The MinistryAI Academy

The Preeminence of Christ in AI

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. (Colossians 1:18)

The Ultimate Human

The sleek laboratory hummed with the quiet purr of quantum computers. Dr. Sarah Chen stood before her life's work—an artificial intelligence system that had just achieved something remarkable. Yet instead of triumph, she felt a deep unease. 

Her team had programmed the AI to learn what it means to be human by crunching billions of human behaviors, decisions, and interactions. But as she reviewed the results, she realized they had missed something fundamental: You cannot understand true humanity without understanding Christ.

This insight strikes at the heart of our technological age. As we race to create artificial minds that mimic human intelligence, we often forget that Jesus Christ himself is the ultimate human—the perfect embodiment of what humanity was meant to be. 

Theologian Millard Erickson reminded us: 

• For the type of human nature that each of us possesses is not pure human nature. The true humanity created by God has in our case been corrupted and spoiled. There have only been three pure human beings: Adam and Eve (before the fall), and Jesus. All the rest of us are but broken, corrupted versions of humanity. Jesus is not only as human as we are; He is more human. Our humanity is not a standard by which we are to measure His. His humanity, true and unadulterated, is the standard by which we are to be measured. [Christian Theology]

Only Jesus embodies the true, uncorrupted humanity that God intended, serving as the ultimate standard for what it means to be truly human.

He is not merely our example; He is our life. In Him, we see humanity as God intended it, unmarred by sin, fully alive in relationship with the Father.

When Paul declares in Colossians that Christ is to "have the preeminence" in all things, he's not just making a statement about divine hierarchy. He's revealing the non-negotiable secret of authentic human existence. Our humanity finds its fullest expression not in independence or technological advancement, but in vital connection to the One who is "the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence."

Reigning in Life

This understanding transforms how we approach artificial intelligence and every other human endeavor. 

St. Paul affirms implications of Christ’s preeminence that are staggeringly beautiful: “those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).

The believer “reigns in life.” Child of God. That’s you, if you have Jesus. 

For Paul, the kingship of Christ does not subjugate human nature, it elevates it. We rise to our truest royalty in Him. 

Christ’s reign isn’t for our domination; it’s for our dominion—living in the fullness of our humanity as we were designed to live.

Christ came to unbury you from the avalanche of sin’s devastation. He came to make you YOU, with all the color added. He came to make you “free indeed” (John 8:36). 

Consider Scripture’s magnificent chain of human liberation: Sin no longer reigns (Romans 5:21). Death no longer reigns (Romans 5:17). Satan no longer reigns (Ephesians 2:2-6). Instead, we reign in life, through the One, Jesus Christ.

It is only whenever and wherever Christ's preeminence is acknowledged that human life flourishes. 

• Innovation serves rather than supplants human dignity. 
• Ethics become grounded in something more substantial than shifting cultural consensus. 
• Technology is intentionally constrained by a human-first moral code.
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ stands supreme as the way of salvation, both for individuals and for society

The Looming Crisis

When Christ's preeminence is denied, contradicted, or ignored, however, we open a Pandora's box of anti-human likelihoods. Technology, untethered from divine wisdom, doesn't merely risk becoming a force for dehumanization—it inevitably becomes a diabolical weapon of anti-human mass destruction.

The Beast is here. 

This is the essence of the AI catastrophe we now face. If AI is, by definition, the sum and substance of human understanding made instantly accessible and almost infinitely usable, we proceed at our peril. 

Because there is a devastating brokenness woven into all human understanding by the Fall: 

• ...having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. (Ephesians 4:18-19)

By unleashing AI, we are unleashing a force more powerful than any of us can yet fathom, without yet acknowledging that AI itself is infected by the data of fallen humanity. 

AI is crawling with sin at its core. This nexus of morally broken super-intelligence with raw computing power creates a deadly combination—a massive threat to human flourishing that we cannot erase.

When Christ’s preeminence is denied, contradicted, or ignored, we open a Pandora's box of anti-human likelihoods. Technology, untethered from divine wisdom, can quickly become a force for dehumanization, and instantly a diabolical weapon of anti-human mass destruction. 

Welcome to the Age of AI. 

You’ve been warned. 

Armor for the Age of AI

Dr. Chen's idealistic story, while inspiring, is unlikely.

Most AI systems under development today operate without any recognition of Christ's preeminence or even of basic human dignity derived from divine image-bearing. They are being trained on human behavior divorced from any understanding of true humanity as revealed in Christ. These realities present us with both a challenge and an opportunity.

The challenge is clear: How do we maintain our humanity in a world increasingly shaped by artificial minds that neither know nor acknowledge Christ's lordship? How do we discern truth from falsehood, wisdom from mere intelligence, genuine human flourishing from its synthetic counterfeits?

In other words, how do we remain free from domination by well-meaning but tyrannical AI Overlords? 

My proposed answer will make some scratch their heads, many scoff, and a rare handful cheer. Please hear me out. 

My proposed answer is an updated and adapted inculcation in the Christian Liberal Arts augmented by a healthy dose of old-fashioned biblical theology and coupled with a commitment to adapt the best that AI offers for the cause of Christ and the Gospel. 

There has never been a more important time for AI studies built on Christian Liberal Arts. Only such studies, properly defined under Christ's preeminence and properly embodied in local communities, can offer us the armor we need for the threats we face. 

This is the Armor of God in the Age of AI. 

Take Dominion

I propose a bold course of preparation and an even bolder course of participation. 

1. PREPARATION: Our first goal is to equip humans to live boldly and unashamedly under Christ’s lordship in a world where most AI systems will not. 
2. PARTICIPATION: Our second goal is to provide an insistent and incessant voice of Christ’s grace and truth in the ongoing development of AI. 

The simple fact is that Christ will not be manifestly preeminent wherever the church will not manifestly live out our God-given dominion. 

So let’s plunge in unabashedly and speak into the development of AI. Let’s have Christians lead the way. We can’t afford to indulge the separatistic impulses of yesterday—impulses that gave us modern day Babylons like Hollywood and secular universities. 

We have to be fully plugged in thought leaders, jumping wholeheartedly into the battle for human existence. 

The path ahead may be challenging, but we walk it with confidence, hand and hand with Jesus, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).