The Chosen
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures …” 1 Corinthians 15:3
I am often asked my opinion of “The Chosen” video series. Now in its fourth season, I feel it’s time for a response to the church.
My overall response to this series is that it represents historical fiction. What is historical fiction? One of my favorite books is the historical fiction, Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. It’s a brilliant book that follows the civil war battle at Gettysburg from both sides, however, it does so by recounting the events as a narrative story. It reads like a novel. It makes the historical characters come alive. It creates anxiety at critical junctures of the battle, sympathy with the hard decisions, and tears over all the death. It takes a major historic event in the life of our country and makes it very personal. Shaara helps the reader connect with individuals in this enormous battle. When you finish the book, you feel like you lived the battle. It’s powerful. However, when it was written in 1974 it did not win any prizes for history – it won the Pulitzer Prize for FICTION.
Killer Angels was a work of fiction, because the words written about Lee, Grant, Longstreet, etc. were not really spoken by them. The events mostly took place as they are written, but the details of the planning, movements, and fighting are made up by the author as an interpretation of what happened. The book was well received because it is accurate to the facts and seems to be very close to what happened – but is not what actually happened. There is no problem with historical fiction when it comes to bringing alive everyday history, but this is more complicated when applied to the Bible.
The Bible is God’s word. At Redeemer we believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the original manuscripts of the Bible, and that Scripture has been faithfully preserved to our day. ‘Plenary verbal’ means that all the particular words of the Bible were written with divine intended purpose. The Bible does not generally convey God’s works, purposes, and will – it specifically conveys God’s works, purposes, and will. The Bible is made up of books long recognized as revelation from God, written by human authors, but inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Bible has authority in our lives, given by God to progressively reveal the character, nature, commands, and works of God in the world. These things culminate in the Gospels -four accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ. It is very important to recognize that there is no deficiency in the Bible or the gospels. It’s wrong to say, “If only these had been written differently, we could know God better!” They are written perfectly to convey a maximum understanding of both the person and works of Jesus Christ.
Our day is almost completely video oriented, believing that more can be conveyed by video than the written word. I do not agree with this for many reasons and would encourage you to read the powerfully convincing work “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman on this subject. What must be recognized is that Jesus could have come during this age of YouTube and iPhone. If He had come during our day, the internet would be covered over with millions of videos of His miracles, His teaching, and His face full of grace and truth. But Jesus choose not to come to us in this age. Instead, Jesus was born in a time when the most particular language that ever existed was in use – Greek. This language was highly developed, highly specific, and used to convey very specific truth to us about Jesus and the Gospel. There is no substitute for the written word in conveying clear truth. There is no substitute for Scripture when teaching truth about God – and the truth is what we must care about in the end.
Video is great for entertainment, but Jesus did not come to entertain. The authors of The Chosen, like the author of Killer Angles, must take liberties with the characters (including Jesus) to have the stories connect in an unbroken, entertaining, emotionally compelling movie narrative. The positive here relates to how the writers and staff have really done a great job in casting most of The Chosen characters, and the presentation brings them alive and makes them real. For people who have never been exposed to the Bible these depictions help them grasp the reality of the Gospel stories. The casting of Jesus is masterful. The actor who plays Jesus is powerful and compassionate, well-spoken and yet an everyday man. He’s seems to me very close to what Jesus may have been like during His ministry. These are the positives of historical fiction.
However, we must recognize that this is still a fiction. Great liberty has been taken as the seasons progress to create a narrative flow that links the sometimes unrelated stories in the Gospels. These liberties create events, words, and character representations that are from the creative mind of the staff, not the Bible. One that particularly concerns me is the “autistic” (?) presentation of Matthew. I’m not sure where this came from, but it has the power to shape an entire generation’s view of Matthew, and it has no bearing in the Bible narrative.
My concluding thoughts. If watching this series helps you connect better with the reality of the Bible characters, then I believe it can be helpful. It is good and helpful to think about how Bible events worked out in the lives of real people, because they were real events. I believe this series helps people with that visualization. This is the role of historical fiction. However, you must not think that watching an episode of The Chosen is equivalent to reading a chapter of the Bible. The Chosen is fiction, the Bible is Scripture.
We must not encourage the lost to watch fiction and expect them to come to salvation. We ourselves, and those we are evangelizing, must read and come in contact with Scripture. There is no substitute for reading and studying the Bible to understand God and draw near to the real presence of Jesus. The Chosen, as entertainment, will lift you up to an emotional place that is reached through the production purposes of the producers. But the Scripture will take you to a real place of salvation, to the place of truly partaking in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4).
We have precious little time in this life. This series will come and go, as did the Jesus Film. It will be helpful to many, but it will never substitute for the Word of the Lord in Scripture which will carry on forever in truth and power. I press you to spend your time in the Scripture. Be excited about God’s word more than a mini-series. Love the Lord with all your mind by training your mind away from the entertainment culture we live in. Love the Lord by seeking Him as He has revealed Himself to us – through Jesus, the Logos, the word of God made flesh (John 1).
May the word of the Lord work powerfully in our hearts,
Pastor Vic