Christianity was vibrant even before it was officially and legally recognized by the Roman Empire in 313 AD and before the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.
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From the beginning, Christians have confessed that our faith is rooted in history. The events of Christianity’s founding in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ Jesus are of chief importance to us.
God’s people have always affirmed both the truth and value of history. Biblical writers regularly recorded not only the facts of what happened but the significance for our faith. We see this pattern of a historical report with its interpretation in Exodus: the account of crossing the Red Sea in chapter 14 is followed by Moses’s song in chapter 15, which says: “God redeemed his son, Israel, out of Egypt with a strong and outstretched arm and brought him to the promised land, God’s abode and sanctuary” (v. 15, author’s paraphrase). Similarly, Paul not only rehearses the events of Jesus’s life, but he also gives the significance of Jesus’s life: “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3); Christ was “raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25).
