"When, at the end and completion of the world, as if from certain locks and prisons, souls and rational creatures are released by the Lord, some of them, out of carelessness, will come out later, and others, out of their zeal, will fly with speed. And since all have free will, and can voluntarily indulge in either virtue or vice, the former will be in a much worse state than they are now, and the latter will pass into a better state, because the different movements and dispositions of the will in one direction or the other will serve as the basis of different states; then angels can become people or demons, and, conversely, from demons people or angels can come."

From the letter of Justinian to Menas: "I also think that the human race may one day be replenished from those subject to evil principles, and powers, and rulers of the world in each world, or from rational beings of some world, who will relatively soon accept the beneficence (good influence) and themselves desire to change").

Since Paul says that there is something visible and temporal, and, moreover, something else, invisible and eternal, we ask, why is the visible temporary? Is it not because after this (of the visible world), throughout the whole age to come, when the dispersion and separation of one principle will be brought to one and the same end and likeness, there will be absolutely nothing (visible)? Or perhaps because the form of visible being will pass away, although its substance will not be completely destroyed? Paul seems to confirm the latter assumption when he says: "The image of this world is passing away" (1 Cor. 7:31). David seems to indicate the same thing in the words: "They (the heavens) will perish, but Thou shalt remain; and they shall all wear out like a garment, and as a garment Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed" (Psalm 101:27). For if the heavens are changed, it means that they will not perish, for what changes, of course, does not yet perish; and if the image of the world is transitory, this does not yet mean the complete annihilation and destruction of material substance, but only indicates a certain change in quality and transformation of form. The same idea is undoubtedly expressed by Isaiah when he says in the form of a prophecy that there will be "a new heaven and a new earth" (Isaiah 66:22). But the renewal of heaven and earth, and the change of the form of the present world, and the change of heavens, are no doubt prepared for those who, following the path shown above, strive for that blessed end to which even the most enemies will submit, and when, according to the words of the Scriptures, God will be all in all. If, however, one admits the complete annihilation of material, i.e., corporeal, nature in that finite state of being, I am at all unable to understand how so many such substances can live and exist without bodies, when it is only in the nature of God, that is, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, to exist without material substance and without any admixture of corporeality. But perhaps someone else will say that in that final state of being the whole corporeal substance will be so pure and purified that it can be thought of as ether and intact.

However, how things will then be known, of course, only God and those who through Christ and the Holy Spirit have become his friends.

(From Jerome's letter to Avitus: "Corporeal beings will be utterly annihilated, or, in the end, bodies will be such as ether and heaven are now, or some other still finer and purer body that can be imagined. If this is so, then it is clear what he (Origen) thinks about the resurrection").