There’s an old children’s game called “Telephone,” in which kids sit in a circle and one, call him A, whispers a message to B, who whispers it to C, who whispers it to D, and so on. The last recipient reveals the message as it has reached him–usually hilariously distorted from the original. I sometimes feel my books are transmitted from reader to reader in this fashion. Nowhere in Providence do I claim to have “prophetic dreams.” I do discuss a dream that had special significance for me personally–a single dream, not “dreams throughout my life.” A prophet is someone with access to special knowledge (usually from the mind of God) that is hidden from ordinary mortals. I’ve made a point in all my books of saying, “Don’t take my word for this. Ask any anthropologist, ask any biologist, ask any historian, check at your local library, everything I’m telling you is available to anyone who looks for it.” How then could I consider myself “a modern-day prophet”? And if I’m not a modern-day prophet, what am I? This is a question that frankly doesn’t interest me; history will decide what I am, and any opinion I might have won’t enter into it.
ID: 470
posted: 18 Jun 2000
updated: 18 Jun 2000