AI vs. God

Big G and little g- its obvious who wins, right? Scripture says that even the demons know and shudder in James 2:19,

“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”

But Satan has been at deception for a long time. He knows human nature (not as well as God does) but he knows how to deceive us by mixing a little truth with a large amount of deception. It’s his game, and I pray we are all aware of how he can manipulate this world into turning away from God. One subtle thing I’ve noticed lately is the large amount of attention given to AI. As Christians, I believe we need to be careful about just how much fascination and attention we give to technology.

Colossians 2:8 warns:

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.…”

The warning is not against thinking. It is a warning about being taken captive by ideas that are disconnected from truth. You do not have to look far to see this concept at play in our current culture.

As Christians, we know and believe that God is the ultimate source and authority of truth. We know that truth is objective and outside of ourselves.  It is something we discover through our senses, our ability to reason, and God’s revelation as we seek to understand and interpret reality. This is how God designed us.

But in 2026, technology has increasingly changed the way we receive, process, interpret, and interact with information. And now, with AI, we are entering a new stage in which technology can interact with us conversationally and respond to questions that go far beyond simply retrieving information.

Let’s be clear that technology in itself is not good or bad, but people, who have the potential to sin, can use technology for good or bad. Lately, these are the questions I keep coming back to:

1. When does AI move from functioning as a tool for accessing information to functioning as an authority that shapes what a person believes to be true?

2.  What happens when technological authority begins to compete with theological authority?

3. What happens when AI begins replacing God as the source of wisdom, meaning, identity, or authority?

4. Who has the final authority to determine what is true?

As we consider these questions, we should not reject other sources of knowledge but better understand their proper place.

For instance, a scientist can tell us something true about the physical world. An expert can provide specialized knowledge. AI can help us organize information. But none of these becomes the ultimate authority simply because it provides information.

First, we need to know that God is the ultimate authority. Scripture provides His revealed truth about humanity, morality, and salvation. We need to understand that creation and reality provide evidence about the world God created, but they cannot establish meaning and ultimate interpretation apart from God.

In other words, science can provide empirical knowledge about observable phenomena, but it cannot establish ultimate meaning, morality, or purpose. Just as teachers and experts provide specialized knowledge, but are not the ultimate authority.

We, as human beings created in the image of God, have reason that provides logic, analysis, and evaluation, but we are capable of fallible knowledge.

In much the same way, AI can provide access to knowledge, organize information, recognize patterns, and generate responses, but it cannot establish ultimate truth, moral authority, or divine revelation.

The issue, then, is not whether these sources can provide us with true information. They can. The issue is whether we give them an authority they do not have.

There is a danger when people shift the authority from God to AI and start asking AI to answer questions such as:

• Who am I?

• What should I believe?

• Why do I feel this way?

• What should I do?

• Is this relationship healthy?

• What is right and wrong?

• What gives my life meaning?

• How should I understand myself?

Then AI isn't functioning as a tool for information; it is functioning as a source of interpretation.

As Christians, we should not look to a ‘tool’ for asnwers. Our framework to understand authority should be much more like this:

Ultimate authority: God and God's revealed truth
↓
Created reality: the world God created
↓
Human reason and responsible inquiry: logic, analysis, evaluation
↓
Human sources of knowledge: experts, teachers, institutions, research
↓
Technological tools: including AI

As Christians, we need to intentionally place AI in the category of tools. Know, that it can be an incredibly powerful tool; but a tool is not automatically an authority. We should not accept an AI-generated answer simply because it sounds confident, well-written, or convincing.

Let’s see what happens when the shift turns away from the authority of God.

• AI replaces a task → productivity issue

• AI replaces an interaction → relational issue

• AI replaces a teacher → educational issue

• AI replaces a counselor → mental-health issue

• AI replaces a community → social issue

• AI replaces a source of wisdom → epistemological issue

• AI replaces a source of meaning/identity → theological/anthropological issue

The further we move from using AI to accomplish a task toward using AI to understand ourselves, other people, and reality, the more important the question of authority becomes.

AI can generate an answer. But none of its capabilities makes it the ultimate authority.

That authority belongs to God.

So why am I saying all of this?

Because I don't think Christians need to be afraid of AI. But I do think we need to be aware of the authority we give it.

We definitely should not allow a tool to become the authority that shapes what we believe about truth, identity, morality, meaning, or purpose. Nor should we allow it to occupy more of our time and attention than we give to God.

When we have questions about who we are, why we are here, what is true, what is right, and how we should live, those questions are not for a machine. They are for an all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful God. The answers are actually found in Scripture.

The authority belongs to God.

John 17:17 says:

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

Be careful and aware of AI. As my daughter would say, “use it wisely, give it parameters, and know that it cannot evaluate its own thoughts. There is a cap on its intelligence”. The ability to reason is something unique to humans.

References:

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. (2001).