“Even after the fall,” writes theologian Erich Sauer, “the destiny and the redemption of the earth remain indissolubly united with the existence and development of the human race. The redemption of the earth is, in spite of all, still bound up with man. . . . Man is the instrument for the redemption of the earthly creation. And because this remains God’s way and goal, there can be a new heaven and a new earth only after the great white throne, i.e., after the completion and conclusion of the history of human redemption.”
