Wednesday 26 March 2008

Arguments for paedocommunion - a response

Joseph Gleason, a church planter in Omaha, Illinois, who I think was the original author of the words that I took as a launching point for the recent discussion of paedocommunion, has been by, and taken the time to write a few words in response.

You can read the whole thread, complete with comments from others, here: http://www.biblelighthouse.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=1672

Here's what Joseph had to say (emphases his):
What interests me here is that I agree with David. I think he makes a valid point. This is one reason why I think many paedobaptists are inconsistent when they argue for paedobaptism in such a way, because they do not also apply that same logic to paedocommunion and the land-promises to Israel. To resolve the tension, one must either become a Baptist, or affirm that the land promises still physically apply to the Church TODAY . . . not just spiritually, but physically, and not just post-second-coming-of-Christ, but in the here-and-now.
 
Indeed, the land promises made to the OT Church (Israel) were not removed from the NT Church. Our promised land includes the little postage-stamp of land we call "Israel", and the promise has expanded, much farther past those old boundaries.
 
For the Church, the entire planet earth is our promised land. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will take dominion over it, prior to the return of Jesus. It took Abraham's descendants centuries to fully realize the fulfillment of the OT Israel-boundaries land promise. It is taking the Church thousands of years to realize the fulfillment of our NT no-boundaries land promise. But like Abraham and his immediate descendants, we progress toward the goal.
 
God promised Abraham (and thus the Church) that he would be heir of the entire world (Romans 4:13).
I'll give us all a bit more time to chew that other, and aim to post my own response later in the week.

No comments: