Is it fair to say that in your, what, vision of the ecclesial community the Holy Spirit often gives rich and wonderful and obvious manifestations of his work and presence?
If that's right, then "prophecy" is one of those gifts.
If a Martian (okay, no alien jokes) sociologist were to observe this in a sort of clinical way he would describe this prophetic activity as a kind of ecstatic utterance (maybe?) but "in a language understanded of the people", and, in a way, "oracular" in the sense of being FIRST, not really chosen by the speaker and THEN vague or, treading carefully here, lacking in concreteness at least to those who are not members of the particular ecclesial community?
This utterance would however present itself as an accurate presentation of God's word, both with respect to future events and with respect to personal spiritual activities.
How am I doing so far?
Then, the underlying theology would include ideas that the utterance was in and for the local ecclesial community AND for those who (by the activity of the Holy Spirit hear in it the word of God. Therefore, since it is, in a way, irrelevant to those who are not members of the community, they are not competent to "judge" it because it really is discontinuous with their own particular personal life in Christ?
The reason I'm trying to get a handle on the POV is that I think that the abuse and hostility on both sides come from widely different opinions of what and how the Church is manifested in the life of communities and individuals. So each side seems preposterous, weird, and needlessly unfriendly to the other.
So I hoped to portray in a neutral way how things look from "your side."
How did I do?
Um, oh yeah: