Focus on purpose of Christmas, not the date

THE EDITOR: Over the years, on approaching the Christmas season, there seems to be, even among the very people who belong to the Christian faith, diverse opinions about the actual date of Jesus’s birth.

However, we need to keep in mind that the determining/establishing/naming of calendar months and years has a very long history. And with diverse people's secular dominance and our viewpoints of world history, there will always be differences of opinion on various matters, inclusive of this holy occasion.

Today the most widely used civil calendar, the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 "to correct inaccuracies" of the older Julian calendar, is globally accepted.

I believe that given our general divided opinion of secular history, and unfortunately our discrete beliefs on an actual date of this 2,000-plus years occasion, it (the actual date) is irrelevant. Our main focus should be the purpose of Christmas.

According to our spiritual guide (the Bible), Jesus came to pay the price for our (all mankind) sins. A very significant biblical warning we tend to forget or take for granted is the devil’s shrewd ability of using even the very ones we look up to for upliftment on secular subjects like this.

While we naively tear apart what ought to be our total oneness in Christ, we must also remember the story of Moses, who Almighty God used not just to present the Ten Commandments to us, but also the phenomenal parting of the Red Sea, among other biblical performances and communications.

The Egyptian pharaoh at the time ordered all Hebrew baby boys killed for fear of an increasing Israelite population and consequently a military threat. Then a baby, Moses’s mother Jochebed placed him in a waterproof basket and set him adrift on the river. And guess who, of all people, found him and, having pity for him, raised him as her own son? The pharaoh’s daughter.

That's right. The very people who had concerns about their lands being overtaken by those who they defined as "outsiders," and so decided to get rid of baby boys by killing them, by a virtual miracle raised up one of those very children who went on to be one of God's mighty disciples. And this is what the date-doubters of Christmas should consider.

Just when they thought they could possibly complicate the arrival time of our Saviour on Earth, in the same manner Almighty God placed Moses among the very people who would have killed him had he stayed with his parents, He (God) permitted the secular influencers to have their way, only this time giving us the appropriate time we all celebrate victoriously. Yes, God does work in mysterious ways.

Jesus came because we all need Him. It’s His purpose here that should be the emphasis. Believers, our duty is to spread His word and His purpose clearly, mutually.

LLOYD RAGOO

Chaguanas