Therefore with the death of Jesus, and precisely by reason of it, eschatology—notwithstanding that the primitive Christian community still completely lived in it—was virtually done away with. It was destined to be forced out of the Christian “Weltanschauung,” for it was “dechristianised” by the fact that in parting with the secret of the Kingdom of God and the idea of the Passion it had forfeited also the inner ethical life which was breathed into it by Jesus. A tree in full bloom stricken at the root,—such was the fate of eschatology, to wilt and wither, although no one at first suspected it was doomed. In the fact that subsequent history compulsorily created in the Church an uneschatological view of the world, it only accomplished what in the nature of things was already determined by Jesus’ death. [pg 248] The death of Jesus the end of eschatology! The Messiah who upon earth was not such—the end of the messianic expectation! The view of the world in which Jesus lived and preached was eschatological: the “Christian view of the world” which he founded by his death carries mankind forever beyond eschatology! That is the great secret of the Christian “scheme of salvation.” For Jesus and his Disciples his death was, according to the eschatological view, merely a _transitional_ event. As soon, however, as the event occurred it became the _central fact_ upon which the new, uneschatological view was built up. In primitive Christianity the old and new were still side by side. The adherents of Jesus believed in the coming of the Kingdom because his imposing personality accredited the message. The Church after his death believed in his messiahship and expected the coming of the Kingdom. We believe that in his ethical-religious personality, as revealed in his ministry and suffering, the Messiah and the Kingdom are come. The situation may be likened to the course of the sun. Its brightness breaks forth while it is still behind the mountains. The dark clouds take colour from its rays, and the conflict [pg 249] of light and darkness produces a play of fantastic imagery. The sun itself is not yet visible: it is there only in the sense that the light issues from it. As the sun behind the morning glow,—so appeared the personality of Jesus of Nazareth to his contemporaries in the pre-messianic age. At the moment when the heaven glows with intensest colouring the sun itself rises above the horizon. But with this the wealth of colour begins gradually to diminish. The fantastic images pale and vanish because the sun itself dissolves the clouds upon which they are formed. As the rising sun above the horizon,—so appeared Jesus Christ to the primitive Church in its eschatological expectation.