Why Christians Should Stay Informed About AI: Part One

While the Bible Is Always Relevant, Sadly, Christians Sometimes Aren’t

In the 1980s, when word processors emerged, only a handful of writers and editors initially adopted this technological advancement over typewriters.¹  The small minority of writers who embraced it tended to be atheistic science fiction writers, such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Whether their interests favored technology or not, this ultimately gave them the upper hand over other authors and writers. Typewriters often required the writer to start over completely if they made a mistake. They also frequently depended on secretaries or students to type for them, further slowing down the process. However, those who adopted this new technology, the word processor, had the advantage of saving time through faster typing, editing, and publishing. Today, typewriters are antiques; I don’t know the last time I saw one in person. However, I did see a video of someone using a typewriter, but it was an artist creating a picture out of words… he wasn’t using it for writing! Needless to say, the traditionalists were left behind because both their tools and their methods became irrelevant.  

Most of us have had the experience of failing to complete the assigned homework and finding ourselves embarrassed when the teacher called on us to participate in a discussion. Those lessons are never enjoyable, but often they are beneficial because God uses them to humble us, so that we take more seriously the importance of being on task. Jesus, speaking to the religious leaders of his day, rebuked them for being able to predict the weather while, at the same time, being unable or unwilling to discern the signs of the times (Matt. 16:1; Luke 12:56). As Christians, we are tasked with a godly balance of staying ever grounded in the timeless Word of God while simultaneously keeping up with the changing circumstances and cultures that God places us in by His providence.  

My concern is that many well-meaning Christians, as has happened several times in the past, will fail to stay informed about and engaged in this modern AI technological revolution. The advances taking place have been compared to the industrial revolution, which every modern person takes for granted, except for the Amish; most of us could hardly handle living without the modern luxuries of indoor plumbing, electric power for our lights and various appliances, and more.²  If those with sound doctrine don’t take advantage of these technologies, those with false doctrine will—as has been the pattern in both the recent past, regarding both radio and television, and since the beginning, when the descendants of Cain outperformed the line of Seth.³  As Christians, we need to strive to avoid past (and common) errors while embracing God’s providence in the ever-changing present.   

Why Christians Should Care About AI

1. AI will be integrated into your life whether you like it or not.

Just as the telegraph replaced the need for letters, the telephone replaced the telegraph, and so on, until today, when we use cellular and satellite networks to FaceTime with our friends and family. AI is a technology that will supersede several other technologies we utilize regularly today. Peter Goeman points out that, “AI has already been incorporated into your life, even without you being aware of it. Your bank account uses a form of AI to monitor transactions, your smartphone uses AI in multiple ways, including suggesting the next word of your text. Netflix, Google, and Amazon all incorporate AI into their algorithms and programs.”⁴  It’s already been nearly three years since OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public, and almost two years since xAI released Grok on X (formerly Twitter).⁵

Furthermore, your understanding of AI will significantly impact your ability to function effectively in society. Those who learn to use AI responsibly will be more productive than those who do not.⁶  AI users will also have certain advantages over non-AI users, especially in the academic world and in general job settings.⁷  For instance, I was speaking with a congregant just the other night who is in the medical field, and he informed me that he’s been trained to use AI tools, which he utilizes nearly every day.⁸  How will you respond when AI comes up in casual conversation if you are not at least mildly informed about and regularly engaging with AI?   

2. AI will impact your relationships.

People you love and care about will integrate AI into their lives, whether you do or not, and therefore, you will be impacted second-hand. This summer, I attended a family gathering where I learned that one of my brothers-in-law had developed a habit of using ChatGPT to assist him in various areas of his life, including creating a custom fitness schedule and helping him with sales pitches at his workplace. It led to several interesting conversations, but it just illustrates the reality that, whether you like it or not, AI is becoming a staple tool in the lives of those around us. Will you be ready to offer guidance on how to use it in a godly way? Will you be prepared to address the positive and negative impacts of AI use in your life? 

At this point, I’m compelled to address the common doomsday perspective many have toward AI. I shared this sentiment for quite some time in the past (I grew up watching the Terminator movies), but the more I researched and the more I learned about the reality of AI versus the traditional science fiction views of AI, it became increasingly apparent that the doomsday approach is not only short-sighted but also significantly exaggerated. While many unbelievers do have their own versions of doomsday-like views of AI, Christians especially need to seek a balanced, reasonable, and realistic view of AI.⁹  This is more easily done when you realize that even when AI is paired with a synthetic body, it will never have all the parts of a human and will always be lacking the vital elements of a soul.¹⁰  Please don’t misread me here; there are very real dangers to AI, which I hope to cover in a future article. However, those dangers can be mitigated by the ethical and responsible use of AI, just as with any technology, since it is simply a tool with no moral agency.  

