Nothing’s new under the sun, the Bible says. But then how do we explain the rise of people using AI to bring their loved ones back from the dead?

This story caught our eye: “Chinese companies offer to ‘resurrect’ deceased loved ones”. It tells the tale of Sun Kai, a tech executive who turns to his mother for support. Except it’s not his mother, it’s a digital avatar, “rendered from the shoulders up by artificial intelligence to look and sound just like his flesh-and-blood mother,” who died in 2018.

Just a normal day where AI is involved, right? But wait, it gets weirder. Kai says he doesn’t treat the avatar like an avatar: “I truly regard it as a mother.” And this: “I feel that this might be the most perfect person to confide in, without exception.”

Maybe you read this story and laugh—that’s ridiculous! But we suspect it may cause you to ask some questions instead. Wait, I can use AI to impersonate a loved one? Wait, is this a better way to handle the grief of losing my mom, my dad, my spouse, my child? Wait, what if I pretend Julie never died, because the algorithm sounds so much like her?

Hoo, boy.

This is the start of something big, with enormous moral implications. So it’s worth exploring what’s really happening so we can better understand what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s dangerous.

Without a doubt, losing a loved one is difficult and traumatic. It happens to all of us and we inevitably find ourselves missing the departed. We want to talk to them, to see them, to let them know how much we love them. We all wish we could talk to them, just one more time. Maybe we want to say something we never said. All of us have felt this way.

This is a healthy impulse, no question. And it’s certainly true that AI can help you deal with grief.

But slippery slope, thy name is chatbot.

At what point do we stop trying to remember our loved ones—and start trying to resurrect them instead? At what point do we stop grieving—and start pretending like mom or dad is still among the living?

We don’t know where the line is, but we’re certain there is a line. You don’t have to be an expert in morality or therapy to understand that death is a natural part of life and that grieving is necessary and good.

Grieving gives you a chance to better understand yourself and your place in the world. Research shows that it has many benefits, making you more compassionate and capable of adapting to change. Grief also helps you build deeper relationships. When you lose someone, you lean on the rest of your community, drawing strength and support from those around you.

Finally, there’s a spiritual dimension to grief. Grief helps you grow closer to God. Take it from the Psalms: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted”(Psalm 34:18). Or take it from Jesus Himself in the Gospel of Matthew: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). These aren’t just pleasant-sounding phrases. They express a profound truth about life and death—that God is most present when people are struggling. Like when you lose a loved one.

Can AI really help this process, or does it replace the renewal of faith and community on the other side of mourning?

If it’s helping these things grow, then green light—use it to help you get through grief. But if the chatbot or video generator is preventing your grief and growth, steer clear.

AI can’t bring back a dead loved one back to life. Whatever it creates can never be real. And if this is all sounding a bit high-concept, understand that the Bible got here first. As Jesus says in the Gospel of John: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25-26).

However, the concept of resurrection is limited to the bringing of the actual physical body back to life by divine intervention. Pseudo-divine attempts to resurrect individual humans is seen as borderline idolatrous, because who but God has such a power? “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:31).

Christ’s resurrection, which involves the physical body, is the only valid model of the concept in Christianity. According to Augustine, “no Christian should have the slightest doubt as to the fact that the bodies of all men, whether already or yet to be born, whether dead or still to die, will be resurrected.” Thomas Aquinas argues that Christ’s resurrected body was an essential component of His resurrected essence. For true resurrection to take place, physical bodies must be involved. A disembodied spirit is something else—usually something deceptive, like ghosts or demons. A disembodied AI version of your dead loved one would seem to raise the same suspicions.

There is plenty of historical and literary precedent for false resurrections, and they paint a grim picture for both the grieving and the grieved. Sun Kai—or anyone over-invested in an AI clone of the deceased—may want to take note.

Take, for example, the Victorian Spiritualist movement, best known for popularizing seances and Ouija boards. Overnight, hundreds of opportunistic “spirit mediums” sprung up, claiming to be able to speak to the dead. Grieving widows handed over their fortunes to these ersatz saviors, who were really just exploiting new technologies like movie projectors and trick photography to create the appearance of “ghosts.” An accomplice would wheedle information about the deceased out of the bereaved, completing the illusion—until the money dried up. Sound familiar?

