Calvin contra Lent

Brainerd Hills Presbyterian Church ^ | 21 February 2010

[Alex Murphy]

It is remarkable that anyone who claims to be Reformed let alone a Calvinist would ever countenance the exercise of such corrupt and false piety as is called for by the idolatrous ‘Season of Lent.’ Yet, examples of such absurdities are not hard to find.

In obedient submission to the Sacred Scriptures, Calvin taught that nothing may be called true worship or piety which is not first required of us by God in His Word. Let us hear Calvin.

20. Then the superstitious observance of Lent had everywhere prevailed: for both the vulgar imagined that they thereby perform some excellent service to God, and pastors commended it as a holy imitation of Christ; though it is plain that Christ did not fast to set an example to others, but, by thus commencing the preaching of the gospel, meant to prove that his doctrine was not of men, but had come from heaven. And it is strange how men of acute judgment could fall into this gross delusion, which so many clear reasons refute: for Christ did not fast repeatedly (which he must have done had he meant to lay down a law for an anniversary fast), but once only, when preparing for the promulgation of the gospel. Nor does he fast after the manner of men, as he would have done had he meant to invite men to imitation; he rather gives an example, by which he may raise all to admire rather than study to imitate him. In short, the nature of his fast is not different from that which Moses observed when he received the law at the hand of the Lord (Exod. 24:18; 34:28). For, seeing that that miracle was performed in Moses to establish the law, it behoved not to be omitted in Christ, lest the gospel should seem inferior to the law. But from that day, it never occurred to any one, under pretence of imitating Moses, to set up a similar form of fast among the Israelites. Nor did any of the holy prophets and fathers follow it, though they had inclination and zeal enough for all pious exercises; for though it is said of Elijah that he passed forty days without meat and drink (1 Kings 19:8), this was merely in order that the people might recognise that he was raised up to maintain the law, from which almost the whole of Israel had revolted. It was therefore merely false zeal, replete with superstition, which set up a fast under the title and pretext of imitating Christ; (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Ch. 12.20)

[dangus]

Thanks, guys. A good open doctrinal discussion like this always helps pull things to the fore of the mind. Now I’m all ginned up for fasting, tomorrow.

[r9etb]

It is remarkable that anyone who claims to be Reformed let alone a Calvinist would ever countenance the exercise of such corrupt and false piety as is called for by the idolatrous ‘Season of Lent.’

That just suggests that the author doesn't understand the purpose and utility of seasons of fasting and prayer. And that he's a prig.

[LiteKeeper]

I am curious, what is the model for this form of “reminder” service? What Scripture can be cited as warrant for this activity?

[pbear8]

It’s Marti Gras time there, the RCC lent festival

There is nothing Catholic about how the secular world chooses to be 'spiritual'. Their debauched celebrations are not Catholic and neither are most of the partiers.

Historically speaking, Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) marked the last day before the strict Lenten fast. People would eat the eggs and such foods that were not part of the fast. The rot that goes on prior to Ash Wednesday has nothing to do with the Church or its doctrines and practices. My Catholic friends have chosen their spiritual reading and sacrifices to make ready for Easter, for that is what real Catholics do.

[Mad Dawg]

“Tell” is archaic for “count”. That’s why they call those people at the bank “tellers”.

In related news, when you TELL a story of something that happened, you give an “acCOUNT”.

The history, across most languages, of words meaning “word” and “count” (and “sort” and “gather”) is fascinating.

[Mad Dawg]

I am curious, what is the model for this form of “reminder” service?

Could you rephrase this question? I don't know what you mean by "service" in this context, or what you might mean specifically by "this activity".

You do know that no Catholic is obliged to have "the imposition of ashes", right? We ARE expected to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (unless youth or age or condition make that unwise).

I can't understand an objection to a practice which helps us remember our need for God and His eagerness to meet that need.

