It’s been nearly 10 years since the Baptist Pravda Press announced that Baptists had “rediscovered” Advent. Apparently, we realized it was “needed in a cultural context in which we are battered on every side to be diverted away from…a focus on Christ” and were now finding it useful in “provid[ing] a bit of structure in a tradition that has maybe gone too far without structure,” according to then-provost at Oklahoma Baptist University Stan Norman. Market-attuned evangelical churches and the Christian retailers who supply them, sensing a shift away from the freewheeling worldliness of much of contemporary worship, naturally pounced on the opportunity to provide the “life-changing” programs, events, and materials needed to facilitate this liturgical response to the “is this even a church?” excesses of seeker sensitivity.
Baptists had just finished “rediscovering” contemplative prayer and related so-called “spiritual disciplines,” long forgotten the Prayer of Jabez and our WWJD bracelets, were busy circling things with our prayer and had yet to “discover” the power of the Enneagram to aid our sanctification. Disaffected mainliners who left their pink-haired, rainbow-flagged “churches” for more conservative pastures were all too happy to see the low and free worshipers in Baptist and non-denominational churches respond to the spiritual market by adopting a little bit of the liturgy they were used to, and Christian retailers had a lucrative new revenue stream in likewise responding to the market shift. A quick search at Lifeway.com returns hundreds of listings under “advent,” with something for every persuasion and from all the usual names. Shoppers can pick up one of the dozens of Advent studies from “Lifeway Women,” meditation journals, and devotionals from Matt Chandler, Al Mohler, Beth Moore, or David Platt.
Yet observance of the Advent season began long before we were able to order Hot Wheels Advent calendars for our children. While the exact origins remain unknown, historians trace the beginnings of Advent (originally called the “Lent of St. Martin”) to the fifth-century practice of fasting three times a week between Old Halloween (St. Martin’s Day) and Christmas. By the 14th century, it was customary for the Catholic church to observe five weeks of lent-ish Advent, which remained liturgically unchanged until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
To Sin or Not to Sin
Within the boundaries of scripture, Christians can exercise substantial liberty in their worship practices. Daily devotionals, prayer, meditation, and music styles – all fall into the category of liberty when regulated by scripture. “Observing Advent” in the sense that it remains a deliberate organizational emphasis within worship is no different than planning a sermon series or working through a Bible study. Yet much like other “spiritual disciplines” are not scripturally prescribed (think journaling, word studies, or “praying the Bible”), liturgical observations can easily slip into a “required for sanctification” category. Much like Catholicism encourages observation of Advent in a sacramental sense (it leads to particular spiritual benefits like forgiveness), Christian corporate practice of extrabiblical traditions risks establishing the necessity of man-made practices for sanctification. A practice (discipline) deemed helpful in bringing about sanctification (formation) could logically stifle sanctification if not practiced. And failing to do what is needed for Christian growth would be sinful, would it not?
Why Puritans and Baptists Dumped Advent
Despite the claim by Advent-observing Baptists, our theological forefathers didn’t reject Advent because it was too “Catholic.” They rejected it because it was neither prescribed (nor described) in scripture, and its clear purpose (much like other liturgical observances) was conferring sacramental benefit, often through the mediation of Mary. In fact, around the same time Baptists were “rediscovering” Advent, now-deceased Pope Benedict XVI was reminding us that “To celebrate Advent means: to become Marian, to enter into that communion with Mary’s ‘Yes,’ which, ever anew, is room for God’s birth, for the ‘fullness of time.’”
Even after the rules for fasting fell by the wayside, “the faithful” are instructed to “fast during the first two weeks in particular and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.” Much like its origins as the “Lent of St. Martin,” Advent observance remains a work of self-denial for the purpose of receiving forgiveness. Or, in other words, a practice that rejects the nature of the Gospel. The rejection of Advent was profoundly spiritual for our Protestant forefathers, not some surface-level anti-Catholic thing.
Scripture reminds us that, while believers are free to establish traditions and special days in accordance with Christian liberty, there is no such thing as days that are more holy than others (Rom. 14:5), nor any specific, extrabiblical traditions that offer access to forgiveness or any other spiritual benefit. With disaffected high-church Advent observers leaving Catholicism or mainline liberal churches for the biblical sufficiency of conservative churches, scriptural sufficientists should examine the wisdom of “rediscovering” practices that our forefathers purposefully rejected. Instead, we may find it wise to remind our congregations that the same scriptural sufficiency that protects our churches from the liberalism many of them escaped is what keeps us from “rediscovering” or repurposing the works-based traditions of the churches they left.
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