The very idea of salvation arises from the oppressed condition of man; and it is associated with a forensic conception of Christianity. This ought to be replaced by the idea of creative transformation and enlightenment, by the idea of perfecting all life. “Behold I make all things new.” It is not only God who makes all things new, it is man too. The period of the end is not only a period of destruction, but also a period of divine-human creativeness, a new life and a new world. The church of the New Testament was a symbolic image of the eternal church of the Spirit. In the church of the Spirit the eternal gospel will be read. When we draw near to the eternal kingdom of the Spirit the torturing contradictions of life will be overcome and sufferings, which toward the end will be increased, will pass into their antithesis, into joy.

The thought of the end must be grasped not in a passive and negative attitude of mind but creatively and positively.