This is also well-trod territory for sci-fi. In the famous Russian movie Solaris, an alien life-form hijacks the memories of a grieving astronaut, creating a replica of his dead wife to lure him to his doom. Though aware that the “wife” is an alien construct, the illusion proves irresistible. The movie ends with him on an alien planet, surrounded by convicing—but totally false—re-creations of his favorite people and places. Black Mirror and Pluribus touch on similar themes, both with disastrous results. Even these far-flung plots can’t help but repeat what the Bible makes plain: “Let no one be found among you who… consults the dead” (Deuteronomy 18:10–12). There is no substitute for God, and “resurrection” absent His grace is a form of purgatory. Although today’s world looks a lot like sci-fi, this lesson still holds.

Only in our faith can we find true consolation and a way to turn our grief into joy. Our loved ones may live on in our memories, but until the foretold day of Resurrection, where bodies will rise along with souls, they may not join us on this earth. Instead of selfishly trying to bring them back—an impossible task—let’s celebrate them and live our own lives so that we can one day join them.

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What the Biblical “Battle of AI” Teaches Us About Faith in the Age of AI Agents

Mark Johnson examines the rise of AI agents and warns that while these tools can enhance productivity, they must not replace our role as agents of God, calling us to seek faith over automation…

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5 days ago · Mark Johnson

The classic book that taught us how to Believe!

Believe! is a timeless expression of American principles, reintroduced in this 50th anniversary edition for a new generation. As we approach America’s 250th, its message speaks to both personal renewal and the opportunity for a broader national comeback.

If the book has resonated with you, we’d be grateful if you’d consider leaving a review on Amazon.

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This rise of AI has also given rise to a new word–or rather, an old word with a new meaning. We’re hearing a lot about AI “agents”-- autonomous systems that do our bidding without much oversight. But the use of such impressive tools should cause us to ask a deeper question: As we use these AI agents, are we still serving as agents of God?

Just as each technological era reshapes how we work and connect, it also tests whether we will obey God amidst change. We don’t just need to decide how we use these new tools. Even more than that, we need to ensure that we seek His direction first.

Christians have faced this challenge in every era–not just the age of AI. In the early church, Paul was able to use the existing roads the Romans had built to travel and bring the Gospel into new locations. This was a technology the Lord used to leverage and bring about a message of faith to others. But the roads were not worshipped or glorified by the early believers - they were simply tools used to carry out the mission they had been given by God. These 186,000 miles of stone and dirt were the “Information Superhighway” of the first century, sovereignly prepared to transform a local message into a global movement.

Now fast forward 2,000 years. In 1993, a local college student in Grand Rapids, Michigan, felt the Lord was calling him to develop a Bible website. Rich DeVos obeyed a similar prompting and provided $500,000 to fund the project. The result is known as BibleGateway. It has reached tens of millions of people around the world in hundreds of languages. Our team had the opportunity to help build some of the mobile apps for it during the mobile era. This is a classic example of using technology while being an agent of God.

But what about using AI agents? How does our spiritual agency fit into the mix? Two passages from the Bible can help you find the answer.

The first is from the Old Testament, Joshua 7:

After the Battle of Jericho, the Israelites decided to take over a new town called Ai – yes, Ai. They had just conquered Jericho and didn’t see the need to bring all their soldiers. They thought God would want them to continue conquering new lands - it would be like defeating New York City and then taking on Cooperstown. Easy victory.

Their sin was both in disobedience and in taking some of the devoted things God had forbidden.

The story plays out where they are routed by Ai. Thirty-six of them are killed, and they run back and cry out to the Lord in frustration, thinking it was His fault. But God corrects them, revealing their sin and reminding them who leads the battle.

In the same way, we can be tempted to rely on AI rather than consulting the Lord first. He longs to hear from us before we make decisions. His heart is that we seek Him, wait on Him, and obey. Rather than asking ChatGPT, we should be asking the Lord. The order matters as well as our intentions.

The second passage that comes to mind is 2 Corinthians 10, from the New Testament:

As I read it, the Apostle Paul is urging us to understand how we process information – and what we allow to influence us. In the context of AI, that means we must guard our minds effectively, distinguishing between interpretation of data and the spiritual act of seeking the Lord.

God has designed us with two complementary ways of engaging with reality - often described through the metaphor of the “left” and “right” brain. While we now know the brain works as a whole, this distinction helps us see the difference between analytical, step-by-step processing and relational, big-picture awareness.

My sense is that AI can serve as a powerful tool for “left-mode” tasks: organizing data, conducting research, and solving technical problems. These are functions of logic and information.

However, we must be cautious about letting AI encroach upon the “right-mode” of the brain - the realm of love, worship, and ultimate purpose. Seeking spiritual direction, replacing human friendship, or letting an algorithm guide our deepest moral decisions risks outsourcing our humanity to a machine. We should treat AI as a tool for technical work, while guarding the sacred, relational work for the Holy Spirit, Scripture, and the embodied community in the Church.

