Lent is practice not only by Catholics but by some Protestants. Please consider this article.
I am not catholic but I am teaching my kids to give something up for lent. The reason, to remind them about what Jesus gave up for them. Its that simple.
All of the Lent and Easter abomination is pagan and God clearly condemned it in scripture.
Where do you find in the Bible that it's acceptable to lie about Catholic beliefs? Seems to me the ninth commandment (the way you guys number them) prohibits that sort of thing.
I gave up smoking, booze, dancing, and going to movie theaters for Lent.
Its purported purpose is to imitate the suffering and temptation of Christ during His forty-day fast in the desert.
On the cross, Jesus said, "It is finished". It either IS finished, or God lies or need man to keep helping Him get it right because He can't seem to do it by Himself.
In doing so, it fits perfectly with a works-righteousness mentality. Inherent within Lent is the idea that its practice brings one “closer to God,” making a man-centered mockery of God’s grace.
Very well put. I like the use of the word mockery because that is exactly what it is. It reminds me of what Satan said to Eve in the garden. "Surely God didn't really mean what He said". The whole Lent thing screams, "Surely God didn't really mean what He did on the cross".
Another unbiblical aspect of Lent is the very public manner in which it is practiced. Jesus condemned hypocrites for their outward displays of piety (Matt. 6:1-18), revealing the self-righteous nature of such gestures...The human heart loves this type of legalism and it greatly obscures the Gospel. There is something seriously wrong when people begin to see the Christian life in these terms. Having a meatless Friday isn’t going to bring us closer to God.
Anyone who has ever been convicted by the Holy Spirit to the point of Godly repentance knows that this is a very private thing, not an announcement on Facebook of what they are giving up for Lent.
Looking at this unbiblical practice of self-imposed legalism, one can easily see why the Puritans decided to scrap the liturgical calendar entirely.
Gotta love those Puritans!
...it pains me to see fellow Protestants engaging in Lent because it completely goes against the grain of Reformation theology.
Amen.
The work of Christ is sufficient.
Amen and amen! Otherwise, He died for nothing.
>> Roman Catholicism, for example, makes the serious mistake of confusing historia salutis and ordo salutis with respect to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross (i.e., their practice of the Mass in which Christ is “re-sacrificed”). <<
That simply is NOT the Catholic doctrine. As was explained by the Church Fathers ages before there was any need to defend against Protestantism, the one sacrifice is made present throughout the ages. It’s an eternal (”outside time”) sacrifice. It’s not that it takes millennia to be completed; it’s that being outside time, it is accessible from any time.
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