The last of God’s seven commanded annual Feasts is the Eighth Day (Leviticus 23:39). Since this Holy Day occurs immediately after the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, its observance is the joyful and deeply meaningful climax of an eight-day celebration.

The Eighth Day portrays the Second Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment period—as we shall see from Revelation 20. This is the resurrection to mortal (flesh-and-blood) life of every person who has never been called or “drawn” by God to deeply understand the Bible and become spiritually converted (John 6:44, 65). That will include all who have died since Adam and Eve! (Except for those in the resurrection afterwards in Revelation 20:13—see UCG Study Paper “The Resurrections” for a more detailed discussion). The Second Resurrection is a key part of God’s plan to offer all those people resurrected at that time the opportunity to learn God’s truth, repent, get baptized, receive God’s Holy Spirit, grow spiritually and qualify for eternal life!

This resurrection is not a “second chance” for salvation. It is for the people who have never had a chance—a real opportunity—because they had never been called or “drawn” by God to understand the Bible and live by it (John 6:44, 65). The book of Hebrews further explains what this means, “those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” (6:4-5).  The vast majority of mankind have never had this experience.

When I first learned about this Holy Day, I thought, “Yes! That’s the missing piece of the puzzle about God’s plan! Now I know how I will get to see all my loved ones and friends!”

And we can only imagine God’s excitement over the prophetic meaning of this annual festival since it pictures many billions of people resurrected to mortal life to be candidates for the family of God! God passionately desires to share His glory and joys with many, many sons and daughters!

It’s essential to understand that in the Bible, “judging” and “judgment” hardly ever mean passing a final sentence on someone. “Judgment” generally refers to the process of a person being taught God’s laws and being judged day after day as to how he is obeying those laws.

God’s amazing grace!

God loves everyone! (John 3:16). He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4) and God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9) (emphasis added throughout). Jesus’ parables about a good shepherd leaving 99 sheep in order to find and save one straying sheep illustrate this love.

God’s love, compassion, generosity, mercy and amazing grace are emphasized throughout the Bible. The parables of the lost coin and the prodigal son dramatically portray this (Luke 15:8-32). “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (verse 10).

The Millennium and afterwards

In vision, the apostle John sees that the resurrected saints “lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years”—a millennium since “millennium” means one thousand years. (Revelation 20:4). The Millennium is also the time when Satan the devil will be bound “so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:1-3). Then verses 4, 5 and 6 speak of the saints who are resurrected in the “first resurrection.”

Now, notice the announcement interjected into verse 5. “But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.” The “rest of the dead” includes all the other human beings who have lived and died since Adam and Eve who were not raised to life in the First Resurrection (or included in the future Revelation 20:13 resurrection). That refers to many billions of people! This resurrection is what we call “the Second Resurrection.”

Revelation 20:7-10 describes Satan being loosed for a while, after the Millennium period, and influencing a huge number of people to choose to follow him! So shocking and sad!

Verse 11 speaks of “a great white throne”—the royal throne of God, the supreme Judge of all! The next verse says, “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.” The “books” refer to the books of the Bible! The Book of Life is God’s record of the people whose sins were forgiven at baptism and have remained obedient and faithful to God. They are promised eternal life.

Verse 12 refers to those who had been dead and are living again. They are not being judged for the “works” they did before they died. They are being judged by their works of obedience after their resurrection and after learning God’s truth.

It surely seems that by far most people who are raised to life in a world that is nearly paradise will willingly and eagerly submit to the rulership of Jesus Christ. This is very exciting to contemplate!

We generally refer to the period of time ushered in by the Second Resurrection as the Great White Throne Judgment period. God does not reveal how long it will last. Many have speculated that it will last 100 years, largely based on Isaiah 65:20. God does not reveal how long it will last and we don’t need to know. We can be assured of this: the time God provides will be enough!

The valley of dry bones

Ezekiel 36 largely describes the Millennium—how people during that time will become spiritually converted and greatly blessed to live in blissful—“millennial”—conditions. “This land… has become like the garden of Eden” (verse 35).

Then the first part of chapter 37 tells us what happens after the Millennium. God gives Ezekiel the fascinating vision of a valley “full of bones” (verse 1). This chapter addresses more than one subject, but we are quite certain that this vision of joining bone to bone and restoring people to new healthy life is portraying the Second Resurrection! Verse 10 says “breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army!” Verse 13 says, “Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.” Verse 14 promises that they also will have the opportunity to receive the indwelling gift of God’s Holy Spirit.

The subject of the Second Resurrection leads to the subject of the enormous preparations that will need to be made during the Millennium for this “exceedingly great army!” That’s a fascinating subject to contemplate along with all the other related subjects!

This great day prophesies an amazingly great future!

What an enormous and exciting blessing it is to understand the meaning of this festival of the Eighth Day! It pictures an additional step in God’s plan of salvation in “bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). And it assures us that we will one day be reunited with our loved ones. Furthermore, we will see them learning God’s truth, and likely responding to that understanding by being baptized and receiving God’s Holy Spirit, and eventually entering the Kingdom of God! They will join all the other glorified saints as sons and daughters in the everlasting family of God.