WWUTT Q&A False Prophets, Conspiracy Theories, The Chosen Review

Who are some of the false prophets that you need to beware of? How do we as Christians respond to certain conspiracy theories?

And what do we need to know about the show, The Chosen? The answers to these questions and others, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com. Hey, once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everyone. Becky is not with me this week. I am flying solo.

Nothing serious going on. We have a very narrow window of opportunity to get together and record, and that window just didn't open for us this week.

Now, some of you are anticipating the completion of my studio at home.

I made a video and posted it to the extra channel, www .uttext.

I made that video back in October. So it looked like things were progressing. I figured out what didn't work and what

I had to do, which was going to involve more demolition than I had planned for in the beginning. But ever since then, ever since that work and that video that I did,

I've not had a single good weekend. Either somebody in the house has been sick that has kind of needed our attention, or it's been raining.

It's actually been raining a lot over November and December. Or Becky's been out of town, or it's been something like that.

We just have not been able to find good days to work. And I haven't been able to do it when I get home from work, because the moment

I get home, 5 .30 or 6 o 'clock, it's dark out. There's no more light for me. When I recorded that video, it was still during daylight saving time, even in October.

But since then, I don't have the daylight to be able to work. My son and I are planning on getting together on Friday and doing some work outside.

So hopefully we'll make some progress this weekend. I'll be able to do another video. But yeah, that project is ongoing.

I thank you for those who have donated to that project. I haven't done anything with the money other than buy materials.

It's sitting in the bank accumulating interest. So hopefully I've got a little bit extra, you know, few extra dollars in change

I can apply to that particular project is we're still hoping to get a studio built at home that I can record there instead of coming back to my office here at the church.

Now this is the Friday edition of the broadcast. And as we do with the Friday episode, I respond to questions from listeners.

And you can send those questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

In this episode, I'm going to respond to a comment that I received on the most recent what video that I did, which

I just uploaded yesterday, warning about climate change profits, the climate change, false profits.

And then as requested, I'm going to review some episodes of The Chosen and even play a portion of the last episode that I watched up until recording this particular broadcast.

Lest you know, unless you don't know where I stand, I'm not a fan of The Chosen. So I hope to kind of show you why, what some of the problems are, because right now with some of the things that I've shared about The Chosen, whether it was in the episode that I did a couple of weeks ago doing the year in review or last week when we counted down the 10 most watched what videos from 2022, some of the comments that I've made about The Chosen have just simply been a difference of opinion.

And so I want to show you what some of the problems are with the show. So I've watched the first four episodes of the first season, which the first season has eight episodes in it.

Maybe next week I'll be able to cover the next four. So for, you know, every Friday we'll go through some episodes of The Chosen.

Look for the problem so you can recognize what the problem is with this. And I'll preface that on like whether you should be watching the show or, you know, that sort of a thing.

We'll talk about that here in just a little bit. First, before we move on, I want to plug the expository workshop that we've got coming up here at First Baptist Church in Lyndale, Texas.

At the time that I'm recording this, we have seven slots left. Becky and I plugged this last week.

You heard us talk about it then as well. The expository workshop, the main focus of the workshop is to teach preachers how to preach.

And most of the work that we do in the workshop is teaching you how to do the prep work.

We really don't get to the the homiletics part of it. The homiletics is what you call the art of standing up in front of people and talking, like taking all the work that you've done, whether that's been crafting an outline or coming up with notes or writing a manuscript and now putting that into words that you're communicating to the audience.

That's the homiletical side of sermon crafting. We don't cover that. We don't get that far.

As I understand, there is a workshop that's being put together that will focus on homiletics that may come later on down the road.

But this is mostly looking at a passage of scripture, being able to find the structure, knowing what the message is exactly, how to communicate that to your people.

It's all the work that goes into preparing a sermon before you get to the homiletical.

That's what we do in the expository workshop. So it's geared mostly toward pastors. But if you're a Sunday school teacher, if you desire to become an elder, but perhaps that door just hasn't opened to you yet, you want to teach the word of God and you want to learn how to do it better, then this workshop is for you.

When Pastor Tom got a hold of me, this was years ago, it was years before I came here to First Baptist Church in Lindale.

And Tom said, I want you to get involved in these workshops because I want to get you teaching in some of these workshops yourself and you will be able to lead a few of them.

But you have to become a part of them. You have to partake in the workshop first before you can become a teacher. So I thought,

OK, you know, that way I can get the lay of how all of this works, if I'm going to be involved as a teacher in these workshops.

So I attended one in Atlanta several years back, and I thought, you know,

I'm coming in as a teacher. I did not think I was coming in as a student. I'd been preaching for 20 years. So what are you going to teach me that I don't already know?

It doesn't mean my mind was closed to learning. I wasn't trying to be arrogant or anything. It's just, you know, if this is like elementary level stuff, then

I have plenty of experience here already. But man, it was some hard work.

And when I did my preparation for sermon notes, because we're going to give an assignment to every person who signs up for the workshop, you will have at least two scripture passages that you have to do some work on.

Come up with an outline. Walk us through how you saw the structure that you did. Come up with the theme and the aim.

Tie that into the person and work of Christ. Give modern application of that. So there's a little work, a little prep work you're going to have to do if you are a participant in this workshop.

It's not just a lecture series. You don't come in and sit down and get lectured at, but you actually have to do some work.

And you've got a small group that you're going to be a part of. And the pastors in that group all critique one another on the work that they do.

And by the time you leave the workshop, whatever book we've been focusing on for that workshop, you've got every pastor's work, all those lessons that you can now apply to a sermon series in that book should you decide to preach that book.

