Theological Term of the Week: Order of God's Decrees

order of God’s decrees
The logical (not chronological) order of the plan made by God in eternity for his dealings with humankind, a plan that culminates in human salvation; sometimes called the plan of salvation.

• From Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung, page 82:

Reformed Theologians have often argued about the order in which God decreed certain things to happen. The debate is not over the temporal order of the decrees. After all, we are talking about what God has determined in eternity. Time is not the issue. Instead, the debate is about the logical order of the decrees. In the mind of God, which decisions did God make first, second, third, and so on?

Specifically, which is logically prior: the decree of election and reprobation or the decree to create the world and permit the fall?

• From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham:

The lapsarian debate concerns the order of decrees in the mind of God. It is not a question of the relation of election to its historical outworking. Both sides—supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism—agree that the decree of election is prior to creation and the fall. The question relates to whether, in election, God contemplated humans as already falled, which was the infralapsarian claim (the decree of election being below—infra—the decree relating to the fall) or whether he considered them as not yet created and fallen (the decree of election being above—supra—the decree relating to the fall). 

Learn more:

1. Richard Phillips: Lapsarian Views
2. Robert Letham: Predestination and the Divine Decree
3. Phillip R. Johnson: Notes on Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism
4. C. Michael Patton: Calvinism and the Divine Decrees
5. B. B. Warfield: Chart of the Plan of Salvation

Related terms:

• infralapsarianism
• supralapsarianism

Filed under Reformed Theology

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