From August 23 to October 20, 2024, an installation in St. Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne, Switzerland, let visitors talk with an AI in the form of Jesus. Called Deus in machina, it was made by the chapel together with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU). The university describes it as an art and research project exploring how people converse with generative AI in a religious setting.^[1]

This study looks back at an event from 2024. We confirmed the dates and nature of the exhibition from the description by the institution that ran the project. That material alone does not tell us how it affected anyone’s faith or how far churches as a whole have taken up AI.

How would it feel if a machine that looks like Jesus answered your questions? You might talk to it out of curiosity, or you might feel uneasy about bringing a machine into a place of faith. Before settling on a judgement, we want to look at what the Bible passage actually asks.

This study asks one question. Does the existence of a talking AI, by itself, mean the prophecy in Revelation has been fulfilled?

Read the World English Bible text below first, then the context and notes that follow.

The Bible text appears once, in the children's edition above, in the same translation. Go to the World English Bible text

What stands beside the image that speaks?

In 13:12 the second beast makes people worship the first beast. The image in verse 15 speaks, and death follows for those who refuse to worship. In verses 16–17 people are made to receive a mark, and those without it cannot buy or sell. The ability to speak, forced worship, and shutting those who refuse out of ordinary life all sit in one scene.

If we lift out the single feature of ‘speaking’, the coercion and exclusion written alongside it disappear. This study reads the passage by keeping that connection in view, including when it is compared with today’s technology.

Why we read the next chapter too

In 14:1 people appear with the names of the Lamb and his Father written on their foreheads. Verse 9 again mentions worship of the beast and the mark together. Verse 12 then speaks of the perseverance and faith of the saints.

Reading this passage today, we can ask what is demanding our faith and loyalty. This is not a way of decoding prophecy about a particular technology; it is this study’s application, starting from the text.

Interpreters read differently when and how the scenes in Revelation are fulfilled. Here we look at what two different interpreters actually say. This is not a complete list of views.

Reading it in the setting of the early church

Kenneth Gentry connects this passage with the Roman emperor worship that first-century churches faced. He reads the mark as a symbol of power that seeks to control what people think and do, and he reads it alongside the scene in chapter 14 where the Lamb’s name is written on foreheads. In this interpretation, the situation in the passage does not need a computer chip.^[2]

Reading it as an event before Christ’s return

John Walvoord reads chapter 13 as a future event, describing worldwide rule and forced worship before the return of Christ. He explains the mark as a sign of those who worship the beast and as a condition for buying and selling.^[3]

The two explanations differ in when they place the fulfilment and in how they understand the symbols. Still, both authors deal with worship and power together when they explain the mark. This common ground is this study’s summary after comparing the two sources; it does not mean the two interpretations are the same.

1. Find it in the text. What are people required to do in Revelation 13:12–17? Point to the verses that say what happens to those who refuse.
2. Share the reasons for your judgement. In explanations that link the Lucerne installation with this passage, what is convincing and what is a stretch? If your interpretations differ, talk about the verse where they part ways.
3. Write a reply together. Imagine someone posts a video called ‘Proof that this AI is the mark of the beast’ in your group chat. How would you reply so that you check the evidence without embarrassing the person who shared it?

The third question is an imagined situation for discussion. Share personal fears or experiences of faith only as much as you want to.

Here is a small exercise this study suggests. Pick one claim that connects faith and technology and write it out in three lines: the event that was actually confirmed / the Bible passage / the judgement of the person who connected the two. It is fine to leave a blank where nothing has been confirmed.

You can start by opening the original source together before passing on someone’s interpretation. If you polish one of the replies you wrote in your group, it can become the opening line of your next conversation.

We checked the description of the event and each author’s view in the sources below. The Bible text is in the reader above. The sources were checked on September 17, 2026. We summarize the authors’ views in our own words rather than quoting them.

1. HSLU, “Deus in machina” project page. Material from the institution that ran the project, used to confirm the place, dates and nature of the generative AI installation. We did not use it as an independent evaluation of its effects.
2. Kenneth L. Gentry Jr., “Computers, the Beast, and 666”, posted 2020-05-01. The author’s own explanation, which stresses the first-century context and the symbolic meaning of the mark. We do not present this view as a consensus of scholars.
3. John F. Walvoord, “The Beasts and the False Prophet”, chapter 13 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ, from the author’s official archive. Used to confirm the future-fulfilment view and how it links worship with the condition for trade.

The sources we checked are listed above.