Letter to the Brethren: February 15, 2024

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from the Five Cities region of California.

It is raining today and we continue to have issues as the roof of our office building was blown off by a tornado last week (see also Letter to the Brethren: February 8, 2024). But, we must persevere one day at a time as Jesus said (Matthew 6:34) as we seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).

Related to reaching more of the world with the good news of that kingdom, we received another 20 translations of our English booklet titled The Gospel of the Kingdom of God this week. These translation are helpful to support the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14, Romans 11:25 (see What About Romans 11:25 and the Full Number of the Gentiles?), the Ezekiel warning (see What is the Ezekiel Warning?), as well as the short work of Romans 9:28 (see also Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word).

Last month, we started contacting places to possibly hold the Feast of Tabernacles for the USA in 2024. We finally have received some proposals from Corpus Christi this week and are reviewing them. But we have seen nothing that will definitely work yet.

Ash Wednesday and Lent

Most in the world do not believe in observing the biblical holy days God commands in the 23rd chapter of the Book of Leviticus, like the Feast of Tabernacles .

Instead they prefer ones based on non-biblical traditions.

Yesterday, many observed something called Ash Wednesday at the start of some called Lent.

Although the word ‘Lent’ means Spring season, it is now mainly observed in the Winter right after Mardi Gras (which we discussed in the Letter to the Brethren: February 8, 2024).

The World Book Encyclopedia states the following about Lent:

Lent is a religious season observed in the spring…It begins on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter, excluding Sundays, and ends on Easter Sunday (Ramm B. Lent. World Book Encyclopedia, 50th ed. 1966).

What about Ash Wednesday?

Well, it is not an original Christian nor biblical Holy Day.

The Catholic Encyclopedia reports:

Ash Wednesday The name dies cinerum (day of ashes) which it bears in the Roman Missal is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the eighth century.

On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead (Thurston H. Ash Wednesday. The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907).

So, the Church of Rome adopted it officially in the 8^th century. Obviously, then, this was not an original Christian practice.

It should also be noted that the idea of placing a cross of ashes on the forehead came from sun god worship and other forms of paganism:

Mithratic…initiates…would henceforth have the Sun Cross on their foreheads. The similarity to the cross of ashes made on the forehead on the Christian Ash Wednesday is striking. Some have suggested this to be an example of the early Christians borrowing from the Mithratic cult; others suggest that both cults were drawing upon the same prototype. (Nabarz P. The mysteries of Mithras: the pagan belief that shaped the Christian world. Inner Traditions/Bear & Company, 2005, p. 36)

Ash Wednesday This allegedly Christian festival came from Roman paganism, which in turn took it from Vedic India. Ashes were considered the seed of the fire god Agni, with the power to absolve all sins…At Rome’s New Year Feast of Atonement in March, people wore sackcloth and bathed in ashes to atone for their sins. Then as now, New Year’s Eve was a festival for eating, drinking, and sinning, on the theory that all sins would be wiped out the following day. As the dying god of March, Mars took his worshippers’ sins in with him into death. Therefore the carnival fell on dies martis, the Day of Mars. In English, this was Tuesday, because Mars was associated with the Saxon god Tiw. In French the carnival day was called Mardis Gras, “Fat Tuesday,” the merrymaking day before Ash Wednesday. (Walker B. The woman’s encyclopedia of myths and secrets. HarperCollins, 1983, pp. 66-67)

It has become fashionable in certain Protestant circles to observe some version of Lent like many Roman Catholics do.

The Roman Catholics tend to have a 40 lenten period, whereas the eastern Syriac rite uses 50 days.

The Bible tells of a 50 day period to count, which is where we get the name Pentecost. But that is NOT observed like Lent.

Around the fourth-sixth centuries, the Greco-Romans were keeping some type of a 50 day fast that had resemblance to the Islamic fast of Ramadan (Pines, p.32). In time, this changed to a forty-day abstinence by the Roman Catholics of one or more (normally food) items.

Early Christians, of course, did not keep Lent as even the Roman Catholic saint Abbot John Cassian in the fifth century realized:

Howbeit you should know that as long as the primitive church retained its perfection unbroken, this observance of Lent did not exist. (Cassian John. Conference 21, THE FIRST CONFERENCE OF ABBOT THEONAS. ON THE RELAXATION DURING THE FIFTY DAYS. Chapter 30)

Thus, he admitted that Lent was added and that the original faithful did not keep it.

