The Chosen and the He Gets Us Campaign are a Venn diagram in their depiction of Jesus that is increasingly becoming a circle. The seeker-sensitive mentality is well-known in both instances. The Chosen has been marred by numerous scandals including Dallas Jenkins defending Mormonism and The Chosen promoting homosexuality in their promotional videos (along with the cast.) Similarly, He Gets Us has been entrenched in controversy over its concept and this year it decided to market Christians as the bad guys in a Super Bowl commercial. Another commonality is how they both use liberal Christian media to promote their influence in the church.
Evangelical Dark Web has long covered Ed Stetzer’s involvement with He Gets Us Campaign, but season four of The Chosen would tap into Stetzer’s connections and media prowess for promotion. As extensively covered, Ed Stetzer is extremely liberal.
A few promotional videos were made on the set of The Chosen. One was with Stan Jantz, the CEO of The Come and See Foundation, the nonprofit ministry fundraising for The Chosen. Another was with Dave Ferguson, a megachurch pastor and church growth guru. Most interestingly, Ed Stetzer did a promotional video with Derwin Gray.
Derwin Gray is a former NFL DB turned pastor and helms Transformation Church, South Carolina (not to be confused with Mike Todd’s church in Oklahoma.) Despite the cool backstory, Derwin Gray is a woke pastor who has added a mandate of having a multiethnic church to the gospel. As explained in his interview on the Holy Post with Skye Jethani, Matt Chandler wrote the forward to Gray’s book but only believed that multiethnic churches were an implication of the gospel, a clear disagreement with the book that Jethani explored in the interview. The irony is that Matt Chandler is woke yet his gospel is still insufficient by Derwin Gray’s standard.
In the promotional video, Derwin Gray would tout The Chosen for its quality and lambast Christians for their hesitancy to use it in the church. Gray touts The Chosen as a great tool to get people to read Scripture and believes The Chosen is a breakthrough for the church to reach people with an authentic Jesus.
The Chosen, though seeker-friendly and feminist, has not pushed Critical Race Theory beyond a too diverse to be historically accurate set, from what we’ve reviewed. Nevertheless, The Chosen is actively using woke preachers like Ed Stetzer and Derwin Gray to endorse their product.
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The description under the video of the Holy Post podcast references culture, while the title references ethnicity. That’s already sowing disconnected confusion before anyone even watches the video. Culture and ethnicity are not the same thing. The Bible says little to nothing about skin color, and a little bit about ethnicity (parable of the good Samaritan for example), but quite a bit about culture.
In particular, since Paul’s ministry was to the gentiles, he dealt with such issues more than others. Acts, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians.
The just of it is for each and all of us, regardless of skin color or ethnicity or background, there are aspects of worldly culture – traditions, customs, heritage, beliefs, etc. -, that we must reject in order to follow the Lord and other aspects that are fine and not a problem. But we don’t accept any culture in full, including our own, just for the sake of accepting culture.
Paul dealt with issues such as whether or not a man covers his head, which day of the week to meet, whether or not to eat meat, whether or not to circumcise, etc., and in each instance he gives solid reasoning, explaining the criteria …
Is it sinful?
Does it dishonor the Lord?
Does it disrespect His created order?
Might it be a stumbling block for a brother or sister? (explanation of eating meat)
Could it contribute to a false gospel? (explanation of circumcision)
Does it send a wrong message, or hint of a wrong message? (he said, not even a hint)
Is it a Pharisaical commandment of men, or a commandment of God?
Etc.
The criteria we are to use, and the reasoning behind it, is already spelled out for us in scripture. The apostles went to great lengths to provide explanations why, and reasoning behind those explanations why. We should pay attention.
There’s nothing wrong with a mutli-ethnic church, nor is there anything wrong with accepting aspects of different cultures, as long as the criteria given in scripture is met.
In some extreme cases, it could possibility be indicative of fruit, good or bad. But when you start saying it’s required, then you’re teaching a false gospel. Much like those who taught circumcision was required, whom Paul strongly rebuked. As he basically said, there’s nothing wrong with circumcision in and of itself, but when you start saying it’s a requirement, as if it is part of the gospel, then you’re teaching a false gospel, while putting yourself and those you’ve led astray back under the law rather than grace. It’s neither required nor forbidden.
As for other matters of tradition, such as covering the head, meeting on one day of the week vs another, and so on, Paul said quit worrying about stuff that is of no consequence. It’s not a problem. If somebody wants to wear a yamulke, covering his head in the traditional manner, fine. If not, fine. Quit bothering over it. And quit bickering about it.
But when it comes to such matters, if you say it’s required or you say it’s forbidden, at that point, in either case you’re teaching a false gospel.
There are some aspects of culture, custom, and tradition that we are to flat-out reject. And there are other aspects that are not a problem, and which we should not reject if it means causing a brother or sister to stumble, etc. We use scripture to determine which is which. We use the criteria as prescribed by scripture.
About like my previous post on the other thread. As some basically try to claim it is sinful for a man not to marry. That’s adding to and taking away from scripture. It’s not in scripture. It’s not a commandment of God. It’s a false gospel just the same as a false gospel that says every local church gathering must be multi-ethnic, which would be just as bad as a false gospel that would say every local church gathering must be mono-ethnic.
Adding to scripture is just as bad as taking away from it.