‘God Has His Hand on It’—How Dallas Jenkins Sees ‘The Chosen’ Encouraging People To Engage With Scripture

As the television series “The Chosen” has grown in popularity, some people have expressed concern that it could become a substitute for the Bible or even for Jesus himself. However, Dallas Jenkins, who is the show’s creator and director as well as one of its writers, says that he has actually seen it encourage people to engage with Scripture more than they were before. 

“I get recognized now in public quite a bit, and it’s very rarely a celebrity type of response,” Jenkins shared in an interview on “The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast.” “I would say probably a third of the time someone just starts crying.” 

Jenkins told podcast host Dr. Ed Stetzer that what encourages him about such moments is not “personal appreciation or anything like that.” Rather, when people are “that emotional and when the comments they make are usually about how it’s drawing them to Scripture more than ever or how their relationship with Christ is even more on fire than it was, that’s what is ultimately exciting.”

You can listen to our full interview with Dallas Jenkins here: “Dallas Jenkins on Why ‘The Chosen’ Is Not ‘Adding to Scripture.’”

Dallas Jenkins: ‘God Clearly Has Something To Say’ 

“The Chosen,” which launched in 2019, bills itself as the “first-ever multi-season series about the life of Christ.” It is crowdfunded and free for viewers to stream through The Chosen app and is also now available on Netflix, Peacock, and Amazon’s Prime Video (where at one time it was the third most watched TV show). Season 1 of “The Chosen” premiered on The CW in July and the show was also featured on the cover of TV Guide for the July 24-Aug. 13 triple issue edition.

Episodes 1 and 2 of Season 3 were released in theaters on Nov. 18 to great success, and Jenkins recently revealed that all episodes of Season 4, which wrapped filming on July 31, could debut in theaters in late January or early February.

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“The Chosen” has at times been at the center of various controversies. Some have accused it of having ties to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Others criticized the show after a crew member displayed a rainbow flag ahead of Pride Month, while others say the series has broken the second of the 10 Commandments. That commandment says, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”