Jun 19
Bill's Big Blunder
Bill Gates, chairman and co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest software company, has decided to step down from his role as head of Software and Development. Starting in 2008, he plans to spend more time focusing on charitable work.
Bill Gates has been the world's richest person for the last 12 years straight. In 1999, his wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion, making him the world's first centibillionnaire.
It is not just wealth that has earned Gate worldwide admiration. He is widely respected for his intelligence, foresight, and ambition. His software is used on a daily basis by over 70 percent of the population. Even many of his fiercest critics have to pay respect to his determination.
RaptureReady has greatly benefited from Gate's innovations. If it weren't for Microsoft, the world of the internet may not have become as pervasive as we see it today.
Since amassing his fortune, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors. In 2000, he transferred 52 percent of his fortune over to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda is his wife.
The foundation is considered a leader in international public health, particularly in the fight against HIV, malaria and tuberculosis in the developing world. Here at home, the foundation has put its massive resources behind reforming education and accessing technology in public libraries.
Bill Gates has been widely praised in the media for his charitable activity. He, Melinda and U2's lead singer Bono were named by Time as the 2005 Persons of the Year.
It is a very noble thing for Gates to devote himself to charity, but something is missing from his list -- the gospel message. What good does it do to span the global handing out vitamins that help prevent physical blindness if you do nothing to cure spiritual blindness? What is gained if you work to save people from an early death, and you leave them to eventually die in their sins? Has he truly improved the knowledge of students if he purchase new computers for their school, and yet he leaves them ignorant of the Son of God who died for them?
Any aid program that fails to address the fallen nature of man is ultimately a lost cause. The U.S. has already spent $2 trillion on social programs that have only made matters worse. The Bible plainly tells us that sin is ultimately the root cause of all poverty, disease, and social unrest.
Gates has adapted a secular plan of operation because he does not believe in God. In several interviews he has admitted to being an atheist. When David Frost asked Bill if he believed the Sermon on the Mount, he gave a diplomatic but telling answer:
"I don't. I'm not somebody who goes to church on a regular basis. The specific elements of Christianity are not something I'm a huge believer in. There's a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion. I think it can have a very, very positive impact."
When asked by Walter Isaacson of Time if there is something divine about the human soul, Gates replied, "I don't have any evidence on that." In the same interview Gates said, "Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning."
The day will come when Gates and every person of wealth and fame will confront the truth. At that moment, the majority will realize that they neglected the only thing of lasting value -- the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
One of the most agonizing situations I can imagine is someone having the opportunity to contribute to the Kingdom of God and yet failing to act. Because Gates has been blessed to such enormous extent, his level of regret will be beyond comprehension.
Gates is a brilliant man, but unless he discovers his errors in time, his fate will be one of eternal regret. I think it's a no-brainer that he will someday say to himself, "I was the richest man on earth, I had the financial resources to fund the greatest missions outreach in the history of the world, I could have made available a copies of the Bible on every computer operated by Windows, and I could have used my notoriety to share the gospel."
I'm sure some Christians will try to argue that Bill Gates' philanthropy is enough to make him a "good guy" in the eyes of God. But the Bible very clearly says that "our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6).
There is one consolation worth considering. If Gates had become a Christian and decided to use his wealth to promote the cause of Christ, the world media would have poured scorn on him. When Gates made his announcement, the press ran several stories about other people who contributed large sums of money to various other liberal-friendly charities. The major news outlets completely ignored the fact that most people make the wiser choice by donating to religious organizations.
"Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life" (1 Tim. 6:17-19).
-- Todd
Tribulation Toes
I preface these thoughts by saying that all conspiracy ranting goes against my basic worldview, with the exception of one conspiracy, which is not theory, but fact. Satan and his minions are out to destroy all human beings to the extent it is possible for them to do so. This is made clear in many Scriptures, but none is so concise as this one: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).
It is in this context that we should be concerned about developments taking place with regard to economic rearrangements within the North American continent. We need to keep in mind that it is not politicians and diplomats who are conspiring to do sinister things in order to somehow create a hemispheric dictatorship. For the most part, I believe we can give them the benefit of the doubt. They believe economic rearrangements into a unified order will produce a higher quality of life for all concerned.
However, Satan intends something entirely different than that scenario, and he does indeed stalk about, orchestrating the rearrangements that will, ultimately, destroy the majority of mankind during the last seven years of human history known to Bible prophecy dispensationalists as the tribulation, also known as Daniel’s seventieth week. This era, of course, will be the dispensation ruled over in large part by Antichrist and his regime of absolute control. We can get the first glimpse of this coming tyrannical world government in the following:
“And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay” (Dan. 2:40-43).
