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All Things Will Be Restored to God A Summary of the Biblical Message
The bulk of the Bible then, is the narrative description from the history and God chooses Abraham and Abraham's descendants through his son with Sarah, Isaac, to be the bearer's of this mission. They are not special in any way except for the mere fact that God chose them to work this out. God enters into a covenant (a solemn, holy promise-based relationship) with Abraham, and though sorely tested at times, refuses to break the relationship, though God's human covenant partners break it time after time after time - often getting themselves into trapped circumstances (like slavery in Egypt) from which God must (again and again) rescue them (and us). God works through people to achieve this, for example Moses. The liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt is paradigmatic for God's redemptive activities in the world, whether to free people from physical oppression and the results of human injustice, or spiritual captivity to our self-centered, death and suffering fear-filled mental, emotional and behavioral habits and addictions and obsessions. As Israel is liberated from bondage, the covenant is enhance by God's giving the divine Law (principles for redeemed life) to the people as a rule to live by. These are the 10 Commandments and they are life-giving in Spirit. The first four concern our relationship with God and the last six concern loving, non-exploitative interpersonal relationship. The promise is that keeping the law will create the sort of community of the redeemed God intends. No one is able to keep it in all its particulars, however - so the desired community always falls far short of God's intention - as do each of us in our own attempts to carry out the provision of the Law. Over time, the people of Israel came into possession of the substantial portion of what was then Canaan, and in our time, before 1948, Palestine, now Israel and surrounding areas. They co-existed sometimes well - and sometimes not so well with the people already there. They sought to live by their own ways, but also came to share in the ways of the people who had never left, the Canaanites who were essentially worshippers of idols, or of human-made gods. Many people saw some worldly success in both ways of life and in time most came to want to become more like the other nations around them, and the Canaanites. They want a kingdom, with a monarch and all that came with that way of life. The prophets, like Samuel resisted this, wanting to maintain the older Mosaic covenantal and tribal way of life. But God, it is said, eventually relented and gave them a king, though warned them it would be problematic. The first king, Saul was - a problem, that is. David though and David's son, Solomon, were wildly popular and successful - so much so that later generations looked back upon them as the "Golden Age." But their descendants mostly became brutal tyrants and brought God's anger to a boiling point numerous times. They even forgot the Covenantal Law (10 Commandments) and had replaced earlier forms of worship that were more communal with a Temple and rituals that were shaped by their history, but also shaped by the idolatry of the earlier and still present Canaanites. The Prophets warned and warned that this couldn't continue, because injustice among the people was becoming rife and did not jibe with the intent God had wanted when bringing them out of Egypt. Much later, renovating the Temple, workmen found the tablets of the Law that had been lost for a couple hundred years! Reforms were tried, but they were too little too late. The Israelites, both north and south (Judah), had become so corrupted and like the other nations around them, that God allowed them to be conquered and carried off into Exile. Israel (the north) ceased to exist (until 1948). The people of Judah (the south) were in a way, sent to their rooms (exile in Babylon) for a generation or so, to think things over. Their ideas of God changed and expanded. When they were restored from exile they had a better understanding of themselves as a servant people - and their relating to God became more "religious." This was when many of the Scriptures started to be finalized. They were edited into the forms that have come down to us in the Old Testament. But again, the heart of people hardened at the same time. Though they understood themselves to be a servant people, they also made the "Law" into a rigid, formalistic religious code to be followed. In time, rather than judging themselves by their love and service to others, they began to judge others (and themselves) by how well they kept the "letter of the law." They also longed for a return to their old national pride, which had been taking beatings from one imperial overlord after another. They developed the desire for a special hero, sent from God, who would "restore the fortunes of Israel." This hero was called a Messiah - one "anointed" or selected by God. Another image also developed, however, along the lines of the People being a servant of God whose suffering would be a demonstration of God's love and forbearance and utter commitment to the Covenant. The Suffering Servant Songs of Isaiah convey this image of the people, personified in one person. What the best of the prophets understood that God wanted from them, however, was "righteousness," understood as faithful living and caring for one another. This could be expressed as Justice. Micah asked: "What does the Lord require of you, O human, but do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" or the Prophet Amos: "Let justice roll down like the waters, and righteousness like an everlasting stream."
But Jesus also proclaimed "Good News" which included the establishment of "God's kingdom." God's kingdom is radically different from the kingdoms of the world, as they are based upon power and domination and a faulty belief that we make our own way, rather than existing to serve God and to love others in God's name. Jesus personified this by his rejection of a personal agenda and power in favor of God's agenda and obedience to God's love and will. His ultimate self-giving sacrifice could only (as his followers believed) have been brought about by God - and so God was seen as present in Jesus, Jesus was known as God's "Son." Jesus' continuing presence with his followers was also experienced as an action of God's Spirit, the same Spirit that was in Jesus. The idea of the Trinity comes from this experience of Israel's One God in three expressions (Creator, Redeemer, Live-Giver & Sustainer/Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
Rev. Brett P. Morgan
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God created everything. God is the creative force behind the universe, and within it, creating and sustaining constantly. God created people "in God's image," and that likely means that, like God (who is a relationship - Trinity for Christians), people were created to be in harmonious relationship with God and with one another. That would be the expression of Love (also a description of God). Love however depends on selfless giving and the "fall" of humanity is the way the Bible explains the human decision to live for ourselves, to decide for ourselves - to essentially try living as independent beings, or "selves." This takes us out of harmonious relationship with God and one another as we now live to secure our "own" status in life. Others become objects to be used for our own benefit - thus evil is introduced. This life is really a lie, however, since we are not independent, but are created and cannot find meaningful or fulfilling life without recovering our lost status as "beings in relationship" with God, and through God with one another. It's also worth noting that a bit later, God's "name" is revealed to be "I am," which carries the connotation that you or we "are not," at least not in the same way. God makes us because God can, existing independently. We do not constitute ourselves in the same way since we cannot be our own creators. We are derivative beings. 
experience of a certain people of how God chooses to reposition them, or return them into right relationship - acting in a way that doesn't negate human free choice - through their real, this world experience, so that they will demonstrate to the remainder of the "fallen" world what God's desire and intentions are for everyone. In our "separated" state we have lost the capacity to figure this out and work it out on our own. We must be shown - it must be revealed. God then is also "revealed" to be the initiator of this whole "reclamation project" out of which we come to experience love as grace, and as God's absolute faithfulness to this project, to us, to God's human creation and to the rest of creation that we humans are also wrecking by our selfish and short-sighted actions. Though written by human hands, we believe the Scriptures are an inspired guide to life, and salvation/reclamation/liberation (our hope both in time and beyond time) with the inspiration originating in God. 
By the start of the first century of our era, the Roman Empire was the oppressing overlord. Jesus was born into this place and time, and came to understand himself and his mission as that of the Suffering Servant - while at the same time people were looking for a Messiah-hero. He expressed selfless love to the point of giving over his life to demonstrate the principles of God's love - and his followers experienced him as still alive among them after his death - which also showed that he was, indeed, the Messiah, or the Christ ("messiah" in Greek). This is the Resurrection and gave evidence that God's love (which is to be lived among people) is stronger than even death. So life, lived in that love, is eternal - without end - and becomes both the promise and the hope of Christians to this day. 
