June 18, 2024 • 11 mins
Can creative liberties in faith-based storytelling go too far? Join us for a special edition of the Jordan and Kristen Rickards show as we tackle a controversial plot twist from The Chosen's latest season. We start with a heartfelt prayer for guidance and then dive deep into the shocking moment where Thomas's fiancée, Ramah, is murdered by a Roman soldier, with Jesus seemingly allowing it to happen. Is this creative choice consistent with Biblical teachings, or does it blur the lines between scripture and fiction too much?
We share our profound admiration for The Chosen's impact on spreading the gospel but express serious concerns about the theological implications of introducing such dramatic, non-Biblical events. Does this scene risk confusing viewers about what is truly Biblical? Throughout our discussion, we highlight the balance that must be struck between creative storytelling and Biblical fidelity, touching on the risks and rewards involved. Despite our criticisms, we remain hopeful for the show's continued success and positive influence, and we conclude with a prayer for its enduring mission to bring people to Christ. Don't miss this engaging and thought-provoking episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, everybody, welcome to a special edition of
the Jordan and Kristen Rickardsshow.
Today we're going to be talkingabout one of our favorite shows
on TV, the Chosen, and inparticular a certain twist that
they've put into season four,episode three, involving kind of
a main character being murderedfor some odd reason which
wasn't exactly in the Bible.
But before we get to that,kristen, why don't you pray for
(00:21):
everybody real quick?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Absolutely.
Thank you, lord.
Thank you that you reign, lord,and that you have everything in
the palm of your hand.
Lord, we honor you, we praiseyou and I pray that, as we share
this, that you give us theright words to say and we just
honor you, lord, with our lives,and we glorify you, god, in
every single way.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
All right.
So the Chosen.
Now, full disclosure.
Kristen and I have enjoyed theChosen from day one.
We've seen every episode, we'vesupported the ministry, we've
even given some money to it.
I think the Chosen is a greatministry tool.
It has probably brought untoldscores of people to Christ and
given many people hope, and Ithink what they're doing is
(01:05):
great.
The production value is veryhigh and we could sit here, you
know, all night and just talkabout great things about the
Chosen.
However, you and I have to takeissue with what happened in
season four, episode three.
So just to give people kind ofan idea of what's going on here,
there was one of the maincharacters, who was Thomas's
fiancee, who is not in the Bible, was basically murdered not
(01:26):
basically was murdered by aRoman soldier, pretty much in
front of Jesus, who then, youknow, let her bleed to death as
Thomas begged Jesus to help hisfiancee and Jesus just kind of
stood there and said, well, it'sher time.
And you know I understand,kristen that the idea behind the
Chosen is there are kind of alot of blanks in the New
Testament and we don't know alot about the disciples and they
(01:48):
want to make the disciplesrelatable to us to show that
these were real people whosuffered through things that you
know we have to suffer throughalso, and you know they've taken
some liberties here and there,but it's kind of excusable.
But I really think they steppedover the line massively here
your turn, go ahead.
Stepped over the line massivelyhere your turn, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Absolutely.
I just want to echo what yousaid.
We love this show and I thinkit has a great ministry and just
very, very powerful in howthere are certain episodes we
could talk about that.
I love what they portrayed, butin this particular instance it
really bothered me.
Like there's some things,stylistically or certain things,
where when they're filling inthe blanks, I'm like, oh okay, I
(02:26):
don't know, I'll let that, youknow, I don't know if I agree
with that, whatever.
This, to me, bothered me so muchon so many different levels
because, first of all, just thelevel of, I know that they had a
good heart and good intention,but it almost like really
(03:07):
grieved my spirit.
I felt like it definitely tookfirst of all the focus off of
Jesus and made it verymelodramatic, on this other
character, I should say.
And the disciples found a waywhen the crowd got out of hand,
found a way to get him out ofthat situation.
And Rhema was in the crowd andshe's the one that the Roman
soldier killed, stabbed, and tome Jesus wore our suffering and
I don't see him like getting inthe like Elvis has left the
building moment getting in thegetaway car he got because he
(03:29):
got away.
Then this person was stabbed, sothat to me I know that probably
wasn't the intention, but Ikind of took it like and first
of all, and it wasn't even inthe Bible, you know there's that
, so this made up person, uh.
But and the way he just lookedat her like sorry, there's
nothing I can do.
I know that there's certainthings where we're like why are
(03:52):
we suffering?
