What is Lent?

I offer this up to the reader who is curious about Lent.
Our church celebrates it as a time of reflection and preparing for Easter.

Many offer advice whether this is a good thing or not, and whether it is required or not.

I've been reading some fair bit about Lent and found the history to be somewhat concerning.
You can decide for yourself.

There were a couple of links posted here:

What is Lent?
Give up Lent for Lent.

Here is one bit of information:

Hope this is not fake news...
Lent-Babylon connection....

Read full article BTW The Two Babylon’s book has much controversy. I have not read it.

You can also get details.

The Limited fact checking I did besides Wikipedia, was to check the Bible quote and John Gill’s historical commentary from the mid 1700’s.

Btw Gill made only a couple passing comments on Lent (since the word is not in the Bible):

1 Timothy 4:3....to abstain from meats: not from some certain meats forbidden by the law of Moses, as did some judaizing Christians; but from all meats at some certain season of the year, as at what they call the Quadragesima or Lent, and at some days in the week, as Wednesdays and Fridays; and this all under an hypocritical pretence of holiness, and temperance, and keeping under the body, and of mortification; when they are the greatest pamperers of their bodies, and indulge themselves in all manner of sensuality: the evil of this is exposed by the apostle, as follows, ....(find his commentary and read for yourself).

The article quotes this verse...
Ezekiel 8:14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD'S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.


John Gill has a long comment on that verse....

and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz:

they were not in the court of the women, where they should have been; butat the northern gate, near the place of sacrifice; and they were sitting there,which none but the kings of the house of Judah, and of the family of David,were allowed in the temple (z); but, what was the greatest abomination,they were weeping for Tammuz. Jarchi says this was an image, which theyheated inwardly, and its eyes were of lead; and these being melted with theheat, it seemed to weep; wherefore (the women) said, it asks for an offering:but not the idol, but the women, wept. Kimchi relates various interpretationsof it;

"some (he says)
expound it by an antiphrasis, "making Tammuz glad"; in the month of
Tammuz they made a feast to the idol, and the women came to make him glad:
others say, that with great diligence they brought water to the eyes of the
idol called Tammuz, and it wept; signifying that it desired they would worship
it:

others interpret the
word Tammuz as signifying "burnt"; (from the words in Dan 3:19; למזא לאתונא, "to heat the furnace";) as if should
say, they wept for him, because he was for they burnt their sons and daughters
in the fire, and the women wept for them.

He further observes,
that Maimonides (a) writes, that he found written in one of the books
of the ancient idolaters, that there was a man of the idolatrous prophets,
whose name was Tammuz; who called to a certain king, and commanded him to
worship the seven stars, and the twelve signs of the zodiac, for which the king
put him to a violent death; and, the same night he died, all the images from
the ends of the earth gathered together to the temple of Babylon, to a golden
image which was the image of the sun; and this image was hanging between the
heavens and the earth, and it fell into the midst of the temple, and so all the
images round about it; and it declared unto them what had happened to Tammuz
the prophet; and all the images wept and lamented all that night; and when
it was morning, they all fled to their temples at the ends of the earth; and this
became an everlasting statute to them, that at the beginning of the first day
of the month Tammuz, every year, they lament and weeps for Tammuz; and there
are others that expound Tammuz the name of a beast which they worship;''

but, leaving theseinterpretations, Tammuz was either the Adonis of the Grecians; and sothe Vulgate Latin version renders it Adonis; who was a young man beloved byVenus, and, being killed by a boar, his death was lamented by her; and, inrespect to the goddess, an anniversary solemnity was kept by men and womenlamenting his death, especially by women. So Pausanias, speaking of acertain place, there (says he) the women of the Argives (a people in Greece)mourn for Adonis (b). Lucian (c) gives a particular account of thisceremony, as performed at Byblus, a city in Phoenicia, not far from Judea; fromwhence the Jews might have borrowed this custom.

