[TheRealThing]

To begin, there are no prophets these days and haven't been since the day in which the Lord walked the streets of Jerusalem. NONE, and if necessary I can provide Scripture in support. So when the mockers come on here, don't act like the preponderance of Christendom are easily made fools of. True Christians will stand long after the lost have pulled in their horns and taken off for the hills. Rev 6:16  and they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the sight of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;

Secondly since the Lord Jesus' ministry here on earth, there always have been and always will be knockoff preachers. Again, we are warned over and over in the New Testament to be careful to test these guys to validate them. That being said, not everyone can perform that task. Why? Because "--- a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor 2:14

Did Jim Bakker and others like him bilk naive people out of a lot of money? Of course, and they will continue to do so. There are far more who play at being a Christian though, than there are who make a living of fleecing them because of their gullibility. The reason is there are a lot of folks who lay claim to Christian faith but who are unfortunately not Christians at all. In fact as of 2019 65% of America claimed to be Christians, and of those only 62% said they were Church members.
Matt 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Christianity is not like a club that one can just join and frankly, America has been so saturated by exposure to the existence of God it seems, I believe owning to our immense wealth, that we don't really take Him all that seriously. Still, it escapes me how it is that people would think they could be so shallow or blase in their deliberations on Christianity. The Son of God had to die on the cross to redeem humanity from certain death after all. Remember as God told the first man Adam, "in the day that you sin you will surely die" [and all those after you]. Even Carl Sagan would say two things one cannot escape are death and taxes. But Christ actually died for us which should grab our attention as to how serious a thing our relationship with God should be. But the Lord's death was the guarantee to all men that they can be saved, it's just that few manage to find their way. Men just cannot seem to get this one thing. Whether or not we go to be with God is not about how a good a person we have been. Eternal life is not about any works of righteousness that any man does, like feeding the poor for example.
Titus 3:5
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

It's our faith in Jesus the Christ that saves us and makes us a Christian. How we come by acquiring this faith I will answer at the end of this post. 

As I said there are "few there be that find it." For the sake of this conversation three out of every 100 would be a high number. And it's not for lack of God's provision to that end either, as the offering up of the Son of God on the cross is too profound a concept for mere words to describe but 97 out of every one hundred reject God anyway. And for the three who do 'find it,' on many occasions, theirs is to find themselves being mocked and laughed to scorn by the other 97. Pretty dramatic odds I must say.

And yet even Carl Sagan said he would love to believe this life is not the end. Thus I can assure there is no man outside of Christ who can say he is ready to die. That said for those who accept Christ as Savior, what an indescribable thrill it will be on that day to be with Him forever. God gives us the faith to believe in Him, "it is THE gift of God." Through repentance to Him. But Satan gives something to his followers to bolster themselves with as well, and it is not faith. Rather it is unbridled contempt for the truth. Hate is a powerful force as well.