A Very Short Treatise on Collective Wisdom and Its Proper Application by Chris White

 Most of us remember the wildly popular television quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?  The contestant would be asked a series of progressively harder multiple choice questions with a chance at winning a huge cash prize at the end.  If a player was stumped on an answer he had three “lifelines” to help him.  The most fascinating of the three in my opinion was “ask the audience”.  The collective audience was asked their answer and the majority report was put on a bar graph for the contestant to see.  Statistically, the audience selected answer was 99% correct which means that, at least in terms of trivia, the breadth of knowledge in a crowd probably trumps a single expert.

One place I believe the “collective wisdom of the crowd” can be a real failure is in spiritual matters or perception.  Consider the 12 spies sent in to Canaan (See Numbers chapter 32 in the Old Testament).  They all saw the same things yet only two of them trusted in God to go forward while the other ten looked at the situation strictly from a human standpoint and to the general “freaking out” of everybody suggested that God wasn’t able to help them do what He had told them to do.  Listening to the wrong voices in this matter was recorded as a terrible mistake with great consequences in the narrative of scripture.  The Lord made Israel live in the wilderness 40 years rather than give this unbelieving generation the promised land as a discipline for their unbelief. 

In the church of antiquity, there was a screwball idea floating around that Christian disciples should ask Mary (the mother of Jesus) to pray for them.  A lot of people were quite critical of this idea especially since it cannot be directly taught from scripture. But it gained currency over time because a small crowd of powerful bishops and theologians supported it.  This seems like the opposite problem of listening to the minority when you probably shouldn’t.  Certain people tend to thrive off of being in the minority and will always hold anything widely believed as suspect from the start.  Only the few ever see the truth is the thinking.  But this is not always the case is it?  Many times the majority does have it right.  More on that later.

 I know there have been times I have sought spiritual counsel from a ‘multitude of counselors’ (Pr. 15:22) only to find such a multitude of answers that I was more in the dark than before on the way I should go.  I guess this could be called a collective “I don’t know!”.  So, when should I trust the breadth of the crowd as wise spiritual counsel?

First answer: only when you really need it.  There are a lot of issues we grapple with that are clearly and directly addressed by scripture.  We shouldn’t need to get a second opinion on whether or not to live purely or with integrity.  If you have to ask if it would be dishonest to do something, then chances are it is and you already think so, so why even ask?  What separates you from a beast is your conscience.  God gave you this to develop as a moral being and learn to choose the good and reject the evil.  God’s Word studied regularly will help condition your conscience towards God’s will which is a good thing.  If you have a God-conditioned conscience, it really will be the reliable guide you need it to be.

Second thought on this: are those whom you ask steeped in the truth of the scripture?  Do they actually demonstrate scriptural truth in their lifestyle?  Approaching people who do not live and learn from scripture is like asking a blind person to help you read a road map.  There are some real limitations to the value of advice from people without spiritual perception.  They may be wise (or at least really clever), but their wisdom will reflect the view that God is not very important.  Counsel always needs to be given a valuation because it is not all worth the same.

Third and final thought: when it is supplementary to your own prayers, fastings, and wrestlings with God.  There is a saying in business that tasks may be delegated but never responsibility.  Since we are directly accountable to the Lord for our lives we should seek his counsel first and seek to discern His voice on the matter. The counsel of other wise people should be supplemental and confirming but not primary.  If the Holy Spirit indwells the Lord’s people, then there will be a recognition of others that you have heard His voice and are moving in the right direction.  Many centuries ago the Christian church came up with a test to put up any fresh idea about doctrine.  It essentially asks has this thought been something that the whole church, in every place and in every time believed?  This question was based on the idea that the Holy Spirit indwells his church and thus has a built-in communal discernment from God that is trustworthy and reliable.