The Counterfeit Trinity
AI, The Alter-Ego's We Create, and the Validation Idol Competing for Our Worship
(As you read through this article, please see the footnotes and commentary below from Christopher Lind)
Buckle up, everyone. This is about to get heavy… and a little uncomfortable. But also intriguing.
If you’re new to my writing or just wandered into this Substack, welcome. Fair warning: a lot of what I write is… random. On purpose. I have ADD, and my thoughts live like a bag of marbles dropped on concrete—everywhere, all at once.
Ohhh look, a squirrel. Sorry. Massive catalpa tree in my backyard. Lots of small critters. Moving on.
There’s a word I lean on a lot: honest.
And now I have to ask myself, am I actually living up to that? Or am I hiding behind a brand name, sprinkling in Bible verses, tossing around church language, and using holy words to sound grounded, accountable, or—let’s be real—professional?
Yeah… I think my subconscious already answered that one.
There’s an uncomfortable truth most people quietly keep to themselves. Chances are, very few people in your social circle have mentioned it. Maybe you haven’t either.
So what am I talking about? AI
Ohhh yeah, we’re going there.
But hang on. I need to back up first. What’s my Substack actually about?
👇👇👇
Honest Christian confession.
So… who am I lying to here?
Myself? Or you?
Here’s a confession for you:
You know what I did halfway through writing this article? I copied and pasted a section and asked ChatGPT to refine it—clean it up a bit, make it sound more appealing.
Yeah… I just went there. And honestly, that statement kind of speaks for itself.
So yes, I sometimes use AI to refine my writing. But here’s another truth that’s harder to admit:
About 98% of this is still my original thought. The personality is there and the voice is still mine. That part is true.
And yet… that’s exactly what bothers me.
Because somewhere in that process, I start to feel inadequate. Or stupid. Or—worse—unreliant on the Holy Spirit. Ouch.
So… let’s go even deeper than that.
Who am I actually worshiping here?
And maybe the better question, who are we worshiping?
God? Or AI?
Ooof. Let’s talk about it.
Related Article
Confession or Calculation?
While we’re at it, let’s dive into another little trifecta of thinking.
Am I doubling down here? Hedging my bets? Quietly weaponizing the honesty of this article with some secret hope that it turns into a paid subscription?
I’m not gonna lie, after typing that, I felt it drop straight into the pit of my stomach.
Well… ladies and gentlemen, I think my conscience just confirmed that one too.
Because Scripture is pretty clear about where this stuff is supposed to come from:
“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
— John 7:38 (KJV)
And yes, I used the KJV on purpose. Honestly, the NIV I’ve been leaning on lately just feels thin. We don’t need watered-down language when we’re dealing with living water. We need to get back to the roots—to the text itself—if we’re going to understand what Scripture is actually saying.
And if living water is meant to flow without force or manipulation, then the tension I felt in my chest wasn’t conviction alone—it was something deeper. Something closer to insecurity than faith.
The Insecurity Beneath the Gratitude
I can feel it in my jaw first. That slight clench that shows up when I’m trying to make an article exquisite. Every sentence has to land. Every thought has to feel sharp, honest, and worth your time. It’s part conviction and part compulsion.
And if I’m staying honest, it’s also how I manage my anxiety.
Writing like this keeps my hands busy while my mind tries to outrun itself. Riveting, in a strange way.
And, somewhere between pacing back and forth, laptop in hand, and staring down a cup of lukewarm ramen noodles, a thought surfaced that I didn’t invite:
I have over a thousand subscribers.
A family.
A beautiful wife and kids.
Jesus.
God.
The Holy Spirit.
And yet… in the quiet corner of my mind, I ran into an uncomfortable realization:
Out of my own insecurity, I project the very thing I hate about myself onto the things I love the most because I sometimes don’t fully trust their judgment…..I sometimes ask AI for solutions. Ouch
Validation Is a Terrible Master
Here’s another brutally honest confession:
I sometimes spend weeks, even months, working on a single article. I’ve got plenty of pieces sitting in my Substack drafts that never saw the light of day.
Why? Because I don’t think they’ll gain any traction.
Some of them—this is hard to admit—are Christian pieces. And I hesitate because I’m afraid people will think they’re dumb, or not worth reading.
And if I’m doing to be totally honest, there’s an even uglier layer under that fear: the quiet hope that many likes or comments might ease my dopamine craving.
Yeah. There’s another conscious drop.
Substack Obsession.
So… Let’s Talk AI and Alter Ego’s
AI is everywhere now. Let’s not kid ourselves.
If you open Google today, you’re already interacting with AI-driven systems whether you asked for it or not. It’s baked in, slow-cooked, and normalized. Marketed as helpful, efficient, smart. So let’s stop pretending we don’t use it. We do. Every day. If you’re reading this on a phone or a laptop, odds are you’ve already relied on AI multiple times today without even thinking about it.
But that’s not really the point.
After dragging you through my scattered thoughts and uncomfortable confessions, what I’m actually asking is this: are we starting to use AI as an alter ego?
Not just a tool—but a stand-in.
A place we go for clarity before prayer.
OR, maybe answers before Scripture?
Reassurance before sitting quietly with God?
The danger isn’t that AI exists. The danger is how easily dependence replaces discernment.
We say we trust God. But we reach for technology first. We look to systems for direction, validation, even comfort sometimes without realizing it. Somewhere along the way, convenience starts competing with conviction.
Maybe it’s time to slow down.
