Sherry Lynn Olinger
A Biblical Truther Review of THE CHOSEN
This journey of reviewing The Chosen (which I did not realize I was doing at the time) started last month (January 2020).
Ads for the show had been popping up in my feed for about a month – I didn’t pay much attention as I don’t pay much attention to many ads and more or less thought “another Bible show” I and my Hubs are always highly skeptical of anything like this we watch.
A Sister in Christ told me she downloaded the app and was enjoying the show – “really?” I asked – she is a solid sister in Christ and always looking for the enemy’s agenda anywhere. It was a Friday evening, so Hubs and I pulled up their YT channel and watched episode 1. Not gonna lie, we loved it. Instead of downloading the app, we decided we would order the DVD’s so we could watch it on the larger screen. A week and half later they arrived and we binge watched the series over a week (8 episodes). Little things left out here and there they have “trained you” to overlook as on of Dallas’s (Director/Producer of the show) interviews states that it is more about getting to know the Characters of the Bible.
After the series 2 things bothered us both – they have on the DVD’s what are called “Roundtable meetings” Dallas has these meetings to discuss the script, setting, etc. It is comprised of himself, a messianic Jew and a Catholic and an evangelical. Hmmmm. I see having the Jewish person as you are trying to get historical, cultural references etc. as close to authentic as possible but why a Catholic? Tuck this away in your back pocket as we did.
I was led to join The Chosen Facebook Fan Page. I say led because I am no longer interested in groups on FB as most of them are a place for discord and a distraction from the enemy so it even felt weird as I was doing it, but again, I felt I was being led. Upon acceptance I just kinda hung out like a wallflower and “observed”. This is not my typical personality but Holy Spirit was really impressing upon me to just observe. Being “still” and patiently waiting is not my strong suite but I had to trust and obey – I am learning the more I can exercise being still and patient and waiting there is SO much He can show us (this was a 3 weeks process). One of the main things I observed was the heavy Catholic presence in the group. I also noted that Dallas was very “hands on” and responsive in the group (especially when receiving compliments)
Over the next almost couple weeks, when I would see someone give the truth regarding the Gospel or Jesus they were immediately shouted down. There is very much a cumbia, we all hold hands and are one and love Jesus.. That should sound great, right? Well, how can it when you have Christians, Catholics, Jehovah Witness and Mormons – it’s NOT the SAME Jesus!!! I am sorry but I will call it like it is – JW do NOT believe Jesus is God and are a cult – Mormon’s are a cult and do not worship the same Jesus we do. DIFFERENT JESUS – DIFFERENT GOSPEL – I saw that correcting false doctrine seemed frowned upon. RED FLAG.. I continued to monitor and used the time monitoring to pray for the prayer requests I would see pop up from time to time.
One interesting post I did see (and again put this info in my back pocket) was a post about their Devotional (There is a devotional sold on Amazon and a couple other sites that apparently does along with the series) This particular gentleman had the devotional and took a picture of one of the pages – he noted that the verse on that particular page was incorrect. (I cannot remember which verse it was, but I do remember when I read it I was like yup, that verse is twisted). A ton of people (who are just fans mind you they had no part in writing this devotional – it is actually Dallas’s wife that wrote the devotional) but a ton of people jumped in the comments saying “oh it must have been a typo, etc. etc.) Finally the gentlemen that originally posted said – “I don’t believe it can be a typo because the devotional underneath can only be applied with the twisted Scripture not as the Scripture is intended to read. (hmmmm) another interesting thing.. Dallas who I always saw very present, responding back when tagged, etc. I never saw this addressed by anyone other than other fans. It was creepy in the fact that there is a very “they can do no wrong” rah rah rah mentality.