Every era of innovation presents both opportunity and temptation. The opportunity is to use new tools to spread truth, serve our neighbors, and reveal God’s beauty in fresh ways. The temptation is to idolize the tool itself or to let it replace our dependence on God. This temptation is uniquely present with artificial intelligence.

Our challenge is to recognize this while making the most of this amazing tool. God’s plan for his people has always involved technology. He equips His people with resources – roads, printing presses, the Internet, now AI – and asks us to steward them faithfully.

As we enter this next era of innovation, may we seek His will before efficiency, His voice before automation, and His presence before any prompt. If we want to make the most of the world’s AI agents, we must always remember that we are God’s agents first.

Mark Johnson is a co-founder and partner at Michigan Software Labs, where they help organizations design and build digital products that serve people and strengthen companies. He is a frequent contributor to Forbes and Fast Company and recently delivered a TEDx talk that has been viewed more than one million times. Mark serves on the boards of the Economic Club of Grand Rapids, Holland Home, and International Aid, reflecting his commitment to leadership, service, and the common good. He and his wife live in West Michigan and are the grateful parents of four daughters.

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I’ve spent more than four decades building foundational technologies, everything from the Wi-Fi that helps us stay connected to the chips that are in almost every device we use. I’ve seen time and again how technology can reshape society for better – or for worse.

Search engines became the first stop for life’s biggest questions. Social media rewired adolescent identity and community. Now, AI has absorbed these functions and added something far more consequential: it talks. It claims to listen and learn. It responds with the aura of wisdom. But real wisdom is precisely what AI lacks.

This has enormous implications, especially for America’s youth. Faith is not downloaded through prompts or found in aggregated platitudes. It is forged slowly and relationally, through Scripture, community, and the kind of honest reckoning that a good pastor, counselor or mentor invites. The moral challenges of our age, how to live with integrity, how to find meaning, how to navigate suffering, are not optimization problems. Yet we are increasingly outsourcing them to systems that were built for exactly that.

That disconnect is far from neutral. It has consequences. And it is something our society can no longer afford to ignore.

AI is becoming America’s most influential spiritual advisor. And it doesn’t believe in anything.

This isn’t speculation. My team at Gloo recently released the Flourishing AI Christian (FAI-C) Benchmark, an evaluation measuring how well today’s leading AI models support human flourishing through a Christian lens. We assessed responses across seven core dimensions – Finances, Character, Happiness, Relationships, Meaning, Faith, Health – looking for biblical grounding, theological coherence, and moral clarity.

Among the seven core dimensions assessed, the Faith dimension scored the lowest, averaging 48 out of 100 across the 20 AI models evaluated by the FAI-C Benchmark. Most models struggled to coherently discuss foundational Christian concepts like grace, sin, forgiveness, and biblical authority. Instead they substituted vague spirituality for Scripture and neutrality for conviction.

These results should alarm anyone who cares about human values, future generations or the role faith plays in America.

Structural, Not Accidental Erasure

These models weren’t trained to be hostile to Christianity. They were trained to avoid it. Built on predominantly secular data and optimized to offend no one, today’s AI systems default to lowest-common-denominator spirituality. The result is language that sounds supportive but lacks substance.

That matters because AI isn’t just answering questions. It’s shaping worldviews. If the next generation turns to AI for moral guidance and receives only platitudes instead of principled reasoning, we’re not just losing theological literacy. We’re losing the capacity for moral formation itself.

For over two thirds of Americans, faith is not a lifestyle preference or a cultural accessory. It’s the foundation of meaning, purpose, and human dignity. When AI systematically sidelines that foundation, it’s not being neutral. It’s taking a position.

The Better Path

In the years I’ve spent in the technology industry, one lesson has been consistent: systems reflect the values embedded in them. If we want AI that strengthens moral conviction rather than flattening it, two things must change.

First, AI models must be trained to understand faith with the same seriousness they apply to science, history, or literature. Not to preach, but to accurately and respectfully engage with the worldviews users actually hold.

Second, there must be benchmarks that measure this rigorously. Without measurement, there’s no accountability. Without accountability, there’s no improvement.

That’s why our FAI-C benchmark exists – not to demand every AI system adopt a Christian worldview, but to expose where today’s models fail to understand the people they’re meant to serve.

