There are many different ways of determining what is moral. Many people look to reason or to societal patterns for determining morals. One of the oldest and most rational methods is by Divine command theory. Divine command theory is simply following the will of God. Because God created all and therefore determines morality, there is no better source for morality. Divine commands come in two forms, special revelation and general revelation. Special revelation is through the written word of God or by divine interaction. General revelation is the ability to discern good and evil which was obtained by Adam and Eve at the fall of man. At face value, divine command theory proves to be useful, but there are still some problems with it.

Divine commands are predetermined to be good. In seeking out moral resolution to a problem, one must only go to the source of goodness for a command, which is God. This can be done in several ways. Prayer and study of the Bible is a common way of finding out God’s will. Often the answer lies in general revelation, which many may argue is not part of divine command theory. General revelation is simply the ability to discern good from evil which was allowed to man by God. So it is really special revelation, in a round about way. More practically, people are often convicted to make a certain action without actually consulting the Bible because it is part of man’s nature to do so. General revelation as used in divine command theory differs from natural law in that it is used for the express purpose of acting in accordance with the will of God.

A distinct problem with divine command theory is when there is a conflict between two scriptures. For instance, is it moral to lie in order to obey God? Divine command is based on God’s will, not necessarily on scripture. Divine command theory is not simply a set of rules; rather, it is a way of understanding the will of God in order for His plan to be done. For many religions, they have no basis for understanding other than general revelation and their holy book, but for Christians, we have the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us, so that when confronted with these scenarios we are able to discern God’s purpose in order to make the moral decision.

Another major problem with divine command theory is that the notion of ‘good’ is a presupposition of God. Many will argue that in order for good to come from God, good would have had to have been in existence prior to the existence of God or at least prior to creation. Therefore, good could not have existed until after creation, so who is God to say what is good or not? The resolution to this problem is that God’s laws are not good because man says so. Good was not created by man after creation. God’s laws are good because all that God is, is good. So the notion of ‘good’ is, in fact, a presupposition of God because God determines goodness.

Since divine command theory is focused on acting in accordance with the will and purpose of God, it is therefore the most helpful ethical theory for making moral decisions. Certainly there are elements of other theories which can prove useful in forming convictions or in understanding the way that people think, but their usefulness is limited, unless they are firmly rooted in divine command theory. For example, as previously discussed, elements of natural law theory (general revelation) are actually a requirement of divine command theory. Any problems which are faced by divine command theory are not rooted in the theory itself, but in man’s minimal understanding of the will and purpose of God.

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Determining God's Will through Divine Command Theory