Season 5 is a different level in terms of production and to some extent style. But it also goes further in adding to scripture, “filling in the blanks” if you like and there lies the danger.
There is so much embellishment, so much added dialogue that like a ship at sea there is a danger of losing sight of the coast! As an evangelistic tool it is very engaging, but a non-Christian, and I think especially of Moslems, could get very confused as to “what is truth?”.
Series 5 becomes rather indulgent, slow, reflective, allowing the characters and events to develop way beyond what we have on paper. Depicting real people means that even facial expressions become important. I know for instance that Jesus clearly had a sense of humour, but was he quite as witty as depicted? Which brings me to my main point. “The Chosen” has made me really think about who Jesus was. Or to be more accurate, what it was like to be Jesus!
How did Jesus cope with being “Son of God”, with being human, with feeling pain and rejection. In short, not going completely insane at knowing who he was. There is a great scene towards the end of series 5, the first conversation between Yeshua and Nathaniel (speculative of course) where Jesus invites Nathaniel to follow him and establish the kingdom of God. Humanly speaking Jesus sounds completely out of his mind. Quite insane! Well you would wouldn’t you living with the reality that you are the Saviour of the entire human race, Messiah, King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
But there we have it. The Chosen raises lots of questions. Sends us away thinking. Isn’t that what Jesus did?
In short Jonathan Rhoumie doesn’t nail it (pun intended) but he gets pretty darn close.
I finally decided to retire from working for FAITH Christian Group officially as from the end of May 2025.
It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made. Twenty years is a long time to be responsible for such an organisation. It becomes as much a part of you as you are of it.
One immediate benefit is finding more time to sit typing a post on one of my websites! But small comfort for knowing that no-one is going to be looking to me for direction or decisions!
It also just so happens that today is the anniversary of my marriage to Penny back in 1972.
“Jesus loves people. He loves you. He loves me. He loves illegal immigrants. He loves kids who are confused about their gender. His heart is merciful toward us. But loving every person does not mean He loves every idea or every action. Mercy doesn’t look like capitulating to ideologies that lead to harm. Mercy looks like intervening to stop the harm from happening, and it’s precisely that intervention that Bishop Budde was standing staunchly against in her speech. She framed the whole thing as love, of course, but the brand of love she was peddling wasn’t love at all, and that’s why it vexes me.
You should be able to step foot in a Christian church and find that the leaders are pointing you toward Jesus and the truth that can save.
Jesus says, “Come as you are,” not “Stay as you are.” Faithful Christian leaders lovingly encourage their congregants to surrender their sins to Jesus and allow Him to transform them from the inside out. To be a Christian is to be willing to change. It means your identity is in Him, not your sexual preferences or rebellion against the material reality of your sex. “
Here we are then in a second Trump term. Will he prove to fulfil the fears or the promises?
He certainly hasn’t hung around in implementing many of the popular policies that he ran on. More than can be said for the U K Prime Minister who it seems was 21 on the list of national leaders Trump needed to phone!
Personally I fear that some of his policies will have negative effects rather than the positives hoped for. Only time will tell.
What strikes me as weird is all the negative, fearful reactions to the arrival of a man who has already been President for four years.
Four years ago, relations between the United States and Israel were at an all time high after Trump brought tremendous change to the two countries’ bonds. This quickly changed to a new low after the Biden/Harris administration took power.
Under Biden, U.S. sanctions were lifted from Iran, empowering them to attack Israel in various ways. Not only that, but the Biden administration claimed the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria were illegal under international law, which is the opposite of what the Trump administration stated in the historic Pompeo Doctrine. The Biden administration also sanctioned countless entities and individuals in Judea and Samaria.
Where have the last few years gone. It seems like COVID was just last year.
What happened to 21, 22 and 23? I’ve just come back from 3 lovely days on a yacht in the Solent after 5 years since the last time which feels like only a year or so ago.
In reality, we’ve had a couple of trips to Corfu, France and latterly Thailand, but time compresses in a strange way, perhaps more so as one gets older.
The sacrifice of the Red Heifer has happened only 9 times in Jewish history. The last was not long before the coming of Christ.
Jews believe that the 10th Red Heifer sacrifice will usher in the coming of Messiah. In order to qualify for sacrifice the heifer has to be completely red (brown!) without any two hairs of a different colour adjacent to each other. The heifer has to be in its third year. In 2022 5 red heifers were imported from the United States in readiness for at least one to qualify for sacrifice. They are currently under heavy security on a farm in Shiloh (where Joshua set up the Tabernacle).
