Just a few more comments in response to Green Baggins’ latest. I think we have already covered the basic issues, but a few points really need to be emphasized.
The first is that I agree that our inability to get the church in history to correspond name-for-name with the church in the eschaton is not an argument for giving up on the pastoral task. This is why we preach the Word in season and out of season, this is why we counsel and admonish, and this is why we discipline. But this is not an argument for refusing to let people into the church in the first place because of potential problems down the road. Still less is it an argument for letting them into the front door and making them stand there.
The second point to make is that Lane compares the situation to one of citizenship and certain privileges of citizenship. “Church membership is a bit like citizenship in the US. We are born citizens. We don’t ever become more of a citizen than we already are by birth. However, that doesn’t mean that an infant can drive a car, vote, or drink.” I agree with this completely, but the analogy is being misapplied. I agree that the fact that we baptize infants does not obligate us to allow them to vote in church elections, or drive the bus to the family retreat. But what we are talking about, with regard to the Table, is food. All children who come into our households should have the privilege of food.
And last, Lane said, “The church must have some way to judge whether in fact a person at the Supper is exercising faith, including notitia.” Two responses here. If we allow parents to speak for a child at the Font, why not at the Table? Where did their parental and covenantal authority go? I will make you a deal. Tell you what let’s do. You tell our friends the Reformed Baptists what passages you use to allow parents to speak for their children at their baptism, and I will gather up those same passages as an argument for allowing parents to speak for their children at the Table, and I will have the nerve to ask our RB brethren this simple question. “Friends,” I will say, “I know you don’t buy it. But surely you can tell me this — don’t you find these passages on the question of the Table to be just as compelling as when applied to the Font?”