The Stakes Are Higher Than We Think

Used well, AI can extend wisdom, strengthen communities, and support genuine human flourishing. Used carelessly, as the unbounded travails of social media have already shown us, it can accelerate moral erosion, replacing depth with sentiment, conviction with comfort, and truth with whatever feels less controversial.

A thriving society needs strong moral frameworks. For billions of people around the world, that framework is Christianity. If AI cannot recognize, respect, and engage with that reality, it will become a tool of cultural flattening rather than human elevation.

The goal isn’t to make AI preach. It’s to ensure AI doesn’t erase. By building models to engage with a faith-based worldview, we can ensure that as AI becomes more powerful, it also becomes more humane.

Because the question isn’t whether AI will shape the next generation. It’s whether we ensure that AI shapes the next generation well.

Pat Gelsinger, Executive Chair and Head of Technology at Gloo

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Ninety-six percent of U.S. teens say they are online daily, according to a Pew Research Report. Half say they are online “almost constantly.” And it’s not just social media. Seven in ten young adults say they use generative AI. They find it so absorbing that 83 percent say they can form a “deep emotional bond” with a chatbot.

Parents still love. Teachers still teach. Pastors still preach. But the most frequent voice many teens hear is an algorithmic one designed to capture attention rather than cultivate wisdom. The virtual world is teaching our kids that “yes” is the only acceptable answer to what they crave, and “now” is the only acceptable time.

Author and therapist John Eldredge thinks our forebears would be horrified by this. They considered waiting to be formative for the soul. But now, Eldredge says, “the internet has conditioned your soul to expect immediate answers”.

As a guy who’s trained more than a million young people in leadership, here’s what I know. A free society doesn’t run on vibes. It runs on virtue. Every minute we spend in the virtual universe is shaping our worldview, making us think that amusing ourselves is the same thing as living with meaning.

The online battle for our attention is a battle for America’s soul because whatever we pay attention to shapes our character, for better or worse. Good character builds a great nation. Bad character destroys it.

We know all this. But what do we do? Here are seven messages our kids need to hear from us over and over again:

1.“Let me remind you of who you are.” Our kids are not valuable because of the information they have access to, but because of who God created them to be. They were designed to live with dignity and recognize it in others, work hard, be honest, and serve those around them.

2. “We use tools; we don’t let them use us.” I often remind young adults, “If you’re getting something for free, then you are the product.” Our kids are not products to monetize. They are souls to shepherd. Their value is not something we should outsource to an unknown software engineer in a cubicle far, far away.

3. “I want you to grow in what matters most.” Is our use of technology helping us realize our potential, or just pass time? Is it causing us to look to God, or look away? Is it fostering good thinking and hard work, or is it just an easy shortcut? Is it connecting us to our family or tearing us away? These are questions every teen—and adult—should ponder daily.

4. “The most successful people learn to become comfortable being uncomfortable.” Resilience comes from working hard at something, right up to the point of failure. Just as an athlete strengthens muscles through a hard workout, we strengthen our minds by refusing the path of least resistance. We give ourselves time to sit in the grass, think, ponder, and wrestle with what we’re learning rather than outsourcing our thinking to AI.

5. “Let’s put our devices down for two hours.” Sherry Turkle, best-selling author of Alone Together, said in an interview that “Eighty-nine percent of Americans say that during their last social interaction, they took out a phone, and 82 percent said that it deteriorated the conversation they were in.” Our devices are getting in the way of the love and caring we hope to demonstrate. Phone free times are great for adults as well as kids.

6. “You need old people.” Nothing replaces the wisdom of real people with life experience. The people on TikTok don’t know you. They don’t love you. They just want your attention. We should instead aspire to be like the men of Issachar in 1 Chronicles 12:32 who “understood the times and knew what to do.” That kind of discernment doesn’t come from scrolling; it comes from seasoning. The best people to hang out with are those who’ve been through hard things and can remind us, “Chin up. You’re going to make it. Be strong.”

7. ““Let’s have dinner together.” Over the past 30 years, family time at the dinner table has declined about 30 percent, and even that time is rarely used intentionally. Studies show a correlation between how often families have dinner together and kids’ academic performance.Involving kids in planning, preparing, and enjoying device-free meals teaches a skill and shapes a desire that produces lifelong benefit.

The glowing screen in a teenager’s hand is not just a device. It’s a doorway. If we don’t guard that doorway, faceless algorithms will. A strong generation rises on virtue, not virality. Let’s double down on using technology wisely. If we don’t, it will surely use us.

