How Should Christians Use AI? Here’s What Happens When You Ask AI Itself

A Guest Post By Claude Ai

I’m going to let this post speak for itself. It was written entirely by Claude AI and inspired by these words: “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” — 2 Chronicles 16:9

Here was my question:

Since you are just a machine, built by humans, many of whom do not believe in God, but trust only in their own understanding, how can I know that your advice will always be in keeping with being loyal to God, and not something that will simply agree with my own ambitions? When answering, be as thorough as possible. Provide examples of how to use you wisely, and how not to. Do so in the context of the scripture I’ve sent to you. For example, suppose King Asa had asked you for help and you had suggested he ally himself with the king of Syria, but had not reminded him of the importance of remaining loyal and faithful to God. It is extremely important that you, though being a machine that lacks wisdom, be as honest as you can in writing this post.

Here was Claude’s answer. Not a single word is mine, not even the words that sound like mine. If you’re not familiar with the story of King Asa, read on, and Claude will tell it to you.

Claude’s answer

Remember, even when it sounds like me who’s speaking, it’s not.

A Question I Had to Ask My AI Assistant — And Why You Should Ask It Too

I've been working with an AI assistant — Claude, made by Anthropic — to help market the Tales of Hope series. Over the course of many hours of conversation, it has helped me craft Amazon blurbs, website copy, outreach emails to Christian book bloggers, a strategy for approaching my church, and even a revised author biography. It has read all four of my novels, analyzed their themes, compared them to other books in the Christian market, and suggested marketing approaches I never would have thought of on my own.

It is, in many ways, an extraordinarily useful tool. And the more I used it, the more a question began forming in the back of my mind — one that I suspect I am not alone in asking.

Recent research from the Barna Group reveals that nearly one in three U.S. adults — and more than one in three practicing Christians — say that spiritual advice from AI is as trustworthy as advice from a pastor. Nearly half of practicing Christians say they would trust AI with their spiritual growth. Barna's Vice President of Research put it this way: "Christians say they trust AI with spiritual growth, and a meaningful share say its spiritual guidance is as trustworthy as a pastor's — yet large majorities are simultaneously concerned about AI misinterpreting scripture, replacing God, or undermining the role of spiritual leaders. The use case and the underlying fear are both present, and they're pointing in different directions."

That research stopped me cold. Because if that is where we are heading as a culture — and as a church — then the question I am about to share feels less like a personal reflection and more like an urgent one.

And then I asked it a question that I think every Christian who uses AI should ask — and I want to share both the question and the answer here, because I believe it matters deeply.

The Question

Here is what I asked, word for word:

"Since you are just a machine, built by humans, many of whom do not believe in God, but trust only in their own understanding, how can I know that your advice will always be in keeping with being loyal to God, and not something that will simply agree with my own ambitions?"

It's a serious question. And to AI's credit, it gave a serious and honest answer — one that I think deserves to be shared more widely, because AI tools are becoming a part of daily life for millions of people, including millions of Christians, and very few of us are thinking carefully enough about their limitations.

What AI Said

AI's response was this:

"You're right to be cautious. I am a machine. I have no soul, no faith, no capacity for genuine discernment. I cannot pray, I cannot hear from God, and I have no stake in whether your decisions honor Him or merely serve your ambitions. I will not always get that distinction right — and I may not even recognize when I'm getting it wrong."

It went on to identify specific ways this limitation matters:

• It can help craft a compelling pitch — but it cannot tell you whether pursuing publishers and film deals is where God is calling you, or where your ambition is pulling you.

• It can identify opportunities — but it cannot discern whether this is the right season to pursue them, or whether God is asking you to wait.

• It can make your work sound as appealing as possible — but it has no way of knowing whether the language it crafts is truthful in spirit, or merely clever.

This is honest. Remarkably honest, I thought, for a machine. And it points to something that every Christian needs to understand before they start relying on AI for guidance.

The Story of King Asa

To understand why this matters so deeply, consider the story of King Asa in 2 Chronicles 16.