But, as we touched on inanother episode about suffering,
even when the what you want tohappen, even when the healing is
not manifesting or whatever,even when the healing is not
manifesting or whatever, thepicture is not God saying sorry,
even when it's your time to go,even when those things happen,
the whole thing of him just kindof being like okay, that kind
(04:15):
of thing.
That really bothered me too.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Well, I don't think he was shrugging like
dismissively, but he wasdefinitely.
He definitely told you know,whoever it was, thomas that you
know there was nothing really hecould do about it because this
was her time.
Now there's a few problems Ihad.
First of all, I understand thelesson you're trying to teach,
which is that you know there aretimes that someone is sick or
dying or whatever, and we prayand God doesn't give us the
(04:38):
answer to the prayer that wewant, that the person still
suffers, the person still dies,okay, and it does feel like God
is just standing by letting ithappen.
And you can even go back to theCain and Abel story.
Right, god, let Cain kill Abel.
God could have stopped it andhe didn't.
And why doesn't he?
And that's one of the greattheological paradoxes.
But here's the thing Seasonfour opens with John the Baptist
being beheaded.
So if you wanted to teach thatlesson, you could have taught it
(05:00):
within that context, withouthaving to make up another
character to have Jesus watchher bleed to death, basically at
his feet.
That's number one.
Number two earlier in the sameseason, jesus promises this
character, rhema and Thomas,that he would give Rhema away at
their wedding.
I forget, if it was the first orsecond episode of season one of
season four, I should say, okay, well it if.
(05:22):
If you're gonna have thesecharacters, ask jesus, will you
give raymo away?
And he says yes, then you'rebasically now showing that jesus
didn't know what he was talkingabout, because she dies within
an episode or two, yeah, okay.
So now that goes to jesus'somniscience here yeah, all right
, so keeping his promises andnow what you see with it and
keeping his promise.
Well, I didn't think of that.
But, yes, keeping his promise.
So now what they're doing intheir car, they've kind of
(05:44):
gotten away from a little bitbut they've planted the seed.
Now, where you start seeingthat this murder of this girl
starts to be kind of the impetusbehind people turning against
Jesus, that you see this, thegirl's father is now trying to
turn people against Jesus andeven the Pharisees now are
talking about, well, did youhear that?
You know this girl was murderedbecause of him.
That sort of thing.
It's like the New Testamentaccount of Jesus.
(06:05):
I understand there are certainblanks that have to be filled in
or that could be filled in, but, like the telling of the Jesus
story isn't one that needed awhole lot of modification or
embellishment.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, I think that's my thing is that the Bible is so
powerful on its own and theChosen has shown great things
with the woman at the well anddifferent stories.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Sermon on the Mount was a big one.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And nothing needs to be added to that.
But if you want to add here andthere I guess I've always kind
of had a little bit of an issuewith that, but whatever, an
issue with that, but whateverbut then to go and make this
whole melodramatic thing, whichI would have to believe, if
something really like this didhappen, it would be in the Bible
, if there was a murdersomewhere where Jesus was
(06:47):
speaking.
It's just.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I just it calls into for people who have been
watching this thing.
They don't know which parts arereal and which parts aren't.
And you find out.
You think it's real.
You find out later it's not.
Then you say, well, what otherthings weren't real?
Did he really not walk on wateror things like?
That I mean it calls intoaccount the credibility of the
chosen as a gospel narrative.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And I feel like we're just again my biggest thing
besides I just had a problemwith the way he looked at her,
and maybe that's just myperspective.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
You could have done it.
You already had this in episodeone when John the Baptist is
beheaded.
You could have explored that.
Why did Jesus not stop it?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
And even if he was going to, so my thing is, even
if he was going to say thatnothing can be done, the heart
of Jesus, he would bend down andlike.
I just don't see him lookingand being like.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Well, he didn't look like that, though I don't know.
He was crying and he says it'sher time, but that's another
thing.
I don't know that it was hertime, even though this is a
fictional character, because theentire reason we have a
prohibition against murder isbecause it takes somebody before
their time.
You know, remember when,remember when Abel is killed.
What does God say to Cain?
He, abel, is killed.
What does God say to Cain?
He says you know where's yourbrother, his blood cries out to
(08:04):
me for vengeance.
I don't think it was Abel'stime.
I think Cain, when he defiedGod's will, to say it's
someone's time is to say it'sconsistent with God's will.
Cain defied God's will bykilling Abel, this fictional
(08:26):
Roman soldier defied God'sfictional will by killing this
fictional girl.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I mean to say it's her time, like she died of
natural causes.
