Such is the position as between man and man qua man. But between God and man there is an eternal, essential, qualitative difference which cannot, at the risk of presumption, be allowed to disappear in the blasphemous thought that, though certainly different in the transitory moment of time, so that man ought to obey and to pray God in this life, nevertheless the difference will, in eternity, vanish in an essential identity, so that in eternity God and man, like king and servant, become equals. Between God and man, then, there is and remains an eternal, essential, qualitative difference. The paradox- religious relationship (which, quite rightly, cannot be thought, but only believed) appears when God appoints a particular man to divine authority in relation, be it carefully noted, to that which lod has entrusted to him.
Such is the position as between man and man qua man. But between God and man there is an eternal, essential, qualitative difference which cannot, at the risk of presumption, be allowed to disappear in the blasphemous thought that, though certainly different in the transitory moment of time, so that man ought to obey and to pray God in this life, nevertheless the difference will, in eternity, vanish in an essential identity, so that in eternity God and man, like king and servant, become equals. Between God and man, then, there is and remains an eternal, essential, qualitative difference. The paradox- religious relationship (which, quite rightly, cannot be thought, but only believed) appears when God appoints a particular man to divine authority in relation, be it carefully noted, to that which lod has entrusted to him.