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nium without his banishment. It is
only after the devil is chained that a
thousand years of peace and prosper–
ity can commence.
The Festival of Tabernacles–
Utopla at Last!
Turn to the twentieth chapter of Rev–
elation. The beginning few verses
document the thousand-year earthly
reign of Christ. This period of idyllic
peace and prosperity is pictured by
the seven-day observance of the
Feast of Tabernacles.
It
symbolizes
the arrival of the Kingdom of God on
earth-ushering in a period of peace
and plenty such as this world has
never seen.
A new age will have begun! At last
man will be ruled directly by immor–
tal spirit beings. No longer will hu–
mankind be plagued by the Hitlers
and Caesars of this world.
Three of Christ's disciples were ac–
tually allowed to witness a preview in
"Panavision" of this wonderful time
to come- a vision of God's Kingdom
shown two thousand years in ad–
vance.. The account is known as the
transfiguration . Notice it in the book
of Matthew: "Verily [ say unto you,
There be sorne standing here, which
shall not taste of death,
ti// they see
the Son of man coming in his king–
dom"
(Matt.
16:28) .
Here Jesus
Christ guaranteed that sorne of His
disciples would see a
preview
of the
Kingdom of God
before
they died.
Now continue in the next chapter:
"And after six days Jesus taketh Pe–
ter, James, and John his brother, and
bringeth them up into an high moun–
tain apart , and
was transjigured be–
fore them:
and his face did shine as
the sun, and his raiment was white as
the light. And, behold, there appear–
ed unto them Moses and Elias [Eli–
jah] talking with him. Then an–
swered Peter, and said unto Jesus,
Lord, it is good for us to be here: if
thou wilt, let us make here
three tab–
ernacles;
one for thee, and one for
Moses, and one for Elias" (Matt.
17:1-4).
A tabernacle is only a tem–
porary dwelling place. But the Feast
of Tabernacles pictures a time when
the God family will dwell with men
forever .
At tha
t
time both Moses and Eli–
jah will have been resurrected to rule
20
with Christ. Luke's account of the
transfiguration explains that both
Moses and Elijah
" appeared in g/o–
ry"
(Luke 9:30-31). That is, they are
to become glorified spirit beings-no
longer flesh and blood. They, along
with all the other prophets of old and
all true Christians, will constitute the
firstfruits of the family of God head–
ed by God the Father with Jesus
Christ as second in command. This
resurrected family of God will then
rule the earth under Jesus Christ for
one thousand years (Rev. 20:4-6) .
The Feast of Tabernacles is also
called the "Feast of Ingathering" be–
cause of its fall harvest time setting,
symbolic of the great harvest of souls
at the time when the whole world will
become full of the knowledge of God
( lsa .
11
:9) . All will have their oppor–
tunity for salvation in the millen–
nium. This is the time when God will
finally set His hand to save the whole
world.
But what of those who have pre–
viously lived and died with
no oppor–
tunity
for salvation- most never
even having heard of the name of Je.–
sus Christ? A final one-day festival
answers this question.
The Last Great Day
Right in the midst of the verses in
Revelation 20 describing the thou–
sand-year reign is a key statement
depicting what is to happen
immedi–
ately after
the millennium. Notice it
in verse 5: "The rest of the dead did
not come to life until the thousand
years were ended" (RSV). So here is
a statement that actually tells us
when
"the rest of the dead" (those
not raised in the first resurrection as
spirit beings) will live.
It
is
immedi–
ately after
the millennium.
Verses 11 through 13 give more
detail: "Then
1
saw a great white
throne and him [God] who sat upon
it. . . . And 1 saw the dead, great and
small, standing before the throne,
and books were opened.... And the
dead were judged by what was writ–
ten in the books, by
what they had
done.
And the sea gave up the dead
in it, Death and Hades gave up the
dead in them, and all were judged by
what they had done [or rather, as the
Greek has it, according to their
works (KJV)]."
Here John describes a prophetic
vision of a great resurrection and a
"great white throne judgment" in–
volving most of humanity who have
ever lived on this earth.
What is the true meaning of John's
vision? Is this a resurrection to eter–
nallife in hellfire? To eterna! death?
What is meant by the term "great
white throne judgment"? What is the
relationship between this general
resurrection and the Last Great
Day? ·
Jesus stated: " ... lt shall be more
tolerable [bearable, Moffatt version]
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha
in the day of judgment, than for that
e.ity" (Matt. 10:15).
This is the first veiled reference to
the Last Great Day in the book of
Matthew. Later verses will shed
much more light on the meaning.
In Matthew 11 Jesus returned to
the same theme. Here Christ indicts
three Galilean towns for their unre–
sponsiveness to His marvelous mira–
eles. "Then began he to upbraid the
cities wherein most of bis mighty
works were done, because they re–
pented not: Woe unto thee, Chorazin!
Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the
mighty works, which were done in
you, had been done in Tyre and Si–
don, they would have repented long
ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say
unto you, lt shall be more tolerable
[bearable, Moffatt version] for Tyre
and Sidon at
the day of judgment ,
than for you. And thou, Capernaum,
which art exalted unto heaven, shalt
be brought down to hell [Greek, the
grave]: for if the mighty works,
which have been done in thee, had
been done in Sodom, it would have
remained until this day. But 1 say
unto you, That it shall be more toler–
able [or bearable] for the land of Sod–
om in
the day of judgment,
than for
thee" (verses 20-24).
Since the two ancient cities of
Tyre and Sidon would have repented
had J esus performed the same
mighty miracles in their heyday, it
logically follows that this
period of
judgment
will afford their peoples an
opportunity to repent of their evil
deeds and enter God's Kingdom.
Otherwise God becomes a respecter
of persons.
Matthew's account then jumps
The
PLAIN TRUTH
March
1979