How Do You Celebrate Lent?

Believe it or not, the custom of Lent has been around for some 4000 years. Many people, both Christians and non-Christians, think Lent is taught in the Bible, that it is taken from Christ’s forty days of being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, it is not.

Lent is a period of 40 days self-denial commencing on Ash Wednesday. The word “Lent” comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word “Lencten” which means the “spring” of the year (Encyclopedia Britannica).

Why the confusion? Well, according to Cassian in the fifth century, “there was no observance of Lent; but when men began to decline from the apostolic fervor of devotion, then the priests in general agreed to recall them from secular cares by a canonical law of fasting…” (Antiquities of the Christian Church Book 21, chapter 1)

Fasting, or abstaining from certain foods, was imposed AFTER the days of the apostles—by the authority of the priests.

Lent is not of Biblical origin. It did not originate with Christ. It entered the Roman World of Christianity in the second century.

Lent however, goes back much further, and is mentioned in the Old Testament. It was part of the annual festival in commemorating the death and resurrection of Tammuz, the pagan Babylonian Messiah. For forty days prior to the feast of Tammuz, the pagans held their Lenten season. Ezekiel describes it vividly in Ezekiel 8:13-14.

But why did the church at Rome institute such a pagan holiday?

Alexander Hislop, in his book “The Two Babylons” wrote, “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 Christianity—now far sunk in idolatry—in this as in so many other things, to shake hands”.

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

Hislop also says, “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’”

But what does it matter if Easter and lent are ancient pagan festivals, isn’t it okay if we use them to honor Christ? It doesn’t matter what we thinks, it DOES matter what God thinks.

God warned the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 12:30-32, “30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same." 31 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. 32 See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.

Should we accept, encourage and try and sanitize something God calls an abomination? Or do we like Joshua declare “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 12:24)