Pray.com’s AI Revelation video hits 750,000 views, sparks ‚Marvel‘ debate

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Pray.com’s AI Bible project is drawing large audiences and sharp criticism, as the company releases AI-generated videos that dramatize Old Testament narratives and the Book of Revelation with blockbuster flair. According to NPR, a recent eight-minute Revelation video amassed more than 750,000 views in two months, reflecting growing interest in AI-made religious content.

Pray.com’s production approach and audience

Pray.com, which describes itself as having “the world’s #1 app for faith and prayer,” runs The AI Bible’s YouTube channel and publishes about two videos per week. Ryan Beck, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, said the new AI videos are being warmly received online, with viewership mostly under 30 and skewing male. He noted that commenters report feeling spiritually and mentally impacted by the stories. Max Bard, Pray.com’s Vice President for Content, said the team employs a range of AI tools, including ChatGPT for concepting and still images, then records reference footage on a phone to mimic action before feeding it into a video generator. “You can take that video, put it into the video generator, and it will turn you into Elijah or one of the prophets,” he said. Bard added that recent advances reached a tipping point for producing lots of high-quality content and framed the effort as “the Marvel Universe of faith.”

Mixed reactions from scholars

Academic responses vary. Brad East, a theology professor at Abilene Christian University, argued the format reduces scripture to entertainment. He described the work as having a “Marvel, sort of videogame” aesthetic and called that “a bad thing to pursue,” saying the packaging situates the Bible as content meant to amuse rather than divine revelation.

Debate over difficult passages

Jeffrey Bilbro, a professor of English at Grove City College, said short-form, viral treatments risk positioning the Bible primarily as entertainment. Rev. Dr. Paul Hoffman of Samford University welcomed anything that drives interest in scripture but questioned the choice to animate interpretively challenging material, such as Revelation and the Nephilim. Beck pushed back on the notion that these are low-effort productions, saying time and care go into each video. While imagery is AI-generated, he said voices are performed by actors, music is composed for each episode, and a pastor reads scripts that often closely follow biblical verses. He characterized the project as “edutainment” and said the team aims to emphasize entertainment because, in his view, biblical content is often over-indexed to the educational side.