In a recent issue of Time magazine (Jan. 13, 1997), Bill Gates was interviewed in a multi-page article. His religious life warranted one short paragraph. It told us that his wife, Melinda, is a Catholic, but has agreed Bill can select the religion in which their daughter, Jennifer, will be raised–if he begins attending church.
The paragraph concludes: “Gates admits that he is tempted [with Melinda’s offer], because he would prefer [Jennifer] have a religion that ‘has less theology and all’ than Catholicism, but he has not yet taken up the offer. ‘Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient,’ he explains. ‘There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.'”
Not very efficient? Surely Gates isn’t referring to the God of the Bible! The universe, light years across, with its mind-boggling vastness and miniscule intricacies, was created out of nothing during six days (actually in the time it took for 10 commands to issue from the mind of the Creator). “God said…it was so.”
Is Gates questioning the efficiency of the revelation of the divine will which is stored in the Living Book, and relayed to the believer’s heart and mind at the speed of obedience? Easily held on a CD, the Bible includes every resource necessary for time and eternity.
Surely he wasn’t thinking about prayer. There are no “bugs” in this system, never a power failure or hardware glitch. Call-waiting is unnecessary. The lines are open 24 hours a day, free of charge, from any heart in the world directly to the Control Room of the universe. And, astounding as it seems, the answer is on its way even before the request arrives! “Before they call, I will answer,” declares the Lord.
Perhaps the young billionaire is thinking about the 30 years of obscurity our Lord subjected Himself to, at Bethlehem and Nazareth, so He could “learn obedience,” becoming a sympathetic High Priest in heaven, where He intercedes for His own.
Is he referring to the two millennia that God has waited for rebellious sinners to turn to Him in repentance? But, says the apostle Peter, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come…the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Pet. 3:9-10). What will Gates’ worth be that day?
Speaking of efficiency, think for a moment of the Cross. Try, if you will, to calculate every sin committed by the human race throughout its long, shocking history. Sins of commission and of omission. Sins of heart, mind, body, and will. Open sins and hidden sins. Sins we have forgotten and sins we cannot forget. Sins in the gutter and sins in the palace; sins on the battlefield and in the boardroom. Oceans–black, cold, bitter, fathomless oceans of sin.
The Man who pleased God in everything now hangs on a Roman gibbet, battered by the relentless hatred of His creatures. Suddenly, without warning, the sun is veiled and there is a great darkness over the whole land for what men measure as three hours. Is it possible that an infinite God can receive full satisfaction for every sinner and for every sin, each one of these being deserving of an eternity of judgment? Not only possible, but true! The proof? God “set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all…” (Eph. 1:20-21).
One of the Time writer’s observations about Bill Gates reads: “Even after spending a lot of time with him, you get the feeling that he knows much about your thinking but nothing about such things as where you live or if you have a family. Or that he cares.”
If efficiency was God’s only consideration, Gates and the rest of us would never have existed. We have been far more trouble than we are worth. When the Saviour gave everything He had for a race of rebel sinners, you could hardly call it efficient. But I, for one, am so glad God opted for love instead of efficiency in this case.
Bill Gates should, too.