The book we're going to be doing here at this workshop, the one in Lyndale, is through Second Corinthians.

And Mike Riccardi of Grace Community Church is going to be joining us and helping us to lead that.

Anyway, I attended the workshop and I got ripped apart. I was expecting to kind of come in there and I'm going to teach everybody else something because I'm coming in as a teacher.

But no, I got shredded. I did not do my structure well. There were some things

I could have done better, but it was good. It was a great learning experience. I've learned a little bit more about how to do structure now and am working up through helping to teach in some of these workshops also.

I've been one of the small group leaders and things like that. It's a great workshop and we get so much positive feedback from guys that come out of these workshops.

They enjoy it so much they come back for the next workshop because we've got another book of the Bible that we do. And that way they can grab the notes from that book and be able to apply it to some of the sermon prep that they're working on if they decide to teach through that book.

So if you can become part of one of these expository workshops, this isn't going to be the only one. This is just the one we're doing here in Lyndale.

There will be a few others during the year, probably in different parts of the country. I think

I've heard some different locations. I can't remember if I've talked that out with Tom or not. Anyway, but this one, this is the one that we've got coming up now.

It's going to be February 2nd and 3rd at First Baptist in Lyndale. If you can sign up, go to G3MIN .org,

click on the events page, and it'll take you to the spot you're looking for expository workshop. Click on that, follow the registration, and get signed up.

Again, as of the recording of this episode, just seven spots left. If you desire to grow in your productivity as a teacher of God's word,

I would highly encourage you to become part of one of these workshops. The Apostle Paul instructed

Timothy, 2 Timothy 2 .15. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

But avoid godless and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their word will spread like gangrene, actually causing parts of the body to rot and fall off.

So it's very, very important that we get the word of God right and know how to communicate it rightly to God's people.

That's been the commitment of When We Understand the Text, to handle God's word in a right way.

I don't think the show The Chosen does that well, but we'll get to that here in just a moment.

First of all, let's get to the video that I just uploaded yesterday, which was a warning against listening to the false prophets of climate change.

I'm going to go ahead and play the video and then respond to a particular comment. Here we go. Jesus and his apostles warned us, beware of false prophets.

Now, we tend to think of false prophets as being fake Christians, but heathens have their prophets too.

Just consider the false prophets of climate change. In 1972, the United Nations predicted we have 10 years to stop the catastrophe.

Then when 1982 came along, instead of admitting they were wrong, Mustafa K. Tolba of the

UN said that if things were not fixed by the year 2000, we would experience an environmental catastrophe as bad as any nuclear holocaust.

In 1989, they doubled down, saying that by the end of the century, we would experience global disaster.

Once those prophecies failed, the UN predicted the end of the world would be in 2012, then in 2020, then in 2030.

In 2019, Alexandria Ocasio -Cortez said the world was going to end in 12 years, which was past the

UN's prediction. Then some teenager from Sweden made global headlines when she said we only have eight years.

These false prophets want to ban your cars, cows, stoves, power, farms, and families, and force you to get vaccinated and eat bugs and synthetic meat.

But the day of the Lord will come, like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be found out.

That's a climate change prediction that won't be wrong. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved when we understand the text.

Mike commented on that video and he said, congratulations. You've earned yourself a

Ministry of Truth bar. Yes, indeed. So right underneath the video, if you watch it on YouTube, there's a little context bar where it says climate change,

United Nations. Climate change refers to long -term shifts in temperature and weather patterns mainly caused by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels.

And there's a link on there for you to click on and learn more about climate change according to what

YouTube wants you to learn about it. Can't have anybody crafting any other sort of narrative except what we can control.

So, yeah, I got the little disclaimer bar down there at the bottom. You know, the only other two videos that I'm aware of, the what videos that I've made that have that little context bar at the bottom.

There's a video that I did about COVID, and it was the one where I talked about the

COVID false profits, all those people that never saw COVID coming, all those charismatic profits.

Not one of them predicted in 2020, not one of them predicted that there was going to be this pandemic that year.

Nobody even saw that coming. So I called them out of that particular video. Well, because it's called coronavirus false profits or COVID false profits or something like that.

Well, that, of course, alerts the attention of YouTube, and they put the little bar down there at the bottom. So you know where you can go to learn more about COVID vaccines, even though the video didn't have anything to do with that.

The other video that I did that's got a little context bar at the bottom is the one I did on Freemasons. Apparently, Freemasons have infiltrated

YouTube, and they're going to make sure nobody says anything about Freemasonry that they don't approve of. So that one's got a context bar on it, too.

Anyway, that was not the comment that I was going to read. I just found that funny that Mike said that. Another person left a comment and said, what does vaccination have to do with climate change, right or wrong?

It seemed to me a very rare thing to drop in there. Appreciate the overall clip, though. Great highlight of a very spiritually dangerous issue.

False prophecy. Indeed. Why did I throw that line in there? Why did I make that comment about vaccines?

Honestly, that's not a question for me. That's a question to ask of the globalists and the people who are trying to push climate change on the nations, which the

UN is a big driver in forcing the concept of climate change onto the nations in the world.

Ask them why they keep tying vaccines into the whole climate change agenda.

Now, the claim is that as the population of the world is growing, there's more pollution.

And so that's increasing global warming. So what we need to do is decrease the population so that there won't be as much pollution.

And one of the ways that we can control the population is with vaccines. Listen to Bill Gates.

Syria is talking about it right here. This was a TED talk, by the way. I'm not being a conspiracy theorist.

