The Wrangell sentinel., 1951-03-23
CHRISTIAN
LENT
Contributed by Ed Moore In behalf of Jehovah's Witnesses
PAGAN }


 The spring fast known as LENT is annually observed by very large section of Christendom. both Catholic and Protestant. The Ro- man and Greek Catholic churches. the Lutheran churches and the Church of England all profess To keep the To-day lenten season. which is begun by many on Ash Wednesday and is ended at Easter. But the fact that it is not uniyer- sally observed by all of Christen- dom immediately raises the ques- tion. Why? Why is lent not kept by all protesting Christians today? Did Christ institute lent and did His apostles keep such a fast. or is il of some other origin. like so many Of Christendom's practices2 Christian custom or pagan practice which is it?
 Going first To the Bible and Bible oUncordaHces it is quickly discover ed that the fast of lent is nowhere mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures. One must therefore turn 10 eeeles- iaeUcal and profane history 10 dis cover the origin of lent. In the hi- storicai writings of the church iathers during the fist three ceA- turies 4 b. the most that can be found is mention of irregular last Ing by some individuals prior to the annual memorial celebration ren- aeus, one of these early ecclesias lo fast for one day. others for two days. and others even for several. while others reckon forty hours both of day and night to their fast Faced with these facts the CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Iyol. s. page l52J declares: We may then fairly conclude that Irenaeus about the year 190 knew nothing of any Easter fast of forty days. The same inference must be drawn from the language Of Tertulliaa only few years later. And there is the same silence observable in all the pre- Nicene Fathers. though many had occasion 10 men tion such an Apostolic institution if il had existed"
 II is therefore obvious that Christ and His apostles knew nothing d. bout fasting in the springtime. and as long as the Christian church re- malned unstained with pagan GUS toms there was no lent kept. This is supported by what Cassianus. Marseilles monk who lived in the fifth century wrote. Tt ought to. be known that the observance of the forty days lof lentl had no ex-I istence so long as the perfection of the primitive Church remained inriolate.'
 We'll, then, whence did this obj sefFance come? Tt seems that the observance of llentenD lasts was in- troduced into the Church slowly and by degrees" says McClintock % Strong's CYCLOPEDIA. Introduced slowly and by degrees. by whom and from what source9 Alexander Hislop dealing with this subject Of lent in his THE TWO BABY LIONS, says To conciliate the pa gans To nominal Christianity. Rome. pursuing its usual policy, took mea- sures to get the Christian and pa gan festivals amalgamated, and. by complicated but skilful adjust ment Of the calendar it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get organism and Christianity 10 shake hands"
 At first lent was limited to forty hours instead of forty days. Later il was extended. as noted by Soc rates (about \. D. 450) in his HIST. ECCLES., lib. V. cap %. D. 234: Those who inhabit the prin- cely city of Rome fast together be- fore Easter three weeks. excepting the Saturday and Lord's-day" After his day lent was extended to thirty six days. Finally, says the histo. ian J. R. Schlegel: Gregory the Great in the sixth century, or as others say Gregory II in the eighth cen tury, added four more to this fast, so as to make it full forty days" Of Pagan Origin
 It is only natural to inquire as to why lent was stretched out from forty hours to forty days. It was not because of some whim of an ec- clesiastical authority. but it was di- rectly tied to the adoption by the Roman Catholic church of the Bab- ylonish pagan worship of Astarte. To be consistent Rome had also to adopt the Chaldean. lent fast of for ty days. A very interesting obser- vation on this point is made in THE TWO BABYLONS. page 104: "The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the wnrGhtnnaro nF ho Dol