called as the first disciple. Jesus sets up an interview with Judas Iscariot. Again, it’s something so clearly recorded in Scripture, so why deviate from it? 

In the show, Jesus was arrested and let go prior to his arrest at the Mount of Olives. But we know this couldn’t be true. Jesus escaped arrest every time because “His hour had not yet come” and was only arrested once, right before his crucifixion. 

I could give you many more examples of this. Even if you rationalize filling in the gaps of the Biblical narrative to create a story, there is no literally no excuse for taking creative license and changing what is made abundantly clear in Scripture.

5. Undermining the divinity of Christ – For the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asks for “help” from Matthew on what he should say. Jesus nervously rehearses well-known passages. One article says that the show reveals to us that “Jesus’ moments of powerful teaching were not, as we assume, simply an overflow of his own divine genius, but were rather the fruit of the collaboration of his entire team of disciples.” That’s heresy right there. In one scene, Mary tells Jesus that she’s proud of him, and he says “maybe wait to say that until after I’m done, in case I mess up in front of such a big crowd.” Jesus confessed to being nervous about performing miracles. This is a really big deal, you guys. They are very purposefully undermining the divinity of Jesus Christ as God. He never would have messed up. He never would have needed help coming up with what to say. He never would have needed to rehearse anything.

6. Undermining the inspiration of Scripture  – Throughout the series, disciples like John and Matthew interview people and run around jotting everything down in their notepads. These notes will later become their supposed Biblical books. And so the Bible is portrayed as a common book comprised of hearsay. But we know that “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the holy ghost”. We know that they were eyewitness accounts according to John 1:1-3 and 2 Peter 1:16. The show even attributes John 21:25 to Mary Magdalene and not John himself. She says the line to him and he says “that’s good, I’m going to use that.” It’s a subtle deconstruction of inspiration that turns the Bible into hearsay and fable rather than inspired truth. 

7. Downplaying repentance – You would think that the call to repentance would take center stage since Jesus Himself said He came to call sinners to repentance. In the first three seasons, you might hear the word repentance three or four times and even then without conviction or elaboration. When their jesus quotes Luke 4:32, he says “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners…”, conveniently leaving out “to repentance.” The disciples sinful lifestyles – addictions, drinking, fighting, gambling, bad attitudes – are overdone. It’s not that the disciples would never have sinned, but I think they would have repented and been seeking to please God. The magnitude of sin and the need to repent and turn from that sin is diminished and largely ignored. 

8. The ecumenical agenda – At the end of the day, this show is just being used to set the stage for the antichrist. The world will think that the antichrist IS Jesus Christ. All religions will unite around him. Catholics, Mormons, “Christians”, and everyone in between. This jesus will look a whole lot like this jesus of The Chosen. Accepting and loving. He won’t call people to repentance but to unity. And he sure won’t care about “minor theological differences” or the infallibility of Scripture. Everything this show is doing is very purposeful. Tearing down walls between religions? Check. Undermining the divinity of Jesus Christ so He’s more human than God (just like the Mormon jesus)? Check. Making Scripture appear fallible and uninspired? Check. If you can subtly convince people of those three things, you’ve destroyed Christianity. And that’s what this show is doing. 

Do some people watch the show and then read their Bible and come to Salvation? Maybe. But that doesn’t make the show itself a good thing. God can use anything. Can mature Christians watch it, eating the meat and spitting out the bones? No. Unless you have every word of the Gospels memorized, you will never be able to determine where Scripture ends and their imagination begins.

I’m not condemning those of you who have watched it or are watching it. They are very subtle and include just enough Biblical truth to make it hard to see what they’re actually doing. But I am calling you away from it. I promise that you will walk away with a completely contorted view of the Gospels and of Jesus Christ. It will affect the way you read and understand the Bible, and not for the better. 

This show does not glorify God, does not honor or stay true to His Word, and is preparing the world for the uniting of all religions under the antichrist. They are portraying a false christ and we should have absolutely nothing to do with it.