John 5:28
John 5:2828Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice
Central to the Watchtower's hope of an earthly resurrection. Everyone in the memorial tombs will hear the Son's voice and come out, and the Watchtower teaches that most of them will be raised during the thousand-year reign, taught Jehovah's requirements, and given an opportunity they never had in life. The verse is read as promising a second chance for the untaught dead.
The promise of a general resurrection is not in dispute — Christians affirm it, and says the same. The question is what happens when people come out, and verse 29 answers it in the next breath. So don't stop at verse 28. Read straight on: those who did good to a resurrection of life, those who practised vile things to a resurrection of judgment. Two outcomes, both determined by what was done before the grave. There is no third group who come out to be instructed and then decide. Notice also whose voice raises them. All those in the tombs hear his voice — the Son's. In the Hebrew Scriptures, raising the dead is Jehovah's prerogative (, ). Jesus places himself in that role two verses after saying he has life in himself. Compare , , .