I'm just telling you, this is what these guys talk about. Now, we put out a lot of carbon dioxide every year, over 26 billion tons for each

American. It's about 20 tons for people in poor countries. It's less than one ton.

It's an average about five tons for everyone on the planet. And somehow we have to make changes that will bring that down to zero.

It's been constantly going up. It's only various economic changes that have even flattened it at all.

So we have to go from rapidly rising to falling and falling all the way to zero. This equation has four factors, a little bit of multiplication.

So you've got a thing on the left, CO2, that you want to get to zero. And that's going to be based on the number of people, the services each person's using on average, the energy on average for each service, and the

CO2 being put out per unit of energy. So let's look at each one of these and see how we can get this down to zero.

Probably one of these numbers is going to have to get pretty near to zero. That's back from high school algebra.

But let's take a look. First, we've got population. The world today has 6 .8

billion people. That's headed up to about 9 billion. Now, if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.

But there we see an increase of about 1 .3. Now, you heard him say it there that with improved health care and with vaccines, we can reduce the world population or at least reduce the population growth.

I really thought this was common knowledge. I thought people had heard enough by now from the climate change globalists that in order to control the world's population, we needed to improve vaccination.

In fact, Bill Gates doesn't just say that. There is the World Vaccination Summit that I think he does this all the time.

But there was an introduction to the World Vaccination Summit that he gave years ago. You find this video on YouTube where in his opening address to the summit, he says that we are striving for universal vaccinations.

And that doesn't mean just circulating vaccines around the world.

It's vaccinating everybody. That's what they want to do. They want to make it mandatory for everybody to get certain vaccines.

What's going to be in those vaccines? Something that's going to help control the population.

Like I said, I wasn't trying to be a conspiracy theorist by saying that. And I'm not anti -vax. My children are vaccinated.

I believe that is a personal decision that each person needs to make on their own.

I've had a tetanus shot recently. So anyway, I'm not coming at this being somewhat anti -vax.

The comment that I made in the video was they want to force you to get vaccinated.

That's part of the climate change agenda. It's part of population control. It's a globalist movement.

And just like we saw with COVID, when COVID happened, the attempt to try to shut everything down and prevent you from going to church, because even gathering at church means you're going to be spreading

COVID. So you can't go to church. Everybody's just got a shelter at home. All of that going on during COVID, we're going to see that happen in the future.

But climate change is going to be the application. In order to save the environment, you can't go to church.

You can't drive your car. You can't gather together in a building with the heater on or air conditioning or whatever, because it's harmful to the environment.

You can't gather together in groups of people because that uses more energy. They're going to try to apply this again.

And they're going to use different means to do it. What we saw in 2020 was just a taste.

These things are going to amp up. But my friends, I want to encourage you to have no fear.

I don't say these things to you to be a fear monger or a doomsdayer. Trust in Christ.

Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah chapter eight. I'm currently going through Isaiah on Thursday.

So we'll get to this chapter in a couple of weeks and give it some more context. But it's there in Isaiah eight that the

Lord said to Isaiah, for thus Yahweh spoke to me with a strong hand and discipline me not to walk in the way of this people saying you are not to say it is a conspiracy in regard to all that this people call a conspiracy.

And you are not to fear what they fear. And you shall not tremble.

It is Yahweh of hosts whom you should regard as holy.

And he shall be your fear. And he shall be your cause of trembling.

Then he shall become a sanctuary. So trust in the

Lord. Don't fear the messaging of men, of people, the conspiracies, the things they do conspire to do.

Conspiracies are a real thing. There are conspiracies out there. But don't be in fear of those things.

Trust the Lord. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the words that Jesus said to his disciples.

In this world, you will have trouble. You will have tribulation. But take heart.

Because I have overcome the world. So I say these things to you again, not to stir you up, not to strike you with fear, not to start stockpiling stuff in your house, because who knows what's going to happen next?

Trust in the Lord. Continue, day after day, doing those tasks that are set before you and do it all to the glory of God.

Teach the gospel to your family. Point them to Jesus Christ. Because whatever is going to happen in this world, we can't control it.

God is sovereign over it. I think, you know, as far as we have responsibility to be able to vote for certain candidates and warn people not to vote for others, of course, as good citizens, we should do things like that.

But whatever is going to happen in the world is ultimately in God's hands. And so trust the

Lord. No, he is sovereign. He is on his throne and nothing is happening outside of his control.

Don't listen to the lies of false prophets, whether they're prophets that claim to be from God and they're not, or they're the pagan prophets from the

United Nations. Don't listen to false prophets. Listen to the word of God. Hold fast to these things.

Teach Christ to your children. Trust in the promises that we have of the new heavens and the new earth, that place where we will dwell with God forever in glory.

And let that be our anticipation. Let that be what we long for, not utopia here on this earth, because it's not going to happen in this age.

Pray with the apostle John, Lord Jesus, come quickly. And until that day comes, be out there sharing the gospel of Christ so that others may come to faith in him and so live.

This next question, this comes from Virginia, who says, Dear Pastor Gabe, I almost finished listening to the

Q &A and I'm addressing your comments regarding The Chosen. On one of the podcasts that you recently recommended, you may want to check out

Ali Beth Stuckey's Relatable podcast interviewing Dallas Jenkins. Jenkins, by the way, is the creator of the popular show

The Chosen. I've mentioned The Chosen on the last two episodes last week when I played what was the second most watched what video of 22.