This 10th sacrifice could happen around Passover this year, i.e. any time now. It will trigger the process of rebuilding the temple (destroyed by the Romans) on the Temple Mount. This of course is the last thing that Moslems want and as you’ll hear in the YouTube footage below one of the reasons for October 7th was anger around the existence of the Heifers and the implications for the possible destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount to make way for the new Jewish Temple. Neither religion can countenance their temple being alongside the other’s. Some might argue that the Islamic Temple is what Jesus (and Daniel) referred to as the “Abomination of Desolation“. The Daniel prophecy will of course be on the minds of practising Jews in this context.
What is truly intriguing is that Moslems are also looking for the coming of Messiah, well sort of, Mah·di ˈmä-dē who assumes a messianic role before the return of Jesus. The huge irony for Moslems however is that the Bible predicts the coming of the one commonly called “The AntiChrist” – in 2 Thessalonians 2 we read, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.”
The Qur’an even says that the Mahdi will rule for seven years. The exact same time as the Bible says the Anti-Christ will rule for! Why Mohammad didn’t have a better grasp of Christian teaching is remarkable. He dared to have more knowledge of the life and person of Jesus than the Apostles it seems, yet he missed this crucial point. Of course being apparently illiterate he couldn’t have read the Bible, so he was making stuff up from hearsay and snippets of information and downright imagination.
So is Jesus coming back a mere seven years or so from now? If so of course we have the seven years of Islamic domination of the world to get through!
I have been astounded at the effect of October 7th. Far from alienating people to Islam it has generated a bizarre backlash against Israel and by association Christians. Perhaps if that gets worse it might mean that Israel says, “Enough is enough, we will tear down the Mosque!”
I used to read Daniel and Revelation with some excitement, like a good Sci-Fi film! But the nearer the reality comes, the less romantic death and destruction on a collosal scale sounds!
See also Tews and Christian persecution and October 7th from the menu bar.
Five months into this new level of conflict between Israel and Hamas and we seem to face an inevitable catastrophe whatever Israel do.
First let me state that I hold the official government line that Israel as a democratic state has the right to defend itself.
Second, I am am at heart a pacifist. I consider all war a ridiculous and tragic symptom of human sin. But, I equally wonder for instance what Europe would be like today if we had simply surrendered to Hitler. If you get to the end of this you’ll see my remarks on the Crusades!
Israelis were viciously, mercilessly and savagely attacked by Hamas in the most brutal and inhumane way imaginable. There was no question that a military response was inevitable. This I believe was the intent of Hamas. They wanted to provoke what they knew would be all hell let loose! And that is what they got, albeit in a measured and carefully controlled manner. The IDF are perhaps the most modern, professional and moderate military in the world.
If HAMAS truly wanted peace they could have laid down their arms and returned the hostages within days, admitted their mistake and repented!!!! As if that was going to happen. Anyone who has studied Islam knows that there is at its core a justification of violence and a glorification of martyrdom.
I have been horrified at the response of a certain vocal minority across the developed world. Our streets have been filled with calls for the genocide of the Jews, “from the river to the sea“! I am of a generation that grew up in the disgrace and shadow of the holocaust. I never dreamt that I would see a day when Anti-Semitism (*) would openly rear its ugly head again. Frankly it sickens me.
Islam from its inception has hated both Jews and Christians. The Jews because of Isaac and Ishmael. The Christians because of Jesus, a blasphemer and liar, albeit bizarrely a revered “prophet” in the eyes of Moslems.
As we head through February the calls worldwide for a ceasefire have grown even among those countries that have supported Israel. But WHAT IS ISRAEL TO DO?
If the IDF withdraws now they will leave a “state”, that has had self-governance since 2005, with the inevitability of HAMAS retaining control, returning to their old tunnel-building and with no means or will(+) to rebuild the ruins. UNWRA has been discredited. The truth about the tunnels suggests that many countries will be reticent to fund “rebuilding“.
Israel withdrew all Jews from Gaza in 2005, effectively creating the much vaunted two state “solution”. But Hamas did not use that position positively.
I suggest that the only feasible conclusion for this is for Israel to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, re–unify it as part of Israel, and not rebuild it but BUILD it! Do what Hamas failed to do. Gaza could blossom as the rose just like much of the rest of Israel. There is certainly potential for tourism (note the small picture above of Gaza beach), amongst other things, once Hamas are gone and peace is restored. Imagine how much money would be saved by Israel if the Iron Dome was no longer needed. Gazan Arabs could live at peace “in Israel” just as the other 20% of Israeli Arabs do.
