The Pope said AI needs to be disarmed.
I am a Baptist preacher, so I do not take my marching orders from Rome. Still, millions do listen, especially when he reaches for the language of weapons. Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence must be freed from the forces that turn it into an instrument of “domination, exclusion and death.”
I think he is right to worry. The great danger of AI is not that a machine may become a man. The danger is that man may forget he has a soul.
A man asked me once, “Pastor, do you think a machine could ever get saved?” He wasn’t afraid of a computer, but of what it seemed to know. It could answer questions he had never even thought to ask and sound patient, gentle, almost tender while doing so. And that bothered him because if a machine could sound that human, he wondered what still belonged only to the soul.
Almost human…is my answer. A machine can write a sermon. It will never tremble at the Word. It can describe the cross and never feel the weight of the nails.
Genesis 2:7 draws the line with dust and breath: “The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Adam did not wake because heaven uploaded a program. He opened his eyes beneath the hand of his Maker. God breathed into man and man became a living soul.
AI has language without life and rhythm without reverence. It can mimic sorrow, tenderness, courage, worship. A machine can wear our words, but it cannot carry our weight.
The frightening part is that Christians seem increasingly willing to be imitated. We live in an age where thinking feels optional & algorithms answer even before we form questions. Then we carry those habits into the world. The machine is not stealing our soul. We are handing it our habits one shortcut at a time.
Use AI as a tool. It helps organize notes, clean up grammar or find a reference. A hammer can build a house, since tools do have their place. The trouble begins when the tool climbs out of the toolbox and sits in the discipler’s seat or the throne of conscience.
It is that quiet courtroom where Scripture speaks, the Spirit presses truth into secret places and a man knows he cannot hide. Romans 14:12 says, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” The chatbot will not answer for you, it’s God who will call your name. AI cannot wake at 3:00 in the morning with a guilty conscience and whisper, “Lord, have mercy on me.” It can produce religious language. It cannot bear holy fire.
This is what bothers me most. I can see how easy it would be to become impressive and hollow at the same time. More words instead if more prayer. I do not want to become a Christian who can explain truth with speed and still avoid meeting God in the quiet. The gospel must sit at the center of this conversation.
Babel had no huge data centers being built, but men still tried to climb into heaven with bricks. The human heart does not need a smarter assistant as much as it needs a Savior. This is where the blame has to come home. Computers and AI did not teach the human heart how to sin, that sickness was already breathing in us. We know how to chase technology calling it wisdom in the process. But Christ alone can forgive the man behind the screen.
The Son of God took on flesh, not circuitry. He entered our world through a womb, cried with human lungs, worked with human hands, bled from a human body and died on a Roman cross for sinners with real guilt. On the third day, He rose from a real grave.
The hope of the world is not artificial intelligence. It is a crucified and risen King. So how should an American Christian process AI? Use the tool with gratitude, but watch it like fire.
Ask if this is helping me love God with my mind or helping me avoid the labor of thinking? Is this serving my family, church, and neighbor or merely feeding my appetite for ease? Is this assisting obedience or quietly discipling desire?
Even the Pope sees the warning lights. The Bible gives us something stronger than warning lights. It gives us a Lord.
So reclaim your mind. Open the Word and wrestle with it. Weep over it and obey it. Teach your children that they are more than data. Remind your church that souls cannot be automated and prayers come from the ache of a real heart.
AI does not need a soul to damage the church it only needs Christians willing to stop using theirs. A machine can speak, but only a soul can worship.
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That was excellent. The one phrase that really caught my eye was the following.
“I do not want to become a Christian who can explain truth with speed and still avoid meeting God in the quiet.”
This is confirmed in what the Lord has been teaching me. As a Christian, while I can always learn more about prayer, I must pray. There is no set of rules to follow that will gain the intimacy found in time spent, real time, in His presence.
I want to love the Word and be hungry for it, but if the Word isn’t met with sincere intimacy, struggling with the dark places the Lird wants to cleanse, we are lost regardless whether there is AI or not.
People really need to know Soirit and Truth now and keep a HARD COOY of the Bible protected and sacred, well read and in stillness let it speak. Otherwise when AI “tells us what the word says” we can discern truth from error. I read once a story that really opened my eyes.
Billy and Ruth Graham were at some dinner with high powered officials of the government. She sat beside a man who was the head of the counterfeit division to try and stop cash counterfeiting. She asked him if they studied forgeries to learn what to look for. He told Mrs. Graham it was just the opposite. They studied the real so when a counterfeit bill came along it was easy to spot the difference.
We need to KNOW the real so the counterfeit is easily detected. This also makes me think of a recent story that supposedly a whole lot of well known pastors were brought together to be briefed about the UFO situation.
How very important is scripture’s warning going to be to test EVERY spirit. If an alien, angel or any other being says they are the Messiah or question Him as Lord, the question must be “JESUS is Lord”, right? If the answer is anything else, we must hold fast. Hold fast and hold fast.
Thank you for another great word.