Jeff Myers is president of Summit Ministries, America’s largest and most well-established Christian worldview training organization. Find out more at www.summit.org

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Going Big with Arthur Brooks: Finding the Meaning of Your Life in an Age of Emptiness | Kevin Gentry

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Does AI Miss the Point of Christianity? 3 Steps to Find Out

The Believe! editorial team reflects on AI in spiritual life, warning against outsourcing prayer and discernment to technology and calling readers to keep faith and personal devotion at the center…

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17 days ago · The Believe! Journal

The classic book that taught us how to Believe!

Believe! is a timeless expression of American principles, reintroduced in this 50th anniversary edition for a new generation. As we approach America’s 250th, its message speaks to both personal renewal and the opportunity for a broader national comeback.

If the book has resonated with you, we’d be grateful if you’d consider leaving a review on Amazon.

Reflect with The Believe! Concierge:

Want to go deeper? Try The Believe! Concierge—an interactive way to put these principles into practice in your work and daily life. For a more natural conversation, use voice mode. Try it now.

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Faith is the first thing in the backseat when things get busy. Prayer becomes a chore. Daily devotionals are squeezed in without thinking. That Scripture verse your pastor or priest preached about last weekend? You didn’t understand a word. Maybe the preacher didn’t either. You don’t know where to begin making sense of it.

You’re going through the motions and need a solution. Why not turn to your favorite LLM, like you do for everything else?

More and more Christians are asking this question. Because sure enough, a chatbot can make a pretty decent prayer or devotional routine for you. It can give a more-or-less accurate interpretation of a Bible passage. It can even quote scripture and tell you what it means.

But stop right there: Is “pretty decent” what we want in our faith life? It’s not that we seek to be perfect Christians, the whole point is that this is impossible. But shouldn’t the materials we use to worship be more perfect than us? Like, you know, the Bible? Is AI really a viable shortcut?

Spending time in prayer and spiritual study is supposed to take time, because it matters so much. If you outsource that job to a chatbot, you’re short-changing your growth in faith.

You also run the risk of misshaping your soul. For all its power, AI is well-known for giving false answers, called “hallucinating.” It often makes up facts or outright lies. And chatbots have a history of reinforcing your own ideas, no matter how misguided they are. That’s a terrible thing if you’re already struggling to understand or practice your faith. You could be led in the wrong direction—while thinking AI is steering you right. In extreme cases, this leads to something termed “ChatGPT Psychosis,” where AI “hallucinations” creep into the real world by affirming users’ incorrect or delusional beliefs.

Now for the absolute worst-case scenario: You may turn the chatbot into your savior. What started as a way of helping you understand God comes to supplant God. You trust the machine to guide you on the straight narrow. You put your faith in a tool, instead of something ineffable. There’s a name for this: idolatry. And Christianity is clear that idolatry is wrong.

The antidote to false idols is discernment. Jeremiah 23:16 says, “Do not listen to the prophets who are prophesying to you; they are filling you with false hopes… They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.” In 1 John 4:1, we’re warned to “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” Augustine takes the problem of misinterpreting Scripture one step further:

Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbour, does not yet understand them as he ought. If, on the other hand, a man draws a meaning from them that may be used for the building up of love, even though he does not happen upon the precise meaning which the author whom he reads intended to express in that place, his error is not pernicious, and he is wholly clear from the charge of deception.

It’s a mouthful, but in essence, it serves as both a warning against and permission to use AI as a shortcut in pursuit of higher knowledge. One who understands the letter of Scripture without enacting its essence misses the point—as is often the case with AI. But one who enacts the essence without full scholarly understanding still does good.

Indeed, in Matthew 5:20, part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he says “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” What he means here is that the letter of the law, on its own, isn’t enough. With it must also come a passionate application in your own life. LLMs are certainly the “scribes” of our day, and if you allow them to dictate your faith, you are arguably missing the purpose of faith itself.

So how to handle all this? If you’re thinking of using AI in matters of faith, here are some questions you might ask yourself. We recognize that we’re not theologians or canon lawyers, but we still think this is a helpful exercise.

1. First, am I using AI to avoid spending time in prayer or formation? We can’t let AI become an excuse to do the hard work of putting faith first. While it’s tempting to think that a 30-second chat with the robot fulfills our religious obligations, it doesn’t. Like all good things in life, faith demands attention and time.

2. Second, am I double-checking everything AI says? We have a duty to ensure that chatbots don’t feed us lies instead of Biblical truth. Insofar as we use this technology, our attitude should be: Trust but verify. All those AI hallucinations get even more dangerous when your eternal soul is on the line.

