The main concern of the Apocalyptists was thus with the future, with the world to come, wherein all the inequalities and incongruities of the present world would be put right. But from this it followed that most of what they taught was characterized by a _supernatural colouring_ in which much that was exaggerated and fantastic was mixed up with sublime conceptions and eternal truths. They laid great stress upon the antithesis between this world and the next, between the _Olam ha-zeh_ (this world), and the _Olam ha-bâ_ (the world which is to come). Their view of this world was wholly pessimistic; there was nothing to be hoped from it; indeed, its badness, entire and irretrievable, as contrasted with the glorious world to come wherein no evil might abide, involved the Apocalyptists in teaching which was of the nature of dualism. Again, that which was to come transcended human experience, so that in the great drama of the end the Apocalyptists depict man as standing in passive awe in face of the marvellous and supernatural occurrences which are then to take place; man’s _rôle_ as an active agent ceases; supernatural beings are God’s instruments in fulfilling His will; the scene is laid in Heaven, or in the skies, not on earth. The future is to bring with it a new world-order wherein all things will be different, the old order is to disappear for ever. In all this the dominant note which sounds throughout is that of the _supernatural_. At the base of the whole position taken up by the Apocalyptists in their teaching was a doctrine of _determinism_, which must be briefly alluded to, for the recognition of this is essential to the understanding of the subject. The Apocalyptists started with the absolute conviction that the whole course of the world from beginning to end, both as regards its physical changes, and also in all that concerns the history of nations, their growth and decline, and of individuals, good and bad, the innumerable occurrences of every description and the very moment of their happening—in a word, the entire constitution and course of the world and all that is in it, whether regarded as _gē_ (the physical earth = the Hebrew _eretz_) or as _oikoumenē_ (the inhabited world = the Hebrew _tēbēl_), was in every respect predetermined by God before all time. The words in 2 (4) Esdras iv. 36, 37 present a belief common to the Apocalyptists: For He hath weighed the age in the balance, And by number hath He numbered the seasons; Neither will He move nor stir things, Till the measure appointed be fulfilled.