{"id":14894,"date":"2026-04-24T11:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=14894"},"modified":"2026-04-24T11:08:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:08:20","slug":"john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html","title":{"rendered":"John Piper Says This is One Thing AI Can\u2019t Do When it Comes to God"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Desiring God \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pastor John Piper continued in his strong stance against artificial intelligence (AI) during a recent episode of \u201cAsk Pastor John<\/a>.\u201d Piper was responding to a question from a listener regarding a friend who believes that emotions \u201caren\u2019t all that important in the Christian life.\u201d Piper responded by calling emotions, or spiritual affections as he referred to them, \u201cnot a caboose at the end of the train of obedience. They are in the engine.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201c\u2026the\u00a0satisfaction<\/em>\u00a0of our souls in Jesus has everything to do with our own ultimate identity as human beings,\u201d said Piper. \u201cAnd 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\u2019re in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cwe\u2019re 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\u2026\u201d Piper assured, however, that he believes humanity is much more than just reasoning and logic. \u201cThe capacity of your soul to see and savor the glory of Jesus is the essence of your uniqueness as a human being,\u201d he stated firmly.<\/p>\n

Piper noted how in the Bible, Jesus (the master) wants his servants to share his joy. \u201cNo machine, no computer, no AI will ever duplicate the spiritual reality of the soul\u2019s enjoyment of God,\u201d 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. \u201cEvery Christian must,\u00a0must<\/em>\u00a0suffer. 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,\u201d 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. \u201cOur experience of the emotion of heartfelt satisfaction in God defines the essence of our humanity and the Christian path of suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Piper has been leery of AI. Early last year during another episode<\/a> of \u201cAsk Pastor John,\u201d Piper responded to a listener\u2019s question about using AI to help write sermons. During his response, Piper touched briefly on the importance emotions play in differentiating humanity from computers. \u201cWorship is not simply right thinking, which computers can do. Worship is right feeling about God. That\u2019s 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,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can\u2019t. The affections of the human heart are fundamentally of another nature than the logical thinking process of the human mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cwicked.\u201d He warned that the ability to teach is \u201cone 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,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a gift you must have. It\u2019s your number-one job. If you don\u2019t have it, you should not be a pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor John Piper continued in his strong stance against artificial intelligence (AI) during a recent episode of \u201cAsk Pastor John.\u201d Piper was responding to a question from a listener regarding a friend who believes that emotions \u201caren\u2019t all that important in the Christian life.\u201d Piper responded by calling emotions, or spiritual affections as he referred…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":14897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Piper Says This is One Thing AI Can\u2019t Do When it Comes to God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Piper says AI can\u2019t match human worship, emotion, or the soul\u2019s joy in Jesus, reaffirming spiritual affections in Christian life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Piper Says This is One Thing AI Can\u2019t Do When it Comes to God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Piper says AI can\u2019t match human worship, emotion, or the soul\u2019s joy in Jesus, reaffirming spiritual affections in Christian life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T15:08:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/John-Piper_credit-Desiring-God-YouTube.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"John Piper Says This is One Thing AI Can\u2019t Do When it Comes to God","description":"John Piper says AI can\u2019t match human worship, emotion, or the soul\u2019s joy in Jesus, reaffirming spiritual affections in Christian life.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"John Piper Says This is One Thing AI Can\u2019t Do When it Comes to God","og_description":"John Piper says AI can\u2019t match human worship, emotion, or the soul\u2019s joy in Jesus, reaffirming spiritual affections in Christian life.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2026-04-24T15:08:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/John-Piper_credit-Desiring-God-YouTube.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html","name":"John Piper Says This is One Thing AI Can\u2019t Do When it Comes to God","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/John-Piper_credit-Desiring-God-YouTube.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-24T15:08:20+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-24T15:08:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"John Piper says AI can\u2019t match human worship, emotion, or the soul\u2019s joy in Jesus, reaffirming spiritual affections in Christian life.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/John-Piper_credit-Desiring-God-YouTube.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/John-Piper_credit-Desiring-God-YouTube.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Desiring God \/ YouTube"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/john-piper-says-this-is-one-thing-ai-cant-do-when-it-comes-to-god.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"John Piper Says This is One Thing AI Can\u2019t Do When it Comes to God"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/","name":"Christ News Today","description":"Christian News From Around the Globe","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14900,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14894\/revisions\/14900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}