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SUBJECT: Lent
QUESTION: What are the pagan origins of Lent?
ANSWER:
We conducted an Internet investigation of the origins of
Lent. Here is what we found.
ITEM ONE:
The Pagan Origin of LENT
The observance of the 40 days of Lent during the northern
Spring season was derived from the worshippers of the
Babylonian goddess. This 40 day of Lent is still observed by
the Yezidis (pagan devil
worshippers) of Koordistan, inherited from their
Babylonian ancestors. The Lent of 40 days were also observed
by the Pagan Mexicans, and the Egyptians who observed this
tradition in honor of the goddess Osiris, also known as
Adonis in Syria and Tammuz in Babylonia.
See this confirmed in Item 3 below.
ITEM TWO:
To see the Catholic view of this day, go here:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09152a.htm
ITEM THREE:
This one from one of our sister churches of God:
The True Meaning of Lent
What is Lent? Why is it so widely practiced by “Christians”
of this world? Is it because the Bible commands it? Did
Christ or any of His apostles observe Lent? What about the
first century Church? What does the Bible teach about Lent?
Unlike New Year’s, Christmas, Halloween, St. Valentine’s Day
and other pagan holidays that are celebrated by the secular,
non-religious world, the Lenten season is observed by
dedicated religious believers.
From Ash Wednesday to Easter, many solemnly mark their
foreheads with ash, “fasting” (or
abstaining from certain foods or physical pleasures)
for 40 days. They do this to imitate Jesus Christ’s 40-day
fast in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-2). Some give up smoking.
Others give up chewing gum. Still others give up over-eating
or cursing. People vow to give up anything, as long as it
prepares them for Easter.
People who observe Lent may be religious, dedicated and
sincere—but they are sincerely wrong.
Let’s examine Lent, its practices and customs, its historic
and religious origins, and its true meaning from the Bible’s
perspective, not from the “traditions of men” (Mark 7:7-9).
Examining Lent’s Purpose
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “the real aim of
Lent is, above all else, 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 relive the mystery only with purified mind
and heart. The purpose of Lent is to provide 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 of all in their hearts.”
On the surface, this belief sounds sincere and heartfelt.
However, it does not agree with the Bible, God’s Holy Word,
the only source of true spiritual knowledge and
understanding (John 17:17). God, through the Apostle Paul,
commands Christians to “continue you in the things which you
have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you
have learned them; and that from a child you have known the
holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:14-17).
First, understand that the “celebration of the death and
Resurrection of Christ” to which the preceding quote refers
is 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 New
Testament Church—including Gentiles. God commands His people
to observe them today (1 Cor. 5:7-8).
Second, the Bible says that we are purified—cleansed, set
apart and made pure in God’s sight—by the shed blood of
Jesus Christ (Heb. 9:11-14, 22; 13:12). This, along with
faith (Acts 15:9) and humbly submitting to and obeying God
(James 4:7-10) through His truth and prayer (John 17:17; 1
Tim. 4:5), makes us clean before God. No amount of fasting,
abstaining from physical pleasures or any other form of
self-denial can purify us.
Third, 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).
Only through a converted mind, actively led by the Holy
Spirit, can God work “in you both to will and to do of His
good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).
And fourth, “to make His kingdom come by making it come
first of all in their hearts” is a false tradition taught by
this world’s brand of Christianity. It is not taught in the
Bible. God is not setting up His kingdom in the hearts of
men.
So where did Lent originate? How did it come to be so widely
observed by mainstream Christianity?
Approved by Official State Religion
Believe it or not, Lent was never observed by Christ or His
apostles. He commanded them to “Go you therefore, and teach
all nations…teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). Jesus never commanded
them to observe Lent or Easter. He did, however, command
them to keep Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. In
fact, during His last Passover on earth, Christ gave
detailed instructions on how to observe the Passover
service. He also instituted new Passover symbols (John
13:1-17).
Notice what Alexander Hislop wrote in his book The Two
Babylons: “The festival, of which we read in Church history,
under the name of Easter, in the third and fourth centuries,
was quite a different festival from that now observed in the
Romish Church, and at that time was not known by any such
name as Easter…That festival [Passover]
was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent. ‘It
ought to be known,’ said Cassianus, the monk of Marseilles,
writing in the fifth century, and contrasting the primitive
[New Testament] Church
with the Church of his day, ‘that the observance of the
forty days had no existence, so long as the perfection of
that primitive Church remained inviolate.’”