[Salvation]

St. Andrew of Crete, Great Canon of Repentance - Tuesday's portion (Orthodox/Latin Caucus)

The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete (Monday's portion) [Orth/Cath Caucus]
Penance and Reparation: A Lenten Meditation(Catholic/Orthodox Caucus)
For Lent - Top 10 Bible Verses on Penance
Cana Sunday: Entrance into Great Lent
2011 Catechetical Homily on the opening of Holy and Great Lent
8 Ways to Pray During Lent [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
Baptists, Lent, and the Reformation Rummage Sale
So What Shall We Do during These Forty Days of Lent? [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
Lenten Traditions (Catholic Caucus)
Are You Scrupulous? A Lenten Homily by John Cardinal O’Connor

Blow the Trumpet! Call the Assembly! The Blessings of Fasting
Lenten Challenges
Lent and the Catholic Business Professional (Interview)
Temptations Correspond to Our Vulnerabilities: Biblical Reflection for 1st Sunday of Lent
A Lenten “Weight” Loss Program
On the Lenten Season
Lent 2010: Pierce Thou My Heart, Love Crucified [Catholic Caucus]
US seminarians begin Lenten pilgrimage to Rome's ancient churches
Conversion "is going against the current" of an "illusory way of life"[Pope Benedict XVI for Lent]
vanity] Hope you all make a good Lent [Catholic Caucus]

Lent -- Easter 2010, Reflections, Prayer, Actions Day by Day
Stational Churches (Virtually visit one each day and pray)
40 Ways to Get the Most Out of Lent!
What to Give Up (for Lent)? The List
On the Spiritual Advantages of Fasting [Pope Clement XIII]
Christ's temptation and ours (Reflection for the First Sunday of Lent)
Pope Benedict XVI Message for Lent 2010 (Feb 15 = Ash Monday & Feb 17 = Ash Wednesday)
Whatever happened to (Lenten) obligations? [Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving]Archbishop John Vlazny
Vatican Presents Lenten Website: LENT 2009
A Scriptural Way of the Cross with Meditations by Saint Alphonsus Liguori (Lenten Prayer/Devotional)
Prayer, Fasting and Mercy by St. Peter Chrysologus, Early Church Father [Catholic Caucus]

History of Lent (Did the Church always have this time before Easter?)
Beginning of Lent
Lent (Catholic Encyclopedia - Caucus Thread)
At Lent, let us pray for the Pope (Muslim converts ask us to pray for the pope)
Daily Lenten Reflections 2009
LENTEN STATIONS [Stational Churches for Lent] (Catholic Caucus)
40 Days for Life campaign is now under way (February 25 - April 5]
This Lent, live as if Jesus Christ is indeed Lord of your life
Reconciliation, forgiveness, hope – and Lent
Intro to Fast and Abstinence 101

Lent: Why the Christian Must Deny Himself (with Scriptural references)
40 Ways to Improve Your Lent
Everything Lent (Lots of links)
The Best Kind of Fasting
Getting Serious About Lent
Lent Overview
Meditations on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ [Devotional]
On Lent... and Lourdes (Benedict XVI's Angelus address)
Lent for Newbies
Lent -- 2008 -- Come and Pray Each Day
Lent: Why the Christian Must Deny Himself

Lenten Workshop [lots of ideas for all]
Lent and Reality
Forty Days (of Lent) [Devotional/Reflections]
Pope Benedict takes his own advice, plans to go on retreat for Lent
GUIDE FOR LENT - What the Catholic Church Says
Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2008
40 Days for Life: 2008 Campaigns [Lent Registration this week]
Vatican Web Site Focuses on Lent
Almsgiving [Lent]
Conversion Through Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving [Lent]

Lenten Stations -- Stational Churches - visit each with us during Lent {Catholic Caucus}
Something New for Lent: Part I -- Holy Souls Saturdays
Reflections for Lent (February, March and April, 2007)
Lent 2007: The Love Letter Written by Pope Benedict
Pre-Lent through Easter Prayer and Reflections -- 2007
Stations of the Cross [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
For study and reflection during Lent - Mind, Heart, Soul [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
Ash Wednesday and the Lenten Fast-Family observance Lenten season [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
Pre-Lenten Days -- Family activities-Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras)[Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
40 Ways to Get the Most Out of Lent! [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]