I don't think that's the answerthat God even gives there, I
don't know.
I think it's so problematic andit kind of is like if Jesus had
been there that wouldn't havehappened, kind of thing.
That's what I take it too.
That's the other thing is likeJesus had left and this happened
.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
So there's all kinds of problems with it, and the
biggest problem to me is howunnecessary it was.
All of the disciples,eventually, are going to be
martyred.
I think John is the only onewho isn't killed, and they tried
to kill him and they couldn't.
So there's plenty of other waysthat you could have shown
suffering, okay, without havingto resort to take a word that
(08:58):
you use to the melodrama of it,and I almost kind of feel like
like the chosen in that onemoment was demonstrating kind of
like you know, worldly envy ofof.
We want to be a little bit morelike what the world would do
here.
You know, we want to just addthis drama here, this violence
here, just to kind of yeah, giveit.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
give it more of a kick than it should have.
You know, if I was watching itwith my kids, I would be like
you know, I don't want them tosee that.
Totally unnecessary, yeah,totally unnecessary.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
All right.
Well, that was just our littlerant, so, but I think we're
going to do.
Going forward is we're going totry to do one of these episodes
after each episode.
That takes us through the firstpart of season four, up through
, I guess, episode five, andepisode six is coming out
Thursday.
Hopefully we get this thisvideo up before them, but anyway
, we still like the show.
(09:43):
I just think that was.
We can both agree, that wasjust not.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
It went a little too far.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
It went a little too far but we love you, dallas, and
you know congratulations.
Thank you for everything you'vedone for us All right.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I hope we don't become part of his monologue
next time.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Listen, we know that feedback was positive, except
those two jerks.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Well, listen, we've gotten our share of criticism.
We had somebody criticize thefact when we were wearing
sunglasses one time, so there'sthat and they had someone
criticize you for settling inchoosing a husband.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Remember that that was fun.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Not true.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I think that comment is still up there.
All right Kristen, why don'tyou pray for us real quick,
please?
Thank you Lord.
All right Kristen, why?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
don't you pray for us real quick, please?
Thank you, lord.
Thank you, thank you for toolsin the media that are used to
proclaim your gospel and yourglory, and I do pray for this
show, the Chosen, that it wouldjust continue to bring people to
you and we just honor you.
We praise you, god, and I praythat anyone who has never
accepted you, who wants to Lord,right now, by the sound of my
(10:46):
voice, I pray that they justinvite you into their heart,
lord, to become their Lord andSavior.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
And I would just pray , lord, that we would just
follow you all the days of ourlife In Jesus' name.
All right guys.
Thanks for joining us.
Don't forget to please like andshare our channel if you like
what we're doing over here.
We will see you next time.
All right, everybody, welcome to a special edition of
the Jordan and Kristen Rickardsshow.
Today we're going to be talkingabout one of our favorite shows
on TV, the Chosen, and inparticular a certain twist that
they've put into season four,episode three, involving kind of
a main character being murderedfor some odd reason which
wasn't exactly in the Bible.
But before we get to that,kristen, why don't you pray for
(00:21):
everybody real quick?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Absolutely.
Thank you, lord.
Thank you that you reign, lord,and that you have everything in
the palm of your hand.
Lord, we honor you, we praiseyou and I pray that, as we share
this, that you give us theright words to say and we just
honor you, lord, with our lives,and we glorify you, god, in
every single way.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
All right.
So the Chosen.
Now, full disclosure.
Kristen and I have enjoyed theChosen from day one.
We've seen every episode, we'vesupported the ministry, we've
even given some money to it.
I think the Chosen is a greatministry tool.
It has probably brought untoldscores of people to Christ and
given many people hope, and Ithink what they're doing is
(01:05):
great.
The production value is veryhigh and we could sit here, you
know, all night and just talkabout great things about the
Chosen.
However, you and I have to takeissue with what happened in
season four, episode three.
So just to give people kind ofan idea of what's going on here,
there was one of the maincharacters, who was Thomas's
fiancee, who is not in the Bible, was basically murdered not
(01:26):
basically was murdered by aRoman soldier, pretty much in
front of Jesus, who then, youknow, let her bleed to death as
Thomas begged Jesus to help hisfiancee and Jesus just kind of
stood there and said, well, it'sher time.
