In Defense of AI Grace Songs

Is AI getting on your nerves?

Me too.

Have we not entered into a season of great frustration with “AI slop” showing up everywhere? Our FB feeds and photos and videos and memes are now filled with “AI slop.” And I’m seeing pushback against all things AI, and I can totally understand. Give me something real! Something true! I hate not knowing what’s real!

Almost feels like that’s the point, doesn’t it?

But I would ask you to not lump our AI Grace Songs with all the other typical “AI slop.”

We don’t press a button and a song pops out.

AI doesn’t do our thinking for us. We have to think through the concept and the lyrics and give AI direction. We work hard on our lyrics. We want the doctrine to be right. We want the words to be moving and the choruses memorable. We want it to be fun at times.

On the podcast, I make no bones about the fact that I’ll use any tool I can to create great lyrics – my wife, ChatGPT, rhyming dictionaries – I don’t care. I want great lyrics.

BUT we heavily revise our lyrics in Word. We have to. No one and nothing will ever give us lyrics that accurately reflect the doctrines of grace. We grace believers have to do the work. We have to be hands on throughout the process to get the songs right. We sometimes agonize over rhymes. And let me tell you – compromises you make just so you can have a clever rhyme can sometimes have bad theological implications.

We have to be hands-on to get the results we want.

But that is also great fun.

Then, we copy & paste our lyrics into Suno. We insert detailed descriptions about the type of music we want, sometimes even listing the instruments, and we define the vocals we want. Then AI takes all of our input and creates songs for us.

If the lyrics are bad, that’s on us, not AI.

Now I am absolutely capable of making mistakes in the lyrics (and I’m definitely capable of bad taste), but if I publish bad song, that is on ME, not AI.

AI doesn’t control our lyrics. AI doesn’t change our words and sneak in some anti-MAD BAD messaging. It follows our direction precisely and sings the lyrics we give it.

If at any point, we lose any aspect of our control, we will stop making music.

I know this gets said a lot, but it’s true. AI – in this case – is just a tool. AI is nothing more than a tool we use for the purpose of spiritual expression through song. A tool is not morally responsible — people are. A printing press can publish a Bible or pornography. A microphone can proclaim the gospel or heresies. Morality doesn’t lie in the tools themselves but in the hearts and actions of the people using them.

You know, the Bible warns about all kinds of stuff – idolatry, deception, false doctrine, etc., but have you ever noticed that God never warns against new technologies? Christians have always adopted new technologies – the printing press, radio, television, internet.

Of course, Satan has used books, speeches, printing presses, radio, television, and the internet to spread deception. But Christians have also used those same tools to spread the truth about the gospel and right division. The issue is not whether Satan is using certain technologies to deceive. The issue is whether believers are using it faithfully.

The Biblical concern has always been doctrine, not platform or method. The question isn’t, “How was this song generated?” The question is, “What does this song say?”

If a song glorifies Christ, proclaims Biblical grace truth, encourages believers, and communicates sound doctrine, I’d argue its worth should be evaluated on those grounds.

Do you think Satan is happy we’re creating grace songs for believers? Songs about the true gospel of grace, about our identity in Christ, our eternal security, our spiritual blessings, our perfect hope, and our eternal glory? Do you think Satan gets a thrill about grace believers feeling encouraged and strengthened by songs filled with truth and hope?

The only thing Satan is happy about is that we’re only getting 200-300 views per song.

If that.

We know of a lady who used an instrumental mp3 of our AI song “Grace is This,” and she sang that song in church and the people were blessed. Is that so terrible?

We are in the process of using AI to develop songs for children for a church’s Vacation Bible School. The songs are meant to coincide with the theme.

Is any of this somehow morally wrong because we’re using AI?

The End Times Argument

“But Joel!!! You don’t get it at all!!! AI is setting the stage for the end times!!” “AI will be used for the Mark of the Beast!!!”

No, dear saint, that is not the case.

Technology will be dead in the Tribulation. How do you think technology and AI is going to somehow survive during the first 3 ½ years of the Tribulation with all the wars, rumors of wars, economic devastation, plagues, famine, multiple global earthquakes, balls of fire, grass and trees burning up, water turning to blood, hail that’s on fire, freaky locusts with stingers getting into everything, AND there will be 200 million fiery horses from Heaven shooting fire and brimstone out of their mouths?

Make no mistake. Technology will be dead in the first half of the Tribulation.

So how will the mark of the beast be implemented? Demonically.

AI Exists to Deceive You Argument

“But Joel!!! You don’t understand! AI is different! AI is all about getting into your head and getting you addicted to it so that you’re letting it do all of your thinking for you and then you’ll be deceived! It exists for this reason! It’s already deceived people!”

Think about what you’re saying.

You’re not arguing against AI. You’re arguing for discernment.

Are you going to give up using the internet because it’s full of deception? No. How about TV shows, movies, books, articles? Are you going to avoid talking to people from now on because they might try to deceive you? No. Are you going to hide in a closet the rest of your life? No. Why not? How are you going to protect yourself from deception?

