Every few months it feels like there’s a new headline about artificial intelligence—a new model, a new capability, a new warning. If you’ve felt a flicker of unease scrolling past those headlines, you’re not alone. But here’s where we need to start this series: God’s sovereignty over AI means none of this caught Him off guard.
That might sound obvious when you say it out loud. Of course, God is not surprised by anything. But it is worth thinking, because fear rarely announces itself as bad theology—it just quietly assumes God is reacting to the world instead of reigning over it.
Nothing New Under the Sun
Scripture has a long memory when it comes to human innovation. The invention of writing, the printing press, the telegraph, and the internet—each one, in its moment, felt like it was reshaping the world faster than anyone could keep up with. Each one also raised real questions about truth, power, and what it means to be human. AI is the latest chapter in a very old story, not an unprecedented one.
Isaiah 46:9-10 puts it plainly: God declares “the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.” Not in vague terms—specifically, confidently, ahead of time. If God can speak the end of history before it unfolds, a language model trained on human text is not going to catch Him flat-footed.
Held Together, Not Falling Apart
Colossians 1:16-17 goes even further. It says all things were created through Christ and for Him—and that “in him all things hold together.” Not most things. Not the parts we understand. All things. That includes the servers, the algorithms, and the people writing the code.
This does not mean every use of AI is automatically good or that we should stop thinking critically about it. It means the ground under our feet has not actually moved. The same God who held the universe together before AI existed is holding it together now.
Why This Matters for How You Read the Rest of This Series
Over the next 13 days, we’re going to look honestly at what AI can and cannot do, where it helps us, and where it tempts us to shortcut something sacred—prayer, wisdom, community, or conscience. Some of it will be practical. Some of it will be a little uncomfortable.
But we are starting here, with God’s sovereignty over AI, on purpose. Because if you read the rest of this series from a posture of fear, you will come away anxious. If you read it from a posture of trust—knowing that God is not scrambling to respond to the twenty-first century—you will come away with discernment instead. That is the goal: not fear, and not naive enthusiasm either, but a settled confidence that lets you engage AI with clear eyes.
A Question to Sit With
Before the next post, take a moment with this: What is one place where AI has made you feel uneasy—about the future, about your job, about humanity, about truth itself? Now ask: does that fear assume God is in control, or does it quietly assume He is not?
You don’t need an answer right away. Just notice it. That’s where real trust starts.
I invite you to say this prayer.
Father, You are not surprised by anything I am facing today—not the pace of change, not the questions I cannot answer, not the future I cannot see. Thank You that You hold all things together, including this moment. Where I have felt anxious about what is ahead, replace that fear with trust. Teach me to walk into this new season with wisdom instead of worry. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
This is Part 1 of a 7-part series, “Not a Surprise to God: Faith in the Age of AI.” Part 2, “What Makes Us Human,” publishes Wednesday, September 9.
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