Short of hiding the Word of God in their hearts, this digital version of the Bible for Android mobile phones and tablets – disguised as a full-function calculator – may be the best way for persecuted Christians around the world to have a copy of the Scriptures authorities can't find.
Increasingly, in places like Iraq or North Korea, a covert Bible may save lives.
The World Net KJV app uses the 1769 standardized text revision of the 1611 King James Bible, also known as the AV or the Authorized Version, and is described as "a powerful and easy to use tool that provides access to search, annotate, bookmark and study the Holy Bible."
While the developers launched the app to facilitate secure and private Internet-based fellowship and Bible studies across the world, it is World Net KJV's covert feature that could prove most useful to persecuted Christians.
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The app's calculator screen is customizable and fully functional. When the user enters an individual security code, the calculator screen is swept aside and only then does the digital Bible appear.
"Anyone else examining the smart phone would only see a calculator or other uninteresting common app," the developers promise.
World Net KJV's Bible features, once installed, can be used without an Internet connection, reducing the chance the user will be identified because of transmitted data.
The stand-alone Bible reference and notation program is offered free to users, with most of the networking features that provide connections to other Christians available on a paid subscription basis.
The application is becoming available just as persecution of Christians is growing around the world.
Christian persecution isn't just something that happened long ago – it's happening now.
As WND reported, Open Doors USA, which assists the persecuted church around the world, compiled the World Watch list and reported 2,123 Christians killed for their faith last year, compared to 1,201 in 2012. The killings in Syria alone (1,213) exceeded the total from a year earlier.
While Syria is the most deadly spot on earth for Christians, Emily Fuentes, communications director at Open Doors USA, said it fits a pattern in the Islamic world. She noted, of the 50 worst nations for persecution, 37 of them are Muslim. Another disturbing twist is the melding of radical Islam with communist and other totalitarian ideologies.
Nine of the worst 10 nations for Christians are Islamic. In addition to Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen are among the worst of the worst.
But for 12 years running now, the communist North Korean regime is at the top of the list, and Fuentes said things there are only getting worse.
"It is the most hostile place to be a Christian. It is an act punishable by death in North Korea to be a Christian, either by execution sometimes on the spot or execution very soon after finding out about your faith," said Fuentes, who explained that those who are not killed are sent to Nazi-like concentration camps. She also said the pain inflicted by the regime goes far beyond the Christians themselves.
"The moral dilemma that North Korean Christians have that's unlike any other place in the world is that if their faith is discovered, not only them but up to three generations of their family could be forced to go to these labor camps. So that's their parents, their children, their grandchildren, all because of their faith in Christ," she said.