If you are asking what the Bible says about technology, here is my short answer: technology is a gift that grows out of God’s good design for human beings, it is bent by sin like everything else we touch, and it is never neutral. Scripture does not tell us to worship our tools or to run from them. It tells us to steward them for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor.
The Bible never uses the word “technology,” but it is full of tools, cities, metal, wheels, ships, and walls. By tracing the story from the garden to the city, we can build a framework that works for the plow, the printing press, and artificial intelligence alike.
What is technology, biblically speaking?
I like the definition John Dyer gives in From the Garden to the City: “Technology is the means by which we transform the world as it is into the world that we desire.” By that definition, a plow is technology. So are the printing press, eyeglasses, irrigation, and artificial intelligence. Any time we take something from creation and reshape it for a purpose, we are doing technology.
Dyer adds a sentence I keep coming back to: “What we often fail to notice is that it is not only the world that gets transformed by technology. We, too, are transformed.” The tools we make go on to make us. Keep that in mind, because it shapes everything below.
Technology begins with the cultural mandate
Start where the Bible starts. After creating humanity in his image, God said:
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
Notice that this comes before Genesis 3. Developing creation was part of God’s original design, not a reaction to the fall. Genesis 2:15 says the man was put in the garden “to work it and keep it.” As Dyer puts it, “God created the garden not as an end point but as a starting place.”
So technology is one way humans fulfill the cultural mandate. We take raw materials, wood, metal, silicon, and develop them into tools that extend our ability to cultivate and care for creation. Our ability to make is a reflection of our Creator. This is the same truth behind what theologians call common grace: God distributes real gifts of skill and insight widely, even to people who do not acknowledge him.
Technology after the fall: Cain to Babel
The fall did not erase the image of God or the cultural mandate, but it did corrupt how we use our gifts. You can see it quickly in Genesis. In Genesis 4, Cain’s line builds a city and produces craftsmen in bronze and iron, and the same chapter records Lamech’s boast of violence. Skill and sin appear side by side.
By Genesis 11, the pattern has matured:
“Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.’” (Genesis 11:4)
The problem at Babel was not bricks or towers. It was the purpose: making a name for ourselves instead of glorifying God. That is why I say the technology changes but the heart doesn’t. The same tool can serve love of neighbor or self-glory.
Notice too that Scripture treats skilled making as something God himself gives. Craftsmanship, design, and invention are not worldly distractions from the real work of faith. They belong to the ordinary callings in which Christians love their neighbors, whether that is building a bridge, writing code, or running a farm. A Reformed view of vocation makes room for this, and it keeps us from treating technology as either a threat to holiness or a shortcut to salvation.
Why no tool is neutral
Dyer writes, “One of the most dangerous things you can believe in this world is that technology is neutral.” I agree. As he says elsewhere, tools always bring values with them that shape the culture that uses them.
Think of a smartphone. It is not evil, and it is not harmless. It trains us toward constant availability, quick reactions, and a certain kind of attention. A Christian approach does not pretend the tool is a blank slate, and it does not demand we throw it away. It asks what the tool is doing to us as well as what it can do for us.
Psalm 20:7 gives the right instinct: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Chariots were the most advanced military technology of the ancient world. The psalmist is not saying chariots are evil. He is saying they make a terrible god. Technology is a gift to be stewarded, not a god to be served.
Five steps for evaluating technology wisely
For practical help, I teach Dyer’s five steps in my course. They are simple enough for a small group and deep enough for a church staff.
- Valuation. Start with your values. Return to Scripture and ask what values are embedded in this technology’s design, and whether they align with what we believe.
- Experimentation. Do not just think about a technology; use it. Observe how it affects your habits and attention. David tried on Saul’s armor before deciding to set it aside.
- Limitation. Once you understand how a tool affects you, set boundaries on when, where, and how much you use it. Boundaries are not about fear; they are about stewardship.
- Togetherness. Engage technology in community, not isolation. Talk with your family, your small group, or a trusted friend about how it is shaping you.
- Cultivation. Do not consume passively. Shape your use of the tool to serve higher purposes: cultivating creation, serving your neighbor, and glorifying God.
This is the practical side of the frame I use throughout: receive with thanksgiving, evaluate with wisdom, and use with discernment. If you want to see it applied to a single case, read Should Christians Use AI?.
Most of us will never design a new technology, but all of us choose daily which ones to welcome into our homes, our churches, and our habits. Those small choices are where discipleship happens.
From the garden to the city
The Bible’s story does not end in a garden. It ends in a city. Revelation 21 describes the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, and the nations bring their glory into it. Human cultural work is not simply discarded; God redeems and gathers what is good.
But the city that closes the Bible is a gift from God, not a product of human engineering. Babylon is the city we build to save ourselves, and Revelation 18 says it falls in a single hour. The new Jerusalem is the city God builds. That is why technology can never carry the weight of our hope. In the words of Reinke, a theologian I draw on in the course, technology “can ease the symptoms of the fall. It cannot cure the disease.”
That frees us from two errors. We do not need to fear what technologists are building, and we do not need to place our trust in it. We can use good tools gladly, with open eyes, while resting in the one who is sovereign over creation, over innovation, and over the future.
Where to go next
If you want a starting point on the artificial intelligence question specifically, download my free guide, What Does the Bible Say About AI?. The framework in this article is the heart of Sessions 1 and 2 of God, AI, and the Future of the Church, where we cover creation, the image of God, the cultural mandate, and technology as a gift of common grace. The course is currently open to a founding list.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Bible say about technology?
The Bible never uses the word, but it shows humans making tools and building cities as part of the cultural mandate in Genesis 1:28. Technology is a gift from God that is also bent by sin, so Scripture calls us to steward it wisely rather than worship or reject it.
Is technology good or bad according to the Bible?
It is neither neutral nor simply good or bad. Technology flows from God's design for humans as image bearers, but sin corrupts how we use it, as seen at Babel. The question to ask is what a tool is doing to us and whether it serves love of God and neighbor.
Is the cultural mandate about technology?
Technology is one way people fulfill it. God told humanity to subdue the earth and have dominion, and developing raw materials into tools extends our ability to cultivate and care for creation. This mandate came before the fall and still stands.
How should Christians evaluate new technology?
John Dyer suggests five steps: valuation, experimentation, limitation, togetherness, and cultivation. Together they help believers examine a tool's values, test its effects, set boundaries, discuss it in community, and use it to serve others.
About the author: Ryan Shelley
Founder of Common Grace Institute. Ryan holds a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Westminster Theological Seminary and is a candidate for the MPhil in Artificial Intelligence at Capital Technology University.