What is Lent

WHAT IS LENT?
Why is it so widely practiced by Christians of
this world?
Is it because the Bible commands it?
Did Christ or any of His apostles observe Lent?
What about the first century Church?
What does the Bible teach about Lent?

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 What is Lent
The purpose of this study is to examine these holy days and see what the Bible says
about them.
Many people observe these days simply from habit. They may be awed or excited by the
ritual surrounding Lent. Their churches celebrate the day, so the members participate
without questioning whether or not they truly ought to be part of Christianity. It may
never occur to these folks to question where this holiday came from or whether they are
really right.
2 Corinthians 13:5 - Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test
yourselves.
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 - Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every
form of evil.
The question to be considered is whether this observance is pleasing to God. Note that
we are studying the observance of the days as religious holy days. It is not our purpose to
consider whether Christians may participate in various traditional or secular aspects of
those days.
To please God, religious observances must be authorized in His word.
John 4:23, 24 - Worship must be in spirit and in truth.
Matthew 15:9 - And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments
of men.
The question we must consider is whether God has authorized these religious
observances or whether they are human in origin.
To answer this question, we must examine their origin and nature. We will do this by
considering the claims made for this day by the groups that observe them (with a few
general facts from competent encyclopedias). We will consider their own explanation of
the days, what they mean, and where they came from. Then we will compare this to the
Bible to find out if the Bible authorized them.

The meaning of the day

Catholic Dictionary: "Lent. A fast of forty days preceding Easter, kept, after the
example of Moses, Elias, and above all, of Christ Himself, in order to prepare the
faithful for the Easter feast ... It was a season of mourning, and hence the Church has
always strongly discountenanced festivities of all kinds during Lent. Lastly, the body is
mortified, in order that the soul may be invigorated ..." - p. 512, 514.
Ash Wednesday is the day when the Catholic Church sprinkles ashes on the foreheads of
members as a sign of penitence, especially for those who seek to be restored to
communion on Easter.
A Catechism for Adults (Catholic): "The church's law of abstinence says that on
certain days you may not eat meat ... What are the days of obligatory abstinence? Ash
Wednesday and all the Fridays of Lent ... On these days, no meat may be taken at the
full meal" - p. 132.
Baker's Dictionary of Theology (Protestant): "Lent. The forty days of fasting
immediately preceding Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday ..." - p. 320

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 What is Lent
Lents Ancient Roots
Coming from the Anglo-Saxon Lencten, meaning spring, Lent originated in the ancient
Babylonian mystery religion. The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed
from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddessAmong the Pagans this Lent seems to
have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of
the death and resurrection of Tammuz (The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop).

Tammuz was the false Messiah of the Babyloniansa satanic counterfeit of Jesus Christ!

The Feast of Tammuz was usually celebrated in June (also called the month of
Tammuz). Lent was held 40 days before the feast, celebrated by alternate weeping and
rejoicing. This is why Lent means spring; it took place from spring to early summer.

The Bible records ancient Judah worshipping this false Messiah: Then He brought me to
the door of the gate of the LORDS house which was toward the north; and, behold, there
sat women weeping for Tammuz (Ezek. 8:14-15). This was a great abomination in
Gods eyes!

The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop can be downloaded

ldolphin.org/PDFs/The_Two_Babylons-Alexander_Hislop.pdf

But why did the church at Rome institute such a pagan holiday?
To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took
measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated
but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get
Paganism and Christianitynow far sunk in idolatryin this as in so many other things,
to shake hands (The Two Babylons).

The Roman church replaced Passover with Easter, moving the pagan Feast of Tammuz
to early spring, Christianizing it. Lent moved with it.

This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentous
consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest corruption and the rankest
superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent (The Two Babylons).

Before giving up personal sins and vices during Lent, the pagans held a wild, anything
goes celebration to make sure that they got in their share of debaucheries and
perversitieswhat the world celebrates

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 What is Lent
Examining Lents Purpose
First, understand that the celebration of the death and Resurrection of Christ to
which the preceding quote refers is so-called Good Friday and Easter Sunday
holidays deeply rooted in ancient paganism. They were instituted by mainstream
Christianity in order to counterfeit and replace the Passover season. Passover and the
Days of Unleavened Bread were observed by Christ, the original apostles and the New
Testament Churchincluding Gentiles. God commands His people to observe them
today (I Cor. 5:7-8).

