Watchtower Change On Origins from 42,000 Years to the "Day Age" Theory

by Sea Breeze 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Sea Breeze

  Bobcat,

  I think you are correct. That is classic Gap Theory, abandoned by many Christians today.
  
  That is easily disproved from the bible.
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  BluesBrother

  Watchtower 1970 p120

  "Thus we find the seventh “day” of the creative week to be seven thousand years long. On the basis of the length of the seventh “day” it is therefore reasonable to conclude that each of the other six “days” also was a period of 7,000 years. This length of time would be ample for all that the Bible tells us took place on each of the six days of creation."

  Watchtower 2015 1st June

  "The Bible fixes no duration for the six creative “days.” Instead, it opens the door for modern scientists to study them and assign accurate time spans to them. We know that the creative “days” were much longer than 24-hour days."

  
  
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  Sea Breeze

  Thanks Blues Brother. Wow, So it looks like the WT has been preparing people to accept the billions of years theory (Gap Theory) as well as a view (Day Age) that would be consistent with Theistic Evolution over millions of years - which would make God a monster and not worthy of admiration.
  
  The link I posted above does a pretty good job in demonstrating that thie WT view is incompatible with the bible.
  
  Problems with the Day-Age & Gap theories include:

  
  - rearrange the order of those days (since they claim the Sun existed before the Earth and land animals before birds, so Day 4 comes before Day 1, and Day 6 comes before Day 5, and Day 3 plants before Day 4's Sun is also an issue for them)

  
  - reject that there were no thorns before Adam (as Genesis states)

  
  - reject that all was "very good" until sometime after Day Six

  
  - reject that there was no death before Adam's fall (as the Bible states)

  
  - reject the Ten Commandments statement that "in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them" (Exodus 20:11; )

  
  - reject the mass of scientific evidence supporting a young earth including short-lived carbon 14 everywhere it's not supposed to be (like in coal, oil, marble, diamonds, dinosaur bones, etc. as at rsr.org/14c); soft tissue including blood cells in dinosaur bones (as at rsr.org/soft);

  
  - reject that God made the stars after He made the Earth (as Genesis states)

  There is also a long list of "star formation" problems. See also Part 2 and Part 3.

  
  
  
  
  
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  Earnest

  The importance of the year 1975 was based on the idea that the seventh day was 7,000 years and that in 1975 there were 1,000 years to go (the millenium). When nothing happened it was clear that either the chronology was wrong or that a creative day was not 7,000 years (or both). It was only after 1975 that the lengths of the creative days became blurred.

  There is an interesting article in Awake! of 9/22 1986 which discusses "Scientific Dates for Prehistoric Times".
  
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  My personal recollection is that the 7000 year creative day period (and 42,000 years for the first 6 creative days) was in the old Paradise Book from the '60's. I later found out that Russell had taught the same thing, and the 42000 years was in the Photo Drama of Creation slides. I don't know when it was, but they did abandon this belief, I would guess in the 80's, as others have pointed out and given references. However, I believe they still adhere to the creation of man about 6000 years ago, based on the Bible chronology (so-and-so begat so-and-so, etc).
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  DwainBowman

  The bible say's that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This is what the WT teaches, this was already done before God started to prepare the earth for the coming of man, in the 6 creative day's. So everything covered in those opening words are beyond knowing how old they are.
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  waton

  the idea that the seventh day was 7,000 years and that in 1975 there were 1,000 years to go (the millenium).

  E: This timing idea is so ingrained in wt's "universal sovereignty" complex, that they twist bible texts to make it appear that all the ills caused by "satan's challenge", the settling of accounts, will happen while the deity is at his 7th day rest. within the creative week.

  wt writers to this day will slavishly use the phrase " At the end end of the thousand years" instead of the biblical: "after the 1000 years were ended" (satan will be let loose). Thus

  Wt makes mistakes not only at the beginning of the last part of the remaining creative day saga, but also at the end.

  let's face it wt, the creative day saga is all made up. no surprise, since the defining moment happens in the talking snake's schnozzle.
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  truth_b_known

  Listening to Protestant Reformationists argue over how long a "creative day" is sounds like people at a Star Trek convention arguing over General Calrissian's strategy at the Battle of Five Armies.
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  Sea Breeze

  So everything covered in those opening words are beyond knowing how old they are.

  Unless you just read it like any other book, where you assume that the author meant what he wrote and wrote what he meant. Other reasons:

  1. Jesus and Cosmology
     1. Jesus read the text as history and accepted the plain-language meaning of Genesis 1–3.
     2. Jesus was not just a man, but claimed to be the Creator of all things. (John 1: 3 & Col. 1: 16)
     3. Jesus allowed the Gospel of Luke to trace his genealogy to Adam.
     4. Disciples follow Jesus, they do not teach Him.
  2. A literal 24 hr. day reading is the most natural reading of the Hebrew text. Each day had an evening and a morning, long periods of time don't
  3. The plain-language reading is the traditional view.
  4. Even modern critical scholars think the traditional view reflects the authorial intent of the text.
  5. Theistic evolution’s God is not the God of the Bible.
  6. New views about Genesis 1–2 are inconsistent with inerrancy as traditionally interpreted.
  7. There are highly educated geologists and paleontologists who affirm the possibility of young earth creationism.

  Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe the bible, same as atheists. Atheists at least admit it while JW's try to play both sides and have it both ways as usual.
  
  

  The bottom line is that everywhere in the Bible where evening and morning are together it always is a 24 hr day. People who isolate day from night when they appear together are changing the context.

  These same passages also clearly state that after evening and morning there was "first day" then the "second day"" and so forth till the "seventh day" (a week) in Gen 2:1-3.

  Genesis 1:14-16 states that God made the stars and describes the sun and moon being made also so that there could be "seasons, days, and years". There could not have been any length of time beyond a few days up until then because there were no stars and sun and moon to allow for seasons (3 months for each season) or years.

  Exodus 20:8-11 clearly is talking about a 7 day week where the 7th day is a day of rest or the Sabbath and that the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them in "six days" of one week.
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  stan livedeath

  If you choose to believe in an almighty god--its perfectly reasonable to also believe he made it all in 6 days. Why make life complicated ?