The prophet Daniel interpreted Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a gigantic statue of a man. This, Daniel told the king, represented four world kingdoms, of which Nebuchadnezzar was the head. The final world kingdom was represented by the legs of iron, the prophet foretold, and the feet and 10 toes of that dream-vision image will represent the final world kingdom in its revived and most murderous form. Here is what God’s prophetic Word has to say about that final regime:
“And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (Rev. 17:12-13).
This final world power, then, will have 10 separate spheres of influence that will all agree to come under the auspices of “the beast,” who will be none other than Antichrist. Read Revelation 13 to see the development of this satanically inspired, and ultimately indwelt, prince who will come (Daniel 9:26).
These will be “of one mind,” but will not “cleave" (or stick together) one to another. These will have great power, and it will all flow to Antichrist. The conglomerate whole will constitute a one-world order, or, as the concept used to be called under President George H.W. Bush, “the New World Order.” Powerful economic dynamics will drive this beast-regime. Remember, the root of all evil is the love of money, according to God’s Word (1 Tim. 6:10).
A large part of our charge by the Lord at RaptureReady is to watch issues and events of these times to determine where we might stand as a generation on God’s prophetic timeline; i.e., determining just how near we might be to the tribulation era, thus to the rapture of the Church, which will precede that time of God’s wrath. We have pointed and continue to point to the many signals that show how very near we must be to that world-stupefying event. All indicators show that we are very near indeed!
Israel is again a nation, surrounded by enemies, and is the center of attention for world media and diplomats. Paul’s perilous times of 2 Timothy 3 are exploding on the current scene throughout all societies and cultures. I’ve pointed to the fact that we seem to be in the midst of a revisitation by the fallen angels who again want to delude people, just as in the days of Noah, and like Jesus prophesied as recorded in Luke 17: 26-27. (I believe the words of Daniel 2: 43, “…they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men…” have something to do with these inter-dimensional beings insinuating themselves into the developing 10-kingdom mix, as they did in antediluvian times.)
Ancient Persia, in the form of modern-day Iran, is cozy with Russia, just as the Ezekiel 38 and 39 prophecies foretold the people of these geographical areas will be at the time of the end, when the Gog-Magog attack into the Middle East and Israel is scheduled to occur.
All of these things are coming in wave after wave, in birthpang-like frequency and intensity, like Hal Lindsey likes to say, and as Jesus prophesied in the Olivet Discourse.
The European Union looks very much to be the matrix out of which the 10-power kingdom of Revelation 17:12-13 will grow, and out of which the man of sin, Antichrist, will spring to power. So, the question to ask, so far as the subject we are addressing now is concerned is: Do we see any indications of the separate powers developing that will “give their power and authority to the beast”?
Again, I’m not clasping onto any conspiracy theory in this regard, involving human geopolitical leadership. Man simply hasn’t the intellectual or derived powers to either formulate or carry out such a scheme. But, in my view, Satan certainly does have that ability –and, he is beginning to arrange things in preparation for his man of the tribulation hour, the guy whose number somehow equates to 666 –the Antichrist.
The answer to the question is, I’m convinced, Yes! We are seeing movement toward geographical powers trying to rearrange into configuration that might one day be the 10-kingdom entity that will give their power and authority to the beast. The news story excerpt below is proof that the rearrangements are being manipulated and orchestrated to the tune the old serpent directs.
“…Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., is demanding the Bush administration fully disclose the activities of an office implementing a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that apparently could lead to a North American union, despite having no authorization from Congress…the White House has established working groups, under the North American Free Trade Agreement office in the Department of Commerce, to implement the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, March 23, 2005.
The groups, however, have no authorization from Congress and have not disclosed the results of their work despite two years of massive effort within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
…Many SPP working groups appear to be working toward achieving specific objectives as defined by a May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, which presented a blueprint for expanding the SPP agreement into a North American union that would merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a new governmental form” (THE NEW WORLD DISORDER, Tancredo confronts 'super-state' effort --Demands full disclosure of White House work with Mexico, Canada --Posted: June 15, 2006, 1:00 a.m. Eastern, WorldNetDaily.com).
Developments around the world in geopolitical-economic matters, are shaping in a way that portends just the types of arrangements forecast in Daniel 2:43 and Revelation 17:12-13. GATT (Guaranteed Agreements on Trade and Tariffs), WTO (World Trade Organization) movement, and all of the other powerful monetary pressures for a one-world economy bring that final global tyrannical regime into view. The tribulation toes are forming rapidly in these troubling yet exciting times.
--Terry