And you know I understand,kristen that the idea behind the
Chosen is there are kind of alot of blanks in the New
Testament and we don't know alot about the disciples and they
(01:48):
want to make the disciplesrelatable to us to show that
these were real people whosuffered through things that you
know we have to suffer throughalso, and you know they've taken
some liberties here and there,but it's kind of excusable.
But I really think they steppedover the line massively here
your turn, go ahead.
Stepped over the line massivelyhere your turn, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Absolutely.
I just want to echo what yousaid.
We love this show and I thinkit has a great ministry and just
very, very powerful in howthere are certain episodes we
could talk about that.
I love what they portrayed, butin this particular instance it
really bothered me.
Like there's some things,stylistically or certain things,
where when they're filling inthe blanks, I'm like, oh okay, I
(02:26):
don't know, I'll let that, youknow, I don't know if I agree
with that, whatever.
This, to me, bothered me so muchon so many different levels
because, first of all, just thelevel of, I know that they had a
good heart and good intention,but it almost like really
(03:07):
grieved my spirit.
I felt like it definitely tookfirst of all the focus off of
Jesus and made it verymelodramatic, on this other
character, I should say.
And the disciples found a waywhen the crowd got out of hand,
found a way to get him out ofthat situation.
And Rhema was in the crowd andshe's the one that the Roman
soldier killed, stabbed, and tome Jesus wore our suffering and
I don't see him like getting inthe like Elvis has left the
building moment getting in thegetaway car he got because he
(03:29):
got away.
Then this person was stabbed, sothat to me I know that probably
wasn't the intention, but Ikind of took it like and first
of all, and it wasn't even inthe Bible, you know there's that
, so this made up person, uh.
But and the way he just lookedat her like sorry, there's
nothing I can do.
I know that there's certainthings where we're like why are
(03:52):
we suffering?
But, as we touched on inanother episode about suffering,
even when the what you want tohappen, even when the healing is
not manifesting or whatever,even when the healing is not
manifesting or whatever, thepicture is not God saying sorry,
even when it's your time to go,even when those things happen,
the whole thing of him just kindof being like okay, that kind
(04:15):
of thing.
That really bothered me too.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Well, I don't think he was shrugging like
dismissively, but he wasdefinitely.
He definitely told you know,whoever it was, thomas that you
know there was nothing really hecould do about it because this
was her time.
Now there's a few problems Ihad.
First of all, I understand thelesson you're trying to teach,
which is that you know there aretimes that someone is sick or
dying or whatever, and we prayand God doesn't give us the
(04:38):
answer to the prayer that wewant, that the person still
suffers, the person still dies,okay, and it does feel like God
is just standing by letting ithappen.
And you can even go back to theCain and Abel story.
Right, god, let Cain kill Abel.
God could have stopped it andhe didn't.
And why doesn't he?
And that's one of the greattheological paradoxes.
But here's the thing Seasonfour opens with John the Baptist
being beheaded.
So if you wanted to teach thatlesson, you could have taught it
(05:00):
within that context, withouthaving to make up another
character to have Jesus watchher bleed to death, basically at
his feet.
That's number one.
Number two earlier in the sameseason, jesus promises this
character, rhema and Thomas,that he would give Rhema away at
their wedding.
I forget, if it was the first orsecond episode of season one of
season four, I should say, okay, well it if.
(05:22):
If you're gonna have thesecharacters, ask jesus, will you
give raymo away?
And he says yes, then you'rebasically now showing that jesus
didn't know what he was talkingabout, because she dies within
an episode or two, yeah, okay.
So now that goes to jesus'somniscience here yeah, all right
, so keeping his promises andnow what you see with it and
keeping his promise.
Well, I didn't think of that.
But, yes, keeping his promise.
So now what they're doing intheir car, they've kind of
(05:44):
gotten away from a little bitbut they've planted the seed.
Now, where you start seeingthat this murder of this girl
starts to be kind of the impetusbehind people turning against
Jesus, that you see this, thegirl's father is now trying to
turn people against Jesus andeven the Pharisees now are
talking about, well, did youhear that?
You know this girl was murderedbecause of him.
That sort of thing.
It's like the New Testamentaccount of Jesus.
(06:05):
I understand there are certainblanks that have to be filled in
or that could be filled in, but, like the telling of the Jesus
story isn't one that needed awhole lot of modification or
embellishment.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, I think that's my thing is that the Bible is so
powerful on its own and theChosen has shown great things
with the woman at the well anddifferent stories.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Sermon on the Mount was a big one.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And nothing needs to be added to that.
