Are the Creative days 7000 years long?

by Steve J 22 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Steve J

  Where does the idea that the Creative Days of the Genesis account were 7,000 years long come from?

  Genesis doesn't suggest that they were specific time periods, but shows that one "day" extended into others. I feel that the clue is in the words; "And there was an evening and there was a morning, a first day."

  I know the Hebrews reckoned their day as starting from evening, but surely this was much later than the Creation account and an idea based on Genesis. As far as I know they were the only people to adopt this idea, so why do people believe they were specific periods of 7,000 years?
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  Witness 007

  The idea comes from Jewish scribes and The Gospel of Barnabas mentions it which is not an offical part of the bible....however the bible NEVER mentions how long a creative day is and since 1975 Witnesses have moved away from this stupid theory.
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  ozziepost

  G'day Steve J and welcome aboard!

  You've started your posting here with a good question yet one which presupposes what is not written.

  Let us address those suppositions first. Let me ask the question, why do you assume that each creative day was uniform in length? Where in the Genesis account does it state that?

  I believe that even the WTS have come round to thinking that these "days" were periods of time of uncertain length. Yes, Fred Franz laid great emphasis on each day being 7,000 years but as has been commented by my fellow Australian they seem to be shying away from that in recent times. So, back to the periods of time. Why should they be equal in length? Just because we think it would be neat and tidy, or because we conjecture that since God is a "God of order" then it must be so, doesn't mean it was so, does it?

  Indeed, many christian believers see no contradiction between Genesis account and evolution.

  So, in summary, there is nothing to state ctegorically that each creative "day" was either uniform or 7,000 years in length.

  Cheers, Ozzie
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  JCanon

  Whether or not the Creative days are 7000 years each or just 24 hours has nothing to do with the specific reason the WTS came to that conclusion. I just wanted to state that first.

  Having noted the above, the basis for the WTS' belief (and mind also) that each creative day is 7000 years long is because it is believed that the millennium is a special sabbath of 1000 years. If the millennium represents a sabbath and thus the seventh division of the Creative Day, then it is presumed then that each Creative Day must be 7000 years each. This comes out of the interpretation of a reference in Hebrews where Paul as well suggests a rest day within a rest day, a sabbath within a sabbath:

  3 For we who have exercised faith do enter into the rest, just as he has said: “So I swore in my anger, ‘They shall not enter into my rest,’” although his works were finished from the founding of the world. 4 For in one place he has said of the seventh day as follows: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,” 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter into my rest.”

  6 Since, therefore, it remains for some to enter into it, and those to whom the good news was first declared did not enter in because of disobedience, 7 he again marks off a certain day

  In other words, because the Jews who had seen the great works of God at the time of the ten plagues soon rebelled, God promised none of those of that generation would enter his "rest", meaning that none of these would be selected for the first resurrection, which is the only way anyone who had died previously to experience the millennial reign of Christ. They would be resurrected later, of course, with the rest of mankind at the second resurrection where both the righteous and unrighteous are raised. The first resurrection are only for the anointed "144,000" (even though it is really 1,440,000, 144K is just 1/10th made up of the natural Jews). That's what this is about, qualifying for that "better resurrection" which allows the faithful to enter into the sabbath rest of Christ's 1000-year reign.

  But as noted, Paul contrasts this with the Creative Rest Day, establishing an upcoming rest day within the 7th Creative Day. Based upon that, it is presumed by the witnesses and many others, actually, that at the very least, Armageddon must arrive before the last 1000 years of the 7th Creative Day. That is what 1975 was all about. They figured 1975 was 6001 years after creation. They gave Adam just one year to name all the animals and then get saddled with a wife the next year, so that the 6th Creative Day ended just 1 year after Adam's creation. In that case, based upon their chronology going back to Adam, 1975 marked the end of 6000 years, and since the millennium takes up 1000 years, they were expecting Armageddon to come at least by 1975. IT DID! For the WTS and their wrong prophecy, but not what they expected.

  At any rate, that's where the specific concept of the 7000-year long Creative Days comes from. If you Google "Creative Day and 7000 years" you can see who else arrived at this same conclusion.

  So the 7000 years IS Bible based, though the exact applications as far as chronology vary depending on the various chronologies.

  JCanon
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  Witness 007

  JCannon dazzling you with lots of words but not saying much, again! NO WHERE IN THE BIBLE DOES IT SAY HOW LONG THE REST DAY IS. We are in his rest day but it could be 9,000 or 15,000 or 144,000 years long ASUMMING something does not make it fact.

  Barnabas : "God's rest day way seven thousand years long..." {This scriputre does not exist except in the book of Barnabas}
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  drew sagan

  I believe it comes out of the JWs "day for a year" rule that they created.
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  Narkissos

  Welcome Steve J.

