Lent -Do Without- It

ASH WEDNESDAY IS NOT BIBLICAL Feb 13, '09 5:23 PM for everyone Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday: Is it in the Bible? No, it is not. Ash Wednesday is actually of pagan origin and was admitted into the church beliefs of the Catholic Church a few hundred years after Christ. This was the era when Constantine was attempting to weld pagans and Christians into a unit within the Roman kingdom. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. Roman Catholic churches of the Latin Rite use this service to prepare themselves for the passion and resurrection of Christ through self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting, and self-denial. Ashes from the burned palms of the preceding year's Palm Sunday are blessed. With these ashes, the priest marks a cross on the foreheads of those who come forward and kneel, saying, "Remember, man, that dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." (Genesis 3:19 KJV) From Biblical times, sprinkling oneself with ashes has been a mark of sorrow for sin. Those who honor Ash Wednesday add to this meaning of penance a second point; the need to prepare for a holy death. 1. Putting ashes on the forehead is not hinted at in the Bible. Jesus and the apostles never thought of such a thing: it was adopted from paganism. African and Indian pagan rites have involved ashes on the forehead. This man made tradition of the Catholics makes the worship of God of no effect and adds to the commandments of Jesus Christ (Matt 15:7-9; 28:18-20). 2. God's people sat in ashes or covered themselves with ashes to show deep grief and repentance before God. They did not make a little mark on their forehead to pretend grief and repentance. The marking of a cross on the forehead merely shows pagan superstition and man made tradition (Esther 4:1,3; Job 2:8; Is 58:5; Jer 6:26; Dan 9:3; Jonah 3:6; Luke 10:13). 3. Why is the forehead chosen for ashes? Why not the left elbow? Why not the right knee? Jesus condemned publicly disfiguring your face to indicate you were fasting (Matt 6:16-18). Catholics defy the teaching of Jesus Christ in their self-righteous show of religion. And their practices are as repulsive to God as were those of the Jews (Is 1:10-15; Matt 23:1-39). 4. Why is the forehead chosen for ashes? The only Bible reference to men marking their foreheads, other than Pharisee tradition with phylacteries, is the mark of the antichrist beast (Matt 23:5; Rev 13:6; 20:4). God-fearing persons would not want to follow Rome with a mark on their forehead! 5. Why is the forehead chosen for ashes? Because it has the third eye chakra of the Hindus. Surely you have seen Hindu women marked between their eyes. Tilaka is the mark of auspiciousness of Hindus, which may be done by marking the forehead with sacred ashes. Ash Wednesday did not come from the Bible, and it appears by similarity to have come from Hinduism. 6. Abstaining from meat, which faithful Catholics do on Fridays, Ash Wednesday, December 7, and December 24, is a doctrine of the devil and proof of their apostasy from the Christian religion (I Tim 4:1-3). Ever wonder why you had fish sticks on Friday in school? Now you know! The Holy Spirit is clear in this text, and you can easily understand its force. 7. What is Mardi Gras? It is French for Fat Tuesday. It is the day before Ash Wednesday, when Catholics gorge and carouse before fasting for Lent. Mardi Gras in the French Quarter of New Orleans is something Jesus and His apostles would totally reject (Luke 21:34; Rom 13:13; I Pet 4:3). They never gorged and partied in preparation for fasting and repentance! 8. What is Shrove Tuesday? It is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, when Catholics gorge and carouse before fasting for Lent. It is commonly called pancake day, for the custom of eating pancakes filled with the local food of choice. Sometimes there are pancake tossing contests and pancake races. The purpose is to enjoy as much as possible before fasting for Lent. 9. What is Collop Monday? It is the Monday before Ash Wednesday, when Catholics gorge and carouse before fasting for Lent. It is commonly called collop and egg day, for the fare of choice and tradition is fried bacon and eggs. The purpose is to enjoy as much as possible before fasting for Lent. But Jesus did not gorge and carouse after His baptism and before fasting! 10. Why is Lent 40 days long? Because Catholics took the 40 days of fasting of Jesus Christ after His baptism and before His public ministry to create a man made tradition. But Jesus did not gorge on Sundays, as Catholics do on the six Sundays during Lent. Their Lent is actually 46 days long! 11. Why does Lent involve fasting? Because Catholics took the 40 days of fasting of Jesus after His baptism and before His public ministry to create a man made tradition. But Catholics do not fast at all like Jesus. He went without food! They give up television or chewing gum, while still eating three meals a day, gorging on fish, and drinking anything they wish. 12. The Bible is very plain in its condemnation of manmade traditions in the worship of God (Gen 4:1-5; Lev 10:1-2; Deut 5:32; 12:32; I Chron 15:13; Prov 30:5-6; Is 29:13-14; Matt 15:7-9; 