What Is Lent? — A Baptist Perspective on the Season Before Easter

# What Is Lent? — A Baptist Perspective on the Season Before Easter

Every year in the weeks before Easter, Google searches for "what is Lent" spike dramatically. People see their Catholic and Episcopal friends giving things up, observing Ash Wednesday, and practicing a forty-day season they have been part of since childhood — and many Baptist and evangelical Christians watch from the outside wondering: what exactly is this, and does it have anything to do with us?

## What Lent Is

Lent is a forty-day season of preparation, repentance, and reflection that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter). Sundays are typically not counted, which is why Lent spans about six and a half calendar weeks.

The forty days point to Jesus' forty days of fasting in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11), as well as Israel's forty years in the desert and Moses' forty days on Mount Sinai. The number forty in the Bible consistently carries associations with testing, preparation, and spiritual formation.

Traditional Lenten practices include fasting (often from a specific food or habit), increased prayer and Scripture reading, almsgiving, and additional worship services. The season culminates in Holy Week — Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday — before Easter Sunday.

## Where Lent Comes From

Lent is not described in the New Testament. It developed gradually in the early church as a preparation period for new converts who were to be baptized at Easter. By the fourth century, a forty-day pre-Easter fast was widely practiced, and the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) references it as established custom.

The Protestant Reformation brought significant critique of many Lenten developments. Luther and Calvin stripped back liturgical practices they believed lacked clear biblical basis and had become associated with earning merit before God. As a result, most Baptist and evangelical churches have not observed Lent as a formal season.

## The Baptist Case for Not Observing Lent

There are principled reasons Baptists have traditionally been non-Lenten:

**Lent is not in Scripture.** The Bible does not command a forty-day pre-Easter fast. Practices without biblical warrant are, at minimum, optional.

**The Reformation concern about merit.** When Lenten observance becomes about earning spiritual credit or performing righteousness before others, it violates the New Testament's insistence that we come before God by grace alone (Matthew 6:1–18; Ephesians 2:8–9).

**Baptists value "every day as unto the Lord."** The Baptist and Free Church tradition resists dividing the calendar into "sacred" and "ordinary" seasons, preferring the principle that every day can be lived in devotion to God (Romans 14:5–6).

## The Baptist Case for Lent's Principles

On the other hand, many thoughtful evangelical Christians have found genuine value in Lenten practice:

**Fasting, prayer, and repentance are deeply biblical.** The specific season may not be mandated, but its core practices — fasting, self-examination, intensified prayer, and preparation for Easter — are thoroughly scriptural.

**Many Christians benefit from structured seasons.** The human soul tends toward forgetfulness. A forty-day season that deliberately draws attention to the cross and resurrection can be a powerful counterweight to spiritual drift.

**Ash Wednesday's reminder.** "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" comes directly from Genesis 3:19. Mortality awareness is something the Bible consistently calls believers toward (Psalm 90:12).

## What FBC Fenton Does

As a Baptist church, FBC Fenton does not formally observe Lent as a required church season. We follow the Baptist principle that the New Testament does not obligate believers to a specific liturgical calendar beyond Sunday worship.

However, we believe the forty days before Easter are a natural season for intensifying personal prayer, deliberate fasting, self-examination, and renewed focus on the Passion narratives leading to the cross.

The substance of Lent — grief over sin, gratitude for the cross, joyful anticipation of resurrection — belongs to every Christian. Whether you structure it in a formal forty-day practice or observe it in your own way is a matter of Christian freedom.

## Observing Easter Season Meaningfully — Lent or No Lent

Whether or not you observe Lent formally, these practices can deepen your experience of Holy Week:

Read one of the Gospel accounts of the Passion slowly over multiple days. Consider a 24-hour fast on Good Friday. Attend a Good Friday service — the cross should not be rushed past in eagerness to reach Easter morning. And come to Easter worship prepared: it is the most important day in the Christian calendar.

We celebrate Good Friday and Easter with special services every year at FBC Fenton. We would love to have you join us at 860 N. Leroy St., Fenton, MI 48430.

*"Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, and he was raised on the third day."* — 1 Corinthians 15:3–4