And that was the review I did of The Chosen. And then the week before that, I mentioned that The Chosen had well, it was it was the most popular show in the country,

I think, in in 2022 largest crowdfunded show ever made.

So when you're talking about, you know, raising money to create a show, no one's raised more money than the creators of The Chosen have.

So it was one of the big headlines of 22 as well. Virginia goes on, she says the episode aired

December 19th, 2022. That was the interview that Ali did with Dallas Jenkins.

And it's number 726 addressing questions and controversies about The Chosen. They addressed most of the topics that you talked about in your what video are

Mormons producing it? Yes, but not all of the producers are Mormons, just like the actors in the show are not all

Christians. Also, Stucky's podcast is produced by Blaze TV, owned by Glenn Beck, a known

Mormon. Should I quit listening to her? Dallas Jenkins never claimed this was directly from the

Bible. He was interpreting it as plausible scenes. He also addressed the I am the law of Moses comment you address in the video as well.

It was from the trailer advertising season three, and he claimed it was taken out of context. I've not seen season three, so I cannot confirm that as for Christians bickering about The Chosen.

To me, it's just a current sign of the division in God's church already. The progressives versus the conservative

Christians and the ultimate authority of the Bible in the churches. So there will be fighting over everything.

Unfortunately, that is the era in which we live. God bless. Please know that I pray for you every week.

Love the podcast. Thank you so much for writing, Virginia. Now, I did listen to that interview.

I listened to it. I think the day that it aired because I'm subscribed to Ali Best Stucky's program relatable.

I don't listen to every episode, but sometimes she's got an interview that she does, and I find that interesting. So I'll pull it up on my podcast and listen.

Of course, I listened to the one that she did with Dallas Jenkins just because of all of the controversy surrounding The Chosen.

I must say I was really disappointed in that interview because Ali is a hard hitting journalist.

She knows how to interview people, and she knows how to ask tough questions, and I just really don't think she did that of Dallas.

One of the things I wish she would have asked him is what is the gospel?

Because I've asked Dallas Jenkins this question before. Several years back, Dallas did a movie called

The Resurrection of Gavin Stone. He talked about that movie in his interview with Ali, and it was a terrible film.

It was a bad movie. It was a bad Christian movie, but it was also just a bad movie, and I did a review of it.

I got an email one day. I don't know how I ended up on this email list, but I got an email one day from somebody asking me, would you be willing to watch a preview of The Resurrection of Gavin Stone and do a review on your blog?

And it was going to be free. I was going to get to watch an advanced screening of the film. I knew about it. I had read about it somewhere anyway, but I accepted, and so it was like a six -hour window or something like that.

It was like you have six hours to watch the movie, and then after that, we close the link. So the moment I got it, I pulled it up and started watching, and because I'm watching it on my computer,

I could pause it, take notes, like use exact quotes, which I did. I quoted directly from the film in the blog.

Well, Dallas Jenkins happened to read the review. Of course, if you've heard the interview that he did with Ali, he talks about making that film and how it just totally bombed, and over the weekend, how the numbers were coming out, and they were just absolutely terrible.

Well, he found my review, and he contacted me about it, and he said that the things that I said about the film were not fair because I said that there was no gospel in the film.

It even contradicted its own message because there was at one point toward the beginning, it makes fun of some

Christian -y things, things that Christians tend to do with their entertainment or how they communicate the gospel and really kitschy phrases and things like that, and they made fun of that at the beginning of the movie.

Honestly, it was the best part of the movie. It made me laugh. I thought it was hilarious, but what they made fun of, they ended up doing in the film.

It was like they were completely unaware of their own message. So the message itself was a contradiction in the movie, but on top of that, there was no gospel, nor is there any scene at all.

I wrote this in the review. You can search for it, I guess, if you want. Pastor Gabe, the resurrection of Gavin Stone.

I bet the review would come up on your first search attempt. Anyway, so I mentioned in there, I don't recall there even being a scene where Gavin is studying his

Bible. So how does he even come to know who Jesus is? He comes to recognize his sin and need for a savior and turn to Christ.

There's nothing like that in the film. I made fun of the fact that Gavin became a carpenter.

He did some carpentry work, and so he can learn a little bit more about Jesus. Because sure,

Jesus was a carpenter. So if I do some carpentry work, I'm learning something about Jesus. I made fun of that because it was just absolutely ridiculous.

Anyway, like I said, Dallas contacted me, and we had a little bit of a back and forth, and he claimed that the gospel was in the movie.

And so I very simply asked him, tell me what the gospel is. I don't remember his answer, and I did not keep that email exchange.

I just remember that he wasn't able to tell me. He could not tell me what the gospel is. He couldn't say something as basic as we're all sinners in need of a savior, and Christ is that savior.

And only by faith in him will we be forgiven our sins and given everlasting life.

Jesus died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, because we had sinned against a holy

God, and what we deserved for our sin was death. Worse than this, we deserve hell.

But God, in his mercy, didn't leave us dead in our sins.

He sent his son, born in the flesh, to live a perfect life, the life that we could not live, to die the death that we were supposed to die, to rise again from the dead, conquering death itself.

And so therefore, whoever believes in Jesus, our sins are forgiven. We are now the objects of God's love, where previously the objects of his wrath, now we are adopted into his family, and we are his children, sons and daughters of God, all by faith through Jesus Christ.

Even an understanding of the gospel like that, Dallas didn't say anything about that.

So I know something about his material. I know something about his theology.

And so when I heard that The Chosen was made by Dallas Jenkins, I had no optimism about it.

First of all, I'm not real crazy about Jesus shows and movies anyway. I'm especially not crazy about them if they're popular.

