Ideas and Society

Impatience has always been a spiritual temptation. Scripture is full of examples: Laman and Lemuel demanded signs instead of nurturing faith, and the Israelites—wearied of waiting for Moses—built a golden calf, provoking the Lord’s anger. In the Book of Mormon, we see the same yearning for shortcuts when Oliver Cowdery attempted to translate without first seeking the Spirit. The Lord’s response was instructive—You must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right (D&C 9:8). Oliver was promised the Spirit would confirm truth—not automatically or instantly, but as he humbled himself and exercised faith.

Through the ages, the restless desire for immediate answers has tempted God’s children to bypass the true source of revelation in favor of quicker, easier substitutes. Today, that substitute increasingly arrives in the form of technology—what might be called The Church of the Chatbot. In a culture built for instant gratification, it is unsurprising that many spiritual seekers turn to chatbots and artificial intelligence for counsel. With a few keystrokes, one can receive clear, personalized, and seemingly compassionate responses about God, morality, or comfort in grief.

Unlike the labor of prayer, scripture study, fasting, or seeking counsel from priesthood leaders, a chatbot provides immediacy. If an answer doesn’t satisfy, you can simply rephrase the question until the reply feels right. Always available, never critical, and endlessly adaptable, these digital companions can mimic the empathy of a trusted friend without the demands of accountability or covenantal discipleship.

For a generation raised on texting rather than face-to-face conversation and used to on-demand access to entertainment and information, chatbots feel like a natural extension of spiritual life. Why confess sins in the bishop’s office—where vulnerability is required and repentance is real—when one can disclose them anonymously to an algorithm that offers comforting words but no call to change? Why wrestle with difficult passages in scripture when a chatbot can instantly summarize them in modern phrasing? Why wait upon the Lord when answers can appear instantly in a glowing text box?

For Latter-day Saints—as for people of many faiths—the danger is not only that these tools may sometimes mislead. A deeper risk is that they distort the process by which God intends His children to grow. The Restoration teaches that revelation is not transactional—it is relational. Revelation requires faith, patience, humility, and a willingness to accept answers that may be inconvenient or delayed. When we substitute an algorithm for the Holy Ghost, we bypass the sanctifying struggle that forms discipleship.

Joseph Smith did not ask the nearest wise man or consult a mechanical voice to learn which church was true. He turned to the scriptures, pondered, prayed with real intent, and waited upon the Lord. The heavens opened not because Joseph sought instant reassurance, but because he sought truth with humility and faith.

Revelation is not like searching the internet. It is not a vending machine in which we drop a question and an answer falls out. Revelation requires trust, patience, and a willingness to align our will with God’s, even when His timing differs from ours.

Equally important, Latter-day Saints understand that salvation is not an individual quest for comfort. The restored gospel is not meant to be lived in isolation, and it cannot be replaced by technology. Salvation is a covenant path we walk together. The sacrament, priesthood ordinances, temple covenants, and prophetic counsel are not private or abstract—they are real experiences we share in person, side by side, as part of a community of faith. A chatbot can offer information, but it cannot confer priesthood authority, administer saving ordinances, or walk with us in covenant relationships. Just as Alma’s people at the waters of Mormon found joy in bearing one another’s burdens and standing as witnesses of God together, we too find lasting strength in belonging to a community of saints—something no algorithm can ever replicate.

There is also a question of authority. In the restored gospel, Jesus Christ governs His Church through living prophets and apostles. Their role is not to echo public opinion or tailor answers to our preferences but to declare truth as revealed by God. Chatbots, by contrast, operate by aggregation. They draw on a vast storehouse of human writing and opinion; their replies are mirrors of human thought, not channels of divine will. No chatbot can lay hands on your head and give a blessing. No algorithm can baptize you, seal your family, or stand with you in the temple. To confuse the voice of a chatbot with the voice of God is to replace revelation with imitation—truth with approximation.

Still, the appeal of these tools is understandable, and Latter-day Saints need not dismiss them entirely. When used wisely, chatbots can supplement learning: they can summarize talks, suggest scriptures, and provide helpful historical context. They may even encourage someone who feels too ashamed or isolated to reach out to a real person. But their proper place is as aids—not replacements—for the living channels God has ordained: prayer, scripture, prophets, priesthood, and the whisperings of the Holy Ghost.

The Lord warned in Doctrine and Covenants 50:23 that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness. Instant comfort that demands no change may soothe, but it rarely sanctifies. True discipleship requires wrestling, waiting, and submitting our will to God. That process can be uncomfortable, but it is through that very stretching that we become more like Christ.

In the end, the Church of the Chatbot cannot save. At best, it offers temporary reassurance. Salvation, forgiveness, and lasting peace are found only through Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. Our task is not to forsake technology, but to subordinate it to divine purposes—to use it as a tool while refusing to let it take the place of covenant, community, and the Spirit of revelation.

Be assured, the Lord knows your questions, doubts, fears, and longings. He is not offended by honest searching. He asks only for you turn to Him—not to the world’s imitations of Him. He has given you the gift of the Holy Ghost, a constant companion far more spiritually reliable than technology. He has given living prophets whose voices cut through the noise of our age with clarity and authority. And He has given His Son, who waits with open arms.

To those drawn to the instant answers of the chatbot, the Savior’s invitation in Matthew 7:7 still stands—Ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. But the asking must be done in faith, the seeking in humility, and the knocking with patience. The answers may not be immediate, but they will be real—not the aggregated voice of human text, but the living voice of God.