The Act Behind Ash Wednesday

[Ash Wednesday] was taken from Roman paganism, which took it from Vedic India. Ashes were called the seed of the fire god Agni, with power to forgive sins. 
 Ashes were said to were a symbol for the purifying blood of Shiva, in which, one could bathe away sins. During Rome's New Year Feast of Atonement in March, people wore sackcloth and bathed in ashes to atone for their sins. 
As the dying god of March, Mars took his worshippers sins with him into death. The carnival fell on dies martis, the Day of Mars. In English, this was Tuesday (Martes in Filipino), because Mars was identified with the Saxon god Tiw. In French the carnival day was Mardi Gras, "Fat Tuesday," the day of merrymaking before Ash Wednesday.

Ashes are the residue of fire, and just as fire is regarded in mythology and folklore as something which purifies and also regenerates, or brings new life, so the same properties are associated within ashes.

Putting ashes on the forehead is not hinted at in the Bible. 
   Jesus and the apostles never thought of such a thing: it was adopted from paganism. African and Indian pagan rites have involved ashes on the forehead. This man made tradition of the Catholics makes the worship of God of no effect and adds to the commandments of Jesus Christ (Matt 15:7-9; 28:18-20).

Matthew 15:7-9 (New International Version, ©2011)

⁷ You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

   ⁸ “‘These people honor me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me.
⁹ They worship me in vain;
   their teachings are merely human rules.

Matthew 6:16-18

    ¹⁶ “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Catholics defy the teaching of Jesus Christ in their self-righteous show of religion. And their practices are as repulsive to God as were those of the Jews (Is 1:10-15; Matt 23:1-39).

Why is the forehead chosen for ashes? The only Bible reference to men marking their foreheads, other than Pharisee tradition with phylacteries, is the mark of the anti-christ beast (Matt 23:5; Rev 13:6; 20:4). God-fearing persons would not want to follow Rome with a mark on their forehead! 

Revelation 13:15-16

 ¹⁴And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. ¹⁵And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. ¹⁶And he causes all the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,

Lent was not observed by the first century Church, but was first addressed at the church at Rome during the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. Any doctrine contrary to the Roman Church was considered an enemy of the state. In A.D. 360, the Laodicea church commanded Lent to be observed.

Lent’s Ancient Roots

   Coming from the Anglo-Saxon Lencten, meaning “spring,” Lent originated in the ancient Babylonian mystery religion. “The forty days’ abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess…Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz” (The Two Babylons).

AMEN...