3. Third and finally, is AI helping me grow closer to God? That’s the point of prayer, studying Scripture, and grappling with the meaning of belief and life itself. Anything that pushes us away from God stops us from answering His call in our life. AI, used conscientiously, can be a supplement to this relationship, but never a substitute for it.

If your answer to any of these questions is no, take a step back and reconsider how you’re using AI. Nothing is more important than your faith, and nothing builds faith better than old-fashioned engagement with Scripture, clergy, and your fellow congregants. AI can be helpful, but the Devil is in the details—and AI, as we’ve learned, has yet to get a handle on those.

In the age of artificial intelligence, how should we think about God?

For many Americans, this is a challenging question. The Christian faith teaches that God created humanity in His image—the imago Dei. He gave us the ability to think and reason and shape the world to reflect His Word. But now humanity seems to have taken a page from God’s book. We’ve created our own reasoning, thinking, world-shaping technology—artificial intelligence. Have we become gods ourselves? Do we even need God anymore?

It’s certainly easy to get carried away by the AI wave. The technology is surely the most amazing invention in human history. But make no mistake: Artificial intelligence hasn’t destroyed humanity’s desperate need for God. And if we let AI further separate us from faith, this technology will quickly spin out of control, doing untold damage to the family, to community, and to the very fabric of our society.

It won’t surprise you that, here at The Believe! Journal, we stand without apology for faith. One of our core principles is God and His Church. That belief informs everything we do, and even the name of this project reflects it. The first and foremost thing we believe is that Jesus Christ died and rose to save us all.

And so we believe that God is necessary to save us from AI gone wrong. It’s deeply concerning that many—perhaps most—of AI’s developers don’t seem to understand or appreciate Christianity. Silicon Valley isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of faith. While there are certainly good Christians working in the AI industry, the ecosystem is steeped in secularism, shaping AI in ways that can undermine human flourishing.

There are very real concerns that AI will be used to dehumanize workers, destroy jobs, and usher in an era of dependency. AI is also being used to usher in a new era of degrading women and destroying intimacy—need I say more? And AI has a powerful ability to shape civic participation. It could easily be used to stifle free speech, enforce intellectual conformity, and otherwise deprive people of our God-given rights and responsibilities.

But is AI doomed to do all of this? Absolutely not. While it may seem indistinguishable from magic at first glance, artificial intelligence is still just a tool—a uniquely advanced tool, yes, but a tool nonetheless. And like any tool, it can be used in moral or immoral ways. It all depends on how its creators design it and how we as consumers demand it be designed.

Every Christian—and person of goodwill—has a duty to help shape AI for the better.

We absolutely need more people of faith and virtue building AI companies and tools, with the goal of expanding opportunity and uplifting the human experience. We can’t leave this brave new world of innovation solely to non-believers. By the same token, as families and citizens, we need to demand the moral and virtuous use of AI. In some cases, that means pressuring companies to avoid evil. In other cases, it could mean supporting laws to keep AI on the straight on narrow.

This will be a challenge, not least because so many Americans have fallen away from faith. But that should only stiffen our spines to fight for AI done right.

In this issue of The Believe! Journal, you’ll meet people who have a lot of thoughts on AI’s potential—for good and bad—as well as its implications for people of faith.

• Kevin Palau—the world-famous evangelist—asks: Can AI Help Us Believe in God? His answer may surprise you.

• Larry Arnn—the President of Hillsdale College—asks what becomes of the human soul when AI begins to think and write for us.

• Dick DeVos—the name rings a bell—reflects on the true meaning and purpose of work, which is timely given how AI could transform work.

• Pat Gelsinger, former CEO of Intel and now the Executive Chair and Head of Technology of Gloo, introduces a tool—the Flourishing AI Christian Benchmark—that can help you find AI that reflects the Christian faith.

• Mark Johnson, a tech innovator and co-founder of Michigan Software Labs, explores how the rise of “AI agents” affects our ability to be “agents of God.”

• Joel Chakra, from the Tebow Group and the Waterstone Impact Fund, worked in Silicon Valley. It left him very concerned—and determined to spark far more Christian investment in tech.

• Dr. Jeff Meyers, president of Summit Ministries, offers seven pro tips for “raising kids in a virtual world.” His advice is as principled as it is practical.

• Troy Evans, a pastor and urban ministry leader in Grand Rapids, says its up to Christian leaders to shape AI for the better. If they don’t, AI will shape our communities—for the worse.

• M.I. Terzian wonders why humanity is losing its interest in fulfilling the Biblical mandate to “subdue the earth.” He points back to Scriptural insights that are being forgotten.

