I want to write a quick post to help you be discerning as you watch The Chosen rather than only having to depend on blogs and episode guides like I am doing right now. I believe that there are helpful things about The Chosen, but I believe there are some helpful things as well. In this brief post, I will seek to help you understand what the potential benefits might be, problems might be, and how we can be wise and discerning in regards to shows and movies like The Chosen.
The Issue
The issue before us in dramatized versions of the biblical record has to do with speculations and background information presented in shows like this. This is somewhat of an inevitable problem. The biblical genre of narrative, the recounting of true events, is an opportunity for the reader of the Bible to imagine the scene. The biblical authors don’t go to great lengths to describe the settings of biblical accounts. They anticipate that the reader will be able to imagine the scene in the temple, Solomon’s portico, the Sea of Galilee, etc. In order to fully be drawn into the events recorded in the Bible, the reader must imagine some of the setting that is being presented.
The Problem
The problem with this arises when we move from appropriate imagination to dangerous speculation. To imagine a lake, river, portico, or temple as described in the Bible is one thing. To completely imagine acts and events that did not take place is another. Speculation isn’t really authorized by Scripture. 2 Pet. 1:3 says that the Bible contains all things for life and godliness. Dt. 29:29 says that the secret things belong to God, but revealed things belong to us.
The danger comes when we begin to imagine things that didn’t happen and then let them affect how we understand the Bible. It is one thing to informatively show some of the background of the events in the Bible, it is a whole other thing to imagine something that didn’t happen.
The Danger
The danger is twofold. The first danger is in allowing things imagined in the minds and hearts of sinful people to determine how to understand the Bible, or worse to accept those things as fact. The second danger is to imagine things about Jesus that are untrue. Whatever the authors, writers, producers, actors, etc., imagine about Jesus and the events of Scripture, are things imagined in the heart and mind of sinners. When we imagine what God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit are like, we tend always to imagine them in our image. We worship God that Scripture goes to great lengths to describe as a God who is heard, but who we get to attach no image to.
How to Be Discerning
My encouragement would always be to know your Bible well. Read your Bible regularly and repeatedly. Read your Bible through over and over again. It will help you discern what is true. You will then be able to recognize what is in the Bible and what is not.
Additionally, I would recommend that you read the passages connected to each episode. For that, I will recommend 2 resources. First, John MacArthur’s book called One Perfect Life is a chronological organization of all four gospels. Additionally, you can consider timelines that have been compiled like the one found here. I do not know anything about the author’s theological views, and therefore I am only commending this timeline to you and not anything else that the author had written per se.
I hope this helps you to be wise and discerning as/if you watch any series or movie like The Chosen.