King James Bible Dictionary

DECREE, noun [Latin To judge; to divide.]

1. Judicial decision, or determination of a litigated cause; as a decree of the court of chancery. The decision of a court of equity is called a decree; that of a court of law, a judgment.

2. In the civil law, a determination or judgment of the emperor on a suit between parties.

3. An edict or law made by a council for regulating any business within their jurisdiction; as the decrees of ecclesiastical councils.

4. In general, an order, edict or law made by a superior as a rule to govern inferiors.

There went a decree from Cesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. Luke 2:1.

5. Established law, or rule.

He made a decree for the rain. Job 28:26.

6. In theology, predetermined purpose of God; the purpose or determination of an immutable Being, whose plan of operations is, like himself, unchangeable.

DECREE, verb transitive

1. To determine judicially; to resolve by sentence; as, the court decreed that the property should be restored; or they decreed a restoration of the property.

2. To determine or resolve legislatively; to fix or appoint; to set or constitute by edict or in purpose.

Thou shalt decree a thing, and it shall be established. Job 22:28.

Let us not be solicitous to know what God has decreed concerning us.

DECREED, participle passive Determined judicially; resolved; appointed; established in purpose.

DECREEING, participle present tense Determining; resolving; appointing; ordering.

Of the Medes, irrevocable
Daniel 6:14-15

Ecclesiastical, of the church at Jerusalem
Acts 16:4; Acts 15:28-29

Divine
Predestination

"The decrees of God are his eternal, unchangeable, holy, wise, and sovereign purpose, comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be in their causes, conditions, successions, and relations, and determining their certain futurition. The several contents of this one eternal purpose are, because of the limitation of our faculties, necessarily conceived of by us in partial aspects, and in logical relations, and are therefore styled Decrees." The decree being the act of an infinite, absolute, eternal, unchangeable, and sovereign Person, comprehending a plan including all his works of all kinds, great and small, from the beginning of creation to an unending eternity; ends as well as means, causes as well as effects, conditions and instrumentalities as well as the events which depend upon them, must be incomprehensible by the finite intellect of man. The decrees are eternal (Acts 15:18; Ephesians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13), unchangeable (Psalms 33:11; Isaiah 46:9), and comprehend all things that come to pass (Ephesians 1:11; Matthew 10:29, 30; Ephesians 2:10; Acts 2:23; 4:27, 28; Psalms 17:13, 14).

The decrees of God are (1) efficacious, as they respect those events he has determined to bring about by his own immediate agency; or (2) permissive, as they respect those events he has determined that free agents shall be permitted by him to effect.

This doctrine ought to produce in our minds "humility, in view of the infinite greatness and sovereignty of God, and of the dependence of man; confidence and implicit reliance upon wisdom, rightenousness, goodness, and immutability of God's purpose."