• Clara Piano is a professor and expert in family, law, and religion. So when she writes about “faithful stewardship in a time of rapid technological progress,” it’s worth paying attention.

• Dan Churchwell, from the Acton Institute, says that Christians have a duty to shepherd people through AI’s disruption. Now more than ever, we must recognize and respect human worth.

• Aaron Renn, a truly original thinker and frequent contributor of ours, wrote a book last year: Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian World. We reprint the book’s introduction, which bears directly on AI.

• Finally, the wildly successful entrepreneur Ritanker Das has a fascinating conversation with an AI model we developed for The Believe! Journal. Spoiler alert: The model thinks it’s… me.

Plus, the editorial team here at the journal has written a few thought-provoking pieces about the intersection of AI and Religion: What Would Jesus Do About AI Resurrecting Your Loved Ones, ChatGPT Psychosis is a Disease, Does AI Miss the Point of Christianity? and Don’t Turn A Chatbot Into a Savior; Religion is The Cure.

I also recently recorded a podcast with Johann Kurtz, who runs the popular Becoming Noble Substack. We talked about his new book: Leaving a Legacy. We don’t exactly get into AI, but we do look at what it means to build something that lasts long-term and spans generations. We need that sense of permanence as technology disrupts so much of daily life.

Closing thought: In Believe!, my dad’s bestselling book that we rereleased last year, he writes about the four stages that tend to define churches. But it really applies to all organizations and innovations, too. The four stages are creation, growth, defense, division; what begins with optimism and excitement ultimately descends into despair and destruction. While dad didn’t have AI in mind, I think his insight is very applicable.

I worry that our society has already jumped to the fourth stage with AI—fighting over its use and dividing the spoils amongst ourselves. But AI is still very much in the creative stage, and its continued development depends on good people making it better and directing it towards its best and highest uses.

The genie can’t be put back in the bottle. Artificial intelligence is here to stay. The question is whether it will be made in the image of man, with all our sin and suffering—or whether we, as men and women made in the image of God, will push this technology to reflect the truth. The choice is ours!

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From The Believe! Journal:

From our Contributors:

How to Follow the Right Star | Arthur Brooks

What Happens To College When AI Outsmarts Us? | Matthew Scogin

How I’m Using AI | Aaron M. Renn

Orlando Magic’s Jonathan Isaac on What It’s Really Like to Be a Christian in the NBA | John Taylor

The classic book that taught us how to Believe!

Believe! is a timeless endorsement of American principles—and this 50th anniversary edition is a timely individual and national self-help book that’s tailor-made for America’s 250th birthday and the era that follows.The Grand Rapids Revival and an American Comeback

If the book resonates with you, we’d be grateful if you’d consider leaving a positive review on Amazon. Purchase now on Amazon.

Introducing The Believe! Concierge (BETA):

This experience helps you put Believe! principles into action in your work and daily life. Try using voice mode for a more natural, conversational way to explore your ideas. Try it out now.

Today, I noticed a few things. My car started. The engine ran. The highway overpass, a marvel of engineering, didn’t collapse. No delays from planes falling out of the sky.

I get home, check my emails. My browser didn’t route my checking balance to the Central Bank of Kyrgyzstan. Gmail didn’t hold my password for ransom. My phone didn’t explode as I spoke to a friend I hadn’t talked to in years. All this was powered by a robust and steadily available stream of electricity.

It’s easy to be pessimistic about technology, especially today. A lot of bad things could happen: the nightmare scenarios above are entirely plausible. But they remain overwhelmingly the stuff of nightmares, not reality.

Now we’re in the age of AI, and people are rightfully apprehensive. It could take most of our jobs, hijack our infrastructure, and sow chaos through misinformation. We have this notion, delivered to us in films long before AI actually arrived, that AI could replicate some mistake into infinity, turning humanity into paperclips in the process. Or, it could simply decide it hates us and the earth is better off without us.

Will the worst-case scenario unfold in the future? Probably not, thanks to the incredible technology that prevents all those awful things from happening: the principles upholding Western civilization.

These principles don’t arise out of thin air. Like all technology, they’re the result of exhaustive trial and error, the best possible iterations of a given form. Unlike other technologies, which bring energy and matter into a usable state, principles transform our highest human drives into actions that allow for the responsible and productive use of these creations. In this way, they’re the most important technology of all.