Because if they're popular, yeah, in this day and age in particular, there's something wrong with it.

Now, as I'm sitting here talking with you about this, I'm not one of those kinds of persons that says you should never watch

Jesus material. I did another video on this before talking about whether or not images of Jesus are sinful.

Like, is that a violation of the second commandment? You can find that video. It's the one that I did where I talked about.

Well, I think that was the name of it are images of God sinful or something. I don't think we should be depicting

God, the father, because no one has ever seen the father. And if you're depicting the Holy Spirit, then he's going to be what in the form of a dove or in the form of tongues of fire images of Jesus.

I would rather not have them personally. But I think that that's a matter of Christian liberty. I'm not going to say to a person that they cannot watch

Jesus films at all. Some people take a more hard line position on that, that it is a violation of the second commandment.

I'm not necessarily one of those people because Jesus appearance is described for us in Isaiah 53. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and like one from whom men hide their face.

He was despised and we did not esteem him. Now, there's another appearance of Jesus that's described as well.

That's in Revelation chapter one, when John sees the magnified

Christ in his glory in heaven as one who has a sword coming from his mouth and holds the seven stars in his hand and stands among the seven golden lampstands.

That's that's a different kind of appearance that's described there for us. But anyway, we have a description of Jesus.

And if an artist so takes it upon himself to try to draw or paint that,

I believe that that's a Christian liberty issue. Now, I don't think we should be hanging up pictures of Jesus, quite frankly, because of the temptation to worship such images.

And you see how that's being done in the Greek Orthodox Church and in Roman Catholicism, as well as in some other places.

I think the same problem exists with the TV show The Chosen, not so much that I think people are worshiping the

Jesus in The Chosen, although let's be honest, some people are. But it's because when people watch this show and they don't know their

Bibles well, they're going to take what they're watching in the show, and they're going to think that that is the gospel story.

Like it or not, whatever Jesus and his disciples say in that show is teaching something.

It is teaching something about Christ. Is it accurate according to what Scripture says?

Let's consider that. Here we go. I'm going to go through the first four episodes of season one of The Chosen, and I'm even going to play a clip of the show when

I get to episode four. But let me just read to you the notes that I've jotted down here after watching four episodes.

So I have down what I liked, what I didn't like, and if there was any bad theology in the episode.

I'm going to go ahead and spoil it here to say that I haven't heard anything deeply problematic, but I am going to address where we're already getting hints of bad teaching that's coming up.

Now, they're through three seasons now, or they're still releasing episodes of the third season. So it's kind of like I'm catching up to that.

But anyway, so very first episode, episode one is entitled. I have called you by name what

I liked about the episode. Now I'm going to be up front with you. I don't think this is a well -made show.

And I really struggled to find something to like. There were some things that I liked. I'll highlight a few things here, but I especially in this first episode,

I really struggled to find something that I liked. Now, there was a scene where Peter was with his wife,

Eden, I believe is her name. And it was very sweet, a cute little interaction there between Peter and Eden.

But then she called him stoic. It wasn't just some passing word.

They made a big deal out of it. And he even is kind of like stoic. You know, I kind of like that. There's no way she, a

Jewish woman, would have called her Jewish husband something Greek. And he would have considered that a compliment.

Now you might think that's nitpicky, but come on. I am a pastor committed to biblical faithfulness.

Even these small things like this, they're going to stick out to me. I've heard so much about how accurate the show is and how the writers consult experts and have all these advisors.

Dallas talked about that in his interview with Ali. But I saw no evidence of that in the first full episode that I watched.

If they can't handle the small, obvious stuff well, I'm not too optimistic that they're going to be able to handle the big subjects either.

What I didn't like about that first episode, for all I've heard about this show's attention to detail, there were some careless mistakes.

The attire is wrong. Men wore an inner tunic, then an outer tunic, and then a cloak.

Matthew 5, 40, John 21, 7. You can get that straight from the biblical narrative. Women wore head coverings.

Now, I'm only mentioning this once, and then I'll digress on any further costume or hair decisions.

Now, there's a scene in that first episode that begins with a subtitle telling us it's the

Sabbath, which the show refers to as Shabbat. And I don't understand that decision. But anyway, the first thing that we see in this scene where you've got a little subtitle on there that says it's the

Sabbath. The first thing we see is Peter walking through town carrying a bucket.

The Pharisees never would have allowed that, and Peter surely would not have been doing that.

A man was not even permitted to carry his own mat. Remember that whole controversy that started up in John 5.

A few scenes later, it's nighttime. The sun is down, and Nicodemus, yes, the

Pharisee, he's one of the main characters of the show. Nicodemus makes a comment about it being the

Sabbath. No, it's not. The sun is down. The Sabbath ended at sundown. It's things like this.

They're a little careless mistakes all throughout the show. The first time we're introduced to Jesus, he's casting demons out of Mary Magdalene.

That's at the end of the first episode. The scene was not as dramatic nor as shocking as the show made it out to be.

That aside, this is going to be played as Jesus' first miracle.

But what does the Bible say his first miracle was? His first miracle was turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana.

According to this show, it was casting demons out of Mary Magdalene. Like I said, they're still teaching something.

Dallas can say that these are just supposed to be complementary stories, but no, they're teaching something with the show.

Was there any false doctrine in this first episode? I did not identify any obvious theological problems in the first episode.

I mean, other than these, you know, inattentiveness to the biblical narrative.

But there was a scene where Nicodemus said to his wife. Sometimes I wonder if what we can know of Adonai in the law is just as blurred.

