January 1, 2009

Dear Sir,

I would like to respond to one of the concerns raised by Mr. Paul Kokoski in an article that appeared in the December 19, 2009 edition of your newspaper under the heading "Remember What Christmas Is Really All About" in which he expressed his disappointment with the lack of public nativity scenes displayed during the Christmas season. Since, Mr. Kokoski claims that the crib is the symbol of Christmas, I would like to draw your readers' attention to following passages of Scripture.

Isaiah 9:6 reads "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

The second is 1 Timothy 3:16 which reads, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

The third passage of Scripture is found in John 1:1-2, 14, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

In light of the above passages of Scripture, I would like to pose a number of questions to Mr. Kokoski for his consideration. Does he believe that the above passages refer to Jesus Christ? If so, the passage in Isaiah declares that the child who is born and the son who is given shall be called the mighty God. How then can an inanimate object such as a clay doll or an image created by man's hands convey the glory of the only begotten of the Father and be used in a nativity scene to represent Jesus Christ, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form? (Colossians 2:9)

Furthermore, as the apostle Paul asserts in Acts 17:29, "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." Since we are the offspring of God and we are alive, how can God, from whom we derive the very source of our being, be represented or portrayed by lifeless works of art of man's devising? Wasn't this very thing forbidden in Exodus 20:4?

As to the true meaning of Christmas, the Roman Catholic priest, Reverend John F. Sullivan provides us with the following insight in his book The Externals of The Catholic Church: Her Government, Ceremonies, Festivals, Sacramentals, and Devotions, which was published in 1918. In reference to the name Christmas, he writes, "Why is this day called Christmas? This word, which we of English-speaking race use as its name, shows the Catholic origin of the festival. Christ is "Christ's Mass" — the Mass offered in honour of the birth of Christ. Probably, few of our non-Catholic friends advert to the fact that the day which they celebrate so universally is a feast of the Catholic Church, taking its very name from the supreme act of Catholic worship." (p. 137)

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to respond to Mr. Kokoski through the medium of your newspaper.

LORIN SMITH

Devonshire