How we make Efatah

Faithfulness to Scripture

The Bible is the authority over everything Efatah teaches. That is why we commit to:

• always quote Scripture with its reference and from an identified translation;
• never invent, complete or change the words of a verse. When a lesson uses only part of one, it cuts the text, marks the cut with "…" and changes no word;
• present everything we write about the text as explanation, never as Scripture;
• show God the Father and the Holy Spirit, in images, only through symbols, never with a human face;
• correct without delay any mistake that is pointed out to us.

The Bible translations

Today the app quotes only public-domain translations:

• Scripture: adapted from the World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
• Escrituras: Almeida, Edição Revista e Corrigida (texto de 1911, ortografia atualizada), domínio público.
• Escrituras: Reina-Valera 1909 (ortografía actualizada), dominio público.
• Écritures : Louis Segond 1910, domaine public.

We updated the spelling of the Portuguese and Spanish texts, and in their verses the name "Jehovah" appears as "Lord". In English we write "Lord" and "God" instead of small capitals and simplify the quotation marks; that is why we say "adapted from the World English Bible", as the WEB itself asks. Modern translations only come into the app with the written licence of their owners.

Theological references

Much of the content, such as the lesson sentences, the explanations and the devotionals, was written with two classic works of Protestant theology as its reference:

• Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (1994);
• Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (1938).

The rule is consensus: where the two agree, the content affirms; where they differ, as on baptism, spiritual gifts and church government, the content takes no side. We do not reproduce passages from these works: they are a study reference, not a source of text. Citing them does not mean that the authors, their heirs or their publishers know, review or recommend Efatah.

The creeds of the early Church are the basis of our confession of faith. The app does not include catechisms today.

How the content is made and reviewed

Efatah is made by a small team, with the help of artificial intelligence tools. We want to be clear about where:

• Texts: the lesson sentences, the stories, the explanations and the devotionals were drafted with the assistance of language models, following written authoring guides: the doctrinal rule above, the verse rule and our tone of voice. The English, Spanish and French versions were translated from Portuguese with AI.
• Review: nothing goes live without review. The person responsible for the project reviews the Portuguese content editorially and doctrinally. In the larger sets, such as the 366 devotionals, part of the review was done with the help of AI, by the same criteria, and the person responsible checked samples. We do not yet have review by an outside theologian or pastor; when we do, we will say so here.
• Automated checks: every verse is compared with the public-domain text before it is published, and tests reject passages from protected translations.
• Images: the card illustrations are generated with Google's image models (Gemini), from written briefs, and reviewed by the person responsible, pack by pack.
• Voices: the lesson voices are synthetic, generated with Google's Gemini. Each audio clip is automatically transcribed back and compared with the text.
• Nothing is generated while you use the app: every text, image and voice is prepared and reviewed beforehand. The app has no AI assistant or chat.

If you find a mistake, whether in translation, doctrine or pronunciation, let us know through the problem report.

How the app helps you remember

Efatah uses spaced repetition inspired by the Leitner system, described by the journalist Sebastian Leitner in 1972: each word moves forward through boxes, and the firmer it is, the longer it waits until the next review.

• Learning: the word comes back in 1 day.
• Practised: it comes back in 3 days.
• Consolidated: it comes back in 7, then 14, then 30 days.
• Missed a review? The word comes back sooner, but it does not lose the level it earned.

Reviews come inside the lessons themselves, up to three per lesson, with no separate review screen. These intervals are a common starting point in spaced repetition, not a measured result; we may adjust them over time.

What Efatah does not do

• It shows no ads and does not sell your data.
• It does not send what you read, save, note or pray: that stays on your device, unless you create an account and choose to sync. The details are in the privacy policy.
• It does not generate content with AI while you use the app.
• It does not grade your faith: the exercises check your memory of words and texts, and the devotional never becomes a test.
• It does not use guilt or fear to bring you back.
• It does not follow the liturgical calendar: repentance and faith belong to every day.
• It does not replace your local church, your pastor or reading the whole Bible.

Who makes it

Efatah is published by Gracefold Tech Ltda., a Brazilian company based in Brasília (DF). It is not tied to any denomination or church.