tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331156725554508589.post3198138679227237580..comments2023-10-04T05:09:54.848-05:00Comments on Contra Mundum: Infant Baptism Defended, Argument 1Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02908788730958708701noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331156725554508589.post-61755641458077355672013-07-29T15:45:50.546-05:002013-07-29T15:45:50.546-05:00You actually touch on an area of controversy among...You actually touch on an area of controversy among the Reformed. There are some who see the signs of the covenant the way you hint at, and give communion to the children of believers. That practice is known as paedocommunion. I will try to avoid stealing Andy's thunder by saying merely that we generally look at baptism as the sign of God's promises of what he WILL do in the elect child's life, while communion looks back at what Jesus DID for the elect believer. Thus, logically, before making a profession of faith, the child is no more qualified to take communion that is the unbeliever. Chris Colehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08235793234791146943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331156725554508589.post-11358011718493689732013-07-29T14:51:40.231-05:002013-07-29T14:51:40.231-05:00Bill,
Thanks for your thoughtful question. (By th...Bill,<br /><br />Thanks for your thoughtful question. (By the way, this is the material I was referring to when I said I could have done a whole semester on infant baptism :-) )<br /><br />Since I will take up this issue in a later part of this series I won't give the long answer. But since this may be a long wait (this series s scheduled to run through the 3rd week of October), I will give a short teaser of an answer now.<br /><br />Membership in the covenant is not unlike citizenship (Scripture asserts as much). Every child is a citizen of the country in which he or she was born. Citizenship is plenary. There is no such thing as halfway citizenship. Nevertheless, he or she does not have free access to all the rights and privileges of citizenship until he or she attains a certain age. One cannot get a driver’s license before his 16th birthday, and even then he must have completed Driver’s Ed. One cannot even vote until he is 18. Generally speaking, no one finds anything objectionable in this scheme. <br /><br />In future posts I will argue for what I believe is the identity of the Passover and the Lord’s Supper. Based on that identity and the similitude of covenant membership and citizenship, we can appreciate what we see practiced by believing parents in the Old Testament. Namely, every child of Jewish parents, though full church members by virtue of their birth and recognized as such by virtue of their circumcision, was still not allowed to partake of the Passover until they came to a certain age. This age was not specifically stipulated. Calvin notes that “the Passover, which has now been succeeded by the sacred supper, did not admit guests of all descriptions promiscuously; but was rightly eaten only by those who were of sufficient age to be able to inquire into its signification.” This is why the law did not stipulate a particular age. What was important was that the child had attained a level of intellectual acumen sufficient for understanding the significance of the Passover. The parents knew that the child was ready when the child began to ask the right questions. When a Christian child, one that has been baptized, begins to ask the right questions about the significance of the Lord’s Supper, and has the necessary intellectual capacity to understand the answers, then that child is ready to partake of the sacrament. (Deut 6:20ff).<br />Andyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02908788730958708701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331156725554508589.post-28750909657634378862013-07-29T13:54:54.387-05:002013-07-29T13:54:54.387-05:00Hey brother, I enjoy reading your blog.
I've ...Hey brother, I enjoy reading your blog.<br /><br />I've got a question about this subject, and if you're going to answer it in a later post, then don't worry about answering it now.<br /><br />Given the nature of the covenants as you outline them in this post, why is the Lord's Supper typically fenced from children of believing parent(s) in Reformed churches?Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16522870194096974357noreply@blogger.com