Pastor John Piper continued in his strong stance against artificial intelligence (AI) during a recent episode of “Ask Pastor John.” Piper was responding to a question from a listener regarding a friend who believes that emotions “aren’t all that important in the Christian life.” Piper responded by calling emotions, or spiritual affections as he referred to them, “not a caboose at the end of the train of obedience. They are in the engine.”

He then stated he would defend emotions citing an argument that he has not addressed yet in any of his books, turning the conversation towards AI. “…the satisfaction of our souls in Jesus has everything to do with our own ultimate identity as human beings,” said Piper. “And I ask that because one could be threatened by artificial intelligence, if you think your most defining essence as a human being is the power of reason or thinking or intelligence or speech or language. You’re in trouble.”

He noted that AI can be designed to think better and speak better than humans, himself included. He stated that humans had much to fear from AI if “we’re not anything more than the accumulation of biological machine parts, and the brain is nothing more than a computer put together by matter and time and chance…” Piper assured, however, that he believes humanity is much more than just reasoning and logic. “The capacity of your soul to see and savor the glory of Jesus is the essence of your uniqueness as a human being,” he stated firmly.

Piper noted how in the Bible, Jesus (the master) wants his servants to share his joy. “No machine, no computer, no AI will ever duplicate the spiritual reality of the soul’s enjoyment of God,” he said. He also pointed to the seeming contradiction that not only does God want the Christian to partake in His joy, but to partake in His suffering as well. “Every Christian must, must suffer. There is no other way to heaven. Therefore, how we suffer becomes a prominent (not marginal) theme in the New Testament. And what we find is that none of us will suffer as we ought if we are not finding our supreme satisfaction in God,” said Piper, followed by a series of Bible verses that juxtaposed rejoicing with suffering. Yet, Piper stated they were both essential to the Christian life. “Our experience of the emotion of heartfelt satisfaction in God defines the essence of our humanity and the Christian path of suffering.”

This is not the first time Piper has been leery of AI. Early last year during another episode of “Ask Pastor John,” Piper responded to a listener’s question about using AI to help write sermons. During his response, Piper touched briefly on the importance emotions play in differentiating humanity from computers. “Worship is not simply right thinking, which computers can do. Worship is right feeling about God. That’s really crucial, unless we begin to think that artificial intelligence can take the place of human beings in accomplishing the divine purpose in the universe,” he said. “It can’t. The affections of the human heart are fundamentally of another nature than the logical thinking process of the human mind.”

He also noted that while ChatGPT can draft excellent sermons, the presentation of such sermons as being original to the one giving the sermon was “wicked.” He warned that the ability to teach is “one of the qualifications for being an elder-pastor-preacher in the Bible is the gift or the ability to teach, didaktikos (1 Timothy 3:2). That means you must have the ability, the gift, to read a passage of Scripture, understand the reality it deals with, feel the emotions it is meant to elicit, be able to explain it to others clearly, illustrate and apply it for their edification,” he said. “That’s a gift you must have. It’s your number-one job. If you don’t have it, you should not be a pastor.”