Do JWs take Genesis literally?

undercover

As I grew up as a JW it seemed that we accepted Genesis was a literal account with the only question being how long a creative day was. For the longest time, as best as I can recall, a creative day was considered a thousand years long, based on the ole "a thousand years is as a day to Jehovah" rule.

Somewhere though, it seems that there was some waffling on how long a creative day was. Especially since science was showing that the earth was millions of years old.

Since I've faded I wonder, do JWs today consider Genesis as a literal account of how things were created, even if they can't explain the exact length of a creative day?

How does anyone who takes the creation account as literal explain the following verses...

Genesis 1:3-5:

And God proceeded to say: “Let light come to be.” Then there came to be light. After that God saw that the light was good, and God brought about a division between the light and the darkness. And God began calling the light Day, but the darkness he called Night. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day.

Genesis 1:14-19

And God went on to say: “Let luminaries come to be in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night; and they must serve as signs and for seasons and for days and years. And they must serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth.” And it came to be so. And God proceeded to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and also the stars. Thus God put them in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth, and to dominate by day and by night and to make a division between the light and the darkness. Then God saw that [it was] good. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fourth day.

So first light was created and a division between light and darkness, day and night. But then a few "days" later, God created the luminaries, a greater luminary for the day and a lesser one for night.

It doesn't take a NASA scientist to realize that day and night are a result of the earth spinning on its axis around the sun. Half the time we're facing the sun, the other day we're not, thus day and night.

How is it that day and night were created before the "luminaries" were created? How does a creationist or anyone else who takes the book of Genesis as a literal account explain that seeming contradiction?

stillajwexelder

absolutely they do - except 7 days is seven creative days or periods of time which I have heard as 1000 yeras, 7000 years and an undetermined number of years

PMJ

undercover.i will look into this and would love to chat about it i love stuff like this.the book of Genesis.tells you what happend in a creative day then it repeats it again from another angle.ill get back to u on this thou take care

AlmostAtheist

The problem with taking things literally is deciding where to draw the line. Jesus after all is not a "lamb", despite what a literal reading might suggest. (mmm... messiah mutton....)

The Watchtower says that the "light" became visible from the point of view of an observer on earth, and so was created. Then the sky was made to be less... I don't know, dusty or something (probably from all the universe construction) and so the sun and moon could be discerned through the haze. It was at that point that they were "created".

So you see, the Bible account makes perfect sense! ;-)

Dave

PMJ

sorry i should of answered your question.yes we beleave that each day was 7000 years long but thats not defant.i think the reason for this is because were still in Gods rest day so acording to the bible the 7th day is about 6000 years old at this moment.plus 7 times 7 is 49 that would fit just right with the thousand year of christ. 49 years being the jublee year

Beep,Beep

Literal, how ?

As written there is nothing in Genesis to make me think that a literal 24 hour day is being spoken of. The physical evidence would rule out both a literal 24 hour 'day' and a mere 1000 year 'day'.

undercover

Then the sky was made to be less... I don't know, dusty or something (probably from all the universe construction)

LOL...Ya know when the Empire was building the Death Star, they had very little construction dust. They may have been evil, but they sure were organized and clean.

But...back to the rest of the quote:

The Watchtower says that the "light" became visible from the point of view of an observer on earth, and so was created. Then the sky was made to be less... I don't know, dusty or something (probably from all the universe construction) and so the sun and moon could be discerned through the haze. It was at that point that they were "created".

That's all well and good, but where exactly is that in the Genesis account?

Could it be that JWs are goofier than creationists in that they say it's literal but they make up shit along the way to explain the inconsistencies and make it fit whatever the teaching of the decade is?

stillajwexelder

It does help if you ignore the evidence that the Colorado river has carved out the Grand Canyon over 600 Million years

undercover

As written there is nothing in Genesis to make me think that a literal 24 hour day is being spoken of.&

And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day.

Sounds like a literal 24 hour day to me...unless the earth used to spin a whole lot slower...

Gopher

They sure take most of it literally.

A snake talked a naked lady into eating a fruit.

Some of Adam's children married their siblings.

Methuselah actually lived to the age of 930.

The flood actually happened, and Noah built the ark when he was 599 years old.

After the flood, in just a few generations, the population multiplied extremely rapidly to the point where there were actual city-kingdoms.

And many others: http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/contra_list.html

Do JWs take Genesis literally?

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