Lenten Fasting or Feasting? [Catholic Caucus]
Pope's Message for Lent-2007
THE TRUE NATURE OF FASTING (Catholic/Orthodox Caucus)
The Triduum and 40 Days
The Three Practices of Lent: Praying, Fasting. Almsgiving
Why We Need Lent
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR LENT 2006
Lent a Time for Renewal, Says Benedict XVI
Why You Should Celebrate Lent
Getting the Most Out of Lent

Lent: A Time to Fast >From Media and Criticism Says President of Pontifical Liturgical Institute
Give it up (making a Lenten sacrifice)
The History of Lent
The Holy Season of Lent -- Fast and Abstinence
The Holy Season of Lent -- The Stations of the Cross
Lent and Fasting
Mardi Gras' Catholic Roots [Shrove Tuesday]
Kids and Holiness: Making Lent Meaningful to Children
Ash Wednesday
All About Lent

[Mad Dawg]

It is almost tokenism...and seems quite superficial.

Double bind! If Catholics were required, unreasonably, to confine themselves t0 1,000 calories a day for all the weekdays of Lent except 3/25, many others would mock us for "works righteousness."

But when we use helpful little tricks to assist us in focusing more intently on to wonder of God's unmerited saving act, then we're superficial.

I find no Scriptural warrant for radio of TV preachers. Heck, I find no Scriptural warrant for indoor plumbing. That doesn't mean Christians ought not to listen to TV preachers or thank God for American Standard.

[circlecity]

"Agreed. Reformed Christians do not believe in the Rapture."

That's not quite true. Most reformed believe that Christ will rapture his Church when he returns, the Bible refers to this as the parousia. Most Reformed don't believe in the dispensational concept that there will be two raptures, one before the tribulationa and another at the parousia.

[dangus]

>> I am curious, what is the model for this form of “reminder” service? What Scripture can be cited as warrant for this activity? <<

If Jehosophat, Esther and Ezra can proclaim a fast, then the successors of St. Peter can, for to him, Christ said, “Whatever you declare bound on Earth, shall be bound in Heaven.”

[dangus]

Wow. What a treasure trove!

[dangus]

Thanks. That’s one reason I think the KJV-or-die attitude is a little wierd: you can become gravely misled by archaic word usage.

[dangus]

>> I find no Scriptural warrant for radio of TV preachers. Heck, I find no Scriptural warrant for indoor plumbing. That doesn’t mean Christians ought not to listen to TV preachers or thank God for American Standard. <<

Mad Dawg, don’t you know, you’re supposed to obey your ruling prince or King or community board or licensing bureau, but never your successor of St. Peter, or apostle or presbyter or confessor. King Henry, the princes of Germany, and Zwingli will brook no rivals for their authority!

What a sick world we live in, when people will curse the nanny state, yet cower to it in all things, shouting from the roof tops how insane its moral decrees are, yet upholding its authority persistently, granting it every power to coerce, yet how dare a Pope or bishop persist in the slightest at handing down the traditions they have received from those appointed by Christ.

[lastchance]

Yes that is what I meant. The pretrib rapture as in “Left Behind.”. From the contents of the post I was responding to I took it to be regarding the pretrib Rapture

[bkaycee]

Col 2:16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" 22(referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

[odawg]

“Count my bones” (Psalms) refers to the severe lashing He had received prior to the crucifixion.

[dangus]

A lenten observance is hardly ascentism, and hardly causes visions, and “puffing up without reason the sensuous mind”. What Paul is condemning is the practice of ritualistic self-deprivation, a practice used to achieve an altered conscience to gain spiritual insights.

Paul himself, and all his companions observed a ritually mandated fast (Acts 27:9). (This refers to the Day of Atonement.) The Didache reflects that first-century Christians observed fasts on Wednesday and Friday.