What if we're not seeing the whole picture? What if it's more beautiful and more strange than we can ever imagine?

His wife replied to him. That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. Well, it's not the most ridiculous thing

I ever heard, but it was a silly line. This is foreshadowing that Jesus is more beautiful and more strange than we can imagine.

All right. Second episode was entitled Shabbat. The word they've decided to use for Sabbath, even though we commonly say

Sabbath. What I liked about this episode. Mary describes her exorcism to Nicodemus, because remember, at the end of the first episode,

Jesus cast her demons out of her. Nicodemus comes and finds her and asks, like, what happened now that you've been healed of this demonic possession?

He has heard that that a man came and healed her of these demons and unable to explain what happened.

She said to Nicodemus, I was one way and now I am completely different. And the thing that happened in between was him.

That was a good line. I have to say, I like that interaction between Nicodemus and Mary.

I don't like that Nicodemus is being used in this way. Nicodemus is being he he is called in the show a teacher of teachers and scripture just doesn't present to us

Nicodemus in that way. Now, he was very likely a wealthy man based on the amount of spices that he brought to Jesus burial in the

Gospel of John. But there's nothing like like he's not a chief Pharisee in some way, as the show depicts him.

But I understand for the sake of narrative, they want a familiar character. So Nicodemus is the name that they use.

What I did not like about this episode. Why does it seem like all of the Roman guards are bald?

And what's with all of them wearing capes? Sorry, I guess I said that I wasn't going to make any further criticisms of wardrobe and hair had to get that last one in.

But it's true. All of the Roman guards are bald and wear capes so far. The plot with Peter turning over Jewish merchants to the

Romans for money is not working. We're supposed to believe that Peter, who would not eat with Gentiles before a vision from the

Lord, that's Acts 10 14. And later, he went back to refusing to eat with Gentiles because he feared the

Jews. Galatians 2 12. This is the same Peter who is involved in a plot with the

Romans to rat on his own kinsmen. That's a plot they've got going on with Peter through these first four episodes.

James and Thaddeus in the second episode, James and Thaddeus are shown to be Jesus first disciples.

Scripture says that Peter and Andrew were the first disciples. Matthew 4 18, Mark 1 16,

John 1 40 to 41. There have been other cinematic portrayals of Jesus that are more accurate than this has been.

Will the show depict that all of Jesus' disciples were actually present at his baptism before they were his disciples?

John the Baptist has not even been mentioned yet. And here we are in the second episode.

His ministry was the biggest thing that was happening in Judea at the time. And he hasn't even been mentioned yet in the show.

Was there any false doctrine, any bad theology in this particular episode? No false doctrine yet.

But so far, two episodes in, there's a lot of careless errors, likely deliberate for the sake of story.

I have yet to see any proof that the show is committed to biblical fidelity over narrative.

Third episode was entitled Jesus loves the little children. What I liked.

Jesus is playing with children in most of the episode. I thought that was pretty cute. The writers also set out to show

Christ's humanity in this episode. He was a man who worked hard.

He got tired and he slept. They show him building a fire and working with wood. He even got a cut at one point and had to bandage himself.

I don't know how accurate that would have been. Exactly. But yeah, anyway, that's in the episode. What I did not like.

Let me make a correction on the previous episode. I said that James and Thaddeus are revealed to be the first disciples of Jesus in the second episode.

According to something Jesus said to the children that he teaches in episode three,

Mary Magdalene was actually his first disciple. Among the children, there's a girl who's clearly the leader of them.

I did a review on the film Risen. I don't know if you remember Risen when it came out half a decade ago, at least.

Anyway, one of the things that they depicted in Risen is that the women were all very intelligent and totally knew everything that was going on, whereas the men were ignorant and dumbfounded.

And when they didn't know what to do next, there was a scene where like the disciples didn't know what to do next.

And Mary Magdalene, almost in a very kind of snobbish way, tells them exactly what they're supposed to do.

You heard him. He said to do this. Now go do it. It was showing that men are stupid and the women are actually better at this than the men are.

And I'm getting a feeling of that here as well. That's what it's starting to feel that way.

Anyway, now, again, this is only the third episode, but Mary Magdalene is the first disciple, and there's a girl that's leading all of these boys who can't seem to answer the questions that Jesus asks, though they would have been in synagogue.

This is feeling a lot more like this is being influenced by our present culture. Rather than desiring to follow the text of Scripture, any false doctrine yet in this episode, no, but there are again, these writers are not committed to biblical faithfulness.

It's not a matter of if there will be false doctrine. It's just a matter of when. All right, fourth episode,

I can't remember the name of this one. I didn't I didn't write the title down. What did I like about this episode?

Building the tension between Peter and Matthew before they become disciples together.

That's an interesting touch. The disciples were a varied bunch, and Matthew was a tax collector and considered a traitor because he's collecting taxes for Rome.

He would not have been looked upon kindly by the other Jews. And you have to wonder where the disciples kind of like Jesus is calling that guy.

When Jesus called Matthew from his tax collector booth to come and follow him, you know, did the other disciples go?

No, anybody but that guy. So it's interesting to see the tension building between Peter and Matthew.

I don't think this is written particularly well. But nonetheless, that's an interesting idea to kind of build that tension before they actually become disciples together.

What I did not like about this episode. Finally, John the Baptist comes up in this episode four episodes before we finally hear about John the

Baptist. He's first mentioned in a meeting among the Pharisees as a preacher of a populous message, and they're all vexed because he calls them snakes.

