Believers, your understanding on how old is the earth.

by jam 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  jam

  Lets forget about the creations of man, animals and

  light and darkness. Focus on the period when the earth

  without form and void but darkness was upon the face

  of the deep (what,s the deep) and his spirit was moving

  over the face of the water, (where did the water come from.)

  Nowhere in the Bible is the age of the Earth mentioned.

  Believers, are you still taught, estimated age of the earth by

  counting up all the generations in the old testments, plus A

  few adjustments here and there, 6000-8000 yrs. Or is this

  JWs view only for the age of the earth?

  There is no doubt today, the earth is 4.5 billion yrs. old.
• 

  wasblind

  Don't rightly know how old the earth is

  but if it's as old as I feel, we ain't got long
• 

  snowbird

  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth ...

  When was "the beginning"?

  No one knows.

  My belief is the Earth may be millions, if not billions, of years old.

  What is "the deep"?

  The watery planet Earth before, at God's command, dry land appeared.

  Genesis 1:1-2 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss. The Message Bible

  Genesis 1:9-10 God spoke: "Separate!
  Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place;
  Land, appear!"
  And there it was.
  God named the land Earth.
  He named the pooled water Ocean.
  God saw that it was good. The Message Bible
• 

  Disillusioned Lost-Lamb

  You know you probably sent a lot of lurkers to bed with a headache because this made them think and they haven't done that in awhile.
• 

  jam

  Yes all good things must come to A end my friend.

  Stop feeling so old, go out and kick the can, fly A kite.
• 

  jam

  Maybe Iam wrong in that I thought the JWs taught the

  earth was no older then 6000-7000 yrs. old. I guess the

  age of man(6000-7000) is what they teach. So how do

  stand on the age of the earth today.
• 

  james_woods

  What I never understood was the strange JW teaching that the seven creative days were 7,000 years long each.

  The bible itself never makes a single hint of such a notion - it just says "days".

  If you are going to say the "day" is something symbolic of a much longer time - why not pick a time that is at least somewhat scientifically reasonable?

  Yes, I know that they have pretty much let go of direct reference to the 7,000 year days, but still - why not spell out something reasonable?
• 

  cofty

  In the days before the internet it was easy to sell such nonsense.
• 

  Londo111

  As a Witness I believed the earth was 4.5 billion years old...with no conflict to what the Society teaches. And now I believe the same thing. One of the few beliefs that did not change! Oh, and I never accepted the 7000-year creative day idea...even when that was in vogue to do so.
• 

  ScenicViewer

  "...6000-8000 yrs. Or is this JWs view only for the age of the earth?"

  It is a misunderstanding that JWs view the earth as 7000 years old, or thereabouts. Here are a few quotes from the literature showing the earth can be billions of years old according to Watchtower beliefs.

  (Young People ASK 2 chap. 36 p. 301 How Can I Defend My Belief in God?)
  The Bible says that the earth and the rest of the universe were in existence before the first creative day. Thus, the earth and the solar system may well be billions of years old.—Genesis 1:1.

  (Awake 3-22-83 p13, Article: Evolution, Creation, or Creationism—Which Do You Believe?)
  If geologists want to say that the earth is 4 billion years old, or astronomers want to make the universe 20 billion years old, the Bible student has no quarrel with them.

  (Awake 11-22-81 p13)
  Nevertheless, with proper attention to such possible pitfalls, acceptably reliable dates have been put on many old rock formations. Based on this method, the age of the oldest parts of the earth’s crust has been set at over four billion years.

  7000 years used to be viewed by JWs as the length of each creative period (day), but that has been abandoned. Now the Society says this...

  (Was Life Created, Brochure (2010) p24)
  "How long, then, were the creative days? The Bible does not say; however, the wording of Genesis chapters 1 and 2 indicates that considerable lengths of time were involved."

  So, the Creative Days are no longer viewed as being 7000 years long, but as an unspecified “considerable length of time.”

  Furthur, JWs view Day 1 of creation a little differently from other groups. Day 1 started, not with the actual creation of the earth and other heavenly bodies, but with the creataion of light. In other words JWs believe the earth was already here when the 7 Creative Days began, and those Creative Periods involved preparing the earth for plant, animal, and human life.

  Here is a chart from the Insight Book, p27, showing the Society's view of the Creative Days.