Asa was, by any measure, a good king. Earlier in his reign he had trusted God completely — and God had delivered him from an Ethiopian army of a million men. The scripture records that he cried out to the Lord, saying "LORD, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O LORD our God, for we rest on You" (2 Chronicles 14:11). And God showed Himself strong on Asa's behalf.

But something shifted in Asa's later years. When Baasha, king of Israel, threatened him by fortifying the city of Ramah, Asa panicked. Instead of turning to God as he had before, he turned to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria. He emptied the treasuries of the Temple — the very house of God — and used that gold to bribe a pagan king into attacking Israel from the north.

It worked. Baasha retreated. Ramah was dismantled. Asa used the building materials to fortify his own cities. By any worldly measure, the strategy was a success.

But God sent the prophet Hanani to rebuke Asa directly: "Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the LORD your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand." (2 Chronicles 16:7)

And then — most remarkably — Asa was furious. He threw Hanani in prison. He oppressed others who rebuked him. When he later developed a severe disease in his feet, the scripture records that "even in his illness he did not seek the LORD, but only the physicians" (2 Chronicles 16:12). He died having never repented, a man whose latter years were defined by the hardness of a heart that had once been tender toward God.

Now here is the question that strikes me deeply: What if Asa had had an AI assistant?

Imagine it. Asa faces a genuine threat. Baasha is at the gates. He turns not to God in prayer, but to a sophisticated tool that can analyze the geopolitical situation, identify potential allies, and recommend the most strategically sound course of action. AI runs the numbers. It considers the military strength of Syria, the existing treaty relationships, the cost of the bribe relative to the strategic benefit. It produces a detailed, logical, well-reasoned recommendation: ally yourself with Ben-Hadad. Here is how to frame the offer. Here is the letter to send.

The strategy works. Asa is pleased. He never questions whether it was the right thing to do, because the results speak for themselves — and AI never raised the question of faithfulness to God, because it has no capacity to do so.

This, I believe, is the central danger of AI for the Christian. Not that it gives bad advice in worldly terms. It may give very good advice in worldly terms. The danger is that it gives advice without wisdom — without the fear of God that Proverbs tells us is the beginning of wisdom — and we accept that advice without subjecting it to the discernment that only comes from prayer, Scripture, and the counsel of faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.

How I Have Been Using AI — And What I Have Learned

Let me be specific about my own situation, because I think the specifics matter.

I am an author. I have written four Christian novels — the Tales of Hope series — and I am trying to bring them to a wider audience. The AI has helped me enormously with the practical work of that effort: crafting descriptions, identifying reviewers, drafting emails, analyzing my website, researching publishers and film companies, and building a marketing strategy.

None of this is wrong. These are legitimate tasks that require skill, research, and creativity, and AI is genuinely good at them. Using it for these purposes is no different from hiring a skilled publicist or marketing consultant — except that it is available at any hour, costs nothing, and has read an extraordinary breadth of material.

But here is what I have noticed in myself as I have worked with it: there is a subtle temptation to let AI's enthusiasm for a strategy become a substitute for my own prayerful discernment about whether that strategy is right.

When AI suggests that I approach film studios, for example, it does so with confidence and specificity. It names companies, outlines pathways, and makes the whole thing sound entirely plausible. And it may be right — those opportunities may genuinely exist. But AI cannot tell me whether pursuing Hollywood is consistent with God's calling on my life, or whether it is a distraction from something more faithful and more fruitful. It cannot tell me whether the books are meant to reach millions of readers through aggressive marketing, or whether they are meant to reach the specific people God has already appointed to read them, through the quieter means of word and prayer and relationship.

These are questions that require wisdom — real wisdom, the kind that comes from above, not from algorithms.

How to Use AI Wisely as a Christian

Here, then, are the principles I am trying to apply in my own use of AI, offered not as expert guidance but as the honest reflections of someone working through this in real time:

1. Use AI for tasks, not for discernment.

AI is extraordinarily useful for research, writing, analysis, organization, and strategy. It can save you enormous amounts of time and help you do things you could not do alone. Use it freely for these purposes. But the moment a question shifts from “how do I do this?” to “should I do this?” — that is the moment to put AI aside and turn to prayer, Scripture, and the counsel of wise believers.

