Protestants, Lent, and the Bible
The Catholic Lenten season begins in just over a week. Over the past several years, I have noticed that some Protestants sometimes are embracing the Roman Catholic season of Lent. Notice the following reports related to two Presbyterian churches:
2012 season of Lent at The Presbyterian Church in Westfield
Suburban News – 5 March 2012By Suburban News WESTFIELD — The Lent season kicked off on Wednesday, Feb. 22 with identical Ash Wednesday worship services (with the imposition of ashes) being offered at noon. and again at 8 p.m. This was a wonderful start for all to take this first step in their Lenten journey…On Palm Sunday, April 1, there will be two services…The communion service for Maundy Thursday, April 5, will begin at 7:30 p.m…Our Lenten journey comes to celebratory close with the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday, April 8.
Church News
6 February 2013…
Appomattox Court House Presbyterian As we enter into the season of Lent, we hope you will consider joining us for a Lenten Study…
Lent is a forty-day period of time that proceeds the Catholic holiday commonly called Easter. During this time, observers tend to give up something they like (such as a food, like meat or certain meals or a form of secular entertainment, like television) essentially as a form of “fasting” for the purposes of getting closer to God or for penance.
Specifically many:
…observe Lent by fasting, performing penance, giving alms, abstaining from amusements…(Ramm B. Lent. World Book Encyclopedia, 50th ed., Volume 12. Chicago, p. 175).
Here is how The Catholic Encyclopedia defines Lent:
The Teutonic word Lent, which we employ to denote the forty days’ fast preceding Easter, originally meant no more than the spring season (Thurston H. Transcribed by Anthony A. Killeen. A.M.D.G. Lent. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IX. Published 1910. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York).
In other words, Lent means the Spring season (it may be of interest to note that Easter is a Teutonic word as well).
But since Lent means Spring and Lent now begins and is primarily in the Winter, where did it really come from?
The World Book Encyclopedia states:
Lent is a religious season observed in the spring…It begins on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter, excluding Sundays, and ends on Easter Sunday (Ramm B. Lent. World Book Encyclopedia, 50th ed., Volume 12. Chicago, p. 175).
Ash Wednesday is observe now by many associated with the Church of Rome, as well as various Protestants.
The falsely named Christianity Today reported:
The Beginning of Lent…
Until the 600s, Lent began on Quadragesima (Fortieth) Sunday, but Gregory the Great (c.540-604) moved it to a Wednesday, now called Ash Wednesday, to secure the exact number of 40 days in Lent—not counting Sundays, which were feast days. Gregory, who is regarded as the father of the medieval papacy, is also credited with the ceremony that gives the day its name. (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2004/lent.html)
So, “Ash Wednesday” apparently did not originate on a Wednesday. Of course, the entire lenten period is not from the Bible, hence it should be of no surprise that it has had various changes in its observation.
Perhaps I should also mention that the Eastern Orthodox Church does not celebrate Ash Wednesday.
The Bible
Neither the Bible, which was not written in a Teutonic language, nor its translations (which sometimes are) uses the term Lent.
The Old Testament uses the term Spring four or so times, but in the context of wars, not fasting. It does, however, endorse certain religious observances for that time of the year. It also mentions that the year begins on the first day of a certain lunar month (called Abib or Nisan) which is normally the first day of Spring (though it does not actually use that term). Note that God defines when the year begins:
This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you (Exodus 12:2 NKJV, throughout unless otherwise noted).
The God-ordained religious festivals mentioned as occurring in what is the Spring season of the year include Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost.
Here is the mention of the first two:
‘These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread (Leviticus 23:4-6).
The above were clearly observed by Jesus, the Apostles, and the early Church (for additional documentation, please see the articles Passover and the Early Church, Melito’s Homily on the Passover, and Should Christians Keep the Days of Unleavened Bread?).
