'The Chosen' Season 6 Teaser Shows Angels as Native American-Style Warriors in Gethsemane, Sparking Backlash

As reported by ChurchLeaders, a teaser for Season 6 of "The Chosen" is already stirring up debate weeks before the new season arrives on Prime Video later this month. The short clip, posted by the show's official account, depicts Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane signaling a band of angelic warriors to stand down as He allows Himself to be arrested.

You can watch the clip above or on X here.

What has people talking is how those angels look. According to ChurchLeaders, the warriors carry weapons and wear clothing that appear to draw inspiration from indigenous American cultures. Some viewers said they were excited by the artistic choice. Others were not. Some critics called it "forced diversity," while others argued the look was influenced by the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Conservative commentator Jon Root asked, "Angels are Native American warriors according to The Chosen?" Some online even started calling the angels "Nephites."

As ChurchLeaders explains, the Nephites, in LDS teaching, were an ancient Hebrew people who supposedly traveled to the Americas roughly 600 years before Christ. There is no known historical record to back up that claim. The show has not said, as far as the report shows, that the Nephites were the inspiration, so I won't put words in anyone's mouth. But I do want to look at the scene the way every Bible believing Christian should: by holding it up to the Word of God.

What Actually Happened in the Garden

The Bible does tell us that angels were available that night. When Peter drew his sword, Jesus told him, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53). Luke records that while Jesus prayed, "there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him" (Luke 22:43). So the idea that heaven's armies stood ready is not made up.

But notice what Scripture does not say. It never says the disciples saw an army of armed angels in the garden waiting for a signal. It does not describe their clothing at all. The point of Matthew 26:53-54 is that Jesus could have been rescued and chose not to be, "But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" He laid down His life willingly (John 10:18).

Angels Are Not an Ethnicity

Angels are "ministering spirits" (Hebrews 1:14), created beings, not members of any earthly nation or culture, whether Native American, European, or Middle Eastern. When the Bible does describe them, the picture is overwhelming. At the empty tomb, the angel's "countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow" (Matthew 28:3), and the keepers shook and "became as dead men." Dressing angels in any human culture's costume shrinks them down to our size.

The Bigger Problem: Adding to the Word

This is the danger with dramatizing the Bible. Every invented detail, whether a costume, a line of dialogue, or a whole scene, can slowly train viewers to remember the show instead of the text. God's Word warns, "Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar" (Proverbs 30:6).

And if any of this does point back to LDS teaching, Christians should be even more careful. Mormonism itself rests on the claim that an angel brought Joseph Smith a new revelation. Paul settled that long ago: "though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8). Satan "is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14).

My advice is simple. Don't let a TV show be your Bible. Read Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 18 for yourself, and you will find a Saviour far more glorious than anything Hollywood can film.

Source: ChurchLeaders. Video: The Chosen on X. Cover photo: olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane by David Castor, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 public domain.

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