However, how can Israel build trust among the Arab inhabitants after the death and destruction that is being inflicted upon them? Perhaps the fairest comparison would be the rebuilding of Germany after WW2 having rid the country of Nazism. Few Germans objected to the mass slaughter by Allied bombing that seemed necessary to bring Hitler to his knees.
Not Israel’s border but Egypt’s border with Gaza
Are you not puzzled as to why other Moslem countries are reticent to help Gazans? Why is Eqypt reinforcing its fence? Why have they not opened their border to “refugees”? Is it the fear that thousands of Hamas fighters would pour in too? Oh and by the way, this nonsense about “refugees” in Gaza. The so-called camps are mostly blocks of flats, not encampments. Gazans have had 19 years to get over their refugee victim mentally, but it plays in their favour.
Tragically therefore I see no end to this war on terror, even if Israel have to fight alone while the rest of the western world fund the war against Russia. Hamas (ISIS, Taliban, Hezbollah – call them what you will) must be resisted and preferably deconstructed if the Middle East is to find peace. Spoiler alert – the Bible suggests that is unlikely till Messiah comes.
CRUSADES
Lastly a quick comment on the Crusades! Once Christianity became established as a “national” religion across European countries (A.D. 300 onwards) a military clash with Islam (A.D. 700) was inevitable if tragic. What were ‘we’ supposed to do in the face of Moslems rampaging and raping across Europe?
As we are still witnessing today, once politics, religion and the military get welded together, peace is unlikely to result. In the case of the Crusades, our “valiant” warriors were guilty of the most horrendous atrocities against both Moslem and ironically Jews (on the grounds that they killed Jesus!). Taking up arms is never a good solution, especially not for the soldiers and civilians that get in the way. Hamas and other Islamic entities clearly don’t believe that. So what is Israel to do?
(+) Hamas have clearly ‘wasted’ the billions of dollars given to them for development in buying weapons and building tunnels instead of investing in infrastructure, squirreling away vast sums so that their leaders can live in luxury anywhere but in Gaza!
(*) for the pedantic reader please note that I am aware that Arabs (at least some) are in fact Semites themselves, which raises interesting questions. I am also aware that 10 of the 12 original Hebrew tribes appear to have “vanished” and could therefore be among those that today we call Arabs. DNA tests could prove fascinating if not dynamite!
Pride. What an interesting word! What a divisive word.
A parent can rightly be proud when their child achieves something or gets a good report. We can perhaps be rightly proud when we have done something good, or really well, exceled at something or improved in something.
The Bible refers to pride a lot. The Apostle Paul wrote to a group of Christians in Corinth, “I am acting with great boldness towards you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. 2 Corinthians 7:4
But that is one of very few positive uses of the word in scripture.
Jesus himself said, “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:22
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
So it is a strange thing to Christians that the word PRIDE should have been adopted by people as a positive word. Indeed we see the words “Loud and Proud” neither of which sound great.
Sex should be a private matter, not ‘celebrated’ on the streets.
To the religious mind, whether that be Christian, Muslim or Jew for sure and probably Hindu, Buddhist and others, the idea of making much of one’s sexuality, especially making a public spectacle (celebration) of it is, well, at worst obscene and offensive, at best sad.
As Christians a major objection is that children are being exposed to adult themes and activities way before they should be. Thus the accusations of grooming in such things as Drag Queen Storytime. Recently, more so in the States than the U K Pride Parades have become an excuse for public nudity, general debauchery and in some cases blasphemy.
It is tempting to include photographs/video. I will refrain.
But please don’t try to tell met that this is all about liberation and freedom. It simply isn’t. Don’t confuse liberty with license.
“PRIDE” has become tantamount to a religion which you must believe in or be vilified and outcast. You have to wear the lanyard, or fly the flag, or use the rainbow crossing. Even the Police have succumbed to the wokery.
Lastly where does this stop. At first it was making homosexuality legal. Then it was pressure to recognise marriage other than between a man and a woman. Then came the flood (!) Transvestitism became a sexual preference, genders multiplied from nowhere, even to wanting to identify as a baby or an animal, dissatisfaction with the body one was born in became a desire to change it by mutilation. Now we are hearing a push to legalise polygamy and paedophilia.
Now, you may say that you identify with one of those things listed but not the others, yet proponents refer to a “community”. How can that be?
For a really good look at what Paul says about homosexuality go here …..
And remember what the rainbow truly stands for. It is a reminder that mankind was destroyed by a flood because of their sin ….. Genesis Chapter 6
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
After the flood …… Genesis Chapter 9
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
BTW – Note that the true rainbow has 7 colours – the number often associated with completeness and divinity.
The “pride” flag has 6 colours – the number in scripture related to man.
