Thursday 20 March 2008

Bad arguments for infant communion (part 4)

Part one, part two, part three.
"Thank You, Lord, for blessing me and my family with this great feast in Your Presence! Thank You for redeeming all of us from slavery in Egypt. And thank You for the great day that is coming, when Your Spirit will fill all of us, Your people, except for our little children. I thank You, God, that the day is coming when this feast of Pentecost is fullfilled, and our little children will no longer be permitted to feast before you as they do today! Praise the Lord!"
If you've been following the plot so far, then you'll understand that the above piece of rhetoric with which we began this series has no more necessary Biblical logic to it than this one:
"Thank You, Lord, for blessing me and my family with this great feast in Your Presence! Thank You for redeeming all of us from slavery in Egypt and giving us this land. And thank You for the great day that is coming, when You will take it from us again. I thank You, God, that the day is coming when this feast of Pentecost is fullfilled, and our little children will no longer be given the covenantal privilege to live here as they do today! Praise the Lord!"
Similarly, we were invited to consider this fine speech:
"Thank You, Lord Jesus, for fulfilling the OT Feast of Pentecost on this glorious day today! For many years my family and I have celebrated the Feast of Pentecost in Your Presence, rejoicing before You, in eager anticipation of today. Thank You, Lord, that my little children will no longer be permitted to feast in Your Presence, now that the fulfillment of Pentecost has finally arrived. Thank You, Lord!
The counterpart of which reads like this:
"Thank You, Lord Jesus, for fulfilling the OT Feast of Pentecost on this glorious day today! For many years my family and I have celebrated the Feast of Pentecost in our promised land, rejoicing before You, in eager anticipation of today. Thank You, Lord, that my little children will no longer be permitted to feast in this land, now that the fulfillment of Pentecost has finally arrived, but will be kicked out before this generation passses away. Thank You, Lord!
I take it that the brother who composed the above paragraphs thought that they were really solid arguments for paedo-communion. What rotter could believe that God would start becoming mean to children once the New Covenant came, as if the New Covenant were meant to be worse than the Old? I take it also, though, that the same brother can see the gaping logical fallacies when the same "expanded covenant privileges" argument is used to argue that the same children ought to retain possession of the land as well?

To be continued...

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