But if you want to add here andthere I guess I've always kind
of had a little bit of an issuewith that, but whatever, an
issue with that, but whateverbut then to go and make this
whole melodramatic thing, whichI would have to believe, if
something really like this didhappen, it would be in the Bible
, if there was a murdersomewhere where Jesus was
(06:47):
speaking.
It's just.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I just it calls into for people who have been
watching this thing.
They don't know which parts arereal and which parts aren't.
And you find out.
You think it's real.
You find out later it's not.
Then you say, well, what otherthings weren't real?
Did he really not walk on wateror things like?
That I mean it calls intoaccount the credibility of the
chosen as a gospel narrative.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And I feel like we're just again my biggest thing
besides I just had a problemwith the way he looked at her,
and maybe that's just myperspective.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
You could have done it.
You already had this in episodeone when John the Baptist is
beheaded.
You could have explored that.
Why did Jesus not stop it?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
And even if he was going to, so my thing is, even
if he was going to say thatnothing can be done, the heart
of Jesus, he would bend down andlike.
I just don't see him lookingand being like.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Well, he didn't look like that, though I don't know.
He was crying and he says it'sher time, but that's another
thing.
I don't know that it was hertime, even though this is a
fictional character, because theentire reason we have a
prohibition against murder isbecause it takes somebody before
their time.
You know, remember when,remember when Abel is killed.
What does God say to Cain?
He, abel, is killed.
What does God say to Cain?
He says you know where's yourbrother, his blood cries out to
(08:04):
me for vengeance.
I don't think it was Abel'stime.
I think Cain, when he defiedGod's will, to say it's
someone's time is to say it'sconsistent with God's will.
Cain defied God's will bykilling Abel, this fictional
(08:26):
Roman soldier defied God'sfictional will by killing this
fictional girl.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I mean to say it's her time, like she died of
natural causes.
I don't think that's the answerthat God even gives there, I
don't know.
I think it's so problematic andit kind of is like if Jesus had
been there that wouldn't havehappened, kind of thing.
That's what I take it too.
That's the other thing is likeJesus had left and this happened
.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
So there's all kinds of problems with it, and the
biggest problem to me is howunnecessary it was.
All of the disciples,eventually, are going to be
martyred.
I think John is the only onewho isn't killed, and they tried
to kill him and they couldn't.
So there's plenty of other waysthat you could have shown
suffering, okay, without havingto resort to take a word that
(08:58):
you use to the melodrama of it,and I almost kind of feel like
like the chosen in that onemoment was demonstrating kind of
like you know, worldly envy ofof.
We want to be a little bit morelike what the world would do
here.
You know, we want to just addthis drama here, this violence
here, just to kind of yeah, giveit.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
give it more of a kick than it should have.
You know, if I was watching itwith my kids, I would be like
you know, I don't want them tosee that.
Totally unnecessary, yeah,totally unnecessary.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
All right.
Well, that was just our littlerant, so, but I think we're
going to do.
Going forward is we're going totry to do one of these episodes
after each episode.
That takes us through the firstpart of season four, up through
, I guess, episode five, andepisode six is coming out
Thursday.
Hopefully we get this thisvideo up before them, but anyway
, we still like the show.
(09:43):
I just think that was.
We can both agree, that wasjust not.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
It went a little too far.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
It went a little too far but we love you, dallas, and
you know congratulations.
Thank you for everything you'vedone for us All right.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I hope we don't become part of his monologue
next time.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Listen, we know that feedback was positive, except
those two jerks.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Well, listen, we've gotten our share of criticism.
We had somebody criticize thefact when we were wearing
sunglasses one time, so there'sthat and they had someone
criticize you for settling inchoosing a husband.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Remember that that was fun.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Not true.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I think that comment is still up there.
All right Kristen, why don'tyou pray for us real quick,
please?
Thank you Lord.
All right Kristen, why?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
don't you pray for us real quick, please?
Thank you, lord.
Thank you, thank you for toolsin the media that are used to
proclaim your gospel and yourglory, and I do pray for this
show, the Chosen, that it wouldjust continue to bring people to
you and we just honor you.
We praise you, god, and I praythat anyone who has never
accepted you, who wants to Lord,right now, by the sound of my
(10:46):
voice, I pray that they justinvite you into their heart,
lord, to become their Lord andSavior.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
And I would just pray , lord, that we would just
follow you all the days of ourlife In Jesus' name.
All right guys.
Thanks for joining us.
Don't forget to please like andshare our channel if you like
what we're doing over here.
We will see you next time.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.