Through the Word and your ability to discern.

You will continue to use discernment like everything else in life. You can’t hide in a corner and avoid all the deception that exists in the world. You have to go out into the world, face the deception head-on having the Word of God built up in your soul.

Besides – if you’re letting AI do all of your thinking for you, whose fault is that?

Let me ask another question. How much do you really study your Bible? How many years have you let your pastor (or pastors on YouTube) do all of your theological thinking for you without studying the Word of God for yourself? And think for yourself?

The danger is not in the existence of AI. The danger is in your spiritual / intellectual laziness about studying the Word of God on your own for yourself.

A believer who is unwilling to think critically has bigger issues than AI. The real battlefield is not artificial intelligence. The real battlefield is in what YOU are doing with YOUR mind.

If someone told me, “AI is dangerous because people will stop thinking,” my response would be: “Then don’t stop thinking.”

Drums are Evil Argument

A few times I have been reminded that Satan was in control of music in Heaven (Ezek. 28:13). So… what? Does that mean we can’t have grace songs?

Some would argue that certain musical styles are inherently evil like the late night grace jazz album we put out. It’s just a female singer giving us grace songs in the style of jazz with a trip hop beat. And some would argue that this style of music is inherently evil. How is a style evil? Well, it’s guilty by association with how that style has been used in the past. What musical genre has NOT been used in some way to subvert minds?

Where are the Bible verses telling us that certain styles of music are evil? Does not the moral weight of certain music come from the total package – lyrics, intent, context, presentation, and the overall message that’s being communicated?

When it comes to pure grace music, I would argue that style is irrelevant. It’s just different colored wrapping paper around the same gift. In fact, I would suggest that there is no style that cannot be redeemed and used to glorify God with wonderful grace lyrics.

And then there was the time we were rebuked for having drumbeats because – drumbeats are evil. Where’s the Bible verse in which God laments the evils of a drumbeat?

This person couldn’t use Scripture to argue against a drumbeat. So his argument was that the most evil man alive, Aleister Crowley, loved tribal drums.

Therefore, drums are evil.

If we learned that Aleister Crowley loved cupcakes, does that make cupcakes evil? Do we judge what’s evil by the Word of God or by the personal preferences of Aleister Crowley?

By the way, they used drums in the OT. Have you not read about timbrels? “And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances” (Exo 15:20). Timbrels were hand-held drums like tambourines. All the women used drums along with Miriam and danced.

Speaking of dancing – “And David danced before God with all his might” (1 Chronicles 15:29). Don’t you think there had to have been some high-energy rhythms in all that music for David to be dancing so hard? They were “shouting” and used “the cornet… trumpets… cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps” (1 Chron. 15:28).

Man, they rocked the house in a loud way. You can’t dance to old hymns.

David’s wife, Michal, the daughter of Saul, criticized David bitterly for dancing so hard he was exposing himself. God was not too happy with her complaining about David dancing, and she became barren (2 Sam. 6:20-23). I think God loves dancing.

AI is Putting Musicians Out of Business Argument

Can you name one musician alive now who has built a career on grace songs?

We, as a grace movement, have NEVER had that luxury! We’ve gone all our lives with hardly any grace songs. We have learned to live in a world without grace music.

Tell me, who exactly am I hurting?

Having said that, if a real musician comes along playing real instruments singing real grace songs, I will always elevate that person’s work above mine. Real musicians should be elevated above digital creations. Not only that, any musician who wants to sing grace songs can have unlimited access to use any of our songs for free.

Stick with the Hymns Argument

I love hymns. I’m not anti-hymn at all, but we need to be intellectually honest with ourselves about hymns. Our hymn books are filled with Calvinist landmines.

No grace believer has ever written a classic hymn. All those classic hymns are, without exception, written by Calvinists or Armenians.

We’ve spent our lives compromising on Calvinist songs that didn’t push the TULIP too strongly, but we still encounter many problems. I can’t tell you how many times in our church we’ll sing a classic hymn, but we only sing 3 of the 4 verses because one of those verses is a doctrinal disaster because it’s filled with Calvinist nonsense.

Take John Newton’s “Amazing Grace.” My all-time favorite hymn! John Newton was a dyed-in-the-wool Calvinist. When he wrote “Amazing Grace,” he was actually writing about “Irresistible Grace” – the “I” in the TULIP. He was, in fact, praising God for picking and choosing who gets saved and who doesn’t. It’s subtle but – oh yes – it’s there.

Except nobody interprets “Amazing Grace” that way, because Newton was not a great lyricist. And “Amazing Grace” has always been a Calvinist mantra.

Don’t you realize we have never had grace music to call our own?

This may be bold, but I’ll take our song, “Saved by Grace,” over “Amazing Grace.” We’re not singing about Calvinist nonsense, and we give a clear gospel in our song.

Conclusion

I would again beg you to not lump our AI Grace Songs with all the other typical “AI slop.” And I would also invite you to enjoy our songs simply for what they are and be encouraged.