“I am caucusing Jedediah's prophecies in the Religion Forum to avoid provoking personal attacks and flame wars by those who are deeply, deeply offended by anyone alleging to be a modern day prophet speaking in first person.”
I understand. Perfectly reasonable.
But here's the thing: I'm not deeply, deeply offended by someone alleging to be a modern-day prophet speaking the first person.
Having spent many years in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, I listened to many people give prophecies, and I was not offended per se by their witness.
That doesn't mean that I checked the requirement for discernment at the door. Sometimes, after reflection, I came to the conclusion that the prophecy given may well have been from God, and may well have been worthy. Other times, after reflection, I concluded that the “prophecy” was not of God, and probably more related to the person's ego. Still other times, the prophecy was given by someone that experience had shown might be mentally not fully balanced. In these cases, prayer group leaders tried to deal gently with these folks, but in some cases, we actually had to physically prevent some of these folks from coming to the meetings.
But it worked in part because the prayer meetings were organized and run by a specific set of core group leaders who were recognized as having the authority to make these judgments and to act accordingly.
Here, we have at least one person claiming to make these prophecies, and those of us so inclined to listen and discern may or may not judge these prophecies as being valid, possibly valid, or certainly not valid.
But there is no leadership mechanism to achieve order. So that's something that's unavailable.
So what's left is the individual judgment of each member of the forum.
Now, certainly, those folks who make no claim at all to being charismatic or pentecostal should stay out of these caucus threads.
But what about folks who are, to some degree or other, charismatic or pentecostal (and this isn't as easy to pin down as whether one is Catholic or Methodist or Presbyterian)? Even if they don't go to an overtly charismatic assembly, if they count themselves charismatic or pentecostal, may they enter the caucus and give their possibly negative judgment?
“The alternative is to caucus Jedediah's prophecies under the label ‘Pentecostal.’”
I'm not sure what that buys. Many Cahtolic charismatics wouldn't balk at being labeled “pentecostal,” even if they aren't part of a formally pentecostal denomination. As well, there are denominations and non-denominational groups that specifically call themselves “charismatic” to contrast themselves with more fully “pentecostal” groups that nonetheless are broadly speaking, “pentecostal,” in the actual meaning of the word. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some here who identify strongly as charismatic, but if they were honest, would point out that they wouldn't want to be categorized as “pentecostal.”
Then, there are serious theological disputes within those who might properly be defined as “pentecostal” which could easily make one person denounce a specific prophecy while another fully endorsed it - all the folks involved being rightly called “pentecostal” (or “charismatic”).
I guess my point is that if we're trying to do things in an intellectually honest way, “charismatic” or “pentecostal” caucus threads have a much, much greater inherent capacity for theological battles and harsh disputes than, say, Catholic caucus threads. If we are saying that by “charismatic” or “pentecostal,” we're talking about folks who accept that in the current day that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including speaking in tongues, interpreting speech in tongues, prophecy and healing, then I properly belong to this caucus.
That doesn't necessarily mean that I accept as prophecy what is offered here as prophecy.
sitetest
That doesn't necessarily mean that I accept as prophecy what is offered here as prophecy.
Jedediah, label your prophecy threads either "Charismatic Caucus" or "Pentecostal Caucus" and use "other" as the only denominational topic. This should help avoid personal attacks and flame wars and provide "safe harbor" for sharing prophecies spoken in first person.