The Apostle Paul invoked keeping Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). Yet he did not do so for something called Lent. However, because the Days of Unleavened Bread involve a seven-day “fast” from leaven, around the time many call Easter, it may be that some associated with Rome and Egypt felt that an abstinence period would be appropriate, but the amount of time, as well as what they abstained from, varied.

Socrates Scholasticus wrote in the 5th century:

The fasts before Easter will be found to be differently observed among different people. Those at Rome fast three successive weeks before Easter, excepting Saturdays and Sundays. Those in Illyrica and all over Greece and Alexandria observe a fast of six weeks, which they term ‘The forty days’ fast.’ Others commencing their fast from the seventh week before Easter, and fasting three-five days only, and that at intervals, yet call that time ‘The forty days’ fast.’ …  some assign one reason for it, and others another, according to their several fancies. One can see also a disagreement about the manner of abstinence from food, as well as about the number of days. Some wholly abstain from things that have life: others feed on fish only of all living creatures: many together with fish, eat fowl also, saying that according to Moses, these were likewise made out of the waters. Some abstain from eggs, and all kinds of fruits: others partake of dry bread only; still others eat not even this: while others having fasted till the ninth hour, afterwards take any sort of food without distinction… Since however no one can produce a written command as an authority… (Socrates Scholasticus. Ecclesiastical History, Volume V, Chapter 22)

The apostles most certainly did not have differing fasts with differing requirements (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:10; 11:1).  The forty-day Lenten fasts are not like the forty-day fasts mentioned in the Bible which involved absence from all food and water (Exodus 34:28; Luke 4:2).

Concerning Lent’s origins, notice what one scholar wrote:

A Lent of forty days was observed by worshipers of the Babylonian Ishtar and by the worshipers of the great Egyptian meditorial god Adonis or Osiris … Among the pagans, this Lent period seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual (usually spring) festivals. (Bacchiochi S. God’s Festivals in Scripture and History, Part 1. Biblical Perspectices, Berrian Springs (MI), 1995, p. 108)

It is likely that the idea of a forty-day fast came from Alexandria in Egypt or from Greece and is related to the pagan goddess Ishtar. Since the Babylonians took over the Greeks and the Egyptians, that may have been when they started this practice.

Since early Christians did observe the Days of Unleavened Bread, repackaged pagan fasts were apparently substituted in various ways by the Greco-Romans.

Notice that the Apostle Paul warns against being involved in pagan observances (note: the NJB is a Roman Catholic translation of the Bible):

¹⁴ Do not harness yourselves in an uneven team with unbelievers; how can uprightness and law-breaking be partners, or what can light and darkness have in common? ¹⁵ How can Christ come to an agreement with Beliar and what sharing can there be between a believer and an unbeliever? ¹⁶ The temple of God cannot compromise with false gods, and that is what we are — the temple of the living God. (2 Corinthians 6:14-16, NJB)

¹⁹ What does this mean? That the dedication of food to false gods amounts to anything? Or that false gods themselves amount to anything? ²⁰ No, it does not; simply that when pagans sacrifice, what is sacrificed by them is sacrificed to demons who are not God. I do not want you to share with demons. ²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons as well; you cannot have a share at the Lord’s table and the demons’ table as well. ²² Do we really want to arouse the Lord’s jealousy; are we stronger than he is? (1 Corinthians 10:19-22, NJB)

Whether from Egypt, Roman paganism, or other demonic sources, the one place Lent did not come from was the Bible. Nor did it come from early traditions of the first followers of Jesus.

Some think they are strong enough spiritually so they can mix paganism, but they are really arousing God’s wrath according to the Apostle Paul.

These are not biblical holy days, but pagan ones.

More on holidays and holy days can be found in our booklet: Should You Keep God’s Holy Days or Demonic Holidays?

Baptisms in Malawi, War in the Congo, War in South Sudan

Jesus said:

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Related to that as we get closer to the end of the age, Malawi pastor Radson Mulozowa sent the following photo and report related to 15 baptisms last Sabbath:

This morning I visited chileka and after the service I conducted baptism.

I have baptism 15 brethren. From chileka I proceeded to mwanza for evening service. I will sleep here

tomorrow I will conduct baptism here in mwanza

Best regards

Radson