By Bob Barney- The Plain Truth

In the past, I have written much concerning the last Day of the 7-Day Feast of Tabernacles, a time of great joy and “vacation” for the members of God's Church. The Feast week symbolizes the 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth known as the Millennium. During this time, we leave home and dwell in booths (temporary dwellings) for seven days, to teach us that we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth, looking forward to a New Heavens and New Earth. Today is yet another Holy day. It is known as the 8^th Day of the Feast, but in all reality, it is a separate holiday called THE LAST GREAT DAY, and this day has a very important message. It is called in the Bible a special Sabbath Day. It is to be treated as any Sabbath. We are not to work, and we are to hold a sacred church service. Leviticus 23:36, 39, . . . “on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly [margin: "day of restraint"]; and ye shall do no servile work therein . . . on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.”

Exodus 23:14-17 states , “Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto Me in the year . . . the feast of unleavened bread . . . the feast of harvest, the firstfruits [Pentecost] of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the [agricultural, civil] year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.”

In the New Testament, we read: "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive . . . ." Jesus chose this day because it has great significance in the plan of God and the salvation of mankind and our rebirth as members into the God Family!

Yesterday, the last day of the feast is the forerunner of Revelation 20:11-15, "And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, . . . And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

During the Last Great Day of the Feast we are to visualize God THE FATHER leaving heaven, and moving His throne to earth to live here with us! We are not going to heaven- Heaven is coming to us! In Revelation 21: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a beautiful bride prepared for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God (the Father) himself will be with them. He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever." ”

Yes, there is a paradise coming. It is a paradise on earth, where we are to live with God (Jesus and the Father) for all eternity, as actual members of the God Family.