Protestants Returning to Roman Rituals
On February 17, many television viewers were curious about the strange mark on the forehead of Joe Biden, the United States vice-president (and first Roman Catholic in that post) when he was being interviewed on a news programme. It was, says a report in The News Herald (Ohio), the mark of the ash which a priest had smeared on his forehead that day, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.
This unscriptural ritual, which is connected with the similarly-unscriptural observance of Lent and Easter, is being adopted increasingly by nominally-Protestant Churches, says the same report. In Scotland, it died out at the time of the Reformation but, of course, it continued to be more or less observed in the Church of England, where the Reformation did not make as much headway as it did in Scotland and certain other countries.
In the ritual, the ash (mixed in an ointment) is applied to the forehead in the shape of a cross. The ash, say the ritualists, is to remind the recipient of mortality because Scripture says, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen 3:19). The ash also symbolises the penitence of the recipient, they say, because Scripture says, “Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). However, such a plausible appeal to Scripture ignores the fact that these rituals and observances do not come within the bounds of what God prescribes for His worship; they are therefore to be condemned as “will worship” (Col 2:23).
Lent itself is symbolic of renewal, they say, because the word Lent comes
from a Germanic root meaning Spring. This fact itself indicates that it has its roots (like Easter) in Babylonian pagan religion. Even a Roman Catholic source, The New Question Box – Catholic Life for the Nineties, states, “The reasons for celebrating our major feasts when we do are many and varied. In general, however, it is true that many of them have at least an indirect connection with the pre-Christian [pagan] feasts celebrated about the same time of year – feasts centring around the harvest, the rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice (now December 21, but December 25 in the old Julian calendar), the renewal of nature in spring, and so on.” Another source, The Catholic Encyclopedia, says that Ash Wednesday was established as the first day of Lent by Pope Gregory the Great (590-604).
Little wonder that our noble Reformers cast it out, heeding the words of Christ: “Teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you”. And shame on those who want to go back to the Egypt of Rome’s rites and rituals, from which we were mercifully delivered 450 years ago. NMR