Last Great Day Comments
John Plunkett
Last Great Day
October 8, 2012
Seaside, Oregon
I really appreciated Ben’s Sermonette. Please allow me to just say a few words on the same subject. I don’t want to necessarily repeat anything that Ben said but, as Ben said, this is a stupendous day – a richly significant and meaningful day.
But some brethren have recently begun to refer to this day as "The Eighth Day" rather than "The Last Great Day." Some of the brethren feel that the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles is the day that is referred to in John 7:37.
Although I am not going to argue the point, I will say that I am not convinced. As Ben said in his sermonette, Jesus refers to "that great day." The Greek word is ‘megas.’
I am not really sure how the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles is any greater than the six preceding days of the Feast. All seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles certainly are wonderful; every single one of them is a true highlight in the year; and certainly so will be their anti-types in the Millennium. If the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles picture the thousand years of the Millennium, then each Feast of Tabernacles day pictures one thousand divided by seven; and that comes out to about 143 years of the Millennium. But again, I am not really sure that the final 143 years of the Millennium will be any greater than the preceding 857 years. But what I am certain of – because God’s Word says so – is that the time and events pictured by the Last Great Day will be truly great.
Let’s concentrate on that word ‘great’ just for a minute.
The Last Great Day pictures something even greater – even more
wonderful –
than the events pictured by the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. Ben
has already described some of these events today; so I will just run through them quickly.
What does this day picture? Satan and his demons will be gone –
out of the picture forever. It will be the final and total end of the line
for them. Now is that great, or what?
This day pictures the Second Resurrection – the resurrection of
"the rest of the dead" (Revelation 20:5), which will include some of your loved
ones and some of mine. That will be great!
Ben talked about the Great White Throne Judgment period. Again, the Greek word
for "Great" is "Megas." This will be the time when all who have never had the opportunity to know
God and His way of life will have that opportunity. That too will be a
truly great time!
Included in the Great White Throne Judgment period will be the pouring out of God’s Holy
Spirit on all flesh, as mentioned in Acts 2:17 and Joel 2:28. There are probably going to be millions
of people alive on earth during the Millennium. But in the Great White
Throne Judgment following the Second Resurrection, all flesh –
all of those who are going to be resurrected at that time will have God's Spirit
poured out upon them. That will be another truly great event!
We know that there is also a sad part of the fulfilment of the
Last Great Day when God will have to deal – in a loving but merciful way
– with those who will have rejected their
opportunities and will have rejected God’s way of life. But ultimately,
even that too can also be considered a great event.
Ben also mentioned the end of all sorrow, all crying, all tears, all pain and all death.
Great? Yes, of course!
What about the New Heaven, the New Earth and the Holy City which we heard sung
about in today's special music? The New Jerusalem, complete with God’s
real heavenly Tabernacle? His tent tabernacles and His stone temples must have been
beautiful; but we are going to see the real one that they all merely
pictured. It is going to be brought to us!
I found it interesting that Ben picked up on the mention of "no more sea"
(Revelation 21:1). I was thinking about this verse this morning as I was walking along the beach,
looking out at the mighty Pacific Ocean. When we look out upon what we think of as
an eternal sea, rolling in for years, decades, generations, centuries and even millennia,
it is hard to comprehend that it is going to end.
Then, to top it all, the very greatest of all the great events:
Revelation 21:3:
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
God Himself –
God the Father – is going to
come to be with us! Ye, this will be the greatest of all the great events.
What then? A wonderful eternity beyond –
the details of which we can only dream and meditate about how truly great
they will be.
I just wanted to build upon what Ben said –
that this is a stupendous day. It is a fantastic day; so, as ben
advised, please don’t let it go by, just thinking about and looking forward to getting
home or about what time you have to leave town in the morning.
This is the Last Great Day!
JHP/pp/jhp