Lent was not observed by the first century Church! It was
first addressed by the church at Rome during the Council of
Nicea in A.D. 325, when Emperor Constantine officially
recognized that church as the Roman Empire’s state religion.
Any other brand of Christianity that held to doctrines
contrary to the Roman church was considered an enemy of the
state.
Originally, people did not observe Lent for more than a
week. Some kept it for one or two days. Others kept it for
40 consecutive hours, falsely believing that only 40 hours
had elapsed between Christ’s death and resurrection.
Eventually, it became a 40-day period of fasting or
abstaining from certain foods. “The emphasis was not so much
on the fasting as on the spiritual renewal that the
preparation for Easter demanded. It was simply a period
marked by fasting, but not necessarily one in which the
faithful fasted every day. However, as time went on, more
and more emphasis was laid upon fasting…During the early
centuries (from the fifth century
on especially) the observance of the fast was
very strict. Only one meal a day, toward evening was
allowed: flesh meat and fish, and in most places even eggs
and dairy products, were absolutely forbidden. Meat was not
even allowed on Sundays” ~Catholic
Encyclopedia.
From the ninth century onward, Lent’s strict rules were
relaxed. Greater emphasis was given to performing
“penitential works” than to fasting and abstinence.
According to the apostolic constitution Poenitemini of Pope
Paul IV (Feb. 17, 1966),
“abstinence is to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on all
Fridays of the year that do not fall on holy days of
obligation, and fasting as well as abstinence is to be
observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday”
~Catholic Encyclopedia.
Today, Lent is used for “fasting from sin and from
vice…forsaking sin and sinful ways.” It is a season “for
penance, which means sorrow for sin and conversion to God.”
This tradition teaches that fasting and employing
self-discipline during Lent will give a worshipper the
“control over himself that he needs to purify his heart and
renew his life.”
However, the Bible clearly shows that
self-control—temperance—comes from having God’s Holy Spirit
working in the life of a converted mind (Gal. 5:16, 17, 22).
Fasting, of and by itself, cannot produce godly
self-control.
Paul warned against using self-denial as a tool to rely on
your own will. He called it “will worship.” “Wherefore if
you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world,
why, as though living in the world, are you subject to
ordinances, (touch not; taste not;
handle not; which all are to perish with the using;)
after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things
have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility,
and neglecting of the body: not in any honor to the
satisfying of the flesh” (Col. 2:20-23).
God did not design fasting as a tool for penance, “beating
yourself up” or developing will power: “Is it such a fast
that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is
it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread
sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast,
and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that
I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the
heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that
you break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the
hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to
your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and
that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?” (Isa.
58:5-7).
God’s people humble themselves through fasting in order to
draw closer to Him—to learn to think and act like Him—to
live His way of life in all things. Notice what the Prophet
Jeremiah wrote: “Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his
might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him
that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows
Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness,
judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these
things I delight, says the Lord” (Jer. 9:23-24). Fasting (and
prayer) helps Christians draw closer to God.
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” (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 (2 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.
---END---
ITEM FOUR
The Pagan Origin Of Easter
Easter is a day that is honored by nearly all of
contemporary Christianity and is used to celebrate the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The holiday often involves a church service at sunrise, a
feast which includes an "Easter Ham", decorated eggs and
stories about rabbits.
Those who love truth learn to ask questions, and many
questions must be asked regarding the holiday of Easter.
Is it truly the day when Jesus arose from the dead? Where
did all of the strange customs come from, which have nothing
to do with the resurrection of our Saviour?
The purpose of this tract is to help answer those questions,
and to help those who seek truth to draw their own
conclusions.
The first thing we must understand is that professing
Christians were not the only ones who celebrated a festival
called "Easter."
"Ishtar", which is pronounced "Easter" was a day that
commemorated the resurrection of one of their gods that they
called "Tammuz", who was believed to be the only begotten
son of the moon-goddess and the sun-god.
In those ancient times, there was a man named Nimrod, who
was the grandson of one of Noah's son named Ham.