We haven't seen John the Baptist do this. He's off screen, but they're all troubled because John the

Baptist calls them snakes. However, the Pharisees have not been depicted in the show as anyone menacing up to this point.

The only enemies in the show have been the Romans. This is very poor narrative building.

There was a closer enemy to these people than the Romans. And it was the bad teaching of the

Pharisees, even though the Pharisees were men that the people actually held in high regard. They weren't wearing black hats.

You know, it wasn't like the in a Western where you had the bad guys wearing black hats and they're oppressing all the people in the town before the sheriff comes in and Jesus is the sheriff wearing the white hat.

That wasn't the dynamic between the people in the Pharisees. But nonetheless, the stuff that the Pharisees taught the people was wrong.

It was heresy. And yet Nicodemus has been depicted as a good man so far in this program.

There's nothing about the Pharisees that would indicate to you that they're a problem.

So I don't know where the show is going to go with how Jesus is going to confront the

Pharisees. It's still poor narrative building. The stuff that the Bible tells us that would have made good narrative building, the writers don't utilize that.

It's the stories that they invent, like this plot of Peter helping the Romans turn in friends of his who aren't paying their taxes, which is absurd.

Another absurd point in this particular episode, Matthew's got a dog. A Jew would not own a dog.

A dog is an unclean animal. Now, that aside, it also does not fit with the character that they're creating

Matthew to be. They're writing Matthew as being somewhat autistic and that he is a neat freak, right?

He's obsessive compulsive. He wants everything clean. Why does he have a dog, which is an unclean animal?

It's inconsistent writing apart from the fact that it doesn't fit the source material.

Now, the whole episode centers on Peter's drama, who's trying to catch fish so he can pay his taxes to Rome.

They've moved past now that he's trying to turn his friends in. He's decided he doesn't want to do that anymore, but he still has to pay his taxes to Rome.

He's exasperated with God. He complains that Israel was rescued out of Egypt only to be enslaved by the

Romans. His brother shows up and James and John and Zebedee, their father to help him fish all the way until morning.

And then they see a man on the shore talking to a small crowd. This, of course, is Jesus teaching a small group of people.

And when I say small, I mean like less than 60. It was hardly any group of people at all.

I'm sure they had problem. They had trouble getting extras. This was when the show was in its very beginnings, when it first came out.

So they probably could not find enough extras to make a crowd on the shore. All right, I'm going to excuse that and set it aside.

Although it's pretty funny when Jesus asks if he can get into the disciples boat so these people can hear him when there's not even 60 people there.

That was weird. You probably are better off dropping that line anyway.

So Jesus gets into the boat and let me play the scene for you so you can hear it.

My last moments with you. I want to share another story and everyone hear me. Well, let's thank our friends for this strong boat.

I mean, you can hear there. There's just there's just a few dozen of them.

Whereas the way that we read this story in the gospels, there was a huge crowd. Jesus gets into the boat and sets off from the land a little ways so that he can address the whole crowd.

This is just, you know, it's a it's a small group. Trust me, my yelling voice is not easy on the ears because I'm on this boat.

My final parable should be about fishing. Yes, Simon, please send me that net.

When this net is thrown into the sea. What happens, Simon? I mean, most of the time it gathers a little louder.

It gathers fish. Yes. This net gathers fish, all kinds of fish.

Yes. Yes. All kinds of fish. That's actually important.

That's important for something that's coming up here in just a moment. The fact that he would emphasize it gathers all kinds of fish.

Hang on to that. And the kingdom of heaven is like what happens next after the net is full.

Simon and the others draw it to the shore, sit down and sort out the fish. The good fish go into the barrels.

That fish thrown away. So it will be at the end of the age, angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into a fiery furnace.

Do you understand? Therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven, like you all are now, is like the master of a house who brings forth his treasures, both new and old.

You are to do the same with this knowledge. Now, that whole exchange there, that whole teaching was almost verbatim,

Matthew 13, 47 to 52. But there is an interpretation of that teaching that's coming up.

These parables I tell make sense to some, not to others. Be patient.

That is all for today. I have some business to attend to with my new friend. Okay, there's a lot of dead space in here where people are just getting up and walking away.

So I'm fast forwarding to where Jesus tells the disciples to throw their net back into the water. Put that down for a catch.

A little farther out. No, I don't have a quarrel with you, teacher.

We've been doing this all night. Nothing. All right.

That's your word. Now, surely you know what's going on here.

This is the miraculous catch. Their nets are filling up with fish so much that they can't even pull them into the boat.

And this was really well done. They did this scene. This is my favorite scene in the show so far.

It took four episodes into the fourth episode to get to something that made me go.

Yeah, they did that really well after a crowd scene really wasn't a crowd.

Anyway, I'm going to skip forward here after the whole drama of trying to pull the fish in. Peter gets out of the boat and falls down before Christ on the shore, just as we have it depicted in Luke five.

Well, sort of sort of like we have it depicted in Luke five. My brother and the baptizer.

You are the Lamb of God, yes, I am. Depart from me.

I am a sinful man. You don't know who I am and the things I've done. Don't be afraid,

Simon. I'm sorry. We've waited for you for so long.

We believe with my faith. How sorry. Lift up your head, fisherman.

What do you want? Anything you ask,

I will do. Follow me.

I will. Let me read to you here from Luke five, starting in verse four.

When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.

Simon answered and said, Master, we labored all night and caught nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets.

And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break.

So they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink.

