I unerstand that in the 1975 runup, they said 6,000 years were almost ending.

HOWEVER IN THE WAYTO PARADISE BY VAN DE AMBURGH ,IT SAYS 7,000 YEARS HAVE PASSED.

You are correct, of course.

In 1975 the WTB&TS said that 6,000 years of human existence were coming to a close. The implication was that this would be followed by the 1,000 year reign of Christ, and then the 7th creative day would end.

Recall that each creative day was pronounced "good" by Jehovah when it had concluded. Supposedly, we aare living in the seveenth creative "day" and it could not be pronounced "good" unless Christ's Kingdom had cleansed it of the not-good effects of sin.

CTR accepted and taught the belief that was popular in his time that each day of creation was 7,000 years long, but this idea can be traced further back in history, even to pre-christian times.

Shopaholic writes:

To Nathan: I agree with you 100%. When I studied astro-physics in college, it was proven beyond any doubt that the animals and mankind were here millions of years ago. I know the WT tried to play games when questioned about dinosaurs and what happened to them. One speaker said they died off before the animals we see today were created. If they weren't wouldn't the dinosaurs had eaten most of the life we see around us now?

Another speaker said the dinosaurs drowned in the flood of Noah's time. So why didn't Noah bring 2 or each into the ark? Doesn't the WT know how big these animals were?

Even if we leave out the dinosaurs, all of the animals he was supposed to have put into the ark, the food needed for them (and remember that some are carnivores and they weren't going to be happy with a salad made of straw and cow's milk to drink. None of the animals reproduced, thereby crowding the ark even more? How did 8 people clean up all the waste from these animals? It has been estimated by some that it would take 50 men working 24 hours/day to shovel and dump it all outside, and even then they couldn't keep up. So when the ark settled and the water went away, there would certainly be a mess all around them.

I hope these points help to tie together the whole "date issue" about how long man or animals were on the earth and when they were created.

Nathan Natas,

I asked because I am really starting to see how brainwashed I am...I was having a "moment". I never payed attention to the fact that the WTBS claims that mankind started 6,000 years ago. If you met me on the street as a stranger even before my fade and you asked me how long man had been around I would have said that its more than 100,000 years. I never put 2 and 2 together. I'm realizing how blind I really was to everything that I was being taught. I was so busy underlining my watchtower that I forgot to stop and ask questions.