Can AI Content be Holy Spirit Inspired?
The vast majority of Christians would agree that the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, there would be no way that 39 authors writing 66 books over a span of over 1,500 years would find such unity, cooperation, and impact in a cohesive whole. Something special happened to give us the Bible as we know it today. A couple of passages in the New Testament confirm this.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
“knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21)
Enter Artificial Intelligence
There is no doubt that AI gives us unprecedented tools for study, understanding, and knowledge. It ‘thinks’ much quicker than any human and often returns results in a few seconds. Have you ever tried to use it to generate biblical Greek? It effortlessly spits back properly formed sentence of anything you ask it to. Want to parse the Greek sentence? No problem, in seconds the AI will give you a detailed breakdown of every part of the sentence. Don’t understand something? Ask it questions until you understand. It is powerful stuff.
Now that AI has made studying the biblical languages so effortless, what is the point of putting in the hard work of learning the old fashioned way?
Here is where we must consider how to use AI. Is Artificial Intelligence a replacement for human intelligence? Do we now stop educating our children in school when so much knowledge is now at everyone’s fingertips? I think most would agree that doing so would only lead to the long term decline of the human race. Not to mention the fact that one needs a certain level of education to be able to properly engage with AI tools.
Can AI be Inspired by the Holy Spirit?
The temptation for any Christian leader is to use AI to prepare their talk, devotional, sermon, article for them so that they can save time and focus on other tasks. There are a number of moral problems with this approach but for the sake of this article, I want you to consider the nature of inspiration and the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the speaker, pastor, elder, presenter.
When your favorite LLM spits out a beautifully written sermon after typing out a prompt made up of a few sentences of instructions, what role does the Holy Spirit play in that production? If you then go before people and read the text as it was produced by the AI, is the Holy Spirit even present?
Look again at 2 Peter 2:21. “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
The Bible tells us here that God moves on human beings. He communicates through human beings. As a result of being created in the image of God, we have used our creativity to create tools. AI is one such tool. While we can use AI as a tool to organize our thoughts, the output it generates won’t change lives, only God can do that. How does God choose to do that? Through the Holy Spirit working in human beings and through the power of the Word of God.
The Struggle Provides Value
It may very well be that AI can write better than you can. Not only can it produce a result quickly, it can put it together in a well organized fashion and in a way that is consistent with well written language. In the grand scheme of things, other people want to hear about our struggles, or challenges, and how we overcame them. They want to interact with someone who has fought battles and has the scars, physical or emotional, to prove it. Knowledge that is attained without struggle is not transformational. Knowledge cheaply gained is knowledge lightly valued.
Consider the case of someone who is facing the loss of a child to cancer. Who would they want to hear from? A person who gives them all the right answers or a person who has lived through a similar experience and found a way to make it to the other side through the hopelessness, despair, anger, loneliness, and loss?
AI can be used for sermon preparation. It can be a tool in your toolbox but it should never be the head. The head is reserved for human beings. You are meant to guide the message, AI is meant to serve you, not lead you.
The Bible Was Written by Men, AI was Not
The Bible is the story of how God takes mankind from the fall to eternal life. He does this by coming down from heaven and dwelling with human beings. AI does not inherit the earth, humans do. AI isn’t going to live forever, humans will. AI isn’t guided by God but is instead guided by human beings. It is temporary, it will pass away. AI doesn’t have a conscience. It doesn’t naturally know right from wrong. It isn’t alive no matter how far it develops in the future. Why? Only God can create life. AI was not created by God and therefore is not alive.
If you are living in Christ and surrendered to his will, when you speak, God speaks through you. Your people want to hear about your walk, your struggles, the moments God has been teaching you. They are looking for a word from God filtered through your personality and experiences. Don’t give in to the temptation of an easy sermon by copying word for word someone else’s sermon or just asking an AI to write your manuscript word for word. Put in the work, spend the time with God you need in order to experience transformation, then trust in the result even if it is less than perfect.
Ultimately, AI can be inspired only to the degree that it is filtered through the input of a human being and to the degree that it relies on the Bible which has previously been filtered through the Holy Spirit’s work in and through humans.
Joseph Duchesne is the author of a couple of books, The Last Crisis: Hope in the Coming Crisis and Discover the One: Fulfill Your Life Purpose. He is an autodidact who has been passionate about technology for over 40 years. He is an active minister of the Gospel and has a passion for using technology to help proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.