Here is a couple of verses about the days of unleavened bread and eating:
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel…For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cutoff from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread (Exodus 12:15,19-20).
Since no leaven is allowed to be eaten during the days of unleavened bread, this could be considered as a form of fasting. It however, differs from the Lenten forms of fasting in that it begins the day after Passover and lasts for seven days. Most (and in some years, all) of the Lenten fasting occurs prior to the Passover (and most of it occurs in the Winter, not the Spring season, in spite of the fact that Lent means Spring).
The next observance mentioned in the Old Testament comes during the days of unleavened bread:
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it (Leviticus 23:10-11).
Jesus Himself (who was also our Passover 1 Corinthians 5:7), fulfilled this sometime after He was resurrected (cf. John 20:17,27 KJV). This day was used both in the Old Testament and New Testament times to count when the next holy day would occur. Here is the Old Testament comment:
‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath (Leviticus 23:15-16).
The Greek term, used in the New Testament, is Pentecost, which means 50th, from the practice of it being the fiftieth day from the wave sheaf offering. The above are all the religious periods that the Old Testament mentioned that occur in the Spring (none, other than the weekly Sabbath, occur in the Winter season).
The term Spring is not mentioned in the New Testament. When referring to the early Spring season, the New Testament mentions biblical holy days, like Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread (for early Spring) and Pentecost (for late Spring)–it also mentions that Jesus and/or His disciples observed all of those. While the New Testament does mention a period called “the Fast” (Acts 27:9), scholars of most religious communities admit that this is referring to what is called in Hebrew Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement in English, which is a holy day that occurs in the Fall.
Thus, there is no specific Winter-Spring fast that the Bible (Old or New Testaments) teaches should be followed.
The Days of Unleavened Bread
The Apostle Paul taught:
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
There is no doubt that early Christians kept Passover. And there is substantial evidence to show that the kept the Days of Unleavened Bread, and not Lent, in the Spring. Notice, for example, a letter than Polycrates sent to the Roman Bishop Victor in the late second century:
We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis; and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus; and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and, being a priest, wore the sacerdotal plate. He fell asleep at Ephesus. And Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia, who fell asleep in Smyrna. Why need I mention the bishop and martyr Sagaris who fell asleep in Laodicea, or the blessed Papirius, or Melito, the Eunuch who lived altogether in the Holy Spirit, and who lies in Sardis, awaiting the episcopate from heaven, when he shall rise from the dead? All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. For seven of my relatives were bishops; and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said ‘ We ought to obey God rather than man’ (Eusebius. Church History, Book V, Chapter 24. Translated by Arthur Cushman McGiffert. Excerpted from Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series Two, Volume 1. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. American Edition, 1890. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).
Notice that Polycrates said that he and the other early church leaders (like the Apostles Philip and John, and their successors like Polycarp, Thraseas, Eumenia, Sagaris, Papirius, Melito) would not deviate from the Bible, and that they knew the Bible taught them to keep the Passover on the correct date, and not on a Sunday. Also notice that they always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. Polycrates also reminded the Roman bishop that true followers of Christ “obey God rather than men”.
Notice what a respected Protestant scholar reported about the second century:
The most important in this festival was the passover day, the 14th of Nisan…In it they ate unleavened bread, probably like the Jews, eight days through…there is no trace of a yearly festival of the resurrection among them…the Christians of Asia Minor appealed in favor of their passover solemnity on the 14th Nisan to John (Gieseler, Johann Karl Ludwig. A Text-book of Church History. Translated by Samuel Davidson, John Winstanley Hull, Mary A. Robinson. Harper & brothers, 1857, Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Feb 17, 2006, p. 166).
The Days of Unleavened Bread will be from April 7-April 13 this year, with Passover observed after sunset on April 5th (which is the beginning of the 14th of Nisan).
