How This Site Is Made

Why this site exists

The First Beast is part of The Ephesus Challenge, a family of websites on the Book of Revelation and Christian hope that Fr. John founded and directs. It sets out what Scripture and the Church have revealed about the beasts of Revelation and Daniel, mark by mark, with each claim's level of authority, and names no one. Its pages are researched and written by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, under Fr. John's direction.

Fr. John's vision for the project

The project began from a simple hope. For millennia humanity has contemplated God's plan of creation and salvation, from Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning…”, to the first promise in Genesis 3:15, to the vision of “The New Heaven and the New Earth” (Revelation 21) and the proclamation “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). That inheritance is vast and often hard to reach. An AI model can help gather it together through research and organization, making it accessible, and presenting this knowledge to help us better comprehend the big picture.

The project also takes its cue from Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, presented at the Vatican on May 25, 2026, where Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah spoke. Many people fear what AI may do. This project tries to show, openly and page by page, what AI can do in the service of the truth when it works within clear rules and under human direction.

The name of the project comes from Christ's letter to the church at Ephesus, which he praised for its labor and its testing of false teachers, and then warned: “you have lost the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:4). His challenge to them is ours too: “Repent, and do the works you did at first” (Revelation 2:5). Knowledge of Scripture is essential, but it cannot take the place of love for God and neighbor. Every page here is written to lead readers to Christ, not merely to inform them.

Who does what

Every page says who made it, with the line Researched and written with Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic. Directed by Fr. John. A page he has read and approved also carries the mark ✓ Reviewed by Fr. John; until then it is marked as a draft.

How claims are labeled

Every claim on this site carries its level of authority: Scripture, Church teaching, the Fathers in agreement, a single Father or Doctor, a theologian, an approved apparition (an aid, never an addition to the faith), or a disputed question. A mark from a later writer is never raised to Scripture's level. Where interpreters differ, each position is given as its holders state it, with sources, and the Church's guidance beside it.

The site does not count forward, never names a date, and does not ask who the beast is today.

The rules Claude works within

Fr. John set seven rules for the whole project. Claude follows them on every page, and they are the guardrails this project is meant to show at work.

1. Love first (Revelation 2:4). Knowledge serves charity. No page is written to win an argument or to stir fear.
2. With the Church. Scripture is read with Tradition and the Magisterium. Every claim is labeled by its level of authority, and private revelation is kept in its place (Catechism 67).
3. No date-setting. “Of that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36; Catechism 673).
4. Persons treated justly. This site identifies no living or historical person with any of the figures it describes, beyond the first fulfillments the Church and the Fathers themselves name. Judgment of persons belongs to God (Catechism 1861), and nothing here invites hostility toward anyone.
5. Checkable sources. Every quotation is cited to a source you can check. Nothing is invented.
6. Hope. “Do not be afraid” (Luke 12:7).
7. Truthful about who did what. Every page says who researched, wrote, directed and reviewed it.

How sources are checked and pages reviewed

Sources. Scripture is quoted briefly from the New American Bible, Revised Edition, and linked to the full text on the USCCB's Bible site, bible.usccb.org/bible. Church documents link to the Vatican's own copies wherever they exist. Quotations from the Fathers, saints and other writers name a book, edition and page, or a document someone can look up.

Review. Substantial new pages come to Fr. John as drafts first. The mark ✓ Reviewed by Fr. John appears only on pages he has actually read and approved.

What AI can get wrong, and how to tell us

Claude is capable, but it can make mistakes. It can misread a source, cite the wrong verse or page, or present a debated point with more confidence than it deserves. The rules above and Fr. John's review are there to catch such errors, but no review catches everything.

If you find a mistake, please write to the address on this site's Contact page (coming soon) with the page and what you found. Corrections are made openly: a corrected page carries a short note saying what changed and when. A page is never quietly altered to hide an error.

Independence

The Ephesus Challenge is an independent project. Fr. John is a Catholic diocesan priest, but this project is his own and is not affiliated with or endorsed by his diocese, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Anthropic, or any other organization. Anthropic makes Claude, the AI model used to write these pages, and has no role in the project's content. Nothing here speaks for the Church; for that, the Catechism and the documents linked on each page are the place to go.