If you have been reading Fulcrum7 long, you know that we have serious reservations about the television series on the life of Christ called “The Chosen.”
Perhaps to clear up some of the false representations within this series, David Asscherick and Ty Gibson have teamed with The Hope Channel to produce a thirteen part series commenting on “The Chosen.” Asscherick announces it on his Facebook page as follows:
“Just finished shooting 13 episodes of a new television series for The Hope Channel with my good friend and colleague Ty Gibson. In this series we watch the outstanding The Chosen video series on the life of Jesus Christ then discuss the biblical, historical, and theological background of each episode. It was a total blast to prepare for and shoot! We had a top-notch production team who made it all happen professionally and without a hitch. Episodes will air soon; I’ll post details here. If you haven’t already seen #TheChosen, you definitely should! It is extremely well done. Ty and I loved walking through season one together, with Bibles in hand, and we think you’ll love watching both The Chosen and our commentary. Definitely the kind of thing you could share with seekers and non-believers.”
There is nothing wrong with using the publicity and public interest generated by a non-Adventist project like “The Chosen” to attract viewers to a more Adventist-centered program that will teach pure truth. Within the SDA Church, there is a long tradition of doing exactly this. To cite a couple of examples from recent years, Adventist publishers rode on the publicity generated by Mel Gibson’s 2004 box office mega-hit, “The Passion of the Christ,” to issue a faux movie tie-in called “The Passion of Love: He did it for you.” Likewise, they tried to ride the publicity of the Russell Crowe vehicle, “Noah,” to issue a Noah-themed version of Patriarchs and Prophets and other relevant EGW writings (even though that 2014 film was dreadful, completely unwatchable, and a box-office flop).
As far as I know, however, no Adventist ever urged his audience to go to the movie theater and see, “The Passion of the Christ” or “Noah.” What is different about this case is that David Asscherick is urging us to see “The Chosen” ourselves. He calls it an “outstanding video series,” and seems to endorse it without qualification:
If you haven’t already seen #TheChosen, you definitely should! It is extremely well done. Ty and I loved walking through season one together, with Bibles in hand, and we think you’ll love watching both The Chosen and our commentary.
He includes no hedging, reservations, or qualifications, such as, “we recognize that there are issues with some of the scenes in the series, and that not everything was presented just as in the gospels, but we believe that there is more positive than negative in the series, and in our commentary we correct the things that were erroneously depicted.” Had there been a statement of that type, there would be little cause to question David’s announcement.
But to unqualifiedly promote the series and urge everyone to watch it is not the right course for a faithful independent ministry. There is error within the series, and people need to know that going in.
****
Article on The Chosen by Randall Lacelle