'Testament' Streaming Series an Explosive Retelling of the Book of Acts
As you read Scripture, have you ever stopped to think about what life would be like for you if you had lived in early New Testament times? Sure, the notion of living without electricity, reliable transportation, or checking your social media feed a dozen times a day seems like a novel idea, but then reality sets in. Ultimately, it is highly implausible due to the way our world has evolved over the last 2,000 years.
But what if those early days just beyond Christ’s resurrection and ascension happened today? While Christian oppression certainly exists in many cultures at present, the intensity of what Peter, John, and the rest of the disciples faced seems unparalleled.
A new steaming series available now from Angel Studios seeks to address some of these aforementioned questions. Testament is an explosive re-imagining of the Book of Acts set in an alternate modern era. The series brings a contemporary setting to the early days of the Christian church as followers of Jesus risk everything to preach the Good News against a dark cloud of resistance, retaliation, and retribution.
Directed by relative newcomer Paul Syrstad, Testament stars Eben Figueirdo (Saul), Mogali Masuku (Mary of Magdala), Tom Simper (Peter), and brothers Kenneth and John Omole as the brothers of thunder, John and James Zebedee.
I recently sat down with Syrstad to discuss why he decided to share the Book of Acts onscreen in such a provocative way, whether he had concerns about alienating people of faith, and how he and his production team prepared for spiritual warfare during the show’s production.
For any director, there always seems to be a moment where you say to yourself, “I have to be a part of this production!!” For Testament, what was that moment for you?
This is a tricky one. It wasn't really about Testament. It was actually about a change in life direction. I trained as an actor. I was working professionally as an actor, and as many Christian creatives do, I had this thought of when I get to a certain level of success, that's the point where I can give glory to God. And there was just a point where God impressed on me quite heavily with the phrase, ‘That's all well and good but what are you going to do for me right now?’ And that question changed the course of my life. As I was mulling over that question, my agents dropped me. The next agent closed their agency. Everything was just closing around me. And I said, well, okay, I will do what I intended to do now rather than wait until later. And so, I set up a company called Raw Light, which is to show the light of Christ on and offscreen. It kind of worked quite well. And I started making short films that would reimagine parables in a modern setting to try and communicate Gospel truths to people who might not be familiar with these stories or the historical context of them, to the world in which we sit in.
And it was in doing these that my love of telling these stories in a fresh way, in a way that people might not be expecting, for people to engage with stories that they think they know. It was a slow evolution from the shorts to a feature film. And that feature film got picked up by Angel. In our talks with them, we kind of came to the conclusion of should we make this as a TV show? Should we do the Book of Acts? And the answer was yes. So, here we are.
Testament is a show that explores the Book of Acts in an explosively re-imagined way that takes place in an alternate-modern era. Why the decision to take such an approach as this to a story that takes place in ancient times?
That's the question, isn't it? I have the privilege to preach at my church sometimes, and I do enjoy it. I did a sermon on Meshach, Abednego, and Shadrach. Now, I've said those three names in a different order that I think I'm willing to bet anyone has ever heard them. And I literally saw the congregation just lean forward and go, “Huh?” I hadn't changed the story, I changed the order of the names. But I knew that if I did that, I would get their attention. This is because when we think we know a story, we disengage because we go, ‘Oh, I know this one. I don't have to listen.’
We check out because we think we can. But the wonderful thing about the Bible, the living Word of God, is this hermeneutical cycle that when we read it, we are transformed. And therefore, when we read it again, we read it anew. We are a new person. And so, that's the cycle, to ever be conformed into His likeness. The idea of doing this story of Acts in this alternate modern day is to present this story in a way that I think is so needed. This is because you and I, we are Acts 29. We are the unwritten chapter of Acts. We are the ones who are carrying the story on. But for us to go, right, what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus in this day and age? Often in sermons, we try to bring the congregation to think about the early church, because that's the template. So with that desire of being a communicator in me, I thought, well, how can I bring the early church as close to us as possible, in a way that is fun, exciting, and entertaining? I wanted to challenge people in their faith in a fresh way.
Did you have any concerns that you might in some way alienate people of faith due to your interpretation of this holy text from the Bible? I applaud you for taking on this challenge but there are people out there who think you should leave the Bible alone.
