Prophecy for Profit

Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have a new prophecy club. For $44.95 a month you can “join the club” and “be an insider.” But do we need a subscription — or Scripture — to advise us on how to live in these dangerous times?

[NOTE: Since this issue of HOMILETICS was published, the price for a subscription to the web site mentioned below has gone down from $44.95 a month, to $6.50 a month.]

What’s the going rate for predicting the future? Your local fortune teller will gladly swipe your VISA and tell you what you already know, or that the time is propitious for a financial investment, or that a mystery stranger from the South, maybe Georgia, maybe Louisiana, is about to enter your life.

Or, you could consult Miss Cleo, who — until she was booted off the television for fraud — would rifle through her tarot cards, point to the love card and tell you: “You betta drop that nosewipe loossuh of yours rat now, girlfriend, ’cuz if you don’t drop him, he gonna drop you!”

But if you’re a Christian, visiting a spiritualist is theologically out of bounds.

Unless you call it “prophecy.”

In that case, the going rate is $44.95 — a month. That’s how much it costs to subscribe to the Left Behind Prophecy, Club Web site, which ...