Is The Chosen a Holy Nope? | Part 2

The Holy Nope

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Some clarification is in order. After giving my thoughts on the Chosen and the Second Commandment, many comments demonstrated a damaging misunderstanding of my position.

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Comments like this one, which seemed to think that I was saying that the commandment prohibits all images of anything.

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That is not the case. Again, the commandment says, You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth.

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This means that you should not make idols or images of anything to represent the being of God of any member of the

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Trinity. It is not teaching and it is not my position that all images are bad in or outside the context of worship.

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I am pro -art and pro -beauty. Even in the worship setting, I am pro -biblical imagery.

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But I believe the commandment clearly prohibits images made to represent the being of God in and outside of the worship setting.

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Let's take the golden calf for example, and also consider the argument that many put forward in response to my video that the commandment only prohibits the worship of images made to represent

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God, not the mere making of them. In Exodus 32, Aaron fashions this golden calf and says to the people,

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This is your God. This is an image made to represent the being of God.

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Is this a violation of the Second Commandment? Well, according to the position that only the worship of such images violates the

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Second Commandment, the golden calf was not a violation until they started bringing offerings and would not have been a violation if they never worshipped it.

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My humble opinion is that that position is an error, that the making of the golden calf to represent

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God is a violation of the commandment. Now, a golden calf is a bit more obvious than an actor playing the role of Jesus in an emotionally gripping

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TV show that gets some things right. And even less obvious is the mental image that is eventually formed in the minds of viewers when they worship.

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People in the comment section testified that they had to stop watching the show because they started to picture

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Jonathan Rumi when they worshipped and they know that that isn't Jesus. That is a man -made image.

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Travis Kern says in a helpful article that I will link in the description, The chosen is found to be lacking because it portrays in visual form a member of the

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Trinity and it does so through created human form, substituting a created human in place of the uncreated

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Christ. I think it's also important to note that believing the second commandment prohibits images of any member of the

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Trinity, both physical and mental, is not an extreme or fringe position. In fact, one of the most respected and widely used catechisms in Protestant Christianity, the

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Westminster Larger Catechism written in 1647, answers the question, what are the sins forbidden in the second commandment?

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It says, the sins forbidden in the second commandment are all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and anywise approving any religious worship not instituted by God himself, tolerating a false religion, the making of any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind or outwardly in any kind or image or likeness of any creature whatsoever.

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So I'm not like alone on some theological island as I hold this position. This is historic Protestantism.

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And let me conclude with a word to those who have and will accuse me of being self -righteous and arrogant for simply articulating what

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I believe. You will note that I said in my first video that the chosen is a holy nope for me. Note also that I didn't even do a door -closing video of the chosen because I am aware of the sensitivity of the topic.

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Notice as well that I said in my first video that my opinion will not settle the debate and I don't pretend it to be authoritative.

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I said as well that this shouldn't be an issue to divide over. Also, you should know that there are members in the congregation that I help pastor who enjoy the show and who who say they've been helped by the show and I would never condemn them or beat them over the head with my position on it.

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I'm sure that God has used this show in people's lives but our convictions about these things should not come from how well it works.