Those who anticipate the end of the world live in the long evening of death and anticipate the final night, Moltmann said, rather than living in the hope of the resurrection and anticipating the final morning. They claim a “glorious end” to the earth rather than anticipating the “beginning of eternal liveliness” on earth.

“To put it in simple terms Jesus is not dead, Jesus is alive in all eternity,” the German theologian said. “Deliverance from evil in the big new life is the beginning of a universal, and the living God of all things – this is the beginning already.”

Moltmann said Christians are now called to join the risen Christ in his protest so that everyone can see that this life is worth living now, rather than marking time in anticipation of future glory.

“It is not just speculation about the future, an extrapolation of the present or the past, but an anticipation of the coming of God,” he said, according to the Episcopal News Service. “A calling to change the present. This is prophecy.”

Referring to 2 Corinthians 5:17, Moltmann urged Christians to pray and open their eyes for the Word of God, remembering we are not the former beings but that we will do new things.

“The main signs of Christianity are the coming and the death and resurrection of Christ,” he commented. “This is the one sign which we have to interpret our lives and world history.”

Moltmann said it is imperative to counter the world’s friend-or-foe attitude by “considering everyone whom we meet” to be a believer because God believes in them and Christ died for them “as well as us.”

Christians must remember that Christ “took sides with the victims and redeemed the perpetrators from their violence,” Moltmann said. He noted that Christ healed sinners and loved everyone – victim and perpetrator alike – and bore the sins of the world, suffering when humans suffer.

“We must carry the memory of Christ otherwise none of us will be able to recognize him” when He comes again, he said.

“The perpetrators of evil will afterwards experience the justice that puts things for right,” he said. “They will thereby be transformed in as much as they will be relieved or be forgiven with the victims. They will be saved by the crucified Christ who comes to them together with their victims.”

This judgment is not about reward and punishment but “the victory of God’s creative justice” and the transformation of the world. “God who guarantees this justice is guaranteed from the cross,” said Moltmann.

Living against death is therefore the meaning of the resurrection of life in death.

“The victims [will] stand there together with the perpetrators and the perpetrators with the victims … the rich with the poor, the violent with the helpless, the martyrs with their murderers,” he said. Therefore, we are to see every human being embraced by the mercy and sovereignty of God – “whoever they are, God loves them, Christ died for them and the Holy Spirit is working in their lives,” he added.

In his presentation, Moltmann used the T.S. Eliot quote “the end is in the beginning” to illustrate that in every end there is a new beginning hidden. “If you search, the new beginning will find you. You must look for it and never give up.”

In line with the conference title, “God’s Unfinished Future: Why It Matters Now,” Moltmann said if God’s future truly stands as unfinished, “He will react to what we are doing and I’m looking forward to seeing that. If there is a plan which is executed in world history, there can be no more miracles anymore.”

The Trinity Institute’s 37th national theological conference was held at Trinity Church and St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City. Trinity Institute, founded to provide theological renewal for clergy in the Episcopal Church, has sponsored the conference for over 30 years.