A few days later over the weekend there was a post of the actor portraying Jesus and apparently up for some sort of award in hellywood for his portrayal in the show… again heart sink – they are jumping up and down (cast and crew) regarding hellywood taking notice when we know we are NOT of the world and the world does not want anything to do with the True things of God. Red Flag.. their excitement over hellywood.. Red Flag.. well right as I went to scroll on I noticed that the post had been forwarded from the actor that plays Jesus actual FB page – so I clicked on his name and went to his page. No different than any other actor first few posts (btw, this was on Jan 25 and is on his personal FB page so anyone can verify) he is so excited and honored blah blah blah hellywood.. THEN a picture that made me nauseous.. a post with a picture of this actor standing in some Catholic church in L.A. in front of the largest (it looked like it was from floor to ceiling) crucifix I had ever seen. It made me ill – I thought to myself “You are portraying my Savior YET this is HOW you see Him – still on the cross” ugh.. I digress and I quickly left his page after that and didn’t go any further.
Also that weekend (again all these little puzzle pieces collecting until I was told to put it ALL together) It was rainy, gloomy, miserable day – I didn’t mind as I had crafts to do (card making) Hubs was bored. We had caught up on all our YT subs and we do not watch any regular TV or cable at all. I was doing my crafts in the living room so I could hang out with him and the animals and he said “I will put in the chosen again, cause you are working and I may end up napping” “k, I told him”. 4 episodes played – I was finished with my cards and he flipped over to YT to see if we had anything before inserting the other disc. We had YT’s so he put the DVD away and then he said this (keep it in your pocket cause it will come out later) “Babe, they skipped the 40 days” “huh?” Andrew shows up and tells Simon that John said “behold, the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world” and then very next scene they fish, catch nothing, come to shore, Jesus tells them to throw the net, they get all the fish and Jesus tells them to follow him and he will make them fishers of men.” I said, “huh ya, you’re right – we didn’t see his baptism and there was no 40 days it all happened in the same day. We moved on to our evening.
Then next Monday or Tuesday someone posted a cartoon – it was a conveyor belt with people sitting in baskets headed into a tunnel of fire labeled “hell” and an angel running the conveyor belt and as an old man goes by holding onto his basket he looks at the angel and says “I really have to go in a basket?” The bottom of the cartoon said “Hell in a hand basket” my heart sank, I wanted to throw up – THIS was on a Christian site?? Finally (Praise GOD) Holy Spirit told me I could speak. I responded back to the post and said that I feel I have a sense of humor. I did not lose that when I became born again however, what I find funny is different. I cannot find anything funny or joke worthy regarding the lost or them going to hell. I received a response a couple hours later from the poster which was “It’s a cartoon, lighten up”. I responded back – that excuse would only work if you were speaking to someone in the world, I am not of this world and it doesn’t make it less wrong because it is a cartoon. The lost and drying headed to hell breaks the Father’s heart and it should break our heart – not be a source of amusement. I received another response “Dallas liked it and thought it was funny”. Wow. First of all, Wow – you would think the creator of the show was a mature Christian and Wow that this person thought because she through a man’s name around that it would change my conviction. I responded “I don’t care of he thought it was funny – I do not look for the acceptance of man but of God. That squashed it. I was so ready to leave that group and about an hour later Holy Spirit let me know I could finally walk away from that (I didn’t realize it at the time but I had all I needed from the group He would be leading me elsewhere for information now)
Ok by now I spoke up to the Sister in Christ that had originally told me to watch the show and let her know about the red flags I was starting to see – she was also in the FB group but had not been on there in a bit so she was gonna “snoop” since I no longer could.
She messaged me the following Saturday and said “ hey, remember the 3 moderators of the group that were moderators with Dallas” “ya” she said “they are ALL Mormons” What?? Again, we know this is a cult, a different Jesus and we are not to be unequally yoked. At that moment a tag line from the show was becoming painfully clear. When Jesus tells Matthew to follow him in episode 8, Peter objects as Matthew is a tax collector. Jesus reminds him that he had been a bad man but he choose him – Peter says “that was different” End line of the first season Jesus says “get used to different”. WOW – that had become a “tag line” on the fan page, Dallas is even selling shirts (everyone was gobbling them up) that said “get used to different” It was becoming very clear in my spirit and Hubs agreed there is a strong ecumenical movement and their phrase is “get used to different”.
