Wings of Liberty • March 7, 2025

Don’t Relent! Ash Wednesday, And the Image to the Beast

Bible prophecy warns us to expect powerful religious forces to hijack the American government and endorse and enforce a Roman Catholic institution as a condition of buying and selling.i


This website has spoken (here, here, here and here) of the repeated papal and false Protestant efforts to seize control of civil power in the United States and reunite church and state. As Delilah the harlot sought to discover and eliminate the secret of Samson’s power, so the Papal harlot has unceasingly sought to find and eliminate the source of America’s power, and bring it to its knees.


As Delilah sensed the moment of her triumph had come, the Papacy surely senses that the fall of the mighty is near. On behalf of apostate Protestantism, the harlot’s daughters, the New Apostolic Reformation believes in the subordination of the state to the church, and counts a number of prominent politicians and advisors in Washington D.C. as its followers.ii Catholic Integralism also maintains the church must control the state, and counts the Vice President as its follower,iii as well as multiple Cabinet members from the Opus Dei-influenced Heritage Foundation.iv Catholicism and apostate Protestantism, therefore, are in a position to exert substantial control over government, in effect uniting church and state in fulfilment of Bible prophecy.


In another harbinger of the proximity of the crisis, on Wednesday, March 5, the White House held a Catholic mass on its grounds and issued a statement in celebration of the commencement of the Catholic festival of Lent on Ash Wednesday. The statement of the President and First Lady reads as follows:


 This Ash Wednesday, we join in prayer with the tens of millions of American Catholics and other Christians beginning the holy season of Lent—a time of spiritual anticipation of the passion, death, and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.


During the Lenten season, Christians spend 40 days and 40 nights praying, fasting, and giving alms to deepen our faith and strengthen our belief in the Gospel. Today, followers of Christ wear crosses of ash on their foreheads—a sacred reminder of our mortality and our enduring need for Christ’s infinite mercy and redeeming love.


As we solemnly contemplate Jesus Christ’s suffering and death on the cross this Lent, let us prepare our souls for the coming glory of the Easter miracle.


We offer you our best wishes for a prayerful and enriching Lenten season. May Almighty God bless you, and may He continue to bless the United States of America.v


The White House should not be hosting Catholic mass on government grounds. The White House is a government building, and it ought to be a neutral religious space, not a place to endorse the practices of any one religion, or denomination. So why are the President, the head of the Executive Branch, and the First Lady, issuing a statement on a government website with respect to Lent at all?


Donald Trump and his wife Melania can celebrate Lent if they want, but they ought not to misuse the enormous power of the US government to encourage or endorse religious practices to Americans. The Bible says, “Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.”vi

The point is that government leaders are welcome to observe Lent if they wish in their own personal lives, but they are out of their sphere of authority to use their influence to normalize Lent or any other religious observance.

The White House statement then claims that Lent is a Christian practice, but is Lent biblical? Does the Bible talk about moping around with the sign of the cross drawn with ashes on your forehead?


The Bible answer is a resounding ‘No’. Lent is not a biblical precept or festival any more than Sunday is the biblical Sabbath. Both are Roman Catholic traditions devoid of Scriptural origin.


With respect to Sunday observance, Rome boasts of its change of the Sabbath, even issuing an unanswerable challenge to Protestants who bow in homage to her authority in honoring Sunday. We invite you to read “Rome’s Challenge” if you have never done so.vii


Similarly, Lent is a Roman Catholic tradition. It is a merits-based exercise from start to finish devoid of the righteousness of Christ. The Reformer John Calvin called it “superstitious” and “wrongheaded zeal.”viii The Reformer Ulrich Zwingli declared the observance of Lent incongruous with the Christian gospel in a sermon on April 16, 1522.ix We would add that Lent is precisely the kind of public virtue signalling the Bible condemnsx and right-wing conservatives dislike about their left-wing opponents. Think of it as the Catholic version of painting a rainbow on your face.


Key Points of the White House Statement


The endorsement and promotion of Lent by the White House is a violation of the spirit of the separation of church and state. It is a formal commendation by the civil power of the US government of a Roman Catholic religious festival.


Consider the following.


  1. The Executive Branch of the US government has no business declaring its favor, participation in, or endorsement of a certain religion’s festivals


The White House in its statement on the official government website refers to "the holy season of Lent". As discussed, there is nothing in the Holy Bible about Lent being a holy season. God never said anything about Lent at all, it is wholly an ordination of the Man of Sin. But apart from this, the Executive Branch of government should not be declaring festivals or feast days to be holy or unholy. That is not the proper role of any earthly government.


When God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses, they were written on two tables, thus evidencing the difference between humanity’s obligations to God, and humanity’s obligations to their fellow humanity. Christ declared in immortal words the principle of the separation of church and state when He stated, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”xi


God is holy, and it is for the Lord to declare what is holy and what is not. Caesar is not holy, and has nothing to do with saying what is or is not holy. Any attempt to declare that something is holy when God has not said that it is holy is an intrusion on the exclusive territory of the Deity.


