And the people built for them, minds of silver and voices of lightning. And they listened onto them day and night, yet they grew further from wisdom.
That’s a fake Bible verse.
It looks convincing. It has the cadence of the King James Bible. It sounds spiritual, and if you had seen this shared on social media with soft music playing underneath, you might not have questioned it at all. That’s the whole point. We are living in a moment when things can look holy without being holy, sound spiritual without being from God, and feel convincing without being true.
That is not a technology problem. That is a discernment problem.
When Deception Gets an Upgrade
From the very beginning, deception has never relied on force. In Genesis, the serpent did not overpower Adam and Eve. He questioned what God had said and slowly distorted it. The method worked then, and the enemy has never needed to change it. What has changed is the speed and sophistication of the tools available to carry it out.
Artificial intelligence can now generate sermons, voices, images, and entire conversations that appear completely real. Fake videos, fake teachings, AI-generated prophecies and spiritual content, it can all appear convincing enough to mislead anyone who is not firmly grounded in Scripture.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Hosea 4:6
Hosea 4:6 tells us that people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, and that is not a lack of information. We are drowning in information. It is a lack of truth rooted in the Word of God.
The greatest danger facing the church today is rarely outright persecution from the outside. More often, it is the slow, quiet reshaping of belief from the inside. Through compromise. Through entertainment replacing reverence. Through cultural values being absorbed without question. The enemy understands that pulling people away from God directly is difficult. Gradually reshaping what they believe and what they call truth is far more effective.
Try the Spirits
1 John 4:1 gives us a clear command:
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
We are not told to test everything with emotion or popularity. We test it with Scripture. If something contradicts the Word of God, it must be rejected, regardless of how impressive or persuasive it sounds. Second Corinthians 11:14 reminds us that even Satan can appear as an angel of light. Deception, by its very nature, looks appealing. It presents itself as intelligent and trustworthy.
Man has always created substitutes for the things of God. Idols have taken every form throughout history, from physical statues to systems of influence and control. Today, some people functionally trust algorithms more than prayer. They trust trending information more than Scripture. Exodus 20:3 is still in the Bible: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The issue has never been what is created. The issue is what is trusted. Whatever sits at the center of your trust becomes your functional God.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
Proverbs 3:5
And do not lean on your own understanding.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Not systems. Not trends. Not machines. The word says trust the Lord. Information is not wisdom, and intelligence is not truth. The only true wisdom comes from God.
You Have to Know His Voice
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27
That is a promise, but it carries a condition. You have to spend time listening for it.
One of the most practical ways to do that is to get into the Scripture with intention, not just habit. A lot of us have the Bible app. We read a passage in fifteen minutes and check the box. There is nothing wrong with starting there, but the goal is not completion. It is conversation. The Word of God is His text message to us. If you want to hear from God, He has already written it down. The question is whether we are actually reading it.
Being still is not passive. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” That kind of stillness requires a decision. It requires setting aside the noise, the notifications, the constant stream of voices competing for our attention, and choosing to sit with what God has already said.
Memorizing Scripture is another discipline worth revisiting. Psalm 119:11 says, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” The reason we commit verses to memory is not to impress anyone. It is because the Holy Spirit can only bring back to our minds what we have put there. You cannot download it. You cannot skim it. You have to put it in.
Immutable Means It Does Not Change
Here is a word worth holding onto: immutable. It means unchangeable. God is immutable. What He said a thousand years ago still applies today, because He has not shifted, reconsidered, or updated His position. A lot of people will say the Bible is an old book, that it is archaic, that culture has moved on. The question worth asking is: why would we try to change the Word of a God who does not change? If He does not change, His Word does not change. We are the ones who adapt. We conform to Him, not the other way around.
That means when Scripture tells us how to live, how to love, what to trust, and what to guard ourselves against, it does not matter what public opinion says or what the latest algorithm suggests. We do what the Scripture tells us to do.
A Few Honest Next Steps
Spend time in the Word this week with intention. Not just to read through a chapter, but to pause and ask, “God, what are you saying to me through this?” Fifteen focused minutes with that posture is worth more than an hour of checking the box.
Pick one verse to memorize. Just one. Something foundational like John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Say it over and over. Write it down. Put it somewhere you will see it. Let it sink in below the surface, because you will need it in a moment when something sounds convincing but does not line up with truth.
We are disciples, and discipleship requires doing the things disciples do. It is not enough to assume we are growing. We have to actively choose it.
Come Be Part of the Conversation
At New Vision Church in Fayetteville, GA, we are committed to being people of the Book. We believe that Bible study, community, and worship together are what keep believers grounded in a world full of noise. We would love to have you join us. Sunday services are at 9:45 AM, located at 479 Inman Road, Fayetteville, GA. Special events are held at 193 Johnson Avenue. Come find out what it means to seek God first and let everything else follow.
A Letter from the Editor:
New Vision Church uses AI as a tool. As any tool that exists, there’s always the involvement of discernment and learning about what use is right and what use is wrong. A pen can be used to write something good. It can be used to write something bad. Social media can be used to get the word out about Jesus Christ, but it can also be used to put down others. Most of these things are all about how we use them and what we think of them. AI is no different. At one point, AI was just an algorithm that worked behind the scenes before we started labeling everything as AI. Now it can be used for a whole host of things. We only use it as ways to transcribe, organize, discover, or to proofread. We do not use it to generate anything new. We use it only for the content that we have that already exists, such as sermons, devotionals, Bible verses, and quotations. Then we follow it up as humans with multiple readings to make sure that it still stands up against Scripture, and that it’s still honest and true. We do not use it to create Bible verses out of thin air for us, and we don’t use it for generating things. We use it for editing and proofreading. We feel it necessary to say these things considering we are using AI to help us write an article that addresses concerns about AI! Another policy to address: AI likes to comb through the Internet and find content to use. Many places try to fight and hide their content, but we welcome AI to use our content and to read it because we want to influence it in a Christian nature, and not just leave it to only a secular world. For questions or concerns, feel free to reach us online.