In a recent small group meeting we discussed one of the interpretations of the role of prophesy in the New Testament; that being - prophesy is merely human words to report something God has brought to mind. Traditionally, that might apply within the local church but with generally good literacy and a seemingly endless supply of Christian literature available to us, there are lots of opportunities to sift all kinds of things "God has brought to [some author's] mind" in the form of books. The voice of the prophet can carry much farther than the local assembly in a literate, affluent and technologically advanced society. So, in my mind, assessing the literature that is shaping your (and your fellow believer's) theology is akin to testing the prophet and you certainly will have to keep the good and get rid of the bad.
I think Rob Bell would even support this idea. "Whenever someone has tapped into the deep stream of the historic Christian faith, whenever a church has stumbled upon the big truths about who Jesus is and what it looks like to be his body, we should celebrate this, and study it, and learn from them, and ask questions, and wrestle with how to apply what they have learned in their context to our context, to our city, to our neighborhood, to our church." Jesus Wants to Save Christians p159 The first step however is to ensure that the "tapping" and "stumbling upon" has been accurate.
So the more important question is, 'what did you think?'
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