About knowing God's will

"The notion of the will of God being determined by votes is both modern and alarming.” Joan Bakewell in A Point of View, Friday 25 November 2011, BBC Radio 4.

Yes, one can easily see why some people are very alarmed by it – but it isn't modern at all.  Admittedly the usual way for the faithful to learn of God's will, other than from received teaching, is when some individual has sufficient arrogance to think that his personal opinions or desires are the result of direct communication from God and the chutzpah to stand up and tell everyone so.

None the less the Bible itself records God's will being decided by a debate, as at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 154-35). That was about the year 50 CE. One might think that the contents of the Bible was something that God had strong feelings about, and the debate about what works were or were not accepted continued over quite a long while until finally settled at the Council of Carthage in 419 CE, again by a debate.

No doubt Roman Catholics regard the choice of Pope as being the expression of God's will, but that has been decided by an election at least since the 2nd Council of Lyon, which laid down the rules, in 1215. So that is comparatively modern, but not, I think, modern in the sense that Joan Bakewell used the word.

It works for the Church of England too. It has made it's opinion known, for example, about whether the use of contraception was in accord with God's will or otherwise several times, changing it's mind in the process. In 1908 the Lambeth Conference (the supreme gathering of Anglican bishops) called on “all Christian people to discountenance the use of all artificial means of restriction as demoralising to character”. In 1930 the same body resolved that “Where there is a clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood, complete abstinence is the primary and obvious method” but “the Conference agrees that other methods may be used, provided that this is done in the light of Christian principles”.  So God is neither totally for nor totally against – he is truly an Anglican. Then in 1958, by which time contraception was a fact of life for church members, a resolution was passed by the assembled bishops to the effect that God wanted prospective parents to decide about the number and frequency of children and to implement their decision “in such ways as are acceptable to husband and wife”. Not only a vote by the bishops on what God's will is, but also a passing of the buck to the couple. And of course General Synod has taken numerous votes on what God's will might be concerning, say, the Ordination of Women.

All that has happened since 50 CE is that the franchise has been extended.