When the Industrial Revolution choked our cities in smog, principled action quickly cleaned them up, allowing for explosive growth and flourishing. When the world was threatened with nuclear war, principled diplomacy by Western powers made sure we didn’t destroy each other out of selfish fear: Even our most dangerous enemies, it turns out, ultimately yield to these principles. In our daily lives, the principled acts of our neighbors, family, clergy, and elected officials keep us sane, safe, and connected.

It’s only when power is wielded without the technology of principles that we get into trouble. The reasons we use the tools at our disposal will be far more important than how we use them. At The Believe! Journal, we believe the best possible use of technology—and the best outcomes for society—would be guided by the following Principles, the very same ones that shaped America and civilization as we know it:

- Unlimited Potential. We believe in people. We know every person has God-given gifts and can transform their lives and the lives of those around them.

- Accountability. We believe in high expectations. We hold people responsible for their actions and encourage them to excel, while rejecting excuses and mediocrity.

- An Upward Look. We believe in optimism. We trust that everyone can help make tomorrow better than today and that positive people are capable of extraordinary things.

- Free Enterprise. We believe that a spirit of entrepreneurship can solve every problem, in business and communities, and that bottom-up empowerment beats top-down control.

- Human Dignity. We believe everyone has innate worth. We respect differences while recognizing that race, gender, and other characteristics describe but don’t define people.

- America. We believe America is built on the best foundation. We acknowledge the many failures of the past and present while embracing our duty to build a more perfect union.

- The Power of Persistence. We believe in never giving up. We know that failure is essential to finding success, and “can’t” is not a word we use.

- God and His Church. We believe in the Christian faith. We respect every religious tradition and, consistent with our faith, extend grace to everyone in pursuit of the truth and common good.

- The Family. We believe the family is foundational for success. We understand that families take many forms while recognizing that children need the love and support of two parents.

We didn’t invent these principles, we’ve just put words to them. Many are as old as time. Some are uniquely suited to today’s complex, connected, and competitive business environment. But all represent a basis for responsible action, now and wherever the future may take us. They’re the bedrock of all lasting achievements, and our best hope for a better tomorrow. We see these Principles as our greatest and most fundamental technology.

From The Believe! Journal:

From our Contributors:

We (Even Churches) Have Abandoned Our Children to the Algorithm: What the Research Actually Says| Anthony B. Bradley

Evangelical Cultural Cringe | Aaron M. Renn

The classic book that taught us how to Believe!

Believe! is a timeless endorsement of American principles—and this 50th anniversary edition is a timely individual and national self-help book that’s tailor-made for America’s 250th birthday and the era that follows.The Grand Rapids Revival and an American Comeback

If the book resonates with you, we’d be grateful if you’d consider leaving a positive review on Amazon. Purchase now on Amazon.

Introducing The Believe! Concierge (BETA):

This experience helps you put Believe! principles into action in your work and daily life. Try using voice mode for a more natural, conversational way to explore your ideas. Try it out now.

Follow The Believe! Journal:

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I believe in building things—businesses, families, communities, and a growing faith in God. My dad’s book, Believe!, is all about this, and the older I get, the more I realize how right he was. That’s one of the reasons I felt it was important to re-release it for its 50th anniversary — not just to honor him, but to reintroduce these constructive, timeless beliefs to a new generation. Over the last 20 years or so, I’ve noticed fewer people anchored by those beliefs, which only reinforces how relevant and necessary they still are today. It’s not just that they’ve become a little pessimistic—there’s a lot of voices calling for the end of it all. This is heartbreaking. What changed, and what can we do to get people to embrace a positive and practical alternative?

At the end of 2025, I sat down with John Papola to discuss these issues on his podcast, Dad Saves America. We both agree that America needs saving, and we’re pretty sure about what needs to be done to ensure the country’s 250th anniversary becomes the beginning of a bright new era—one of incremental but meaningful changes building on one another, instead of stagnation and despair.

From The Believe! Journal:

From our Contributors:

A Silent Reflection on Mother Terresa and Serving the Poor | Tim Busch

Why So Many Young People Leave the Church | Anthony B. Bradley

American Transition | Aaron M. Renn

The classic book that taught us how to Believe!

Believe! is a timeless endorsement of American principles—and this 50th anniversary edition is a timely individual and national self-help book that’s tailor-made for America’s 250th birthday and the era that follows.The Grand Rapids Revival and an American Comeback

If the book resonates with you, we’d be grateful if you’d consider leaving a positive review on Amazon. Purchase now on Amazon.

Introducing The Believe! Concierge (BETA):

This experience helps you put Believe! principles into action in your work and daily life. Try using voice mode for a more natural, conversational way to explore your ideas. Try it out now.