What Does the Bible Say About AI?

It's a fair question, and more people are asking it every month. Someone in your congregation has probably already asked a chatbot for spiritual advice. According to Barna Group's 2026 research, nearly one in three American adults say spiritual advice from AI is as trustworthy as advice from a pastor.

So what does Scripture actually say? Here's an honest answer from a progressive Christian perspective. If you're a pastor, there's help at the end for talking about this with your congregation.

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The Bible never mentions artificial intelligence. Anyone who tells you a verse predicted ChatGPT is reading something into the text that isn't there.

But the Bible has a great deal to say about the questions AI raises: what it means to be human, what happens when we worship the things we make, what truth-telling requires, and who gets hurt when powerful tools serve the powerful. Those questions are ancient. Only the technology is new.

Scripture's first claim about people is that every one of us bears the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27). Not some of us. All of humankind.

That matters for AI in two ways.

First, human worth doesn't depend on what we can produce. A machine that writes faster than you or draws better than you hasn't made you any less. Your dignity was never a productivity score.

Second, AI systems learn what people look like, and what "normal" looks like, from whatever they were trained on. Ask an image generator for Jesus and you'll often get a light-skinned European man, even when you ask for someone else. Ask for a couple at church and you'll usually get a man and a woman. The machine isn't malicious. It's repeating the narrow picture it was fed. For Christians who believe every person carries God's image, noticing who the machine leaves out is part of faithfulness. (For practical help, see our guide to inclusive AI image prompting.)

The prophets had sharp words for people who worship what their own hands have made. Isaiah describes a craftsman who cuts down a tree, burns half of it to warm himself and bake his bread, then carves the other half into a god and bows down to it (Isaiah 44:14–17). The psalmist mocks idols that have mouths but cannot speak and eyes but cannot see, then adds the line that lands hardest: those who make them become like them (Psalm 115:4–8).

Yet the Bible isn't against making things. When the Israelites built the tabernacle, God filled a craftsman named Bezalel with skill, understanding, and knowledge in every kind of craft (Exodus 31:1–5). Human creativity is a gift.

So the line Scripture draws isn't between technology and no technology. It's between tools that serve people and things people end up serving. An AI that helps a pastor draft the church newsletter is a tool. An AI we trust more than our neighbors, or consult in place of prayer, starts to look like something else.

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" (Exodus 20:16). Deepfakes, fabricated quotes, and AI-generated images passed off as real are new ways of breaking a very old commandment.

AI also gets things wrong with total confidence. These tools can invent Bible verses, misattribute quotations, and state falsehoods in a calm, authoritative voice. The New Testament's counsel is discernment: test everything, and hold on to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). For churches, that means a person checks anything AI produces before it reaches the bulletin, the screen, or the pulpit, and checks Scripture citations most carefully of all.

The prophets always asked who benefits and who bears the burden. Amos longed for justice to roll down like waters (Amos 5:24), and his question still applies.

AI has costs that don't show up on the screen: the energy and water that data centers consume, in a world we were placed in to tend and keep (Genesis 2:15); the low-paid workers who label training data; the artists and writers whose work was used without their consent; and the bias built into systems that help decide who gets a loan, a job, or extra scrutiny. None of this is a reason to panic. All of it is a reason for Christians to ask more than "Does it work?"

No. Using a tool isn't a sin, and the Bible gives no command about artificial intelligence. What can be sinful is how we use it: to deceive, to exploit, to pass off someone else's work as our own, to cut people out of work they depend on, or to replace the relationships and practices that form us in faith.

Paul's advice on disputed questions fits well here. When early Christians disagreed about food and holy days, he told them to stop judging one another and let each person be fully convinced in their own mind (Romans 14:5). Faithful Christians will land in different places on AI, and that's all right. The better question isn't "Is AI sinful?" It's "Is this particular use of it loving, honest, and just?"

Many already do, pastors included. Barna reports that 41 percent of pastors use AI to help prepare Bible studies. Paul reminds the Corinthians that something being permitted doesn't mean it builds anyone up (1 Corinthians 10:23), and that's a useful test for any tool.

A few principles for using it faithfully:

• Let AI help with preparation, never replace presence. It can draft an announcement. It can't sit with someone who is grieving.
• Check everything, especially Scripture. Treat what AI gives you as a first draft.
• Keep human voices at the heart of worship. Our line at PCM is simple: AI can help you prepare a sermon, but it should never write one.
• Watch the defaults. Notice whose faces appear, whose language is used, and who's missing.
• Be honest about it. If AI helped make something your congregation sees, say so.

For more, read five things you should never ask AI to do for your church, or explore our guide to ethical AI for churches.

If you're a pastor, your people are already asking these questions, often without you. Barna found that a third of practicing Christians want guidance from their pastor on navigating AI, yet only 12 percent of pastors feel comfortable teaching about it.

You don't need to be a technology expert to lead this conversation. Talking About AI in Church is a four-session adult forum with a complete leader guide, ready-to-use slides with speaker notes, and take-home handouts:

1. What AI is, and what it isn't: plain language, no jargon
2. Made in God's image: human dignity, and whose image AI reproduces
3. Truth, trust, and discernment: deepfakes, misinformation, and spiritual advice from machines
4. Our congregation's covenant: drafting shared norms for how your church will use AI

Does the Bible mention artificial intelligence?
No. The Bible was written thousands of years before computers existed, and no verse refers to AI. But Scripture speaks directly to the questions AI raises: human dignity (Genesis 1:26–27), idolatry (Isaiah 44, Psalm 115), truth-telling (Exodus 20:16), and justice (Amos 5:24).

Is using AI a sin?
No. Using a tool isn't sinful in itself. What can be sinful is how it's used: to deceive, exploit, plagiarize, or replace the relationships and practices that form us. Paul's guidance in Romans 14 suggests Christians can reach different conclusions on disputed questions without judging one another.

Can Christians use ChatGPT and other AI tools?
Yes, with discernment. AI can help with preparation and administrative work, but anything it produces should be checked by a person, especially Scripture citations, which AI tools sometimes invent. The test Paul offers in 1 Corinthians 10:23 still applies: does this use build anyone up?

Can AI replace a pastor?
No. AI can draft text, but it can't offer presence, pastoral care, or accountability to a community. Ministry is relational. A chatbot can't sit at a hospital bedside, and it isn't formed by a congregation's shared life. That makes AI a tool for ministry, not a minister.

Is AI the mark of the beast?
No. Many biblical scholars read the beast of Revelation 13 as a figure for the Roman Empire of John's own time, and the number 666 (Revelation 13:18) as a coded reference to the emperor Nero. Revelation critiques empire and its demand for loyalty. It doesn't predict any modern technology.

What does the Bible say about technology in general?
The Bible treats craft and skill as gifts. God fills the artisan Bezalel with skill to build the tabernacle (Exodus 31:1–5). Scripture's warnings come when people worship what they make, or use it to dominate others. Tools themselves are not the problem.