Ham had a son named Cush who married a woman named
Semiramis.Cush and Semiramis then had a son named him
"Nimrod."
After the death of his father, Nimrod married his own mother
and became a powerful King.
The Bible tells of of this man, Nimrod, in Genesis 10:8-10
as follows: "And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty
one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord:
wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter
before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel,
and Erech, and Accad,and Calneh, in the land of Shinar."
Nimrod became a god-man to the people and Semiramis, his
wife and mother, became the powerful Queen of ancient
Babylon.
Nimrod was eventually killed by an enemy, and his body was
cut in pieces and sent to various parts of his kingdom.
Semiramis had all of the parts gathered, except for one part
that could not be found.
That missing part was his reproductive organ. Semiramis
claimed that Nimrod could not come back to life without it
and told the people of Babylon that Nimrod had ascended to
the sun and was now to be called "Baal", the sun god.
Queen Semiramis also proclaimed that Baal would be present
on earth in the form of a flame, whether candle or lamp,
when used in worship.
Semiramis was creating a mystery religion, and with the help
of Satan, she set herself up as a goddess.
Semiramis claimed that she was immaculately conceived.
She taught that the moon was a goddess that went through a
28 day cycle and ovulated when full.
She further claimed that she came down from the moon in a
giant moon egg that fell into the Euphrates River.
This was to have happened at the time of the first full moon
after the spring equinox.
Semiramis became known as "Ishtar" which is pronounced
"Easter", and her moon egg became known as "Ishtar's" egg."
Ishtar soon became pregnant and claimed that it was the rays
of the sun-god Baal that caused her to conceive.
The son that she brought forth was named Tammuz.
Tammuz was noted to be especially fond of rabbits, and they
became sacred in the ancient religion, because Tammuz was
believed to be the son of the sun-god, Baal. Tammuz, like
his supposed father, became a hunter.
The day came when Tammuz was killed by a wild pig.
Queen Ishtar told the people that Tammuz was now ascended to
his father, Baal, and that the two of them would be with the
worshippers in the sacred candle or lamp flame as Father,
Son and Spirit.
Ishtar, who was now worshipped as the "Mother of God and
Queen of Heaven", continued to build her mystery religion.
The queen told the worshippers that when Tammuz was killed
by the wild pig, some of his blood fell on the stump of an
evergreen tree, and the stump grew into a full new tree
overnight. This made the evergreen tree sacred by the blood
of Tammuz.
She also proclaimed a forty day period of time of sorrow
each year prior to the anniversary of the death of Tammuz.
During this time, no meat was to be eaten.
Worshippers were to meditate upon the sacred mysteries of
Baal and Tammuz, and to make the sign of the "T" in front of
their hearts as they worshipped.
They also ate sacred cakes with the marking of a "T" or
cross on the top.
Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon
after the spring equinox, a celebration was made.
It was Ishtar's Sunday and was celebrated with rabbits and
eggs.
Ishtar also proclaimed that because Tammuz was killed by a
pig, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday.
By now, the readers of this tract should have made the
connection that paganism has infiltrated the contemporary
"Christian" churches, and further study indicates that this
paganism came in by way of the Roman Catholic System.
The truth is that Easter has nothing whatsoever to do with
the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We also know that Easter can be as much as three weeks away
from the Passover, because the pagan holiday is always set
as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the
spring equinox.
Some have wondered why the word "Easter" is in the King
James Bible.
It is because Acts, chapter 12, tells us that it was the
evil King Herod, who was planning to celebrate Easter, and
not the Christians.
The true Passover and pagan Easter sometimes coincide, but
in some years, they are a great distance apart.
So much more could be said, and we have much more
information for you, if you are a seeker of the truth.
We know that the Bible tells us in John 4:24, "God is a
spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth."
The truth is that the forty days of Lent, eggs, rabbits, hot
cross buns and the Easter ham have everything to do with the
ancient pagan religion of Mystery Babylon. These are all
antichrist activities!
Satan is a master deceiver, and has filled the lives of
well-meaning, professing Christians with idolatry.
These things bring the wrath of God upon children of
disobedience, who try to make pagan customs of Baal worship
Christian.
---END---
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