The wonderful thing is we have left the Bible just as it's written, because we haven't published a Bible. We've made a TV show. It's really important, and it's an obvious thing, but this isn't the Bible. This isn't Scripture. This isn't the Holy text. This is a piece of media on television/streaming. Quite early on, when we were chatting to Angel about this, the way they were able to communicate it back to us was like, ‘So you are like the Renaissance painters who would paint stories of the Gospel, that using culture at the time, that was prevalent in their own day.’ And you see that, with Eastern Orthodox tradition.
You see that in Ethiopian churches. You see that all over the world. There's this time honored tradition of bringing these stories into our time in the method that was displayed. This show is certainly not going to be for everyone. For some Christians, if one Bible translation is the only thing they ever need, that’s amazing. I'm so genuinely happy and thankful to God that you are there. But so many people aren't. And when we preach, when we witness, when we evangelize, I know people who've come to faith through song, who've come to faith through a play, through logic, through apologetics, or through hearing a sermon. It varies for different people. And so this show is an attempt to do two things to two different audiences. One, for seekers of faith, it is to engage with a story that I love … tunics and sandals. I love them. Not everybody does.
It's a bit of a switch off. There are no tunics and sandals in ‘Testament’. Hopefully, this is a world that people can find exciting, engage with, and are introduced to the Gospel. Paul talks about milk and meat. And we talk about meat a lot, but let's not forget the milk. I see this show as milk for people. Unless you are watching really carefully, there is some meat in there. That is for our second audience, who I believe are believers who I'm inviting to re-engage with the story. I'm inviting them to wrestle with some of these points. What would I be like in that situation?
We are seeing a frequency of television/programming that is rooted in the Bible. The Chosen and House of David come to mind as recent examples of this. What sets Testament apart from all the others?
I would say the genre for this is more adventure based. It’s a little bit gritty. It's a little bit rough. It is based on these stories that are 2,000 years old. Everything else is very modern. It's very up in your face. It's very raw and intentional. The main difference is how we present the story. It is unlike anything we’ve seen before. I've talked to a few people now and they all say that. Maybe I just haven't seen it, but I don't think there is. This show is very different from the others. I love the other two shows. They're fantastic.
But this show is completely different. And I think maybe it’s hard to wrap your head around to begin with. What's nice is that having released a few episodes, people have been surprised by the fact that it is modern, yet we're still telling the same story. We're not making up names or locations.
Since this source material comes from the Word of God, it naturally opens yourself and the production up to spiritual warfare. First, did you experience any of this, and second, how did you prepare yourself emotionally and spiritually for this production?
Great question. By the grace of God, I think there was a simple answer. We have people who just pray for us a lot, who are intercessors. I'm going to use the word bathe. They bathe us in prayer. When you finish a big project, the cold starts coming, and really just brings us before God. I would often just talk to Him, and check in to see how it was all going. I haven't really talked about some of these things, but we had some things happen in terms of financially going on. We'd started production and our financiers pulled out.
Because of this, the whole producing team was stressed beyond belief. But thankfully, I've been in these small budget things before and kind of just started going, God, you'll just show up when you need to. And thankfully, He chose to show up at the very last second. I've got a little bit of practice of just being able to trust in that. I'm very grateful that I got to trust in Him, and things arrived when it did. Angel Studios was a huge help in being able to wrangle other investors. Those answers could have been no. And just being able to say, ‘Hey, Lord, this is in your hands was quite comforting.’
After people have had a chance to watch Testament, what would you like your viewers to take away from that experience? What is your greatest hope for the show?
The goal of this is for us to ask ourselves if this movement was happening now, which it still is, would I still be a follower of Jesus? Hopefully there's a character you will be able to identify with. It will be different for different people, whether it be Steven from the first episode, whether it be Mary, Peter, John, there will be someone that you will connect to. Ask yourself, what would I be like in their shoes? Honestly, part of the writing of this was not to, and I don't say this lightly, oversize things. This is because you don't need to oversize the Holy Spirit. In this show, the Holy Spirit is number one on the call sheet if we're honest.
This show is real. It is raw. It is hard. It is difficult. What God asks at times is not easy. And that is okay to wrestle with. It's a time honored tradition to wrestle and argue with God. And just to really ask ourselves,how can I be following Jesus more faithfully right now?
Testament is streaming now on the Angel Studios app.
WATCH A TRAILER FOR TESTAMENT: