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What Are Ash Wednesday and Lent? Does the Bible Tell Us to Celebrate These Days?
“The Bible does teach the importance of fasting and self-examination, but it does not teach a 40-day period called Lent or an Ash Wednesday of putting ashes on the forehead.
After Mardi Gras comes Ash Wednesday and 40 days of Lent. Did the early New Testament Church observe these days?
The Bible does not mention Ash Wednesday or Lent, and the early New Testament Church did not observe these days. Here is how the BBC Religion page describes Ash Wednesday and Lent:
"Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent for Western Christian churches. It's a day of penitence to clean the soul before the Lent fast.
"Roman Catholic, Anglican, and some other churches hold special services at which worshippers are marked with ashes as a symbol of death and sorrow for sin…
"The Christian churches that observe Lent in the 21st century (and not all do significantly) use it as a time for prayer and penance. Only a small number of people today fast for the whole of Lent, although some maintain the practice on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. It is more common these days for believers to surrender a particular vice such as favourite foods or smoking"
(BBC).
Lent is counted differently by those of the Western Catholic tradition and those of the Eastern Orthodox tradition.
" The western church excludes Sundays (which is celebrated as the day of Christ's resurrection) whereas the eastern church includes them. The churches also start Lent on different days. Western churches start Lent on the 7th Wednesday before Easter Day (called Ash Wednesday). Eastern churches start Lent on the Monday of the 7th week before Easter and end it on the Friday 9 days before Easter. Eastern churches call this period the 'Great Lent
'" (BBC).
Various biblical events and customs are referred to by those who celebrate these days. The Bible mentions people mourning in sackcloth and ashes. The Bible also talks about repentance and fasting, and the number 40 is prominent in various biblical events.
The justification for the Lenten 40-day preparation for Easter is traditionally based on Jesus' 40-day wilderness fast before His temptation by Satan (Harper's Bible Dictionary, 'Lent'; Matthew 4:1-2; Mark 1:13). The problem with this explanation is that this incident is not connected in any way with Jesus' supposed observance of Easter. The 40-day pre-Easter practice of fasting and penance did not originate in the Bible" (The Good Friday—Easter Sunday Question).
Some have suggested that Lent may be connected to earlier, pagan holidays. In Ezekiel 8:14, the prophet in vision saw women weeping for the pagan god Tammuz.
"It has been suggested by some scholars that the practice of 'weeping for Tammuz' was the actual origin of Lent, the Roman Catholic 40-day period of abstinence prior to Easter (starting after Mardi Gras, 'Fat Tuesday,' on Ash Wednesday). Consider that the name Easter itself is derived from Ishtar, the ancient Babylonian fertility goddess and Tammuz's mother". (See the Bible commentary on Ezekiel 8 for details.)
The Bible does teach the importance of fasting and self-examination, but it does not teach a 40-day period called Lent or an Ash Wednesday of putting ashes on the forehead. These customs appear to have pagan origins. We seek to follow the customs and practices of the early New Testament Church as described in the Bible.”
Learn More: "God's Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind"
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"Making America Healthy Again"
“Robert F. Kennedy is receiving a lot of pushback for his ideas on health and reform. As secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, his ideas would radically change the US healthcare system. In this video, I’m going to share some of the changes I would make to address the current healthcare crisis and improve America’s health.
RFK has the following goals for healthcare reform in America: 1. Clean up the corruption 2. Get back to science-based evidence 3. End chronic disease
He will be actively working against big food companies, big chemical companies, and big pharma, so naturally, he’s getting a lot of pushback. The U. S. spends over 4.1 trillion dollars each year on healthcare, yet we’re at the bottom as far as health. Why? Here's what I think can improve America’s health!
1. Change the institutional foods Prepackaged foods are given to people in nursing homes, prisons, schools, hospitals, and other public institutions. These institutional foods are very low-quality, highly processed foods. The health of the people in these institutions would quickly improve by simply removing the refined sugars, starches, and oils from their diets.
2. Address the subsidized foods Subsidized foods are paid for by taxpayers. Corn, soy, wheat, sugar, and rice are the most highly subsidized foods. Changing the types of foods that are subsidized and investing in small farmers can significantly improve this problem.
3. Changing GRAS “Generally recognized as safe” is a term used by the FDA for products that have been safety tested by their own manufacturers. To avoid conflict of interest, these tests should be conducted by third-party independent companies.
4. Change food fortification Synthetic folic acid and iron fortification of food can cause serious problems for many people.
5. Disallow tax dollars from being used for drugs Every year, 40 billion dollars of taxpayer money is used to pay for medical research to develop new drugs.
6. The rounding rule. If a product contains less than .5 grams of an ingredient, it can be rounded down to 0. This is misleading and should be eliminated. People need to be more aware of what's really in their food. Companies also need to be forced to raise the quality of the ingredients in their products.
7. End sun phobia. Sun phobia paired with low RDAs for vitamin D is contributing to massive vitamin D deficiency in the population, putting people at risk for disease.” More at: https://www.drberg.com/blog/heres-my-2-cents-making-america-healthy-again
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