Baptism is the sacrament of birth into the visible church; it can be passively received. The Lord’s Supper is the sacrament of growth and nourishment; it must be actively received by faith. You can bathe an infant who does nothing but cry, but you cannot feed a steak to a newborn.

Because the Reformed tradition vigorously defends the baptism of infants (paedobaptism), a natural question often arises: If we baptize our children, why do we not also give them the Lord’s Supper? In recent decades, a minority within the Reformed camp (often associated with the Federal Vision movement) has advocated for Paedocommunion—the practice of serving the bread and wine to infants and young children. They argue for “covenantal symmetry.” Their logic suggests that if infants belong to the covenant community, they have a right to all the covenant meals, just as children partook of the Passover in the Old Testament.

Lest anyone assume that conservative NAPARC (North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council) bodies are immune to this danger, it remains a very live issue today. Just recently, at the PCA’s (Presbyterian Church in America) General Assembly, proposals were brought forth to make paedocommunion an acceptable practice. While this was thankfully defeated, it serves as a stark reminder that we must remain vigilant, aware of this theology, and prepared to confront it with our Confessional standards.

However, the Westminster divines vehemently rejected this practice. To understand why, we must turn to the Westminster Larger Catechism (WLC), which outlines the rigorous, active, and highly cognitive requirements for coming to the Lord’s Table—requirements that infants are entirely incapable of fulfilling.

The Larger Catechism teaches that while baptism is a passive sacrament of initiation administered even to infants, the Lord’s Supper is an active sacrament of nourishment reserved strictly for those who are of years and ability to examine themselves, discern the Lord’s body, and actively exercise faith and repentance.

The Crucial Asymmetry (WLC 177)

The most direct refutation of paedocommunion is found in WLC 177, which asks, “Wherein do the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper differ?”

The divines explicitly reject the idea of absolute “covenantal symmetry” between the two sacraments. While both are seals of the same covenant, they have different functions and different requirements for the recipient.

The Catechism states that baptism is to be administered “but once, with water, to be a sign and seal of our regeneration and ingrafting into Christ, and that even to infants.”

However, the Lord’s Supper is to be administered “often, in the elements of bread and wine, to represent and exhibit Christ as spiritual nourishment to the soul, and to confirm our continuance and growth in him, and that only to such as are of years and ability to examine themselves.“

Read More