When Entertainment Introduces Jesus: Where Discernment Must Draw the Line

What follows is a teaching and warning rooted in Scripture, not condemnation, but clarity. It is written to bring awareness to a line that must not be crossed if the gospel is to remain the gospel.

We live in a time where Jesus is more visible in popular culture than at almost any other point in history. Films, series, podcasts, and social media content about Christ are everywhere. On the surface, this looks like progress. Many people who never opened a Bible are now encountering the name of Jesus through entertainment. That reality alone causes many believers to celebrate without asking deeper questions. Scripture, however, commands discernment, not impulse celebration.

The central issue is not whether God can use imperfect tools. He can and He does. Shows like The Chosen are bringing people closer to God, sparking curiosity, and inspiring interest in the gospel, and that is a good and worthy thing. God can and often does use imperfect or creative means to draw people toward Himself. Acknowledging that does not negate the spiritual benefit these productions can have in awakening faith or motivating people to engage with Scripture.

The issue is whether those tools are shaping people toward biblical salvation or toward a substitute understanding of Christ that feels spiritual but lacks truth.

There is no question that The Chosen is intentionally framed as a dramatization. Its creators openly admit that scenes, dialogue, and character relationships are imagined. That admission matters, but it does not remove the spiritual responsibility that comes with portraying the Son of God. What people repeatedly see forms how they think. What they emotionally connect with shapes what they believe. Over time, dramatization becomes memory, and memory quietly becomes theology.

One of the first dangers is adding to Scripture where Scripture is intentionally silent.

Take John the Baptist and Jesus. Biblically, they were related through their mothers, but there is no evidence they grew up together, spent time together, or shared a relationship before the baptism. Scripture actually emphasizes distance. John lived in the wilderness. Jesus lived in Galilee. John explicitly says he did not know Him until God revealed Him at the baptism. That distance protects the integrity of Jesus’ identity. He is revealed by the Father, not recognized through family familiarity.

When a show portrays them as close cousins who grew up together, joked together, and shared memories, it creates a version of events that Scripture does not support. That is not a harmless detail. It reshapes how people understand divine revelation, prophetic authority, and the weight of John’s testimony.

Another danger is humanizing Jesus in ways Scripture does not.

Scripture presents Jesus as fully human and fully divine, compassionate yet authoritative, gentle yet fearfully holy. Entertainment almost always emphasizes relatability over reverence. The Jesus of Scripture commands repentance, confronts sin, speaks of judgment, and declares exclusive authority. The Jesus of dramatization often feels emotionally accessible first and confrontational later, if at all.

That shift matters. People can fall in love with a version of Jesus who feels safe, affirming, and familiar, while never encountering the Christ who says to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me. Liking Jesus is not the same as submitting to Him. Feeling close to Jesus is not the same as being born again.

This leads to the most serious concern of all: false assurance.

Salvation does not come from exposure to Christian content. It does not come from emotional resonance. It does not come from inspiration or identification with a story. Salvation comes through repentance and faith in the true gospel. Scripture is explicit. Many will believe they belong to Christ and will be shocked to find that they do not. Jesus Himself warns that many will say Lord, Lord, and be rejected.

A person can watch a series, feel deeply moved, begin calling themselves a Christian, and yet never understand sin, repentance, regeneration, or the lordship of Christ. They may believe they are saved because they feel connected to Jesus, not because they have bowed to Him. That is not a small error. That is an eternal one.

This is why Scripture places such heavy weight on doctrine and teaching. Paul warns that even a slightly altered gospel is no gospel at all. He does not soften that warning. Eternity is not protected by good intentions.

At the same time, this is not a condemnation of everyone involved in these productions. God can and does use curiosity sparked by entertainment to draw people toward truth. That has always been possible. That is the very point: what these shows accomplish in awakening hearts to Christ is valuable, and the work should be acknowledged and celebrated. But drawing attention is not the same as making disciples. Curiosity must eventually be grounded in Scripture or it becomes spiritual noise.

The danger is not that people watch shows like The Chosen. The danger is when those shows become the reference point instead of the Word of God. When people quote scenes instead of Scripture. When imagined dialogue replaces biblical text. When a portrayed Jesus becomes more familiar than the Jesus revealed in the Bible.

The solution is not fear. It is awareness and discipline.

Scripture must remain primary. Entertainment must remain secondary. Any portrayal of Jesus must be held loosely and tested rigorously against the Word. Believers must be taught clearly what salvation actually is, what repentance actually means, and who Christ truly is according to Scripture, not according to screenwriters.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Not by episodes. Not by scripts. Not by well produced scenes.

This is not about shutting doors. It is about guarding the narrow gate.

If people are being drawn in by media, they must be led beyond it. They must be brought to Scripture. They must be taught the cost of discipleship. They must be confronted with the holiness of God and the reality of sin. Otherwise, we risk filling churches with people who love a Jesus they have never actually met.

Awareness is not condemnation. Discernment is not hostility. It is obedience.

And when eternity is at stake, clarity is not optional.