We no more than finish discussing this issue and had decided we will not even bother watching season 2 as we see where they are going with it (we really believe it wasn’t as prevalent in season 1 they are getting people “hooked” you can really see the agenda in the FB Fan page). We turned on YT and since we had subbed The Chosen’s YT channel the latest video came up in the feed. G said “I am gonna unsub this too” “yup” I said and then at the same time we (Holy Spirit) said “wait” “play it” The next 5 minutes were excruciating. It is a video of Dallas picking up his wife from the airport in hellywood and going on and on about how hellywood will always be “home” (um, I would think most Christians would feel the darkness and oppression there and want nothing to do with it) THEN… he calls hellywood HALLOWED – WHAT did my ears just hear?! Did he REALLY just say that?! Yes he did… we backed it up and unfortunately I had to hear it twice. The rest of the video he went on and on slobbering over hellywood and hopes he can move back there and make the rest of the show there and bragging about the stuff he did there back in the day and he has been trying to make it in hellywood for years apparently. WOW.
A couple hours later I am in the kitchen headed back to the living room and G screams “Babe!!” I came running thinking something was wrong – nope – he had that look he gets when he just realized something and the big light bulb over his head went off – eyes all huge he looks at me and says- “they didn’t put the 40 days!!!!” “yup. Babe, we established that” “BABE!!! They didn’t want the baptism either!!!” “Cause Babe!!! Catholics sprinkle!!!! John would have had to submerge him!!!! Hence the Catholic at the roundtable!!!” WHOA……….. then I had my lightbulb.. “babe when baptized they would have had to have a dove representing the Holy spirit and the voice of the Father saying “this is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” that just cracked the Mormons and JW” we were stunned – talked about it for a while and went about our night.
The next morning (This past Sunday Morning) I finished reading my Bible – G was still at the table reading his Bible so I kicked back my recliner and closed my eyes to meditate on what I had just read and Holy Spirit spoke to me and said “remember the study you did on The Miniseries The Bible last year (I had done this to expose it to a friend as we was relying on the show more than the Word of God.) mmmmhhhhmmm yup – Holy Spirit spoke – “whats the difference?” OHHHHHHH my heart shattered into pieces!!! There was only ONE answer and it was an immediate response to Holy Spirit – NONE – there is NO difference at ALL!!! I told G – we cant even keep Season 1 – it’s gotta go in the trash – he agreed. What was interesting about Holy Spirit bringing that up is not only the Catholic, ecumenical agenda behind most of these types of shows – but digging I learned how our brains operate when we watch something versus reading – I would never do that with a show versus my Bible but some will and that is what my friend was doing last year when I warned her. This is why John tells us to be careful what our little eyes see and our little ears hear.. our mind is a very complicated thing and when people “bing” watch (which is exactly what is happening with this show) it’s so subtle they won’t even know it is happening – instead of reading and comprehending what is on the page, they will replay what they saw.
I believe under the surface the show is helping to usher in the ecumenical, worldly crowd – we have already seen good brothers and sisters fall away and I believe something like this could although it appear to be Godly and draw them to God actually cause them to fall away.
I had a group of sisters in Christ all fans of the show – I had to be the bubble popper yesterday – which is always hard cause I feel like I am always the bubble popper but I am more concerned about being obedient to Him. All I can do is warn. Thanks to God, they all appreciated how much info I had and that I told them and even though they were disappointed they are giving up the show. There is much to sound the alarm about these last days and we never know what He is going to have us sound the alarm about. I look back in amazement at the FB page, YT, all of the puzzle pieces how they came together – wow – He absolutely AMAZES me.
No matter what man says about this series – I believe The Lord showed me the Truth and everything in this world is nothing compared to Him and He is all I want and I want nothing between me and Him. There will be some that argue these points I am sure – that’s ok – If they want the truth, God will show them.
I however will abide on the following 😊 : James 1; Ecclesiastes 10:8; 2 Corinthians 2:11; John 16:13; 1 John 1:8-9; 1 John 2:15-18; 1 Peter 3:17; 1 John 4:6; Ephesians 4:4-6; Galatians 1:10; Galatians 5:9; Galatians 6:8; 2 Timothy 4:3-4; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Corinthians 5:10-11; 2 Corinthians 10:21-22; 2 Corinthians 6:14-17; 2 Corinthians 11:3-6
Sherry Lynn Olinger
Watchmen On The Pod 