[AnalogReigns]

I must admit that while I respect and admire John Calvin, he was certainly a man of his own time, dealing with the issues of that world--that is the excesses and sins of Medieval and Renaissance Roman Catholicism--which, are VERY DIFFERENT than the excesses and sins of our time. When pastors and others try to apply him directly--completely out of his historic context--Calvin gets a bad name.

Then the superstitious observance of Lent had everywhere prevailed:

I know of NO ONE today who superstitiously follows Lent. Few if any, even Roman Catholics do much special AT ALL for Lent today--unless "giving up chocolate" counts... Practice was very different in 16th Century Europe.

for both the vulgar imagined that they thereby perform some excellent service to God, and pastors commended it as a holy imitation of Christ;

Again, I've never heard pastors calling for fasting as some great service to God...or as if we could do "holy imitation of Christ;" must of been a Medieval thing.

though it is plain that Christ did not fast to set an example to others

And how, dear John, is that so "plain?" Many things Jesus did proved He was the Christ while simultaneously served as an example to us...example and proof are not logically mutually exclusive. Other parts of the New Testament(Acts 13:2,3; 14:23)--and even the words of Christ, "when you fast..." (Matt 6:16) prove that Jesus assumed we would indeed at certain times fast and pray.

him for , but, by thus commencing the preaching of the gospel, meant to prove that his doctrine was not of men, but had come from heaven. And it is strange how men of acute judgment could fall into this gross delusion, which so many clear reasons refute: for Christ did not fast repeatedly (which he must have done had he meant to lay down a law for an anniversary fast), but once only,

Actually, we don't know whether He fasted repeatedly or not...the Gospels don't tell us. Certain Jewish holidays require fasting every year--and we know Jesus was a fully observant Jew. We also do know at one exorcism, Jesus said that that only with "much prayer and fasting" was that kind of demon repulsed (Matt 17:21).

when preparing for the promulgation of the gospel. Nor does he fast after the manner of men, as he would have done had he meant to invite men to imitation; he rather gives an example, by which he may raise all to admire rather than study to imitate him. In short, the nature of his fast is not different from that which Moses observed when he received the law at the hand of the Lord (Exod. 24:18; 34:28). For, seeing that that miracle was performed in Moses to establish the law, it behoved not to be omitted in Christ, lest the gospel should seem inferior to the law. But from that day, it never occurred to any one, under pretence of imitating Moses, to set up a similar form of fast among the Israelites. Nor did any of the holy prophets and fathers follow it, though they had inclination and zeal enough for all pious exercises; for though it is said of Elijah that he passed forty days without meat and drink (1 Kings 19:8), this was merely in order that the people might recognise that he was raised up to maintain the law, from which almost the whole of Israel had revolted. It was therefore merely false zeal, replete with superstition, which set up a fast under the title and pretext of imitating Christ; (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Ch. 12.20)

Evidently, Roman Catholic practice superstitiously called for some sort of onerous 40 day fast to 'prepare them for grace'...(that terrible Medieval "Pactum" of Works + Grace......). Granted, that was wrong.

How do Calvin's words apply to us today, when no one ever is called on to fast--no one is superficially asking us to 'prepare for grace' in this way during Lent, but the season DOES offer us a time--secretly, reflectively, according to the instruction of Christ Jesus--to secretly fast, pray, and meditate on His holy Word?

When it comes to Calvin's polemics--spoken to his time...vs. Scripture, I'll stick with Scripture.

John Calvin would expect no less.

[LiteKeeper]

But, most observers of Lent don’t fast. The give up indulging in a thing or two...but that is not a fast! it is tokenism...and that is crazy!

[T Minus Four]

As a former Catholic, I at last have found a phrase that describes what I feel about Lent now: false piety

There's nothing really WRONG with what's going on, it's just so...unnecessary. If I have to have a special few weeks to be "extra devout", I'm doing it wrong.

Live 100% for Him every single day.