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Lent Has No Basis in Scripture (And More from Former Catholic Priest and John MacArthur Commentary)
By Dwayna Litz
Last Sunday I visited a prominent Protestant church here in NYC where much emphasis was put on Lent, encouraging the church members to practice “Lent.” No explanation of its meaning in Church history was offered. It inspired me to do a little research.
For the sake of freedom under the umbrella of obedience we must show grace to one another in the decision as to whether or not to practice Lent. In the freedom of salvation by faith and grace alone, the Gospel begs the question, if fasting on an individual basis before the Lord or being called to fast before Him corporately as a church is acceptable in the eyes of the Lord, why the need to call it “Lent”? It is all the same—a fast is a fast in God’s eyes.
The reader may ask, “If so, then why make such an adamant, divisive statement? Doesn’t the title of this article intrude on individual freedom? Why care enough to write an article on this topic in the first place?”
Yes, we have freedom as to whether or not we
choose to practice “Lent.” I love the experience of fasting before God, and I
fast to be drawn closer to God. However, I resist religious traditions that
invoke a bondage to man-made, counterfeit “righteousness”—spirits of religion strong and enslaving. A
relationship with God should never be confused with
man-made religion too often accompanied by the behemoth of an
insidious presumptuous sin of the flesh cloaked in “religion.”
The point is God does not favor someone practicing “Lent” a bit more than He favors a Christian who prays and fasts regularly without calling it “Lent.” You can practice “Lent”, for that matter, and not even be saved. Richard Bennett, former Catholic priest, astutely points this out in this important piece:
We need to examine the whole topic of Lent and the Catholic idea of ‘Penance’. Lent in the Roman Catholic Church is a season of Penance as explained in New Catechism of Catholic penance Para 1438:
“The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, and pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).”
All of this penance is in the context
of
Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right, by the admission of faults to one's brethren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one's cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance.
When one leaves Biblical truth and begins to look on conversion as a process as explained in Para 1435, the focal point will always be on man’s experience and not on the objective finished work of Christ on the cross. In Ephesians 2:8-9, the sovereign grace of God is exalted and the faith through which it is received is so minimized as to be "not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast”
Biblical justification is perfect and a finished work of God. “It is God that justifies.” (Romans 8:33) Justification is God’s work alone to show His righteousness and the fact that He alone saves. Once God has justified any person, He views that person “in Christ” for God, having forgiven the sinner, reckons to his account Christ’s righteousness. Thus justification is by faith alone “without the deeds of the law.” (Romans 3:28)
Regarding how the Penance is to be done the commands of the Roman Catholic Church are clear, thus she states,
Canon 1251 “Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(Code of Canon Law, Latin-English Ed. ( Washington DC : Canon Law Society of America , 1983)
All of this departure from the faith, was foretold in Scripture,
1 Timothy 4:1-3: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”
Likewise Vatican Council II Documents, No. 63 Presbyterorum Ordinis, Sec. 16, Vol. I, p. 893 state, “For these reasons, based on the mystery of Christ and his mission, celibacy, which at first was recommended to priests, was afterwards in the Latin Church imposed by law on all who were to be promoted to Holy Orders. This sacred Council approves and confirms this legislation.” (Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents)
From the time of Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand, d 1085,) the Roman Catholic Church for its clergy has forbidden marriage. It also has commanded strictly that its people are to abstain from certain foods. These two items have been clearly seen by believers on different ages as fulfilling the prophetic teaching of I Timothy 4:1-3. In our own time, the Roman Catholic official teaching continues to fulfill this text. First, to its clergy marriage is forbidden, “Virginity undoubtedly, as the Second Vatican Council declared, ‘is not’, of course, required by the nature of the priesthood itself. This is clear from the practice of the early Church and the traditions of the Eastern Churches.’ But at the same time the Council did not hesitate to confirm solemnly the ancient, sacred and providential present law of priestly celibacy...”
If not then by Roman Catholic Law and seasons and Penance, how then can we be saved?
The Scriptures say…
“We are all sinful [before God]; all of us have become like unclean men, all our good deeds are like polluted rags” (Isaiah 64:4-5). “More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy” (Jeremiah 17:9).
Admit that you are separated from God because of your sins.
As a result, we are spiritually dead, separated from God and condemned forever: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). There is nothing of merit in ourselves that could ever help earn our salvation.
Acknowledge your need for a substitute.
Once and for all time Christ took the death penalty for your sins and the sins of the whole world: “[Christ] Himself bore our sins in His body upon the cross” (1 Peter 2:24 ). He must be believed in as your righteous substitute or you cannot be saved.
Cry out to God for His free gift of salvation.
“All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23, 24). If you are convinced that salvation is only through trusting in Christ’s substitutionary death in your place --- based solely on what the Bible says --- express your heartfelt belief directly to God. “This is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11 ).