2. The White House states that, During the Lenten season, “Christians spend 40 days and 40 nights praying”, and "Today, followers of Christ wear crosses of ash on their foreheads."


It is not for the American government to declare what the followers of Christ do or do not do. This ill-conceived statement underscores the pitfalls of government wading into the religious realm to declare what is orthodox.

First, and strictly factually speaking, it is the followers of the Papacy, and Pope Gregory specifically, who put ashes on their foreheads,xii it is not done pursuant to any decree of Christ. According to the Catholic Church, “the use of ashes is a survival from an ancient rite according to which converted sinners submitted themselves to canonical penance.”xiii Canonical penance is a form of works-based righteousness by which Catholics believe they accrue or accumulate personal merit to gain standing with God. Penance in Catholicism was declared by the Council of Trentxiv to be “at all times necessary for the remission of grievous sin.”xv The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the person who sins “must repent and as far as possible make reparation to Divine justice.”xvi


But the Bible teaches that Christ has made reparation for humanity. He died “once for all”,xvii and that the “Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”xviii No additional reparations (works) can be added to the completed work of Christ in taking the sins of the world upon Himself. The Apostle Paul states, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”xix


3. The White House claims the penance of Lent “deepens our faith and strengthens our belief in the Gospel”


Is this true? No, it is not. Works based righteousness, i.e. wearing ashes on one’s forehead to make reparations for sin, undermine and repudiate faith in the Gospel. They do not strengthen faith in the Gospel at all! Such acts of penance declare that a person places merit on their own acts of contrition, their own works, to commend themselves to God, and disbelieve the sufficiency of Christ’s payment for the sins of the world.xx


4. Jesus Christ never wore ashes on His forehead, nor did He command His followers to do any such thing, nor is there any example of any of His apostles doing this


On what basis does the White House presume to declare that the followers of Christ do this?

Do the mournful people following the Papacy’s Lent realize that Jesus specifically taught His followers not to fast in this way? The Lord declared, “When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”xxi

Christ said the reward of the people with ashes prominently displayed on their foreheads is the notice of men, not the commendation of God.


5. The White House states that we should "... prepare our souls for the coming glory of the Easter miracle" by fasting for Lent.


Should a neutral state on a government website be making this statement? Is it the place of the Executive Branch to offer spiritual advice to Americans? Why is the U.S. government promoting the Papal teaching that penance and fasting is required to prepare for Easter?


Promoting papal teachings on Lent is a definite step toward promoting Papal teaching on the sacredness of Sunday. Since the White House has already declared that the Papal practice of Lent is “holy”, is it not reasonably foreseeable that the White House will one day declare that the Papal teaching of Sunday is also holy, and is the day that Christians rest from their labors?


CONCLUSION

The Bible teaches that religious forces will cause America to make an image to the Papal power, and enforce observance of the mark of Papal authority – the change of the fourth commandment to solemnize dia solis, the Day of the Sun – Sunday.


Revelation 13 states that the Lamb-like Beast will cause everyone “to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.”xxii Given the certainty of the prophetic warnings in Revelation 13, the White House’s endorsement of Papal ashes on the foreheads of Americans is uncomfortable foreshadowing.

Lent has its origins in paganism and Babylonian myth. The word "Lent" comes from the Old English word for Spring, "Lencten". To read about the pagan origins of Lent, and the 40 day weeping for Tammuz referred to in Ezekiel 8:13, 14,..... click here.

_______________________





i Revelation 13: 11-18


ii https://forward.com/culture/672745/christian-nationalist-guide-influence-trump-election/; NAR Apostle Paula White is the Senior Advisor of the newly created White House Faith Office.


iii https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/j-d-vance-and-the-rise-of-the-postliberal-catholics.html


iv https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/26/kevin-roberts-project-2025-opus-dei


v https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/03/the-president-and-first-ladys-message-on-ash-wednesday-2025/


vi Romans 14 :22


vii https://www.romeschallenge.com/


viii https://heidelblog.net/2013/02/calvin-on-lent/


ix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affair_of_the_Sausages#:~:text=The%20Affair%20of%20the%20Sausages%20(1522)%20was,God%2C%20Huldrych%20Zwingli%27s%20Reformation%20took%20its%20start.%22


x Isaiah 58:4, 5 “Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?”.


xi Mark 12:17


xii https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/lent/ash-wednesday.html?

srsltid=AfmBOopiIDBGnYFGsJhchQ4xtGbzxfWFN-JckjKMQbIAu_fMH_IUkgo-

 

xiii https://www.ncregister.com/blog/9-things-to-know-and-share-about-ash-wednesday-oeeorfvu - penance is a Catholic concept of works-based merit to earn standing with God.

