Perhaps that explains why divination by words seems to evoke an air of controversy.
Within three centuries after the death of Jesus, the agrapha had started to compete with writings pointed to as proof of divination by words. Although those written sayings of Jesus were not found in the canonical gospels, the public developed great reference for some of those sayings. A few clever men have made note of that fact.
During the past two thousand years, some Christian leaders have sought to evoke a tremendum among a crowd of listeners. They hoped to produce in an audience a feeling of overwhelming awe. They wanted to appear highly knowledgeable about divination by words.
That approach to a crowd seeking religious or spiritual support can be found among religious leaders outside of Christianity. In fact, the schism in Islam, the differences between Shiites and Sunnis that are now clear to the entire world, go back to an argument over the rightful successor to Muhammad. Apparently divination by words has not always made clear who should lead a following created by acceptance of the divine word.
The early Christian Church sought to limit arguments over interpretation of religious law. The Church established the position of cartulary. The cartulary was the keeper of the monastic record. Of course those keepers could not keep Christianity from splitting into many different sects.
Back then the divine word could not be spread by e-mail. At the time of Jesus, it was spread mainly by word of mouth. At the time of Muhammad, the public had begun to spend some time actually reading the written word of God. Still, at first that word had to be written by hand. Not until after the Crusades did it become possible to print the revealed word.
Since the revealed word reached only small audiences at first, there was limited discussion concerning its veracity. Thus the idea of divination by words came under much less scrutiny then than it does today. Today any suggestion that one person's words present the world with a message from God gets almost immediate feedback. Instantly, bloggers offer their comments on any such suggestion.
In our present-day society, where most people have access to various types of literature, no claim of divination by words ever goes unchallenged. Those challenges come from a diversity of people. Those challenges thus lead to development of many diverse arguments, arguments both for and against the alleged revealer of the divine words.
Such challenges slow the progress of pietism. They force a fast-paced world to pause and reflect on the veracity of the allegedly divine claims. Maybe those early challenges will reduce the likelihood that remarks about the allegedly divine claim could lead to later controversies.