Luther on the Resurrection and the New Earth
By Luther
I SHALL rise and converse with you again. All must be restored. God will create new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. There all will be pure rapture and joy. Those heavens and that earth will be no dry, barren sand. When a man is happy, a tree, a flower can give him gladness. Heaven and earth will be renewed, and we who believe shall be everywhere at home. Here it is not so; we are driven hither and thither, that we may have to sigh for that heavenly fatherland. When Christ causes the trumpet to peal at the last day, all will come forth like the insects which in winter lie as dead, but when the sun comes, awake to life again; or as the birds who lie all the winter, hidden in the clefts of the rocks, or in hollow banks by the riverside, yet live again in the spring.—Luther.