Maybe we need to take an honest look at our humanity, our community, and how much of our lives now exist behind screens and algorithms instead of faces and conversations.
It’s a strange thing, isn’t it?
We’ve never been more connected, and yet we’ve never felt so far apart.
I Think We All Need a Break From the Dependency….
The dependency on systems, technology, and man-made things that quietly steal time meant for God. We weren’t created to outsource our inner life to machines. We were created for relationship—with God, and with His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Maybe it’s time to sit quietly for a bit. No phones, tablets, or laptops.
And this goes for secular people too, not just Christians.
We all need a digital detox. A return to our roots. To nature, humanity, and to real community—the kind that breathes, listens, and shows up.
I think that’s where we need to start. That’s where real life begins.
Join Our Subscriber Chat
If you’re walking this battle and need a safe space to talk, pray, or find encouragement—join our Subscriber Chat on Substack.
We pray, talk honestly, and remind each other that freedom in Christ is possible.
Christian Hotline & Prayer Support
If you’re struggling or need someone to pray with you, please reach out:
National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
Focus on the Family Prayer Line: 1-877-771-4357
The 700 Club Prayer Line: 1-800-700-7000
Chatnow (24/7 Christian Chat & Prayer):
https://chatnow.org
Call to Repentance
If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering. Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.
Call to Action
If this message spoke to your heart, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share it with someone you love — and make sure to subscribe so you never miss more biblical truth, encouragement, and hope.
Let’s walk this journey of faith together.
© 2026 The Narrow Path Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Restack if it helped you. Please don’t copy and paste it elsewhere. If you quote it, credit and link back—thank you.
So, more of a personal note, but I honestly don’t think you need to feel any guilt or shame over this. In fact, there may be times you don’t have the headspace for “cleanup.” There may be times you need it to help flesh out your raw thoughts into a digestible draft that you can go back and make your own. I coach and deal with this all the time. People, Christian and Non, want a formula for when to use AI and when to not, or when is it appropriate or when is it not. It’s not black and white like that, at least the majority of the time.
That feeling isn’t good or bad…what you do with it is….You could even turn and ask AI what might be contributing to that feeling or even get feedback on how legitimate it is based on your patterns of behavior. You just better not take what AI gives you at face value and take action on it
I think this is totally fine, so long as you’re filtering every proposed solution it offers through God’s word, prayer, and a community of believers. AI is just an input source. You’re not “less than” or failing for looking to AI for input. You don’t need to feel ashamed for asking for help from AI or a human or God. You’re failing if you take things without giving it a second thought.
This is one of the biggest things people fail to understand but often don’t give enough credit it. People are losing their minds over GenAI failing to recognize their complacency and lack of spiritual discipline has already made them vulnerable to AI. They consume content that has been carefully curated for them (and have been for years). The things largely shaping their mind has been influenced by AI for a long time. “Nothing new under the sun.”
They pat themselves on the back for not using AI to help with their “meh” typing skills or helping them break through a creative block as if it’s some sort of noble cause while they spend endless hours scrolling brainrot content and believing every headline they read because it was written or spoken by a human.
So, I talk a lot about dependency as the biggest AI risk, and I do so for a reason despite it being an extremely unpopular thing to talk about. AI is a special kind of mirror. It reflects back the person looking in it and has a way of magnifying whatever is there. That’s why no two mirrors are the same and why you have to be so careful at looking in someone else’s mirror and comparing yourself.
The key is to use scripture to deeply understand how God made you, where you’re weak, where you’re vulnerable, where you’re strong, and constantly be “looking in the mirror of God’s law.” That means you AI habits may and should adjust on the regular. There may be a season where AI helps you get through a dry season where you know what’s in your head but struggle to find words. AI may be able to help get it out. However, over time you may become dependent on it even after that drought fades. You may be really strong at not getting sucked into AI-driven newsfeeds for a while…and then you get out of your Bible reading habit and you suddenly are interpreting headlines and posts based on what you remember scripture said instead of what it actually said.
The key is a constant and regular examination of yourself through God’s eyes (prayer, scripture reading, honest reflection) and the community of image bearers he created around you.
AI is fantastic at validating everything you already want to hear, so it cannot be your primary or even secondary source of input
So, here’s one of the things I talk about regularly that people need to watch out for. People can start to see “Technology” as the enemy. It’s not. It’s just a tool the enemy can use.
Fail to get that right, and you’ll think you’re winning because you’re on your phone less or reduced your overall screen time. If that time transferred to you spending time with a bunch of people who aren’t committed to following Jesus or you’re just spending it on your selfish “analog” hobbies, you’re no better off. In fact, you may be worse.
Your goal shouldn’t to be less dependent on technology. Your goal should be to be more dependent on Jesus and let him bend and flex you every single day into becoming more like him, whether that’s more or less technology.
And, for the love of everything, people need to stop going around judging and comparing themselves to others. The blueprint God has for you isn’t the one he has for someone else. The more time you spend comparing yourself to someone else’s blueprint, the less time you have to examine what God’s blueprint is for you.
"Bag of marbles dropped on concrete.." - Oh, I've got to use that! 🤣 Wish, I'd thought to use that excuse (ADD here, too) for my writing instead of trying to look all cohesive and nichy. 😂
This is something we could all do with being careful about. I did speculate whether or not the Antichrist might manifest as an AI in one of my articles. Though rather hypocritically, I do use it for ideas for articles on my Substack (I should probably cut back on doing that.)