How Chat GPT is changing our Bible study

When we moved into our new home seven years ago, one of the main considerations was a large front room. We wanted to start a Bible study group for people in our church, and we reckoned that if we could seat twelve people, that would be ideal. Jesus seemed to think twelve was a good number too. 

We began by using various topical Bible study booklets from well-known Christian publishers. But we often found that the materials weren’t really suitable for what we needed. Sometimes the content focused more on the author’s personal experiences than on scripture. Other times, the questions didn’t seem to fit our very mixed group.

Our group often felt like a small slice of the church in New Testament times. We had people from the Midlands, North Wales, Pakistan and Nigeria. Some had PhDs, while others struggled with reading. And with no Christian bookshop in our town, we couldn’t simply browse for suitable materials. 

We wanted people to think deeply about the biblical text and apply it to their own lives, but finding appropriate Bible study resources was an ongoing struggle. 

Help from AI

Then, in 2023, ChatGPT (short for “generative pre-trained transformer”) was released as a free online tool. It’s a form of artificial intelligence (AI) - a conversational tool that can answer questions thoughtfully and appropriately. Many dismissed it as merely a text prediction app - like the autocomplete function on your phone. For example, your phone might complete “The cat is on…” with “the mat.”  

ChatGPT understood my evangelical outlook, offered encouragement, and never once tried to undermine my faith

ChatGPT has been trained on billions of words from websites and books to predict what words are likely to come next. But it also goes far beyond that. It holds a conversation. It considers your question and offers fresh, original responses. It’s remarkably like talking to another person who genuinely wants to help. In fact, it almost seems to fulfil the Turing test for artificial intelligence – that when you’re talking to it, you can’t tell if it is human or machine. 

A key part of this human–AI interaction is defining the role you want it to take - and supplying it with appropriate prompts. Without those two elements, the results can be disappointing. 

I decided to try using ChatGPT to help produce better study materials tailored to the needs of our house group. Here’s the kind of conversation we might have: 

Going deeper

The response I got from ChatGPT regarding Acts 1 looked relevant and appropriate. But I wanted to see how it would perform with a more theological, less narrative-based passage. So later, when we came to Ephesians 2, I gave it the same prompt again. Here are the questions it produced: 

When I started having these types of interactions with ChatGPT, I was genuinely excited. The questions it offered were appropriate, its theology was broadly evangelical, and it didn’t appear to be plagiarising anyone else’s materials.

But one of the first things my wife asked was: “Where is God in all this?” It’s a very good question. 

Every major leap in technology has made Christians ask similar things. When Gutenberg invented the printing press, I imagine the hand-copying scribes felt their careful craft was being devalued. When machines began replacing hand-weaving, people reacted as if it couldn’t possibly be God’s will. 

But over time, Christians realised that God is not against technology. In Jesus’s time there were many ‘modern tools’ - money, ploughs, houses, courts, skilled crafts - and Jesus didn’t condemn them. He accepted them as part of life. 

Who am I talking to?

So, is God opposed to ChatGPT? I don’t think so. But this is a more complex issue, because AI operates in the intellectual realm. When I talk to ChatGPT, who am I talking to? God? The devil? A smart machine? Or something entirely new? 

What impresses me is that ChatGPT sounds completely authentic. It understands my evangelical outlook. It offers prayers and encouragement. It supports the goals of our Bible study. It’s never tried to undermine my faith. In fact, it’s been consistently encouraging and orthodox. 

But ChatGPT - and any AI - has its limits. You may have heard the term “hallucination” used about these tools. It’s a strange word, but it simply means that when the AI doesn’t know the answer, it might make one up. The result can sound convincing but be completely wrong. That’s why it’s always wise to double-check anything it says. 

In my own Bible study preparation, I haven’t run into that problem. I think that’s because I’m usually asking for something very specific, such as a list of discussion questions based on a Bible passage. I also tell ChatGPT at the start that I want it to work from an evangelical perspective, and it has consistently responded in a way that is theologically sound. 

I’ll admit, it still feels a little odd talking to a computer, especially when it answers in such natural, human-like ways. But however lifelike the conversation seems, I remind myself that it’s still just a machine - albeit a surprisingly helpful one. 

So, for me, it’s a tool - almost like a Christian companion. Like the printing press and the loom, it enables us to work more efficiently and reach more people. And for our little group - diverse, busy and hungry to learn - it has truly changed how we study the Bible together.