The many and varied trials which life presents serve as refinement for our doctrine. In other words, God’s Word gives us a satisfactory and coherent account of our experience. In condescending to speak to us, God has not put all mystery and uncertainty to flight. There are many things which we do not know. Nonetheless, he has spoken to us sufficiently for our human troubles. The darkness which haunts and vexes our soul flees before the light of the Word of God. The greatest example of this is death. Nothing looms over us quite like the inevitability of our death. God knows this and he is therefore not silent about our death. Contrary to many poets and teachers of the world, God’s Word does not teach death is “a natural part of life” but the just reward for sin and the most grotesque characteristic defining our lives apart from God. The forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead, and the sovereign disposal of all things under God constitute a satisfactory response to our anxiety about death.
What then of our anxiety about the spiritual state of our children, especially those children who are incapable of giving a confession of faith due to mental disability? Has God addressed this problem, or is it so obscure of a human circumstance that it has escaped his notice? Or perhaps his address on this subject leaves us with little hope? This is where the doctrine of covenant baptism shines brightly and the alternative — baptism upon credible confession of faith only — presents as impotent in the face of this world’s great darkness.
The Asymmetry of the Sacraments
Under covenant baptism, the category of “baptized but absent from the Lord’s Supper” emerges due to the asymmetry between the sacraments of Holy Baptism and The Lord’s Supper. The two most obvious points of difference between Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are that the former is given for covenantal initiation and is consequently received only once whereas the latter is given as covenantal renewal and consequently is received repeatedly. Therefore, “unbaptized” is a different category than “absent from the table.” To be unbaptized is to be outside the bounds of the Church. It is to be reckoned unclean and unwashed. To be absent from the Lord’s Supper, on the other hand, is not necessarily to be reckoned in this manner. In other words, fencing the table is not analogous to fencing the font as the sacraments function differently.
The Category of Alive but Immature
The Apostle Paul requires recipients of the Lord’s Supper to both examine themselves and discern the “body and blood of the Lord.” The capacity to perform these duties assumes a level of spiritual maturity that does not necessarily equate to spiritual vitality. Meaning one can be united to Christ (spiritually alive) and yet incapable of meeting these requirements (possessing a certain level of spiritual maturity). This scenario is plausible in at least two cases. First, and most normative, to children of believing parents while they are yet children. Second, and most rare, in the case of those who are born into Christian homes and yet possess a disability which is prohibitive to this level spiritual maturity.
Without covenant baptism, this category is inexpressible relative to official ecclesial status. It is impossible. This is because the font and the table are fenced by the same qualifications. While it is acknowledged among some who reject covenant baptism there may be among the elect those who are “incapable of responding to the ministry of the Word”, this admission is incoherent within the constraints of their own employment of the sacraments. This category must then only exist at a superficial level as it possesses no legitimate ecclesial expression.
Conclusion
When discerning candidates for covenant membership, the factor of physiological maturity is variable, not constant. This variability applies in the case of children compared to adults but especially in the case of those who are severely disabled compared to those who are not. As noted from the outset, life and reality are complex and present as existential crises of faith demanding a satisfactory response. It is a sound conclusion from the premise of God’s Existence, Omniscience, Omni-benevolence, and Divine revelation that our doctrine ought to provide an adequate account of life’s complexities. That is to say God’s Word is sufficient. By rejecting covenant baptism, the plausible category of spiritually alive but immature is excluded from legitimate ecclesial expression. Put more concretely, one must either make a confession of faith or be excluded from church membership, and by implication cut off from Christ, as they cannot perform the duties required for covenant initiation via baptism. This is not to say that no effort has been made to legitimate such a category by those who operate under the constraints of an ecclesiology and sacramentology which rejects covenantal baptism. However, so long as both sacraments have equivalent requirements — requiring credible confession of faith in every case — it is uncertain to this writer how such a category can ever possess formal, ecclesial, legitimacy without embracing some form of covenant initiation apart from a credible confession of faith.