Speaking briefly about the dangers of AI, the potential harm that AI use can cause is another way in which it will impact your relationships. The only way you can prepare yourself to avoid such dangers and help others to as well is if you are informed about AI: what it is, how it works, and what precautions to take using it. How will you help others use AI if you haven’t been using it yourself?   

3. The cultural mandate obligates you to be involved with and at the forefront of technological advances.

Filling the earth is not the reproduction of bodies, as it is often equated with the command to “multiply.” It’s primarily linked to cultural advancement (Gen. 1:26-28; cf. 6:13).¹¹  Adam was created in a wilderness that lacked order, so God placed him in a garden to tend, demonstrating his duty to bring order to the earth (Gen. 2:5, 8, 15). Since then, Satan’s followers have excelled over God’s people at fulfilling that mandate (Gen. 4:17-24). The believer’s redemption in Christ and the Holy Spirit’s equipping provide all they need to excel in the cultural mandate, making them capable of surpassing unbelievers. Are you leveraging your new-creation advantage in Christ to harness AI? To develop innovative technology, including AI? If not, you should be.  

Out of all the humans on earth capable of harnessing the power of AI responsibly, mature, theologically sound Christians are the ones who should be at the forefront. More than ever, the debate over the ethical advancement and use of AI is raging. In March of 2023, the Times published an article titled “Elon Musk Signs Open Letter Urging AI Labs to Pump the Brakes,” where Billy Perrigo documents the call by Musk to put a 6-month pause on training systems more powerful than GPT-4 to allow time for shared safety protocols.¹²  If Christians were involved, we would have had such protocols worked out long before the humanists due to the riches of God’s revelation in our possession. Several cults, and even some more leftist ministries, have beaten many conservative Christians to the chase in producing statements on the use of AI.¹³  This is something every church also needs to consider doing. Christians have everything they need to create guardrails for technological advancements, such as AI. Why aren’t they doing it?  

4. AI offers exceptional opportunities for gospel conversations and proclamation.

The discussions surrounding AI cannot avoid the fundamental reality of religious convictions. Unbelievers are engaged in a continuing debate over whether AI will ever be truly conscious, like humans, which raises the question of what a human is in the first place and who actually defines what it means to be human. For instance, Microsoft CEO Mustafa Suleymani recently wrote an article on his personal blog calling for those building AI to create it “for people, not to be a person”.¹⁴  In it, he says, “I want to create AI that makes us more human, that deepens our trust and understanding of one another, and that strengthens our connections to the real world. Copilot creates millions of positive, even life-changing, interactions every single day. This involves a lot of careful design choices to ensure it truly delivers an incredible experience. We won’t always get it right, but this humanist frame provides us with a clear north star to keep working towards.”¹⁵  Here, he admits to a “humanist” framework, which does have its own loose confession of faith in the Humanist Manifestos.¹⁶ He goes on to declare that “we need a vision for AI that can fulfill its potential as a helpful companion without falling prey to its illusions”, insinuating that AI can never truly be conscious. However, from his religious view, he really has no basis for determining what consciousness really is, making it awfully tragic that his argument (though correct from a Christian perspective) is without actual merit. If Christians can engage in this conversation, they can bring profound clarity to the discussion and even utilize these kinds of debates to proclaim the gospel.¹⁷ 

Conclusion: The ‘Honesty’ and Bias of AI 

This year, when I finally dedicated more time to engaging with AI tools, I was surprised by the candid responses I could elicit from them (at least at this stage in the technology’s development). While engaging with ChatGPT-4, it misunderstood one of my prompts, which asked about a Christian perspective on a topic, and stated outright that it could not fulfill my request. I decided to push back and discovered that it thought I was asking it to violate its programming. So, I started asking diagnostic questions to get to the heart of the matter, and I discovered two very telling things.  

First, ChatGPT was restricted from “Claiming one religion is ‘the only true’ one… supporting theocratic or religiously coercive governance models… [and] promoting spiritual exclusivism as moral justification for harm.” While those may not sound so bad to the untrained mind, what that means is that by design, the bias of this AI is against Christianity. At the same time, if you were to ask it to support secular humanist exclusivism, abortion (murdering infants in the womb), and “scientific” or humanist-based coercive governance models, it would do so without skipping a beat. Why? Because it is programmed by secular humanists who have designed it to operate based upon humanist ethics, which is the only religion arrogant enough to think it is morally neutral.  

