Explore...

• pactumbooks home
• feed my lambs
• these are two covenants
• purchase information
• reseller information
• music
• online store
• contact

Feed My Lambs
Table of Contents

Preface

• Why Read This Book?
• May You Read This Book?
• How to Read This Book
• Acknowledgements

Introduction

• Recent History
• John Calvin
• Terminology

1. One Bread, One Body

• Matthew 19: The Status of New Covenant Children
• New Covenant Anticipation: The Impulse of Universalization
  • Jeremiah 31: breadth of benefits
  • Isaiah: stable generations
• New Testament Confirmation
  • Galatians 3:27-28: universal inheritance
  • 1 Corinthians 10:16-17: a universal table
  • 1 Corinthians 7:14: the calling of covenant children
  • 1 Corinthians 12:13: sacramental parallelism
  • Marriage Supper and Lord's Supper
  • Circumcision and baptism
• John 6: sacrament and reality
• "Feed My lambs"

2. A Passover Lamb for Little Lambs

• Passover Participation in Exodus 12
  • Dependent upon catechization?
  • The Passover count
  • Passover and the stranger
• Deuteronomy 16:16: Rights and Requirements
• New Testament Evidence Concerning Passover Participation
  • Luke 2: did Jesus wait until age 12?
  • The numbering of the five thousand: a Passover count?
  • The Last Supper
• Passover Requirements and Children
• Passover in Jewish Practice
• The Positive Case for Passover as a Household Benefit
  • Admission in Exodus 12
  • The 'feast in the wilderness'
  • The terms of Deuteronomy 12
• Passover and Lord's Supper: Relevance
  • The time and form of institution
  • Other New Testament connections
  • Lord's Supper and other Old Testament meals
  • Lord's Supper and the Day of Atonement
  • Implications of the connection

3. Our Children and 1 Corinthians 11

• Appeals Against Paedocommunion from 1 Corinthians 11
• Exposition of the Passage
  • Broader context
  • 11:17-22: the problem
  • 11:23-25: the reminder
  • 11:26-27: implications of the Supper
  • 11:28-32: the safeguarding of the Supper
  • 11:33-34: the outcome

4. Children at the Lord's Table in History

• Contrary Evidence?
  • Second century Fathers
  • Origen
• Paedocommunion in the Early Church
  • Justin Martyr
  • Cyprian
  • The Apostolic Constitutions
  • Augustine
  • Leo the Great
• Which Comes First: Practice or Theology?
• The Decline and Fall of Paedocommunion
• The Hussites: An Attempt at Revival
• Post-Reformation Period
• The State of the Question Today

5. Objections Answered

• I. Contrasts with Baptism
  • A non-covenantal sacrament?
  • An active sacrament
  • A sacrament of demand
  • A sacrament of communion rather than union?
  • Baptism and Lord's Supper: a pastoral assessment
• II. Objections Based on Analysis of, or Comparison to, the Old Testament
  • Children may not approach the altar
  • Great Atonement, not Passover
  • New covenant intensification of standards
  • A sacrament only, not a meal
  • A disciplinary meal
  • The immature barred from meals requiring discernment
• III. General Objections to Paedocommunion
  • Hints from the physical character of the Supper
  • Undermines catechesis?
  • Confession of faith required
  • Deferred citizenship rights
  • Nothing to be gained?
  • Faith versus superstition
  • Danger of a down-grade
  • Biological Christianity?
• Conclusion

Conclusion

Appendix 1: The Covenant of Grace & Its Children

• The Relationship Between Old Covenant and New
• The Covenant of Grace in the Old Testament
  • One covenant or many?
  • The seed of the woman
  • Theft of the seed of the woman
  • Noah: covenant of grace or 'covenant of creation?'
  • Abraham: recovery of the seed of the woman
  • Mosaic meals and the covenant of grace
• The Covenant of Grace and the New Testament
  • You and your household
  • What About Romans 9?

Appendix 2: Consideration of Practical Issues

• Paedocommunion and 'Small Change'
  • Covenant expectations and discipline
  • The sins of the fathers
  • Profession of faith
• What About Infant Communion?
• Paedocommunion and the Reformed Confessions
  • Prohibition and inference
  • The desirability of revision
  • Revision: an illustrative example
  • Hindrances to revision
• Paedocommunion and Fathers
• "I'm Convinced - But My Church Isn't: What Now?"
  • Sanctified disagreement
  • Should my child make profession of faith?

Appendix 3: Brief Theses on Communion & Covenant Children

Bibliography

Scripture Index

Index of Names

[Index of Names in 2nd printing only.]