Let Lent Alone

• What is Lent?
• Why Not Lent?

Last summer I happened upon the article On Common Objections to the Observation of Lent by Phillip Powers. Powers is a Southern Baptist preacher and member of South Caraway Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In the essay he attempts to obliterate three common objections to Lent, concluding that “In the final analysis, we must conclude that the decision to observe the season of Lent, whether that observance is personal or corporate, it must remain at the level of Christian freedom. The three objections he considers most common are that Lent is too Catholic,[i] too works-oriented,[ii] and that it “is nowhere explicitly commanded in Holy Scripture.”[iii] Those, all true, might seem sufficient to most Baptists, but Pastor Powers tries to work around them.

Clearly, both its origins and purpose is based on the practice of the Roman Catholic Church. In responding to these two objections, Powers boosts a baseless historical boondoggle – that “the Roman Catholic Church was the only church for the first 1500 years of Christian history.” If the church of grace died, only to be replaced by the church of works alone, we run afoul of the promises of the head of the church. The “holy season of Lent” is theirs in a works-based religion and tainted by that association. Let those who glory in works have it.

Answering the third objection, Powers rejects the Regulative Principle for Worship. Since churches do many things “that are not directly commanded in Scripture” and “no one follows the RPW absolutely,” the writer thinks we should jettison the RPW and embrace Lent. Why not instead jettison the things we do that are not commanded in Scripture and more fully and faithfully embrace the word of God as the regulator of our faith and practice?

In Why I Encourage People Not to Observe Lent, Bart Barber answers this argument well, writing, “Movement toward Lent is movement away from the idea that the New Testament should give us the pattern for ecclesiastical celebrations or individual spiritual formation…I argue that having taken some steps in a bad direction is no good reason to continue further along the path.”

In making his argument, Pastor Powers reveals its weakness when he cannot base it on the Scriptures, but must fit it in at the level of Christian freedom. If he will settle it there, I urge him (and others like him) to apply the Christian charity of 1 Corinthians 8-10, and not let this liberty or freedom become a stumblingblock to others. Concerning Lent, Jon Shaff, a Free Will Baptist preacher from Oklahoma, said “there are many brothers and sisters like myself that have been ‘taken out of Rome’ by the Grace of God and it makes us cringe to hear the words like ‘Lent’...Show your brothers and sisters kindness and gentleness...do not entice them to go back to things from which the Lord has delivered them.”

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[i] “One of the primary objections that is most often given against the practice of Lent, as well as any other practice that might remotely be considered liturgical, is that it comes to us from the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.” Lent is intrinsic in the Roman church calendar and holy week observances. Lent is not a biblical observance, and the long tradition of its observance by Catholics does not make it so.
[ii] “In some traditions, Lent is presented as a way of ‘earning’ God’s forgiveness, as a meritorious act by which we might deserve God’s grace, even as a kind of penance.” Lent restricts certain matters of separation and holiness to a certain time of year. “Self-reflection, examination, confession, and repentance” should be daily rather than seasonal Christian practice (cf. Luke 9:23).
[iii] “A final objection that is often raised in this conversation is that the practice of Lent is nowhere explicitly commanded in Holy Scripture.” There is no positive command in the New Testament to observe any season of the year as holy. Bible believers should not be seeking religious traditions to borrow from others, but rather search the scriptures daily to see whether such things are so.