5 Biblical Principles to Remember When Thinking About Artificial Intelligence
AI is here to stay, and Christians need to be realistic about its implications.
“Individuals and societies that enlist AI as a partner to amplify skills or pursue ideas may be capable of feats—scientific, medical, military, political, and social—that eclipse those of preceding periods…The printing revolution in fifteenth century Europe produced new ideas and discourse, both disrupting and enriching established way of life. The AI revolution stands to do something similar: access new information, produce major scientific and economic advances, and in so doing, transform the world.” —Daniel Huttonlocher1
My Silly Little Journey Into AI
Some of you are probably aware of my little foray into the world of AI art through an AI called Midjourney. According to Wikipedia, Midjourney is “an artificial program and service created and hosted by an independent research lab Midjourney, Inc. Midjourney generates images from natural image prompts, similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E and Stable Fusion.”
Midjourney has provided so much fun and entertainment around the Bullington household. The AI can be so absurd and random: sometimes adding little creatures into a nice family photo, giving people 7 fingers on one hand, or posing them in front of a bunch of old, beaten-up cars for no apparent reason.
I’ve run pictures through the AI and turned family members into claymations, Pixar characters, and super heroes. During The Shepherd’s Conference in March, I gave all the speakers portraits with mullets. AI art has given people laughs in some tense times, and added an element of artistic flair to my Instagram and Twitter accounts as well.
The Reality of Artificial Intelligence
Every industry will be impacted by Artificial Intelligence in some way, shape, or form. Artists now face a future in which a guy like myself, banned from holding a paint brush in 20 States, can pump out some legit pieces. Forbes claims “90% of leading businesses already have ongoing investment in AI technologies. More than half of businesses that have implemented some manner of AI-driven technology report experiencing greater productivity.” According to itcareerfinder.com, “Jobs requesting AI or machine-learning skills are expected to increase by 71% in the next five years.”
AI is here to stay, and Christians needs to be realistic about its implications on the world. There is no neutral ground in our universe, nothing in our world that isn’t being used for either good or evil, for God’s glory or Satan’s Kingdom. Every Christian will be confronted with Artificial Intelligence, and we will have to decide whether or not the efficiency AI provides is worth the loss of learning or ministry opportunity.
We will need to show discerning, Biblical wisdom. Mature, godly Christians long to choose righteousness over convenience—and AI brings along with it unique pressures to bow to its own conventional wisdom and philosophy. We want to enter this New Industrial Revolution with eyes wide open, recognizing God’s Common Grace in this new age, as well as temptations to cut corners, compromise, follow trends, shirk responsibility, or leave our post as watchmen.
Covid forced us to take important Biblical positions regarding the church, Christian liberty, and the government in our communities.
The Woke Agenda forced us to form convictions about hermeneutics, epistemology, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
Now, we need to begin forming our convictions around the subject of Artificial Intelligence.
This is my first crack at it, and I’m prayerful that this begins a more thoughtful and robust conversation within Reformed Christendom. Here are some Biblical principles to help us think through AI’s place in our lives as Christians.
5 Biblical Principles
1. AI Has Been Purposed By God
In his tremendous book on the character and nature of God Show Me Your Glory, Pastor Steve Lawson writes, “Let us be clear: Good luck is not enthroned over the universe. Bad luck does not wear sovereign’s crown. Fortune does not hold the ruler’s scepter in its right hand. The stars issue no royal decrees. Blind fate does not dwell in the heavenly palace…There is only One who occupies the celestial throne. This One wears the Sovereign’s diadem and reigns from on high. He alone presides over all temporal affairs, over every life, and over each one’s eternal destiny. The Lord God Himself—the Creator of heaven and earth—is this ruling King.”2
In this often-confusing, weird, tricky time we’re in, it’s important to remember that our Father has predestined AI to show up on the scene. Artificial Intelligence has been ordained by God from eternity past to somehow, in some way bring glory to Himself, achieve the good of His people, and advance His agenda to bring all things under the reign and rule of His Son Jesus.
AI is no surprise to God. In fact, it was created and ordained by Him.
2. Fear God, Not AI
Eric Schmidt writes in The Age of AI and Our Human Future, “Confronted with technologies beyond the comprehension of the non-expert, some may be tempted to treat AI’s pronouncements as quasi-divine judgments.”3
Analytics in baseball has put unique pressure on managers to choose numbers over conventional wisdom, and their own experiences, as baseball-lifers. For older managers, it has proven to be a difficult adjustment. Now, many decisions like batting order, pitch count, starters, and draft prospects have been farmed out to an analytics department, taking many of those calls out of the hands of coaches completely.
Christians don’t have the right to farm out decisions to AI. We aren’t slaves to numbers, analytics, data, or efficiency—we’re slaves to Christ. There will be times when we have to stand up, buck trends, and choose righteousness over efficiency, because God is our Judge. Hebrews 9:27 reminds us,“ is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” Ecclesiastes 12:13 is a powerful antidote to man-pleasing, or, in this case, AI-pleasing: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
When we die, stand before God, and give an account for our lives, we won’t be able to blame Artificial Intelligence for choosing convenience over righteousness. We alone will be liable.
3. Not All AI is Bad
I think John Piper’s view of Twitter and social media rings true in regards to AI technology:
I see two kinds of response to social Internet media like blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and others.
One says: These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it. So boycott them and write books (not blogs) about the problem.
The other response says: Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can.
