November 3, 2008

J. L. Dagg (1794–1884) on Various Senses of "Decree"

Writers on theology have employed the term Decrees, to denote the purpose of God. It is an objection to this term, that there is no inspired authority for its use in this sense. When the Scriptures use the term decree, they signify by it a command promulged, to be observed by those under authority. It is the will of precept, rather than the will of purpose. And further, its use in the plural number does not accord so well with the oneness of the divine plan.
J. L. Dagg, Manual of Theology (Harrisonburg, VA.: Gano Books, 1990), 103–104.

Bio:  
Wiki

Edward Polhill has made similar observations about the term (click). See Edward Polhill, “The Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees,” in The Works of Edward Polhill (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1998), 131–132. So did Henry Boynton Smith in his System of Christian Theology (1892), p. 117.

No comments: