BILL GATES SPEAKS TO THIS GENERATION"

I have no idea what Bill Gates' spiritual life is--or whether he is saved or unsaved.

Neither can I proclaim in any way that his heart is right before God.

What I do know is that the unsaved can sometimes PROPHESY as truthfully and as effectively as the saved. Hollywood does it all the time in certain movies.

EVEN CAIAPHAS PROPHESIED

Caiphas, the ungodly high priest even prophesied. Of course, he didn't KNOW that he was prophesying,

John 11:49-50 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."

PROPHESYING THE GOSPEL

--and with that, Caiaphas prophesies that they are experiencing the Gospel, the plan of salvation for Israel and the nations. He just didn't realize it.

THE WORLD'S CONDITION IN THE LAST DAYS

In the last days of earth's history, we are taught that the church of Laodicia will be known for being "Rich, increased in goods, and having need of nothing." Therefore God says He will spit those [churches] with that condition "out of my mouth." Revelation 3:16

THE WISE MAN WHO LEARNED THAT GOD'S BLESSING OF WEALTH WAS NOT ENOUGH

Solomon, perhaps the Richest man that ever lived, was also known as the wisest man that ever lived. Why? Because having tasted of all that life could possibly offer, his final pronouncement was:

Eccl 12:7-8 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

"VANITY OF VANITIES, says the preacher; all is vanity."

Solomon tried it all and called it all, vanity of vanities!

So fast forward to today:

The Lord is raising up modern prophets and sages--who are beginning to wake up! Having tried it all. . . they are starting to declare, "All is Vanity," even as they initiate their own pursuit for what is NOT vanity.

And where to start? Even James declares:

James 2:15-17 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

THE UNSAVED PROPHETIC VOICES

Many times, while still in an unsaved condition, prophets and sages in our day are "WAKING UP!" Here is a story that brings such realities to mind:

FROM: THE OBSERVER ( In the U.K.) http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,393015,00.html

"GATES LOSES FAITH IN COMPUTERS"

They can't cure world's ills, admits Microsoft boss

Net news

Edward Helmore in New York and Robin McKie in London Sunday November 5, 2000

Microsoft boss, Bill Gates, has renounced the machine that has made him the world's richest man. In a startling proclamation, Gates has announced that computers can do little to solve the planet's gravest social ills. "The world's poorest two billion people desperately need healthcare, not laptops," he said.

The declaration represents a major personal transformation for Gates, and has sent shockwaves through America's high-tech business community. Had the Pope renounced Catholicism, the surprise would not have been greater.

Speaking in Seattle at a conference on using computers to help the Third World, Gates said he still had faith in the ideal that technology could bring about a better world, but added that he doubted that computers - or global capitalism - could solve the most immediate catastrophes facing the world's poorest people.

People who thought that developing countries could benefit from the e-economy had no idea what it meant to live on $1 a day with no electricity, said Gates. "You're just buying food; you're trying to stay alive."

The billionaire technologist became positively vitriolic about the idea of using computers in the Third World: "Mothers are going to walk right up to that computer and say, 'My children are dying, what can you do?' They're not going to sit there and, like, browse eBay or something."

"What they want is for their children to live. Do you really have to put in computers to figure that out?"

For a man who has benefited more than anyone from the IT revolution, this reappraisal is extraordinary and comes after several months of growing disillusionment in Gates about the state of the planet, and the potential for technology to help it out of its current crisis.

He confessed he had been "naive - very naive" when he began giving away his fortune six years ago. At that time, he said, he expected that computers and information technology would make up the bulk of his philanthropic donations. "Computers are amazing in what they can do, but they have to be put into the perspective of human values," he said.

Having visited Africa and other Third World countries his priorities had now shifted, he said. At least two-thirds of the grants offered by the $21 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would now be devoted to Third World healthcare and the development and distribution of vaccines.

In the past year the Gates Foundation has given more than $200 million to health-related causes, including $25m for the International Aids Vaccine Initiative, $50m to prevent maternal and child mortality, $20m for international family planning efforts and $100m towards children's vaccines. 'As a father of two children, thinking about the medicines that I take for granted which are not available elsewhere, that sort of rises to the top of the list.'

These remarks have angered many of Gates's wealthy, hi-tech philanthropist counterparts. They say he has unfairly placed computers at odds with providing food and healthcare in developing countries. Others argue that Gates is wrong to think that technology cannot help improve even the poorest people's lives.

"After listening to three days of serious analysis and work, and then to have Gates rather flippantly say, 'You've got to have clean water and food' - that wasn't exactly furthering the point of the entire meeting," said Sun Microsystems chief research officer John Gage, who heads Netday, a charity committed to wiring the world's classrooms to the internet.

Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000