28:18-20; Rom 16:17-18; Gal 1:6-9; Col 2:16-23; II Thess 3:6). Every God-fearing Christian will take heed! 13. The Bible is very plain in its condemnation of any voluntary association with paganism or the world (Deut 12:1-4,29-31; Jer 10:1-4; Ezek 8:15-18; 23:30; Rom 12:1-2; I Cor 10:19-22; II Cor 6:14-18; James 4:4; I John 2:15-17; Rev 18:4). Every God-fearing Christian will take heed! 14. This study does not surprise Bible readers, because they know Daniel's little horn, Paul's man of sin, and John's great whore and beast are prophecies of the popes and Church of Rome and their wicked rebellion against God and His word (Dan 7:1-28; II Thess 2:1-12; Rev 17:1-18). THE OBSERVANCE OF LENT Began in the second century, as fasting, and abstaining from certain foods was imposed after the days of the apostles by the priests. The Lenten season is believed to be a biblical custom of penitence and abstinence, beginning on “Ash Wednesday”’ Lent comes from the word Lencten, referring to the spring of the year. Originally it was associated with the spring but today it begins in the winter. But, is Lent taught in the scriptures? In a way, yes, but was known as the great annual festival in celebration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, the pagan Babylonian God. Forty days before the feast of Tammuz, the pagans held their Lenten season. “He said unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward The north; and, behold there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Ezek.8:13-14 They were weeping for Tammuz. It preceded the pagan festival in honor of the false belief that Tammuz had been resurrected. Fasting and weeping went on for forty days. Lent, as I brought out before, means “spring”. Lent continues the custom of abstaining from certain foods just before celebrating a fake resurrection. God called this celebration an abomination. God warned his people over and over by the prophets not to learn the way of the heathen. Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen. Jeremiah 10:1 It would appear, just as Israel continued to go the way of the heathen, the church continues to go the way of the world, and her customs. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “the purpose of lent is to prepare men for the celebration of the death and Resurrection of Christ….the better the preparation the more effective the celebration will be. One can effectively relieve the mystery only with purified minds and heart. Lent provided that purification by weaning men from sin and selfishness through self-denial and prayer, by creating in them the desire to do God’s will and to make His kingdom come by making it come first in their hearts.” Sounds good, but does lent bring us closer to God? The answer is absolutely NOT. God’s word teaches us that we are Purified, cleansed, and accepted in the Beloved through the shed blood of Jesus Christ (Heb. 9:11-14, 22:13:12). Can we be weaned from sin? No! The only hope for self-control, temperance, is the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord. Fasting was never designed as a means of penance. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Nothing in our hands we bring, only to his cross we cling. Paul warned us to beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. (Col. 2:8-10.). Jesus never commanded his apostles to observe Lent, but to observe the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. At first, Lent was observed for no more than a week: some for only a day or two. Still, some kept it for forty hours, believing that only forth hours elapsed between Christ’s death and resurrection. Lent was not observed by the first century Church, but was first addressed at the church at Rome during the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. Any doctrine contrary to the Roman Church was considered an enemy of the state. In A.D. 360, the Laodicea church commanded Lent to be observed. Lent’s 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 goddess…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” (The Two Babylons). Tammuz was the false Messiah of the Babylonians—a 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 Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz” (Ezek 8:14-15). This was a great abomination in God’s eyes! 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 Christianity—now far sunk in idolatry—in 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 they got in their share of debaucheries and perversities—what the world celebrates as Mardi Gras today. Abomination Masked as Christianity God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor 14:33). He never instituted Lent, a pagan observance connecting debauchery to the so-called resurrection of a false Messiah. God commands His people to follow Him—not the traditions of men. God’s ways are higher, better than man’s (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 many is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jer 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 God’s 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. That includes Lent. Now you know the true meaning of Lent. http://chriswillard.multiply.com/journal/item/530