Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] He is still pursuing the same argument, setting the rewards above the afflictions: For we know, he says, that even if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we possess a dwelling not built by hands, everlasting among the heavens: that is, for this flesh of ours which will be dissolved through sufferings, we shall obtain a home in the heavens. [2] He remembered the gospel saying, Blessed are those persecuted on account of justice, since the kingdom of the heavens belongs to them. He did not, however, deny the restitution of the flesh by setting the compensation of reward against it, since the compensation is owed to the very thing to which the dissolution is reckoned — namely, to the flesh. [3] But because he had earlier named the flesh a house, he chose, elegantly, to keep using the word 'house' in the comparison of the reward as well, promising to that very house which will be dissolved through suffering a better house through resurrection. For the Lord too promises many mansions, as it were houses, with the Father. [4] Though this can also be understood of the dwelling of the world, at whose dissolution an eternal seat is promised in the heavens, since what follows, plainly pertaining to the flesh, shows that the earlier words were not about the flesh. [5] For the apostle draws the distinction when he adds, For in this also we groan, longing to be clothed over with our dwelling which is from heaven, since indeed we shall be found not naked even when unclothed: that is, we wish to be clothed over with the heavenly virtue of eternity before we are unclothed of the flesh. [6] For the privilege of this grace awaits those who at the Lord's coming will be caught still in the flesh, and who, on account of the hard times of Antichrist, will earn the right, by a shortcut of death worked through transformation, to run together with those rising, as he writes to the Thessalonians: [7] On this point we tell you, on the Lord's own word, that we the living, surviving until the Lord's arrival, will not go ahead of those already fallen asleep: since the Lord himself will come down from heaven at a shout, with an archangel's voice, and God's trumpet blast: and those dead in Christ will rise first, then we the living will be snatched up along with them into the clouds to meet Christ, and thus we shall be with the Lord forever.