Decreeing and Declaring

 

 

Decreeing and Declaring:

Whose roles are these two?

To best answer this question

We must get a biblical view.

 

49 times in the KJV 

You will find the word decree

And this word in all its usage

Speaks to authority.

 

95 times in the KJV

You’ll find the word declare:

77 times in the Old Testament;

In the New it 18 times appear.

 

It can mean to propagate

Or even to explain

And though subtly different,

These basically mean the same.

 

 

Decree on the other hand

You’ll find in the NT one time,

Caesar Augustus unwittingly fell in line

With what was in God’s mind.

 

He sent out the decree

That all the world be taxed

And thus, the need for a census

To be guided by the facts.

 

Before this God had decreed

That the Messiah would come

And it coincided with Caesar’s census

Within the Roman kingdom.

 

Kings by law decree

What must be in their domain,

Such decrees are for a time

And only while they reign.

 

God’s decrees are eternal

And not subjected to change,

Declaring the end at the beginning;

God has infinite range.

There is much that we declare

That does not come to pass

And even when it does

It will not eternally last.

 

But when we declare God’s Word

We declare God’s decree,

Sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ

For the whole world to see.

 

Suspended on a rugged cross

At Mount Calvary,

In him alone is man’s salvation:

That’s the heavenly decree.

 

Declare the Gospel of salvation

Propagate this royal decree!

That whosoever believes in Christ

Shall be saved eternally.

 

Stewart Russell © August 20, 2021