  There is indeed nothing in Genesis 1 to suggest that the "days" are not what the uninfluenced reader/hearer immediately understands, i.e. ordinary days (to avoid the anachronistic "24-hour"); and, yes, every line in the extant text presupposes the post-exilic Judean culture, especially the 7-day week culminating with the Sabbath.

  Witness 007. The Epistle of Barnabas actually presupposes a 1000-year "day," cf. chapter 15:

  Further, also, it is written concerning the Sabbath in the Decalogue which [the Lord] spoke, face to face, to Moses on Mount Sinai, "And sanctify ye the Sabbath of the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart." And He says in another place, "If my sons keep the Sabbath, then will I cause my mercy to rest upon them." The Sabbath is mentioned at the beginning of the creation [thus]: "And God made in six days the works of His hands, and made an end on the seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it." Attend, my children, to the meaning of this expression, "He finished in six days." This implieth that the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years, for a day is with Him a thousand years. And He Himself testifieth, saying, "Behold, to-day will be as a thousand years." Therefore, my children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be finished. "And He rested on the seventh day." This meaneth: when His Son, coming [again], shall destroy the time of the wicked man, and judge the ungodly, and change the-sun, and the moon, and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the seventh day. Moreover, He says, "Thou shalt sanctify it with pure hands and a pure heart." If, therefore, any one can now sanctify the day which God hath sanctified, except he is pure in heart in all things, we are deceived. Behold, therefore: certainly then one properly resting sanctifies it, when we ourselves, having received the promise, wickedness no longer existing, and all things having been made new by the Lord, shall be able to work righteousness. Then we shall be able to sanctify it, having been first sanctified ourselves. Further, He says to them, "Your new moons and your Sabbath I cannot endure." Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this,] when, giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. And when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens.
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  blondie

  The WTS now teaches that a creative day is an ambiguous "thousands of years." The 1987 quote is the last time 7,000 years was mentioned by the WTS. The WTS tied the 7,000 year day into their prediction that 1975 would be a momentous year. Since it did not prove to be so, the WTS has distanced itself from the 7,000 year creative day.

  *** g02 6/8 p. 10 Reconciling Science and Religion ***

  The Creative Days—24 Hours Each?Some fundamentalists claim that creationism rather than evolution explains pre-human history. They assert that all physical creation was produced in just six days of 24 hours each sometime between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. But in doing so, they promote an unscriptural teaching that has caused many to ridicule the Bible.

  Is a day in the Bible always literally 24 hours in length? Genesis 2:4 speaks of "the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven." This one day encompasses all six of the creative days of Genesis chapter 1. According to Bible usage, a day is a measured period of time and can be a thousand years or many thousands of years. The Bible’s creative days allow for thousands of years of time each. Further, the earth was already in existence before the creative days began. (Genesis 1:1) On this point, therefore, the Bible account is compatible with true science.—2 Peter 3:8.

  *** w96 4/1 p. 13 par. 10 Praise the King of Eternity! ***Wonderful developments took place on earth during the six creative "days" of Genesis chapter 1, each day covering thousands of years.

  *** w87 1/1 p. 30 Questions From Readers ***Second, a study of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and of our location in the stream of time strongly indicate that each of the creative days (Genesis, chapter 1) is 7,000 years long. It is understood that Christ’s reign of a thousand years will bring to a close God’s 7,000-year ‘rest day,’ the last ‘day’ of the creative week. (Revelation 20:6; Genesis 2:2, 3) Based on this reasoning, the entire creative week would be 49,000 years long.

  *** ct chap. 6 p. 93 An Ancient Creation Record—Can You Trust It? ***The fact is, the Bible reveals that the creative "days," or ages, encompass thousands of years.
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  Narkissos

  Something I forgot to say about Barnabas:

  This passage does not imply that the author understood the days of Genesis 1 themselves as being 1000-year long, nor that the seventh day was still running (because he clearly knew that history had been longer than one millenium); instead, he applies the Genesis pattern typologically to human history (pardon the pleonasm) as being 6,000 years long, and the 1,000 year-long 7th "day" is yet to come. Note also that his real intent is to justify the Christian practice of the 8th-day celebration (Sunday) instead of the 7th (Sabbath = Saturday), hence coming back to a literal weekly pattern.
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  Leolaia

  There are a few other rabbinical sources that construe the period of human existence as a period of 7,000 years (including the millenium)....I just came across them last week in my reading, but I forgot which article mentioned them. I will have to look them up again.

  The original biblical narrative (and its reference in Exodus 20:8-11) presumes ordinary days and does not have a concept of an extended seventh day. The Essene sabbatical calendar also presumes an ordinary length of the creative days, as it starts the year on a Wednesday (the day the sun was created, the fourth creative day), with the Sabbath following on a Saturday. The book of Jubilees connects this first week of the year with events later in the month of Nisan and Iyyar pertaining to the creation of Eve and the preparation of Eden (cf. Jubilees 2:13, 3:8, 19).