And this this depiction that happens here. It was only one boat, but it was Zebedee and James and John that came and helped

Peter get all of these fish into the boat. But when Simon Peter saw this, OK, this is verse eight.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus knees saying, go away from me,

Lord, for I am a sinful man for amazement had seized him and all of his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken.

And James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon, were also likewise amazed. And Jesus said to Simon, do not fear from now on you will be catching men.

And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. So notice there that he doesn't ask

Jesus, you are the Lamb of God. And Jesus says, I am. I don't like that in the show. They add to the text.

You may not think that that's a big deal. But again, what is it that amazes Peter?

It's what he saw. It's what he witnessed. And he says, go away from me,

Lord, for I am a sinful, sinful man. He knows he's the Lord just because of what he's witnessed, not because of Jesus having to say that he is the

Lord. And also, Jesus doesn't say, follow me as if it were something that Peter could respond to and refuse.

You understand that? Because the Gospels say, Jesus says to his disciples, you did not choose me.

I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit. Peter could not have refused this invitation.

And in all three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, when Jesus calls his disciples, he says, follow me.

And they do. There's no response. It just says they do it. Immediately, they dropped their nets and followed him.

So I don't like the whole thing. I understand creative liberties. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I don't like the whole thing in the show of as if Jesus gave them an option.

Now, there's an interpretation that's coming up here of the parable that Jesus had spoken earlier.

So this isn't really the problematic part. The problem is still to come. You as well.

Yes, you, James and John, come follow me. OK, skipping past this as well, there's an exchange between Zebedee and his sons.

This next voice is Peter telling Jesus, hey, let's do this a few more times. Catch a few more fish.

So you sure you don't want to do this just a few more times? Well, we make a great team on the boat.

Joke. Fish are nothing. You have much bigger things ahead of you,

Simon, son of Jonah. Did you understand that parable I told earlier? From now on,

I will make you fishes of men. You are together as many as possible, all kinds.

I will sort them out later. That is not the interpretation of that parable.

The parable about the fish is not explained by Jesus calling his disciples to become fishers of men, and you're just going to gather in as many as you can, and then

I'm going to sort them out later. That that is not what Jesus meant by that parable. Let me read that to you.

Remember, it was out of Matthew 13, beginning in verse 47. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a drag net cast into the sea and gathering fish of every kind.

And when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers.

But the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age, the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous and will throw them into the fiery furnace.

In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood all of these things?

And they said to him, yes, that parable there in Matthew 13.

That is about how at the end, all of the nations will be gathered before Christ at his throne.

That's given a different picture in Matthew 25, where Jesus talks about the son of man seated on the throne, all the nations being gathered before him.

And he will separate one from the other as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

The sheep will go on his right. The goats will go on his left. OK, remember all of that in Matthew 25. This is that same thing in this parable in Matthew 13, 47.

This is not about making fishers of men and catching all these fish.

And then Jesus is going to decide who is righteous and who is not. He's certainly going to do that.

It's almost like what was done here in the scene at the end is that the parable of the tares was mixed in with Jesus call to to follow him and become fishers of men.

So they took the parables of the tares, the wheat and the tares. See, that would have been a more accurate statement there to say,

I'll sort them out later. But that's not what the parable in Matthew 13 had to do with.

The parable in Matthew 13 had to do with all people, not just the people that the disciples caught.

Now, I make that point. I'm not saying this is heretical or anything like that. I just make that point because this show is teaching something and you have to be wise.

If you're going to watch it, you've got to be wise. You've got to be diligent to come to the scriptures because these are teachers and you have to know who your teachers are.

Executive producers of this show are Mormon. The man who's playing Jesus is Catholic.

And in fact, he is pushing Catholic doctrine when he's not on the show. I get the ad all the time on social media of him pushing the whole hollow app, which is the

Catholic Bible app. And you're going to learn Catholic things through that app. This is the man who plays

Jesus in The Chosen. So, yes, this show will lead many, many people astray.

If you're going to watch it, which of course I did, but for the purpose of review, if you're going to watch it,

I hope you don't support it. I hope you don't give money to it. But most of all, I hope you read your

Bible. Know Christ through the pages of scripture, not through a show like this.

Dallas Jenkins is a crowd pleaser. He's a showman. He creates movies and television shows.

And so he's going to say whatever he needs to say to whatever audience to get more people to like and watch this show.

He did an interview with a Mormon in which he told Mormons that we worship the same

Jesus. And it's just not true. The guy is so theologically ignorant.

You cannot trust what this show is going to teach you about Jesus. Considering you've got

Mormons on it, Catholics, unbelievers and an evangelical who could not even tell me what the gospel is.

So be very, very careful about things like this. It is going to attempt to teach whatever

Dallas says. Well, we're not trying to teach. The Bible is still the authority. It's not for these people who are creating this show.

The Bible is not the authority. You make sure it is for you. Read what scripture says and know

Jesus through the pages of scripture. Thank you so much for listening. If you have any other questions, God willing, maybe

I can review another four episodes of The Chosen next week if you're interested. But if you have any questions, you can email me when we understand the text at gmail .com.

Let me finish with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for giving us your son and for giving us your word that we may know the son and we may know the father and be filled with your

Holy Spirit. It is by your spirit that we understand spiritual things.

The naturally minded man cannot understand spiritual things, for they are folly to him, as said in 1

Corinthians 2 14. But we have the spirit of God that we may understand spiritual things.

So help us to read the word rightly, handle it well so that we may know

God and be able to communicate to others about God who has spoken to us through the scriptures.

Lead us in your truth and teach us to walk in your ways this day. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great

Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

Find a good, gospel -teaching, Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again