"I have seen
(says he), in Byblus, a large temple of Venus Byblia, where they performed the
rites unto Adonis, and I was a spectator of them. The Byblians say the affair
relating to Adonis (or his death) by a boar happened in their country; and, in
memory of it, every year they beat themselves, lament and offer sacrifice, and
great mourning goes through the whole country; and when they beat themselves
and mourn, they sacrifice to Adonis as dead; but the day following they pretend
he is alive; and they shave their heads, as the Egyptians do at the death of
Apis;''

and indeed it isthought by some that this Tammuz is the Osiris of the Egyptians; the same withMizraim, the first king of Egypt, who, being slain in battle, his wife hisordered that he should be worshipped as a god, and a yearly lamentation madefor him; and indeed Osiris and Adonis seem to be one and the same, only indifferent nations called by different names. Mention is made inPlato (d) of Thamus, a king that reigned at Thebes over all Egypt,and was the god called Ammon; no doubt the same with this Tammuz; and who ishere called, in the Syriac and Arabic versions, Thamuz or Tamuz; he seems to bethe same with Ham; and Egypt was called, the land of Ham, Psa 105:27;and it is most probable the Jews borrowed this piece of idolatry from theEgyptians their neighbours; with whom they were now very familiar, and fromwhom they expected help against the Chaldeans; but as there were such shockingobscenities used in this idolatrous service, it is most amazing that the Jewishwomen, who had been instructed in the law and worship of God, should ever gointo it.

Gussetius (e) thinksthat Bacchus, the god of wine, is meant; and gives several reasons for it; andamong the rest observes, that in the fourth month, called Tammuz from him, thevine was forming in ripe grapes; near the beginning of a fifth month, it waspressed out, and tunned up; and by the next month, having done fermenting, itwas stopped up, which represented him buried; and for which the weeping was inthis month.

(y) Misn.
Middot, c. 5. sect. 3. (z) Maimon. Hilchot Melachim, c. 2. sect.
4. (a) Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 29, p.
426. (b) Corinthiaca, sive l. 2. p. 121. (c) De Dea Syria.
Vid. Theocriti, αδονιαζουσαι, Idyll.
15. (d) Phaedrus, tom. 3. p. 974, Ed. Serran. (e) Ebr.
Comment. p. 903. So Luther apud Dieteric. Antiqu. Bibl. par. 2. p. 132.

ArticleQuote: (see full text)

Lent’s Ancient Roots

Comingfrom the Anglo-Saxon Lencten, meaning “spring,” Lent originated inthe ancient Babylonian mystery religion. “The forty days abstinence of Lent wasdirectly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess…Among thePagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the greatannual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz…” (TheTwo Babylons).

Tammuzwas the false Messiah of the Babylonians—a satanic counterfeit of Jesus Christ!

TheFeast of Tammuz was usually celebrated in June (also called the “month of thefestival of Tammuz”). Lent was held 40 days before the feast, “celebrated byalternate weeping and rejoicing” (ibid.). This is why Lent means “spring”; ittook place from spring to early summer.

TheBible records ancient Judah worshipping this false Messiah: “Then He brought meto the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north;and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz” (Ezek. 8:14). This was a greatabomination in God’s eyes!

Butwhy did the church at Rome institute such a pagan holiday?

“Toconciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy,took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by acomplicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficultmatter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity—now far sunk inidolatry—in this as in so many other things, to shake hands” (The TwoBabylons).

TheRoman church replaced Passover with Easter, moving the pagan Feast of Tammuz toearly spring, “Christianizing” it. Lent moved with it.

“Thischange of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentousconsequences. It brought into the Church the grossest corruption and therankest superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent” (ibid.).

Beforegiving up personal sins and vices during Lent, the pagans held a wild,“anything goes” celebration to make sure that they got in their share ofdebaucheries and perversities—what the world celebrates as Mardi Gras today.

Read the larger article and articles in the links up above, and you can decide for yourself.

There are many articles that describe the other view of time devoted to prepare for Easter.