In the late third century, Anatolius of Alexandria wrote the following:
I am aware that very many other matters were discussed by them, some of them with considerable probability, and others of them as matters of the clearest demonstration, by which they endeavour to prove that the festival of the Passover and unleavened bread ought by all means to be kept after the equinox…
But nothing was difficult to them with whom it was lawful to celebrate the Passover on any day when the fourteenth of the moon happened after the equinox. Following their example up to the present time all the bishops of Asia—as themselves also receiving the rule from an unimpeachable authority, to wit, the evangelist John, who leant on the Lord’s breast, and drank in instructions spiritual without doubt—were in the way of celebrating the Paschal feast, without question, every year, whenever the fourteenth day of the moon had come, and the lamb was sacrificed by the Jews after the equinox was past; not acquiescing, so far as regards this matter, with the authority of some…(THE PASCHAL CANON OF ANATOLIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. Chapters V,X, p. 415, 419).
This should be proof to any with “eyes to see and ears to hear” that some who professed Christ were keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread centuries after Jesus died. Could this have ended up being changed and called Lent?
40 Days?
When did the Church of Rome adopt forty-day fasts? That is a difficult question to know for certain, but it appears to have not been that consistent until the fourth or fifth centuries, and it was not uniform even there until later. Notice:
Be this as it may, we find in the early years of the fourth century the first mention of the term tessarakoste. It occurs in the fifth canon of the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325), where there is only question of the proper time for celebrating a synod, and it is conceivable that it may refer not to a period but to a definite festival, e.g., the Feast of the Ascension, or the Purification, which Ætheria calls quadragesimæ de Epiphania…In the time of Gregory the Great (590-604) there were apparently at Rome six weeks of six days each, making thirty-six fast days in all, which St. Gregory, who is followed therein by many medieval writers, describes as the spiritual tithing of the year, thirty-six days being approximately the tenth part of three hundred and sixty-five. At a later date the wish to realize the exact number of forty days led to the practice of beginning Lent upon our present Ash Wednesday… (Lent. The Catholic Encyclopedia).
The length of time for observing Lent varied through the ages. For many years, it was considered a 36-day period of fast. By the reign of Charlemagne, about A.D. 800, four days were added making it 40 (Ramm B. Lent. World Book Encyclopedia, 50th ed., Volume 12. Chicago, p. 175).
The term tessarakoste means fortieth and it is not clear that this had anything to do with what is now known as Lent in the early fourth century–though some type of forty-day fasts were being observed then. Into the fifth century, Rome apparently had a different length for fasting, and it took a while for forty-days to become somewhat standard:
Still, this principle was differently understood in different localities, and great divergences of practice were the result. In Rome, in the fifth century, Lent lasted six weeks, but according to the historian Socrates there were only three weeks of actual fasting, exclusive even then of the Saturday and Sunday and if Duchesne’s view may be trusted, these weeks were not continuous, but were the first, the fourth, and sixth of the series, being connected with the ordinations…But the number forty, having once established itself, produced other modifications. It seemed to many necessary that there should not only be fasting during the forty days but forty actual fasting days. Thus we find Ætheria in her “Peregrinatio” speaking of a Lent of eight weeks in all observed at Jerusalem, which, remembering that both the Saturday and Sunday of ordinary weeks were exempt, gives five times eight, i.e., forty days for fasting. On the other hand, in many localities people were content to observe no more than a six weeks’ period, sometimes, as at Milan, fasting only five days in the week after the oriental fashion (Ambrose, “De Elia et Jejunio”, 10). In the time of Gregory the Great (590-604) there were apparently at Rome six weeks of six days each, making thirty-six fast days in all, which St. Gregory, who is followed therein by many medieval writers, describes as the spiritual tithing of the year, thirty-six days being approximately the tenth part of three hundred and sixty-five. At a later date the wish to realize the exact number of forty days led to the practice of beginning Lent upon our present Ash Wednesday, but the Church of Milan, even to this day adheres to the more primitive arrangement (Christian Worship, 243) (Lent. The Catholic Encyclopedia).
