DOES "ALL THINGS ARE PURE" INCLUDE LENT, EASTER, ETC.?

 

Christians United Church, Indianapolis

I'm sure you've heard it all. Lent and Advent are nowhere mentioned in the Bible. Jesus was not born on December 25th. Easter was named after the goddess Ioster, filled with fertility rite symbols like rabbits and eggs. Jeremiah 10 condemns the pagan Christmas tree. And I haven't even gotten to the Satanic holiday of Halloween or the equally ungodly customs of Pride Month!

There is little I disagree with in the above paragraph. There are ungodly roots in many of our holidays. I smile when a cartoonist friend of mine had his protagonist place a "Y" in front of a church's Easter banner (following the pattern that "yeast" always has a negative connotation).

On the other hand, my regular blog readers know that this is not the first time I've tackled the subject of holidays. My hunch is that the believers that are up in arms about holidays are not as concerned with loving others as they are in being more "Biblically correct" than their brothers and sisters in Christ, emphasizing the letter that kills rather than the Spirit that gives lives.

Titus 1:15 says, "To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure." Romans 14:14 reads, "But I know and am convinced in the Lord that nothing is unclean of itself." Yes, there are days that are rooted in the demonic or the completely rebellious against God and evil is called good. But there are debates about other holidays.

As I said, I've blogged about this. So why do I have to write another one? 

Actually, it's because I learned something. ERLC posted a list of things about Lent. I knew it was 40 days, but I thought it started on Ash Wednesday (I'm correct about that) and ended 40 days later on Palm Sunday (I missed that one). Actually, the 40 days of Lent don't include Sundays. 

I was amused at the article. I have never been in a church that celebrated Lent, and most Baptists tend to ignore it at best. But the Southern Baptist ERLC (Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission) article seems to be written to say that Lent fits in Southern Baptist belief and almost gave the impression of trying to get more Baptists observing Lent.

Mind if I tell a joke here? I heard of parents telling their son about Lent and encouraging him to give up something for that season, like candy. He asked his parents were giving up, and they told him they were giving up liquor. The son then asked about the wine they drank at supper, and they explained that it was hard liquor they were giving up. The boy thought a minute and said, "Okay, I'll give up hard candy."

Sometimes observing holidays are just ritual and not done out of love for God, and yes, that mere observance can be called pagan. But it can be observed as worship. Once again, we should be more concerned about loving our brethren (John 13:34-35) than trying to get them to give up something they enjoy to satisfy your "holiness."