Here is Part I of the The Chosen: The False Gospel According to Dallas Jenkins Part I of this series of posts was certainly the most views and comments ever received on a post here to date. There were several comments from people upset that there were criticisms of The Chosen which followed along a couple of general lines:
My wife had started watching this series. One night I decide to take a look sand it happened to be just when Jesus was all anxious preparing the Sermon On The Mount. I immediately said: “this is trash”.
Thank you for putting into words what is troubling about the portrayal of Scripture put forward in The Chosen. The problems with it as I watched it were almost subtle enough to ignore, but consistent enough as to make that impossible, despite my efforts to give the effort a pass on using some creative license to embellish and round out the narrative. And enough to cause concern about being misleading to those with no familiarity with the actual words in the biblical account.
Firstly, I would declare: "I will not serve!". And then take as many as I could with me to the consequence of that declaration.
I would attempt to distance you from God. No, I wouldn't try and catapult you away; that would be too obvious. Instead, I would lead you away inch by inch.
How? I would hide God from you. I would make you believe you are just a product of a huge number of random events over billions of years (you got lucky). I would diminish God's Law in your conscience ("love is love" remember). I would lead you to think God makes the occasional mistake. I would downplay that Holy Woman (who punishes me during exorcisms). I would converse with a wayward 16th century priest in his dreams, and tell him that the Church that Christ built needs to be "reformed" (deformed). I would sow tare seeds (weeds) amongst all of God's Son's wheat. I would infect/warp/debase EVERYTHING - scripture, morals, science, history, everything - that tends towards God. Nothing would be untouched. I would whisper in lots of pride-filled ears. Yes, that is what I would do.
Actually, I started ~6,500 years ago. I told a woman, "You certainly will not die (if you eat of the fruit)". So small a lie, but oh so effective. I won't stop until the end.
In light of the above role-play, one can therefore question: Has someone been whispering in Dallas' unknowing ears, planting little bits of tare here and there in what should be the greatest story ever?
The Protestants took many books, such as the book of James, out of the Bible for the same reason. My beloved Catholic Church has such serious problems that I no longer attend mass, but I could never call myself anything but Catholic. Thank you for this well though out article.
You are a caricature of the Pharisees. So distracted by your orthodoxy, so confident in the infallibility of your beliefs, that you miss the entire point.
Ridiculous. You should be happy that The Chosen has people looking to Jesus instead of some pedo priest. We have no time for this. There is a war against evil to win.
My wife had started watching this series. One night I decide to take a look sand it happened to be just when Jesus was all anxious preparing the Sermon On The Mount. I immediately said: “this is trash”.
Thank you for putting into words what is troubling about the portrayal of Scripture put forward in The Chosen. The problems with it as I watched it were almost subtle enough to ignore, but consistent enough as to make that impossible, despite my efforts to give the effort a pass on using some creative license to embellish and round out the narrative. And enough to cause concern about being misleading to those with no familiarity with the actual words in the biblical account.
What would I do if I were truly diabolic?
Firstly, I would declare: "I will not serve!". And then take as many as I could with me to the consequence of that declaration.
I would attempt to distance you from God. No, I wouldn't try and catapult you away; that would be too obvious. Instead, I would lead you away inch by inch.
How? I would hide God from you. I would make you believe you are just a product of a huge number of random events over billions of years (you got lucky). I would diminish God's Law in your conscience ("love is love" remember). I would lead you to think God makes the occasional mistake. I would downplay that Holy Woman (who punishes me during exorcisms). I would converse with a wayward 16th century priest in his dreams, and tell him that the Church that Christ built needs to be "reformed" (deformed). I would sow tare seeds (weeds) amongst all of God's Son's wheat. I would infect/warp/debase EVERYTHING - scripture, morals, science, history, everything - that tends towards God. Nothing would be untouched. I would whisper in lots of pride-filled ears. Yes, that is what I would do.
Actually, I started ~6,500 years ago. I told a woman, "You certainly will not die (if you eat of the fruit)". So small a lie, but oh so effective. I won't stop until the end.
In light of the above role-play, one can therefore question: Has someone been whispering in Dallas' unknowing ears, planting little bits of tare here and there in what should be the greatest story ever?
The Protestants took many books, such as the book of James, out of the Bible for the same reason. My beloved Catholic Church has such serious problems that I no longer attend mass, but I could never call myself anything but Catholic. Thank you for this well though out article.
This is next level cringe. 😬 I'll pray for you 📿✝️🙏🏽
You are a caricature of the Pharisees. So distracted by your orthodoxy, so confident in the infallibility of your beliefs, that you miss the entire point.
Ridiculous. You should be happy that The Chosen has people looking to Jesus instead of some pedo priest. We have no time for this. There is a war against evil to win.