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Monday, June 09, 2014

Paedocommunion and communion wine


In this post I'm not going to discuss the pros and cons of paedocommunion. instead, I'm going to raise a related question. 
I take it as rationally indisputable that the NT church used wine rather than unfermented grape juice in communion. This means that if you espouse paedocommunion, and if you celebrate the Eucharist with biblical communion elements, your children will be drinking wine. The question, then, is whether or not that's problematic. I imagine a proponent of paedocommunion might respond in one or two different ways:
i) He might restrict participation to children eating communion bread rather than drinking communion wine.
ii) Perhaps he'd say the quantity of wine is so small as to be insignificant.
iii) However, the quantity of wine which the communicant imbibes is, to some degree, affected by the mode of administration. Many evangelical churches administer communion by filling plastic thimbles with grape juice. That effectively regulates the quantity of liquid which each communicant imbibes. 
However, in liturgical churches, communicants drink from a common chalice. That, of course, raises the additional question of whether a common chalice is a more biblical way to administer communion. 
If you use a chalice, then it's up to the individual communicant to regulate his intake. 
iv) I don't know the average age at which European parents usually introduce their children to alcoholic beverages. I expect that's underreported. Even if there's polling data, what they tell a pollster and what they do in the privacy of their homes might be two very different things. 

7 comments:

  1. Aren't regulations on the books in most (all?) states that prohibit the sale of alcohol to minors, as well as criminalizing the distribution of alcohol to the underaged?

    If so, does this pose a related case of violating the duly enacted laws of the government in order to obey what some believe is a duty commanded by God?

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  2. That, of course, raises the additional question of whether a common chalice is a more biblical way to administer communion.

    I should think it is.
    1 Cor 10:14Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 15I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. 16Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. 18Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? 19What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?

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  3. Are you going to be going somewhere with this? Will there be further posts? I don't see the problem with what you have said so far. I don't think the state views wine at the Lord's Supper as violating its laws. Otherwise every church in Christendom is in violation ... I didn't think any had 21 as the age of profession. Further, if it did violate the law of the land but it was in accordance with the will of God to admit children to His table, who's law should the believer follow. Also, with regards to a chalice ... it would be the responsibility of the parents/father to ensure proper indulgence.

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  4. A 30 second google expedition shows scholarly looking articles that say that it is indisputable that the ancients referred to unfermented grape juice also as oinos. So I'm not sure why we would accept your initial thesis.

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    1. There's always been a fundamental contradiction in the Christian teetotaler position. On the one hand, they contend that "wine" in Scripture is unfermented grape juice. On the other hand, they cite biblical condemnations of drunkenness to support teetotalism. But the latter appeal is a backdoor admission that "wine" was an intoxicant.

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    2. I would never contend that wine IS unfermented grape juice. Only that wine *includes* unfermented grape juice.

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  5. Clearly the Corinthian church wasn't getting drunk at the Lord's table by imbibing too much Welch's grape juice.

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