There are other icons about which you can get wrapped just as easily, Sed; what you are wrestling is not truth, but a convenient mythology for making certain lessons more portable. Getting wrapped around the bottomless significance of the symbol is kind of like arguing with the thermometer because you don't like the weather, to stretch a point.
The kingdom of heaven is not in the calendar, accordng to the same Testament you're worried about. Stick witht he substance, and the symptoms and symbols will take care of themselves.