Is Lent a Biblical Tradition or Church Invention?

A Biblical and Historical Examination of Whether Protestants Should Celebrate Lent

The following is a brief history of the Christian tradition of Lent and its corresponding holidays, Ash Wednesday and Easter. At the end, I offer an honest, biblical answer to the question, should Protestants celebrate Lent?

The history of Lent, Easter, and Ash Wednesday

Lent is a forty-day period of fasting and prayer leading up to Easter. The term comes from the Greek word tessarakosti, meaning “the forty,” and was eventually associated with what became known as “the great forty” (megale tessarakosti). For Catholics and most Protestants, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, forty-six days before Easter, and ends on Holy Thursday, two days before Easter Sunday. With Sundays excluded from the season, forty official days of Lent are observed between the two holy days.

In the Orthodox Church, Easter often falls on a different Sunday than in the rest of the Christian world. For Eastern Christians, Lent begins on Clean Monday (usually the Monday after Ash Wednesday) and ends on the Friday before Holy Week, with Easter typically falling one or two Sundays after Catholic/Protestant Easter.[1] One reason for this difference is that the Orthodox Church follows the Julian Calendar, unlike Western churches, which follow the Gregorian Calendar. Along with this, Eastern Christianity continues to calculate Easter, or Pascha,[2] in relation to the Jewish Passover, while Western Christianity does not.

Originally, the Christian Church celebrated the resurrection of Jesus in direct correlation with the Jewish Passover. The Quartodecimans (a group of second-century Christians in Asia Minor) were the first to do so, celebrating the Lord’s resurrection annually on the 14th of Nisan, the date that the Passover lamb was traditionally slaughtered. In the ensuing centuries, various Christian groups around the world started developing their own forms of Pascha celebration. This included those who celebrated the Lord’s resurrection on the Sunday after Passover, traditionally believed to be the day that Christ was resurrected from the dead.

At the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, church leaders unified the date of Easter by establishing an official holiday to commemorate the Lord’s resurrection: the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This ensured that Easter would always fall after the Jewish Passover. At least, that’s what the council believed. Along with establishing an official Pascha holiday, the Council also instituted an official preparatory season leading up to it, Lent, or “the forty.” This was viewed as a formal expansion of a tradition of fasting in the days leading up to the Pascha celebration that had been started in the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries by various Christian groups.

In 601 AD, Pope Gregory I adjusted the start of Lent so that forty fasting days could be observed before Easter while excluding Sundays from the count. Along with this adjustment came the institution of Ash Wednesday. The ashes symbolize repentance and mortality, themes deeply embedded in Scripture. Figures like Job, Daniel, and Mordecai used ashes as signs of humility before God. Psalm 39:4 captures the spirit well: “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” Reflecting on one’s own mortality is profoundly biblical; thus, Catholics and many Protestants do it every year to kick off the Lenten season.

How did Lent come to be a forty-day holiday season, specifically? That also goes back to the Council of Nicaea. Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness after His baptism. Moses fasted for forty days before receiving the Law on Sinai. Elijah fasted forty days on his journey to Horeb. In Scripture, forty often represents preparation, testing, purification, and transition. The Council decided on this number as a way of following the Scriptural template, in which forty seems to be an ideal length for seasons of preparation and sanctification.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp-8B9K7-ms

What does Lent entail? 

Traditionally, Lent involves fasting. For Catholics, this means abstaining from meat on Fridays and giving something up for the duration of the season. Orthodox Christians typically observe stricter fasts, abstaining from meat, dairy, eggs, olive oil, and alcohol throughout the season, with a few exceptions and variations (for instance, oil and wine are allowed on weekends). In the Protestant Church, it’s much less structured. Many modern Protestants fast from sweets, social media, TV, or other worldly comforts, while others adopt curated intermittent fasting patterns for the season.  

Should you observe Lent?

There are legitimate arguments in favor of observing Lent. For one, it is rooted in church history and has been observed by Christians for thousands of years. Its focus on sanctification and preparing oneself to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus is commendable. For many Christians, Lent functions as a means of grace, a structured season for repentance, prayer, reflection, and drawing near to God. For those who approach celebrating Lent with this in mind, it surely acts as a means of spiritual enrichment.

There are also genuine cautions. A strong case can be made, based on passages like Galatians 4 and Colossians 2, that the Apostle Paul would not have been in favor of establishing any official Christian holidays. At the very least, it is clear in Scripture that observing holy days and seasons is never to be mandated within the Christian Church. Choosing to practice these things does not make someone a Christian, and mandating them only serves to place a condition on the Gospel that could eventually place people in bondage. The New Testament is clear that the holy days and festivals that Israel was required to keep under the Old Covenant were types and shadows of what was to come in Christ, a time in history when every day is sanctified by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

By the same token, choosing not to observe these holidays doesn’t make someone a Christian either. This tension is why Romans 14 becomes pivotal for answering this question. In it, Paul writes that one person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. He goes on to say that “each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God” (Romans 14:5-6). The principle that governs everything is this: whatever a believer chooses to do in honor of the Lord should be done in faith.

This is the heart of the matter: If a believer observes Lent in faith—knowing it does not save, justify, or make them more righteous before God—it can be a meaningful tool for sanctification. If another believer does not observe it, honoring every day alike before the Lord, that should be done in faith as well. Most importantly, no one should think that they have become more holy than their neighbor because of the way they choose to honor the Lord.

“Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother” (Romans 14:13).

Traditions always carry tension. They can draw us nearer to God and sharpen our focus on Christ. They can also become empty rituals performed without heart, love, or purity. The Bible is rich with examples of what can happen when religious observation and ritualistic sacrifices replace covenant devotion from the heart. God is not after external observance divorced from love.

So, should you celebrate Lent? It is not commanded. It is not required. It does not make you more or less Christian. But it is historically rooted, biblically symbolic, and carries the potential to be spiritually enriching. If you practice it, do so in faith and freedom. If you abstain, do so in the same manner. Christ is the substance. Everything else is a shadow. If you do choose to observe Lent, or any Christian holiday for that matter, do it for the substance.

[1] This year, for instance, Western Christians (Catholics and Protestants) will celebrate Easter on April 5^th, while the Orthodox Church will celebrate it on April 12^th

[2] “Pascha” is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word Pesach, meaning “Passover.” Easter is still referred to as “Pascha” in many different languages, like Italian (Pasqua) and French (Paques). The Orthodox Church, including English-speaking congregations, also refers to Easter as “Pascha.” This title makes the explicit connection between Christian Easter and Jewish Passover much more obvious.

Is Lent a Biblical Tradition or Church Invention?

Blake Barbera is the founder and Lead Teaching Minister at That You May Know Him. He has been teaching the Bible for more than two decades, and has served the Church in various capacities during that time, including as a missionary and pastor.

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