Okay so here I go again. Debunking the idea of Lent. I grew up as a little girl going to a liturgical Episcopal church until I was about 5 or 6, but one thing I remember was my first communion. It was with real wine and those flat tasteless papery wafers. It was pretty special and to this day the liturgical service is one I hold dear to my heart. At some point in my Mom’s journey in faith she moved to a Charismatic church in a barn. Quite different experience and one that became equally monumental but as a child I got a little confused about church in a barn, or in a warehouse because it didn’t have the padded kneeling prayer features and stained glass, but most of all they switched to grape juice. A big boo in my opinion so I’m just going to let it out. Boo! Jesus used wine why can’t we? Also can we use unleavened bread instead of puffy Big Y bleached flour with tons of leavening in it? Now I’m getting cranky.
So onto the Lent issue. I got a lovely little snippet about Ash Wednesday and actually because I write this from an undisclosed location in the middle of the Berkshires I haven’t seen one person with ashes on their forehead. But I turn on my computer and bing!...there’s a reminder. It’s Ash Wednesday. So in light of my past blog posts about holidays, how could I get this big one get away from me without debunking the whole idea of Lent. So I love google and if you have any questions about what I say, please google it yourself and don’t shoot the messenger.
So here’s a question. Why do we feel compelled to go with the rest of the liturgical church in the celebration of Ash Wednesday? When did it start and is it Biblical?
So what if I told you yet again it’s rooted in pagan holidays? Oh gosh darn it. There I go again.
You might as well rub yourself down in lavender oil in the name of George Clooney and it would get you farther down the path of righteousness then smearing ashes on your forehead. So here’s the skinny. In 300AD there was this guy called Constantine. Some say he was true convert but yet when he died, he had a full pagan celebrated burial and yet he not only made it legal to practice Christianity (thanks now the Colosseum is just going to produce animal slayings and not Christian burning) but mandated it as the state religion of Rome. One needs to really pay attention in history class to really get a grip on how this single guy still influences the Christian church today and probably more than scripture if we allow ourselves to be open to historical truth. So the reason for Lent? To merge Christian thought with pagan Roman religion with it’s own thought and while Christians were allowed to “live” they also were not allowed “free will” and any other religions like Judaism and any feasts they celebrated (even if it WAS written in scripture) were illegal with punishment by death. Jews were stripped of their religious culture and freedoms and made to take the “Christian” Constantine Creed in 312AD. So why the ashes? Why the 40 day calender? Lent is no where in the Bible, go ahead and look...you might be surprised. And “observing” Lent does nothing to bring us closer to God even if we pour chocolate sauce on it with good intentions it just puts us back to the Law. Reading scripture gives us a better understanding as to what God expects out of us then leaning into the Lenten season of “observance”. Mind you there were Jews and Christians in Rome that stood against the pagan cultic practices of the day because they refused to worship Cesar or Constantine as in that day thought themselves to be Divine in nature and demanded worship, Christian communities were the underground churches of China today risking their lives even meeting together to pray, they had years of persecution. With Christianity now the state religion of the day, the persecution was now upon the Jews in the Roman empire.
So my question now is should we celebrate or observe Lent? Good intentions fall short much of the time. This would be one intention. Our energy and faith is better served getting to know we are loved we are by the blood of Christ and spread the gospel. That’s what we are to observe. Simply His Grace.
Here are some interesting thoughts on Lent. Instead of what church history says, what does scripture say?
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 parts of the New Testament Church until the destruction of the Temple in 70AD.
You cannot, of and by yourself, create within you “the desire to do God’s will.” True, God has given mankind free moral agency. But the carnal, natural mind cannot—will not—submit 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 Spirit…Because 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).
“to make His kingdom come by making it come first of all in their hearts” is a false doctrine taught by this world’s brand of mislead Christianity. It is not taught in the Bible. God is not setting up His kingdom in the hearts of men. There is not one prophesy that supports this doctrine.
The Bible says that we are purified—cleansed, set apart and made pure in God’s sight—by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. No amount of fasting, abstaining from physical pleasures or any other form of self-denial can purify us.
So onto the Lent issue. I got a lovely little snippet about Ash Wednesday and actually because I write this from an undisclosed location in the middle of the Berkshires I haven’t seen one person with ashes on their forehead. But I turn on my computer and bing!...there’s a reminder. It’s Ash Wednesday. So in light of my past blog posts about holidays, how could I get this big one get away from me without debunking the whole idea of Lent. So I love google and if you have any questions about what I say, please google it yourself and don’t shoot the messenger.
So here’s a question. Why do we feel compelled to go with the rest of the liturgical church in the celebration of Ash Wednesday? When did it start and is it Biblical?
So what if I told you yet again it’s rooted in pagan holidays? Oh gosh darn it. There I go again.
You might as well rub yourself down in lavender oil in the name of George Clooney and it would get you farther down the path of righteousness then smearing ashes on your forehead. So here’s the skinny. In 300AD there was this guy called Constantine. Some say he was true convert but yet when he died, he had a full pagan celebrated burial and yet he not only made it legal to practice Christianity (thanks now the Colosseum is just going to produce animal slayings and not Christian burning) but mandated it as the state religion of Rome. One needs to really pay attention in history class to really get a grip on how this single guy still influences the Christian church today and probably more than scripture if we allow ourselves to be open to historical truth. So the reason for Lent? To merge Christian thought with pagan Roman religion with it’s own thought and while Christians were allowed to “live” they also were not allowed “free will” and any other religions like Judaism and any feasts they celebrated (even if it WAS written in scripture) were illegal with punishment by death. Jews were stripped of their religious culture and freedoms and made to take the “Christian” Constantine Creed in 312AD. So why the ashes? Why the 40 day calender? Lent is no where in the Bible, go ahead and look...you might be surprised. And “observing” Lent does nothing to bring us closer to God even if we pour chocolate sauce on it with good intentions it just puts us back to the Law. Reading scripture gives us a better understanding as to what God expects out of us then leaning into the Lenten season of “observance”. Mind you there were Jews and Christians in Rome that stood against the pagan cultic practices of the day because they refused to worship Cesar or Constantine as in that day thought themselves to be Divine in nature and demanded worship, Christian communities were the underground churches of China today risking their lives even meeting together to pray, they had years of persecution. With Christianity now the state religion of the day, the persecution was now upon the Jews in the Roman empire.
So my question now is should we celebrate or observe Lent? Good intentions fall short much of the time. This would be one intention. Our energy and faith is better served getting to know we are loved we are by the blood of Christ and spread the gospel. That’s what we are to observe. Simply His Grace.
Here are some interesting thoughts on Lent. Instead of what church history says, what does scripture say?
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 parts of the New Testament Church until the destruction of the Temple in 70AD.
You cannot, of and by yourself, create within you “the desire to do God’s will.” True, God has given mankind free moral agency. But the carnal, natural mind cannot—will not—submit 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 Spirit…Because 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).
“to make His kingdom come by making it come first of all in their hearts” is a false doctrine taught by this world’s brand of mislead Christianity. It is not taught in the Bible. God is not setting up His kingdom in the hearts of men. There is not one prophesy that supports this doctrine.
The Bible says that we are purified—cleansed, set apart and made pure in God’s sight—by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. No amount of fasting, abstaining from physical pleasures or any other form of self-denial can purify us.