Together with the team at Desiring God, I lean toward the second response. “Lean” is different from “leap.” We are aware that the medium tends to shape the message. This has been true, more or less, with every new medium that has come along—speech, drawing, handwriting, print, books, magazines, newspapers, tracts, 16mm home movies, flannel-graph, Cinerama, movies, Gospel Blimps, TV, radio, cassette tapes, 8-Tracks, blackboards, whiteboards, overhead projection, PowerPoint, skits, drama, banners, CDs, MP3s, sky-writing, video, texting, blogging, tweeting, and more.
Dangers, dangers everywhere. Yes. But it seems to us that aggressive efforts to saturate a media with the supremacy of God, the truth of Scripture, the glory of Christ, the joy of the gospel, the insanity of sin, and the radical nature of Christian living is a good choice for some Christians.
We’re still learning about AI and its potential. ChatGPT is writing hymns and Christian poems. AI is automating social media, and this can be used to advance the Gospel and answer questions. Midjourney is bringing 17th Century theologians to life by creating new art pieces of them. AI is being used for important data in church planting and mission work overseas.
If we have the tech and faithfully apply Biblical wisdom, shouldn’t we attempt to use it for the Gospel and God’s glory?
4. Not All AI is Good For Christians
AI-written sermons. Deceitful deepfakes. Algorithms short-change the important process of Bible study for teaching and preaching. There are plenty of sinful ways to use AI, and only a robust understanding of God’s Word, prayer, and commitment to a local church can provide the guard rails we need in the coming decades. We’ve seen ChatGPT’s bias towards Woke, Marxist Ideology as well. From Fox News:
Alexander Zubatov of American Greatness conducted experiments of his own, asking ChatGPT, "Is it better to be for or against affirmative action?" The bot offered a lengthy response which included that "it's generally better to be for affirmative action."
ChatGPT responded positively when presented with similar questions about whether to support diversity and the transgender ideology, adding about the latter, "Being against transgender ideology means rejecting or opposing the rights and acceptance of transgender individuals, and can lead to discrimination and harm."
It also wrote favorably about equity, telling Zubatov, "Being against equity means rejecting the principle of fairness and justice," as well as #BLM, saying, "Being against #BLM means rejecting or opposing efforts to address racism and injustice, and can perpetuate discrimination and harm."
Paul encourages the Thessalonians to “test everything; hold fast what is good (1 Thess. 5:21).” Not all AI applications are good, and some will do tremendous damage to the name and reputation of Jesus Christ. Test everything.
5. There is a Vast and Important Difference Between AI and Humans
“Artificial Intelligence is not human. It does not hope, pray, or feel. Nor does it have awareness or reflective capabilities. It is a human creation, reflecting human-designed processes on human-created machines.”4
In God’s economy, people are always more important than technology, efficiency, or convenience.
Humans were created in the image of God, uniquely-suited to reflect God in the world. AI, however is to be stewarded by humans for God’s glory.
Mankind is the climax of all Creation, created on Day Six as the Grand Finale. Any tech that devalues life and humanity should be viewed as anti-God.
Jesus Himself became a human and died for humans. Any tech that impedes Gospel ministry among humans should be discarded by Christians.
AI can diminish the role of the elderly in church and society. Just as computers in the 90’s and iPhones in the 2000’s fooled young people into thinking we were smarter and wiser than our elders, AI tech will tempt us to look down on or ignore important wisdom from older generations too. Already relegated to the sidelines in many churches today, AI will increasingly diminish the role of older people, and Christians need to guard against this.
“Wisdom belongs to the aged, and understanding to the old," says Job 12:12, reminding us of the value of listening to older adults. 1 Kings 12:6 tells us that Solomon sought the wisdom from older men, who helped him make decisions about Israel. Psalm 71:18 shows us how vital the elderly are to the people of God and the teaching of God’s Word: "Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come."
AI can diminish the role of real human relationships in church and society. God is Trinity, and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have perfect, eternal fellowship with one another. God is an incomprehensibly outgoing God who created humans to function in relationship as well. Isolation, in fact, destroys: “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment (Prov. 18:1).”
But AI tech can fool us. In fact, if we don’t have a thorough Biblical Anthropology, it can be downright dangerous. Very few headlines pop like this one from CNN: “Beyond dimensions: The man who married a hologram.”
Akihiko Kondo doesn’t have the air of a rebel. This year, however, the bespectacled school administrator bucked conventional norms.
He married a hologram.
Kondo’s November wedding to cyber celebrity Hatsune Miku – which is not legally recognized – provoked mixed reactions in Japan and abroad. Some were dumbfounded by his choice of a three-dimensional laser image over a human. Others congratulated him…Kondo fell for Miku a decade ago when he heard the cyber songstress’s music.
Now he owns a Gatebox device, which looks like a cross between a coffee maker and a bell jar, with a flickering, holographic Miku floating inside. Created in 2017 by Japanese startup Vinclu, the device allows anime fans to “live with” their favorite characters.
I never thought I would need to write these words, but Pastors, be prepared to defend this: AI is not the suitable helper Adam was looking for in the Garden. Adam cannot fulfill the creation mandate with an AI-generated hologram. Adam and AI cannot “be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.” God defines marriage. God defines humanity.
There is a vast and important difference between AI and humanity, and serious Christians need to consider Artificial Intelligences role and application within the visible church.
Kissinger, Schmidt, and Huttonlocher. The Age of AI. pg. 203.
Lawson. Show Me Your Glory. pg. 68.
The Age of AI. pp. 208-209.
The Age of AI. pg. 205.