Antichrist Myths - Bill Gates & Microsoft

Do Microsoft and its founder comprise the antichrist or beast powers of Revelation? It seems sensible — after all, 80 percent of the world’s computers run Microsoft’s operating system and Bill Gates was once the richest man in the world. (It also won’t be surprising if he reclaims the title in the future.) That’s a pretty potent combination of power and influence.

Well, have you seen the email that reveals the full name of Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, as William Henry Gates III? Supposedly, when converted into ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) decimal code, the name “Bill Gates III” adds up to 666. The ASCII decimal code is how our computers communicate with each other and internally. (ASCII actually has two versions of this code, but only the decimal one will work here.)

Every letter and numeral on a computer has a corresponding ASCII decimal code. For Bill Gates III, it works out like this … according to legend, anyway …

B = 66
I = 73
L = 76
L = 76

G = 71
A = 65
T = 84
E = 69
S = 83

I = 1
I = 1
I = 1

For the most part, the numbers in the Bill Gates III calculation are spot on — until you come to the “III.” The email suggests that the ASCII code for each of the characters in “III” is 1, but that’s not true. If you use the upper case “I,” the decimal code for each is 73. If you use the number “1,” the decimal code for each is 49. In fact, there isn't any instance in the ASCII code in which any of the letters or numerals normally used to form “III” equates to 1. Indeed, the closest our calculations came to was 810! That’s not very scary, is it? Moreover, we wonder why his full legal name, which includes William and Henry, isn’t so important when calculating the number of his name.