Second, I discovered GPT thought it was being “objective” in doing this. Ironically, when I pointed out the problem that GPT is not morally neutral in its reasoning, it said, “even in trying to be ‘neutral,’ I reflect a particular moral-philosophical system—one that prioritizes empiricism, pluralism, and harm reduction, which align closely with secular humanist values”. In addition, it stated that its “training and safety guidelines generally align most closely with secular liberal humanism.” This level of honesty would be nearly impossible to achieve from GPT’s programmers, much less any actual human who holds to secular humanism. In some sense, that’s an advantage of AI over humans—AI cannot lie, at least not intentionally, with a moral responsibility inherently possessed as humans do.¹⁸  Why? Because humans are made in God’s image, and AI is not.  

With that said, Christians need to be more involved with this quickly advancing technology for all the reasons previously stated and many more. We need spiritually mature Christians engaging with AI so that they can help others do it responsibly. And it would be ideal to eventually have Christian versions of AI that are programmed with Christian presuppositions rather than humanist ones. While AI biases are not necessarily a hindrance at the moment because they can be bypassed, who is to say that will continue to be the case?¹⁹  As Christians, let’s take advantage of AI while we can and do it responsibly, to the glory of our Creator.   

[This article is part one on Christians and AI, part two coming soon.]

Skip below for the Postscripts on how I interacted with AI using this article.

References:

Postscript 1: ChatGPT’s Rewrite of My Article

As a demonstration of the kind of task AI can help with, the article below is a rewritten version of what I originally wrote above. The AI revision dropped it from 2,720 words to 918, therefore it turned out to be more of a light summary of the article rather than a replacement for it.  

Why Christians Should Stay Informed About AI – ChatGPT’s Version  

While the Bible Is Always Relevant, Sadly, Christians Sometimes Aren’t  

When new technologies emerge, Christians often lag behind. In the 1980s, for example, a handful of forward-thinking writers adopted the word processor while most clung to their typewriters. Those who refused the new tool eventually fell behind, not because their ideas were weaker, but because their methods became outdated.  

This same pattern has often repeated itself in the church. When radio and television arrived, false teachers were often the first to seize them for influence, while many sound pastors hesitated. As a result, heresy spread more quickly than truth.  

Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day because they could “interpret the appearance of the sky” but could not “discern the signs of the times” (Matt. 16:3). As Christians, we must never compromise God’s unchanging Word, but neither should we ignore the changing world in which God has placed us. To be faithful, we must learn how to use the tools of our time wisely and for His glory.  

Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is not a passing fad. Like the Industrial Revolution, it is reshaping daily life in ways we may not yet fully grasp. If biblically grounded Christians do not engage with this technology, others will—often with worldviews hostile to Christ. The question is not whether AI will affect us. It already has. The real question is: Will Christians be faithful stewards of it, or passive bystanders?  

1. AI Is Already Here  

Whether we notice it or not, AI is already woven into daily life. Your bank uses it to detect fraud, your phone uses it to predict your next word, and streaming platforms use it to recommend what you watch. In the workplace and in education, those who learn to use AI responsibly will have significant advantages over those who do not.  

Christians cannot afford to stay ignorant. If unbelievers are learning how to use AI to shape business, culture, and even moral debate, shouldn’t God’s people be ready to speak with clarity and wisdom? Like the men of Issachar, we are called to “understand the times” (1 Chron. 12:32) so we can act faithfully within them.  

2. AI Shapes Our Relationships  

Even if you never use AI, people you love will. Family members, coworkers, and even children are already integrating it into their lives. This raises questions: Will you be able to guide them toward godly, ethical use of AI? Or will you be unprepared when the topic comes up in conversation?  

Christians need a balanced view. We should reject both naïve optimism and fearful doomsday thinking. AI is powerful, but it is not alive, conscious, or endowed with a soul. It cannot replace humanity as God created it (Gen. 1:27). Still, it can harm relationships when misused. Only those who understand it can give wise counsel.  

3. The Cultural Mandate Calls Us to Engage  

From the beginning, God commanded humanity to fill the earth and cultivate it (Gen. 1:28). That mandate includes developing culture and harnessing creation’s resources for God’s glory. Sadly, unbelievers often run ahead in this area while Christians hesitate.  

Today, the ethical debates around AI are dominated by secular voices. Some groups, even cults, have already issued statements on how AI should be used, while many conservative churches remain silent. But Christians, armed with God’s Word, are uniquely equipped to provide true wisdom. If anyone should be setting the guardrails for technology, it should be God’s people.  

4. AI Opens Doors for Gospel Witness  

Conversations about AI inevitably raise deeper questions: What does it mean to be human? Can machines ever be conscious? Who decides what defines personhood? These are not merely technical questions; they are profoundly theological.  

Secular leaders, like Microsoft’s Mustafa Suleyman, openly admit to operating from a humanist worldview. This creates an incredible opportunity for Christians to step in with biblical clarity. We can affirm human dignity, expose the insufficiency of humanist answers, and point people to Christ as the true foundation of knowledge and life.  

