This year will be a significant year for Christendom.
While the United States is experiencing a Bible boom — with a significant number of first-time buyers — suggesting Americans are searching for God in a chaotic and disordered world, 2025 is going to be a significant year for Christians worldwide for two important reasons.
1. Easter
This year, all Christians (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) will celebrate Easter — the most holy holiday in Christianity — on the same Sunday.
While all Christians agree on the significance and the timing of Easter — it takes place on the first full moon after the spring equinox, which is called the paschal full moon — Orthodox Christians typically celebrate Easter later than Catholics and Protestants because they follow the Julian calendar while the Catholic Church and Protestants use the Gregorian calendar.
But this year, the paschal full moon on the Julian and Gregorian calendars align — so Christians worldwide will celebrate Easter on the same day: April 20.
Though it is rare, the last time the Easter dates coincided happened in 2017, and it will happen again in 2034.
2. 1700th anniversary of Nicaea
Even more significant, this year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, otherwise known as the first ecumenical council.
Convened by Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325 AD, Christian bishops met in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now a city in modern-day Turkey) for approximately two months.
The primary issue the council sought to address was Arianism, a popular ancient heresy. Arianism taught that Jesus was a mere creation of God, making him neither co-eternal nor consubstantial with God the Father. The teaching is a rejection of Jesus’ divinity and the Trinity. At Nicaea, however, the ecumenical council affirmed that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, is “of one substance” with God the Father.
It was not only a wholesale rejection of Arianism but a complete affirmation of the Trinity.
Importantly, the council formulated a creed to communicate the church’s teachings and beliefs. That creed is known as the Nicene Creed, which has been recited by Christians throughout history and is regularly recited by countless Christians each week.
The First Council of Nicaea is one of the most important events in the history of the church, and its impact cannot be understated.
If you are a Christian, this year would be a good time to learn about the First Council of Nicaea, how the decisions of Nicaea impact your faith today, and why the Nicene Creed is important for Christians.
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