Second, the Bible says that we are purifiedcleansed, set apart and made pure in
Gods sightby the shed blood of Jesus Christ (Heb. 9:11-14, 22; 13:12). This, along
with faith (Acts 15:9) and humbly submitting to and obeying God (James 4:7-10)
through His truth and prayer (John 17:17; I Tim. 4:5), makes us clean before God. No
amount of fasting, abstaining from physical pleasures or any other form of self-denial
can purify us.

Third, you cannot, of and by yourself, create within you the desire to do Gods will.
True, God has given mankind free moral agency. But the carnal, natural mind cannot
will notsubmit to God. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the
flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the SpiritBecause the carnal mind
is enmity [hostile] against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be (Rom. 8:5, 7).

Only through a converted mind, actively led by the Holy Spirit, can God work in you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).
And fourth, to make His kingdom come by making it come first of all in their hearts is a
false tradition taught by this worlds brand of Christianity. It is not taught in the Bible.
God is not setting up His kingdom in the hearts of men.

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 What is Lent
There are three areas I would want to warn
Abomination Masked as Christianity the Christian about concerning Lent.

God is not the author of confusion (I Cor.
14:33). He never instituted Lent, a pagan
observance connecting debauchery to the
supposed resurrection of a false Messiah.
God commands His people to follow Himnot
the traditions of men. Gods ways are higher,
better than mans (Isa. 55:8-9). Men cannot
determine for themselves right from wrong or
how to properly worship God. Why? Because
the heart [mind] is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9), and the
way of man is not in himself; it is not in man
who walks to direct his own steps (10:23). God
designed us and gave us life. He knows how we
are supposed to worship Him.
To be a Christian and properly serve God, you
must live by every word that proceeds out of
the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4), recognizing that
His Holy Scriptures cannot be broken (John
10:35).
God commands Christians to flee from the
pagan traditions and customs of this world (Rev.
18:2-4), currently led and deceived by Satan the
devil (II Cor. 4:4; Rev. 12:9).
Lent may seem like a sincere, heartfelt religious
observance. But it is deeply rooted in pagan
ideas that counterfeit Gods plan.
God hates all pagan observances (Jer. 10:2-
3; Lev. 18:3, 30; Deut. 7:1-5, 16). They cannot
be Christianized or made clean by men. This
includes Lent.
1) We cannot do anything of ourselves to earn a
home in Heaven.
I know this sounds redundant to some Christians;
however, I am afraid that some born-again believers
can fall into the carnal thinking of man and try little
things to gain Gods favor to assure a home in
Heaven. We must be careful to avoid this type of
thinking. When Christ died on the cross for us the
payment was made. Done. Complete. Finished.
The only responsibility that we have is to put our
faith and trust in Christ Jesus for our home in
Heaven. Sure, we should do all we can to please
God and further His Kingdom, but lets not ever get
that mixed up with earning our home in Heaven.
2) We should not set aside a small time of the year
to please God.
As Christians, we should be living a life that God
would be pleased with 365 days of the year. Does
that mean we wont ever sin? No. Does that mean
every MOMENT will be God-honoring? No. But it
does mean that each and every day we should put
forth an effort to do things that have an eternal value
and please God. If we reserve just 46 days to please
God, how should He feel the remaining 319 days?
3) We should not publicize our fasting to others.
In Matthew chapter 6: 16-18 Jesus gives instruction
on publicizing our good deeds. He is giving this
admonition because men were making their giving,
their prayers, and their fasting more of a spectacle to
others than a genuine offering to God.

So, the answer to the question of should a Christian observe Lent

is a matter of definition.
We should strive to please the Lord with our actions, yes!
We should not, however, set aside a certain number of days to attempt to
please the Lord.
And we definitely should never do things or give up things with the intent
of gaining a home in Heaven that work was DONE for us on the Cross of
Calvary

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