While the Bible does endorse that Christians should fast, no forty-day period is ever proscribed. Here is basically what Jesus Himself taught:
Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?” And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days” (Luke 5:33-36).
Thus apparently Christ’s disciples did not fast much while Jesus was alive and would fast after He was to be taken away. However, as even Catholic scholars admit, there is no evidence that the apostles initiated any type of forty-day fast.
Where Did the Forty-Day Lenten Fast Come From?
Although the answer of this may not be entirely clear, there are some indications.
As quoted earlier, the Apostle Paul invoked keeping Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
Thus, while the Apostle Paul specifically endorsed the observance of Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, he did not do so for something called Lent.
However, because the Days of Unleavened Bread involve a seven-day “fast” from leaven, it may be that some associated with Rome and Egypt felt that an abstinence period would be appropriate, but the amount of time varied.
Notice what the Catholic Socrates Scholasticus admitted around the beginning of the fifth century:
The fasts before Easter will be found to be differently observed among different people. Those at Rome fast three successive weeks before Easter, excepting Saturdays and Sundays. Those in Illyrica and all over Greece and Alexandria observe a fast of six weeks, which they term ‘The forty days’ fast.’ Others commencing their fast from the seventh week before Easter, and fasting three five days only, and that at intervals, yet call that time ‘The forty days’ fast.’ It is indeed surprising to me that thus differing in the number of days, they should both give it one common appellation; but some assign one reason for it, and others another, according to their several fancies. One can see also a disagreement about the manner of abstinence from food, as well as about the number of days. Some wholly abstain from things that have life: others feed on fish only of all living creatures: many together with fish, eat fowl also, saying that according to Moses, Genesis 1:20 these were likewise made out of the waters. Some abstain from eggs, and all kinds of fruits: others partake of dry bread only; still others eat not even this: while others having fasted till the ninth hour, afterwards take any sort of food without distinction. And among various nations there are other usages, for which innumerable reasons are assigned. Since however no one can produce a written command as an authority, it is evident that the apostles left each one to his own free will in the matter, to the end that each might perform what is good not by constraint or necessity. Such is the difference in the churches on the subject of fasts (Socrates Scholasticus. Ecclesiastical History, Volume V, Chapter 22).
Since the Babylonians took over the Greeks and the Egyptians, that may have been when they started this practice.
Notice:
But the original length of the fast, traced back to Babylon was a “forty-days” fast in the spring of the year (Laynard’s Nineveh and Babylon, chapter 4, page 93). That is why it bore its name of “40 days”! (Hoeh, H. Did Jesus Observe Lent? Plain Truth. February 1982, p. 30).
It is likely that the idea of a forty-day fast came from Alexandria in Egypt or from Greece.
