Children and Communion
If the minister fences the table against unbelievers, why do we also exclude the baptized children of believers? Looking into paedocommunion sent me back to 1 Corinthians 11, where context, as always, is key, and one-off proof-verse hermeneutics is the constant danger.
When fencing the table, the minister will call on unbelievers to not participate ("lest you eat and drink condemnation upon yourself"). Why do we exclude baptized children of believers, along with unbelievers?
This isn't something I put much thought into until I tried and failed to get any PCA presbytery interested in planting a church in my area, and then looked into the CREC for the same reason. Paedocommunion is one of several distinctives of that [we-are-not-a-denomination-we-are-a-communion-]denomination. In my discussions with them, I was encouraged to learn about these various distinctives. And I did.
It seems like the go-to argument against paedocommunion is 1 Corinthians 11:28 (ESV):
Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