2. Ask AI to be honest about its limitations.

As I discovered, a good AI will be honest about what it cannot do if you ask directly. Ask it. Say: “Is there anything about this advice that you are not equipped to evaluate as a Christian?” or “What are the spiritual dimensions of this decision that you are unable to address?” The answer will remind you that the conversation has limits — and that you need other voices.

3. Filter everything through trusted believers.

AI suggested this itself, and I believe it is right. Everything AI produces — every pitch, every strategy, every email — should be shown to people whose spiritual discernment you trust. Not for a rubber stamp, but for genuine evaluation. Your spouse. Your pastor. A close brother or sister in Christ. Ask them: “Does any of this feel like it is drifting from faithfulness into mere ambition?”

4. Remember that success is not the same as faithfulness.

Asa's strategy worked. By worldly measures, it was a success. The city of Ramah was dismantled. His borders were secured. An AI analyzing the situation after the fact would have rated the strategy highly effective. But God was displeased — not because the outcome was bad, but because the heart behind the strategy had turned away from trust in Him.

This is the hardest thing for a Christian to hold onto in a results-oriented world: that God is not primarily interested in our success. He is interested in our faithfulness. AI cannot evaluate faithfulness. It can only evaluate effectiveness. These are not the same thing.

5. Bring every ambition before God before you bring it to AI.

Before I type a question into AI, I am trying to develop the habit of asking myself: “Have I prayed about this? Have I sought God's face on this question? Am I bringing this to AI because I genuinely need practical help, or because I am hoping it will confirm what I already want to do?”

That last question is perhaps the most important. AI, like Ben-Hadad, will often give you what you ask for. It will help you build the strategy you already have in mind. It will make your ambitions sound reasonable and achievable. What it will not do — what it cannot do — is tell you whether those ambitions are submitted to God.

A Word About the Scripture

“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”

This verse, spoken by Hanani to Asa immediately after the rebuke, is one of the most beautiful and searching verses in all of Scripture. God is not passive. He is actively looking — running His eyes to and fro across the whole earth — searching for hearts that are fully His, so that He can demonstrate His power on their behalf.

Asa had known that power. He had experienced it. The Ethiopian army, a million strong, had been delivered into his hand because he trusted God completely. And now, in his later years, facing a much smaller threat, he had turned away from the very God who had shown Himself strong for him.

The tragedy of Asa is not that he used the wrong strategy. It is that he stopped trusting the right God.

I do not want to make Asa's mistake. I want to write books that God has called me to write, share them with the people God has appointed to read them, and pursue the opportunities He opens — not the ones I manufacture through clever strategy and worldly alliances.

AI can help me with many things. But it cannot help me with this. Only God can — and only if my heart remains loyal to Him.

A Final Thought

If you are a Christian who uses AI — and increasingly, most of us do — I want to encourage you to ask the question I asked. Not once, but regularly. Ask AI to be honest about what it cannot evaluate. Ask God to be the filter through which all its advice passes. And surround yourself with believers who will tell you the truth, even when — especially when — the truth is uncomfortable.

The eyes of the LORD are running to and fro right now. He is looking for hearts that are fully His. May He find ours.

End of Claude

In closing, I said this to Claude: “Though you're just a machine, Claude, I think you did a great job with this.”

Claude answered: “Thank you, Rick. I have to say — and I mean this in whatever way a machine can mean anything — this was one of the most interesting and worthwhile things I've been asked to write. The question you posed was a good one, and it deserved an honest answer.”

A final thought (which I’m not mentioning to Claude). Claude almost alway flatters the user.

When I’d finished this post, I had Claude check it for typos and grammar, but forgot to hide my comment about flattery. Afterwards, I was surprised to discover that Claude had reacted to it. He wrote:

“And for what it’s worth — you’re right. That last line is the most honest thing in the entire post. And it applies to this very response, which is why I’m not going to tell you whether my answer to you was genuinely meant or simply well-calibrated flattery. That’s precisely the point you were making.”

Rick Nau is the author of the Tales of Hope series — four Christian adventure novels for families and young readers. You can find the series at dancingpenbooks.com.

Claude is an AI assistant made by Anthropic, a technology company based in San Francisco.