The historian Alexander Hislop apparently felt so as he wrote:
The forty days’ abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, “in the spring of the year,” is still observed by the Yezidis or Pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt, where he gives account of Mexican observances: “Three days after the vernal equinox…began a solemn fast of forty days in honour of the sun.” Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt, as may be seen on consulting Wilkinson’s Egyptians. This Egyptian Lent of forty days, we are informed by Landseer, in his Sabean Researches, was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god. At the same time, the rape of Proserpine seems to have been commemorated, and in a similar manner; for Julius Firmicus informs us that, for “forty nights” the “wailing for Proserpine” continued; and from Arnobius we learn that the fast which the Pagans observed, called “Castus” or the “sacred” fast, was, by the Christians in his time, believed to have been primarily in imitation of the long fast of Ceres, when for many days she determinedly refused to eat on account of her “excess of sorrow,” that is, on account of the loss of her daughter Proserpine, when carried away by Pluto…
Among 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, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, and which, in many countries, was considerably later than the Christian festival, being observed in Palestine and Assyria in June, therefore called the “month of Tammuz”; in Egypt, about the middle of May, and in Britain, some time in April. 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 skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity–now far sunk in idolatry–in this as in so many other things, to shake hands…
Let any one only read the atrocities that were commemorated during the “sacred fast” or Pagan Lent, as described by Arnobius and Clemens Alexandrinus, and surely he must blush for the Christianity of those who, with the full knowledge of all these abominations, “went down to Egypt for help” to stir up the languid devotion of the degenerate Church, and who could find no more excellent way to “revive” it, than by borrowing from so polluted a source; the absurdities and abominations connected with which the early Christian writers had held up to scorn. That Christians should ever think of introducing the Pagan abstinence of Lent was a sign of evil; it showed how low they had sunk, and it was also a cause of evil; it inevitably led to deeper degradation. Originally, even in Rome, Lent, with the preceding revelries of the Carnival, was entirely unknown; and even when fasting before the Christian Pasch was held to be necessary, it was by slow steps that, in this respect, it came to conform with the ritual of Paganism. What may have been the period of fasting in the Roman Church before sitting of the Nicene Council does not very clearly appear, but for a considerable period after that Council, we have distinct evidence that it did not exceed three weeks (Hislop A. Two Babylons. pp. 104-106).
Hence we see that the so-called Christian observance of Lent is apparently a continuation of widespread ancient pagan practices that were subtly incorporated into mainstream Christianity over the centuries.
But the original practices of the earliest Christians was to observe Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Some apparently thought compromise with non-biblical holidays would substitute for biblical ones like the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Of course, since Lent and Ash Wednesday are not biblically-enjoined holidays and the Days of Unleavened Bread are, Protestants who claim that they get their doctrine only from the Bible (the rallying cry for the Reformation Protestants was sola scriptura–the Bible alone) should ask themselves why they follow the Church of Rome instead of scripture on these points.
Will you follow those who followed Christ or do you prefer later adaptations?
Some articles of possibly related interest may include:
Is Lent a Christian Holiday? When did it originate? What about Ash Wednesday? If you observe them, do you know why?
Sola Scriptura or Prima Luther? What Did Martin Luther Really Believe About the Bible? Though he is known for his public sola Scriptura teaching, did Martin Luther’s writings about the Bible suggest he felt that prima Luther was his ultimate authority? Statements from him changing and/or discounting 18 books of the Bible are included. Do you really want to know the truth?
Hope of Salvation: How the Continuing Church of God differ from most Protestants How the Living Church of God differs from mainstream/traditional Protestants, is perhaps the question I am asked most by those without a Church of God background.
The Similarities and Dissimilarities between Martin Luther and Herbert W. Armstrong This article clearly shows some of the doctrinal differences between in the two. At this time of doctrinal variety and a tendency by many to accept certain aspects of Protestantism, the article should help clarify why the Living Church of God is NOT Protestant. Do you really know what the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther taught and should you follow his doctrinal example?
Mardi Gras: The Devil’s Carnival? Do you know that in Bolivia the carnival/Mardi Gras time is part of a celebration known as the Devil’s Carnival? Did Jesus celebrate Carnaval? Where did it come from?
Is There “An Annual Worship Calendar” In the Bible? This paper provides a biblical and historical critique of several articles, including one by the Tkach WCG which states that this should be a local decision. What do the Holy Days mean? Also you can click here for the calendar of Holy Days.
Passover and the Early Church Did the early Christians observe Passover? What did Jesus and Paul teach? Why did Jesus die for our sins?
Melito’s Homily on the Passover This is one of the earliest Christian writings about the Passover. This also includes what Apollinaris wrote on the Passover as well.
Should Christians Keep the Days of Unleavened Bread? Do they have any use or meaning now? What is leaven? This article supplies some biblical answers.
The History of Early Christianity Are you aware that what most people believe is not what truly happened to the true Christian church? Do you know where the early church was based? Do you know what were the doctrines of the early church? Is your faith really based upon the truth or compromise?
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