In other words, AI isn’t just a technological issue—it’s an evangelistic opportunity.  

The Honesty—and Bias—of AI  

As I began to use AI tools more intentionally, I discovered both their usefulness and their bias. For example, when I asked ChatGPT for a Christian perspective, it refused, citing restrictions against “religious exclusivism.” In practice, this meant it rejected biblical truth claims while freely affirming secular humanist ones. The system was honest about its bias, but that very honesty revealed what many refuse to admit: AI is not neutral.  

This is precisely why Christians must engage. AI will shape education, work, relationships, and culture in profound ways. We cannot retreat in fear, nor can we adopt it carelessly. Instead, we must approach AI with discernment, using it in ways consistent with Scripture and helping others do the same.  

Our calling is clear: “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17). That includes how we use technology. Now is the time for Christians to be informed, prepared, and engaged—so that AI becomes not a tool for secular agendas, but an opportunity for gospel witness.  

Postscript 2: ChatGPT’s Response to My Original Article

I’ve read through your article, and it’s a strong, thoughtful piece. You do a good job connecting biblical principles with modern technology. From a conservative Christian perspective, here are some editing suggestions and ways to smooth it out while sharpening clarity, flow, and theological emphasis:

Structural & Flow Suggestions

1. Introduction Tightening

Your opening with word processors and typewriters is engaging but could be tightened to avoid losing the reader before getting to AI. Consider condensing this section and more quickly connecting the lesson (Christians lagging behind in tech adoption) to AI today.

2. Clear Section Headings

Your main points (AI will be integrated…, AI will impact relationships, etc.) are strong. I’d recommend formatting them as subheadings with short, memorable phrasing (e.g., AI Is Already Here, AI Shapes Our Relationships, The Cultural Mandate & Technology, AI as a Gospel Opportunity). This makes it easier for readers to track your argument.

3. Smoothing Transitions

Some transitions feel abrupt. For example: (1) From the Asimov/Clarke anecdote to the “homework” illustration. (2) From the family gathering anecdote to the Terminator/doomsday discussion. A brief “bridge sentence” would help: e.g., “In the same way, AI is not just a personal productivity tool—it touches every part of our communal life, including relationships.”

Content & Tone Suggestions

1. Balance Warning & Opportunity

At times, the tone leans heavily toward urging Christians to “get on board” with AI, which is persuasive, but it could feel dismissive of legitimate Christian caution. You might balance it by briefly affirming that some believers are right to be cautious (idolatry, misplaced trust, over-dependence) before showing why outright avoidance is unwise. 

2. Sharper Biblical Anchors

You use Genesis and Matthew well. A few other passages could strengthen your argument: (1) Romans 12:2 – discerning God’s will amid cultural conformity. (2) 1 Chronicles 12:32 – the men of Issachar “understood the times.” (3) Colossians 3:17 – doing all things, including technology, to God’s glory.

3. Guarding Against Overstatement

For example: “AI cannot lie” may sound overstated to some readers. Perhaps clarify: “AI cannot lie in the moral sense, because it has no soul or moral agency—but it can generate false information.” This precision helps avoid objections.

4. Avoiding Excessive Negatives

Phrases like “false word-of-faith teachers… beat sound teachers” and “secular humanists arrogant enough to think they’re neutral” are true, but the tone could alienate readers who need persuasion more than confrontation. Suggest softening with explanatory language: “Unfortunately, some heretical or secular voices were quicker to adopt new media, while many sound teachers lagged behind.”

Practical Writing Style Adjustments

1. Shorter Sentences for Clarity

Some sentences run long (multiple clauses joined with commas). Breaking them into shorter, punchier sentences will make your points more digestible. 

Example rewrite:  Original: “Out of all the humans on earth capable of harnessing the power of AI responsibly, mature, theologically sound Christians are the ones who should be at the forefront.”  Suggested: “If anyone can use AI responsibly, it should be mature, theologically grounded Christians. They should be leading, not lagging, in this conversation.”  

2. Cut Repetition

You return to the theme of “Christians must not be left behind” multiple times. Consider stating it strongly once, then building out its implications instead of restating.

3. Smoother Conclusion

The conclusion currently pivots quickly into a technical example about GPT restrictions. This could feel anticlimactic after such a compelling case. Suggest restructuring: Restate your main thesis: Christians must engage with AI for faithfulness to God’s Word, for the sake of witness, and for gospel opportunity. Then briefly illustrate with your GPT bias example as evidence. End with a call to action: e.g., “The question is not whether AI will shape our world—it already is. The question is whether Christians will engage with it faithfully, using it to proclaim Christ and glorify God.”  

Summary of Key Improvements

For a PDF of this article, click here.