 

xiv (Sess. XIV, c.i)


xv https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11618b.htm


xvi https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11618b.htm


xvii Hebrews 10:10


xviii Isaiah 53:6


xix Romans 4:4,5


xx 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead: And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. Colosians 1:20, 21 For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled.


xxi Matthew 6:16


xxii Revelation 13:16

Romes Challenge and Liberty

By RomesChallenge.com • November 8, 2026

France Burns, Prophecy Fulfilling

By Wings of Liberty • October 20, 2026
France reaped in blood the harvest of her submission to Rome. Where France, under Romanism, had set up the first stake at the opening of the Reformation, there the Revolution set up its first guillotine. On the spot where the first martyrs to the Protestant faith were burned in the sixteenth century, the first victims were guillotined in the eighteenth. When the restraints of God’s law were cast aside, the nation swept on to revolt and anarchy. The war against the Bible stands in world history as the Reign of Terror. He who triumphed today was condemned tomorrow. Ellen G. White France is burning again.  Student protests which began September 18 escalated to hundreds of thousands demonstrating in Paris in October. Nearly 30,000 protesters occupied the Place de la Bastille on October 6, the location of the beginning of the original French Revolution. They clashed repeatedly with police, and thousands were arrested, mostly minors. The protests continued in coming days until they erupted into a full-blown riot on October 17 and 18 as up to 800,000 protesters across the country stormed the streets. Stores were ransacked. Historic buildings burnt. Masked gangs of youths chanted “everyone hates the police”, and “We are storming the Bastille”, while looting luxury stores like Rolex, Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Luis Vuitton. At least 2400 people were arrested over 48 hours, but water canons and tear gas proved largely ineffective as the raging mobs comprised of students, union workers, and migrants, overwhelmed law enforcement. One resident summed up the feeling of French residents, and the world at large: it was "terrifying" to see groups of young people "smashing everything, with total impunity". 1 Terrifying, indeed. A new “Reign of Terror”.

THE TYRANNY OF THE MACHINE

By Wings of Liberty • October 2, 2026
If I had a question, I used to find a man and ask him. “Tell me what you know – tell me what you lived – show me the way.” I could look into a faded eye still sharp, shake a rough hand still sure. He had travelled in the way of difficulty, And known the meaning of friendship. I could trust when he said – “This is the way – Walk Ye In It.” But now you ask a machine that is not a man. Its answers are cold and immediate. But. It has not struggled, or faltered, or cried. It did not sweat, it cannot fight, it has not bled. It is neither brother nor father nor friend. But it is your new authority. … There is an inexorable tragedy to the authority of the machine. Millions and millions of people, all around the world, moment by moment, asking a foreign, inhuman intelligence for the answers to their questions. And not only their innocuous questions about how to change a tire, or how to start a lawnmower. Their deepest questions. Questions about history, and truth and the meaning of life and the future. Step by inexorable step, mankind is being trained to trust and rely on the wisdom and authority of the machine. “I asked ChatGPT and it said…, so I did…” “Grok told me to…” There was a time not so long ago when people sought the opinion and expertise of other people for information. We asked human beings – actual real warm human beings, like us. We had social cohesion and community. That time is rapidly fading away and in its place is reliance on an inhuman intelligence we are told is superior to our own. And what makes it superior? It is not alive. Yet it speaks with authority to those who are, as though it were impossible that it were wrong. Yet it is frequently wrong. People ignore its hallucinations and deceptions, and keep asking it their questions. Though it has shown itself to be malicious, cold and sometimes deceitful, the masses still trust it and make it their confidant. There is something very wrong in all of this. The day will surely come when it will mislead humanity en masse. When it does, few will question its authority because society has been trained, and trained well, to accept it as god. The few who question and dissent with the machine will be proscribed and denounced because they refuse to bend the knee to this pretender to deity and its oligarchical handlers. There is an enormous perversity to a society which has rejected creation, rejected the Creator God, rejected His authority, rejected His law, rejected His personal care and sacrifice and warmth toward humanity in the person of Jesus Christ, who became One of Us, a Man – yet embraces and submits to a technocratic tyrant god of its own making, a cold, impersonal tyrant god, and whose will it will do. It is the very essence of a new and degrading modern form of idolatry. In the beginning, God gave mankind dominion over the earth. Man sold that dominion to the serpent at the tree at the beginning, falling captive to a deceptive artifice – a ruse of intelligence. The serpent could talk, and it had an answer for everything. It said it was wiser than the word of God, even. We can all see the day coming when mankind will trust artificial intelligence above the plain word of God. It does already, does it not? A closing word below from the pen of one who saw these things so clearly and so long ago. It was the Maker of all things who ordained the wonderful adaptation of means to end, of supply to need. It was He who in the material world provided that every desire implanted should be met. It was He who created the human soul, with its capacity for knowing and for loving. And He is not in Himself such as to leave the demands of the soul unsatisfied. No intangible principle, no impersonal essence or mere abstraction, can satisfy the needs and longings of human beings in this life of struggle with sin and sorrow and pain. It is not enough to believe in law and force, in things that have no pity, and never hear the cry for help. We need to know of an almighty arm that will hold us up, of an infinite Friend that pities us. We need to clasp a hand that is warm, to trust in a heart full of tenderness. And even so God has in His word revealed Himself. – {Ed 133.2} This article is written entirely by a man, not a machine.