Then, having received the gift of eternal life, live your life for God in praise and thanksgiving.
Yours in the truth and love of the Lord,
John MacArthur Commentary Teaches “Lent Has No Basis in Scripture”
When we study the historical background of something and weigh it against what it does mean to the Catholics we can make a more educated decision about a tradition of the Catholic Church, such as Lent. Though Reformers may have practiced Lent, I don’t follow people but the Scripture. For instance, Martin Luther believed in transubstantiation and was also anti-Semitic. Though I am a Calvinist, I don’t follow John Calvin. I follow God with His Word as a lamp for my feet, not the traditions of men.
Consider this excerpt from John MacArthur from The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, 1 Corinthians (bolded type mine for emphasis):
“From various ancient sources, it seems that Nimrod’s wife, Semiramis (the First), apparently was high priestess of the Babel religion and the founder of all mystery religions. After the tower was destroyed, and the multiplicity of languages developed, she was worshiped as a goddess under many different names. She became Ishtar of Syria, Astarte of Phoenicia, Isis of Egypt, Aphrodite of Greece, and Venus of Rome—in each case the deity of sexual love and fertility. Her son, Tammuz, also came to be deified under various names and was the consort of Ishtar and god of the underworld.
According to the cult of Ishtar, Tammuz was conceived by a sunbeam, a counterfeit version of Jesus’ virgin birth. Tammuz corresponded to Baal in Phoenicia , Osiris in Egypt , Eros in Greece , and Cupid in Rome . In every case, the worship of those gods and goddesses was associated with sexual immorality. The celebration of Lent has no basis in Scripture, but rather developed from the pagan celebration of Semiramis’s mourning for forty days over the death of Tammuz (cf. Ezek. 8:14) before the alleged resurrection—another of Satan’s mythical counterfeits.
The mystery religions originated with the idea of baptismal regeneration, being born again merely through the rite of water baptism, and the practice of mutilation and flagellation to atone for sins or gain spiritual favor. They also began the custom of pilgrimages, which many religions follow today, and the paying of penance for forgiveness of sins for oneself and for others.
Several pagan practices were especially influential in the church at Corinth . Perhaps the most important, and certainly the most obvious, was that of ecstasy, considered to be the highest expression of religious experience. Because it seemed supernatural and because it was dramatic and often bizarre, the practice strongly appealed to the natural man. And because the Holy Spirit had performed many miraculous works in that apostolic age, some Corinthian Christian s confused those true wonders with the false wonders counterfeited in the ecstasies of paganism.
Ecstasy (Greek, ekstasia, a term not used in Scripture) was held to be a supernatural, sensuous communion with a deity. Through frenzied hypnotic chants and ceremonies worshipers experienced semiconscious euphoric feelings of oneness with the god or goddess. Often the ceremony would be preceded by vigils and fastings, and would even include drunkenness (see Eph. 5:18). Contemplation of sacred objects, whirling dances, fragrant incense, chants, and other such physical and psychological stimuli customarily were used to induce the ecstasy, which would be in the form of out-of-body trance or an unrestrained sexual orgy. The trance is reflected in some forms of Hindu yoga, in which a person becomes insensitive to pain, and in the Buddhist goal of escaping into Nirvana, the divine nothingness. Sexual ecstasies were common in many ancient religions and were so much associated with Corinth that the term Corinthianize meant to indulge in extreme sexual immorality. A temple to Bacchus still stands in the ruins of Baalbek (in modern Labanon) as a witness to the debauchery of the mystery religions.
A similar form of mystical experience was called enthusiasm (Greek, enthusiasmos), which often accompanied but was distinct from ecstasy. Enthusiasm involved mantic formulas, divination, and revelatory dreams and visions, all of which are found in many pagan religions and philosophies today.”
--pp. 279, 280
I read this Commentary for the first time years ago, and I never imagined to be reading it again now at a time when neo-paganism is waging a war against God and His Word in His church, amongst His people through the venues of the emergent church and contemplative prayer. As I typed this excerpt I was reminded of self-proclaimed “ Christian mystics”, still having the reputation for being “sound” teachers, promoting contemplative prayer practices as professors in our seminaries. They teach us that now there is something more, a new wave of spirituality to be experienced..., as if obedience to the Bible is no longer enough, as if the time spent in sincere praise and worship to God by humble prayer warriors such as George Muller has been lacking in some way down through the ages. Now, we are being taught, within emergent “Christianity”, that we must be led by dreams, visions, and ecstasy.
How sad when some of the First Corinthians Commentary as quoted above on mystery religions makes me think of the “Jesus People” and my time with them at Cornerstone, 2006. http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/874/Dwayna_Litz
Renewed in my joy of growing in the Lord and measuring all things according to Scripture,
Dwayna Litz