Length of creative days.

by dothemath 41 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  dothemath

  Now that we're starting to read the Bible at the beginning again.........I was wondering if this subject has ever been discussed.

  The Length of the creative days........used to be considered 7000 years in length.......stated rather dogmatically up until around the mid 1980's. (Aid book says this......Insight book does not) Of course....this is quite rediculous.........

  More recent publications don't stress this .........just periods of time.........

  Yet there was never anything published to indicate how wrong this old view was.........done very gradually.......I think some still think the creative days were still 7000 years long.

  If this topic has come up before.....maybe someone could post a link to it.
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  blondie

  dothemath, you have encountered a WTS technique to distance themselves from previous statements. Don't mention it for awhile and then insert some innocuous statement a few years later. People forget except some long-time JWs who miss the subtle change.

  The WTS doctrine now is that a creative day is several thousand years long.

  Creator Book (1998) 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.

  ***

  w96 4/1 p. 13 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.

  ***

  w94 9/1 p. 6 Science, Religion, and the Search for Truth ***

  The Bible does not say that each creative "day" was 24 hours long; indeed, it includes all these ?days? in the much longer "day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven," showing that not all Biblical ?days? contained just 24 hours. (Genesis 2:4) Some could have been many thousands of years in length.

  ***

  w93 1/1 p. 4 Our Grand Creator and His Works ***

  In an orderly sequence of six ?creative days,? each thousands of years in length, "God?s active force" proceeded to prepare earth for man?s habitation.

  ***

  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.

  *** w86 4/1 p. 13 Advocating Truth in an Ungodly World ***

  A "day" with Jehovah can be a thousand years or several thousand years?as were the creative ?days.?

  *** w80 11/15 p. 19 Humanity?s State of Health That Might Have Been ***

  His reign of a thousand years for the blessing of all mankind will occupy the last thousand years of Jehovah?s rest day or Sabbath day of seven thousand years
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  Black Sheep

  My wife's response to the 7000 year question was that they hadn't published a book that said that since 1976.

  Whoops.

  My response ? "w87 1/1 p. 30 Questions From Readers *** You wouldn't be trying to mislead me, would you?"
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  Bonnie_Clyde

  In the January 22, 2004, Awake, there is a article about a scientist who learned the "truth" and was baptized, I believe, in 1978. One of the things that convinced him it was truth was that the Bible teaches that the creative days were "thousands" of years long--not 24 hours. I can't find the article right now, but as I read it, I thought, "Back then, the Society was still teaching that each day was 7,000 years long" and, of course, that was how the Franz arrived at the 1975 date (6,000 years, allowing the remaining 1,000 for the millennium).

  By the way, their chronology charts used to show Adam's creation in the year 4,026 B.C.E. Does anyone know when the last time that date was published.

  Another question, the 1975 date was calculated based on the assumption that Adam (as well as Eve) was created the very last year of the sixth creative day and the seventh day started in immediately. When 1975 passed without any event, I did wonder if the 6,000 year reasoning might still be correct if perhaps the sixth creative day did not end for a few years after 4026 B.C.E. In other words, if the seventh day began in 4,006 B.C.E., then we could expect Armageddon to come on or before 1995. I thought that could tie in with the "generation" being as long as 80 years from 1914.

  Well, I spent over 40 years waiting for the end, not preparing for retirement, and am paying for it now. Thank God I'm still healthy enough to work. I'm still amazed when I hear talks directed at young people not to be overly concerned about retirement, life insurance, or health insurance because the end is sooooooo very close. The last talk I heard from a circuit overseer was not to sacrifice your children to the "god of higher education."
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  shamus

  The WTBTS needs to explain every little thing away. It doesn't matter how minute. Remember that passage in Revalation, where stings from scorpions are actually being accredited to our modern day with our literature being left behind? I mean, can they really be that dammed stupid?

  The answer, in my humble opinion is a resounding yes.

  Thank you to the poster who reminded me of that passage in Revelation, BTW. It was totally stupid and I never believed it even after the second time studying that book.
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  mineralogist

  Normally if the WTS doesn't eplicitly change teachings the old one is valid. So i made some research on this topic (sorry but i can't post it - it's in german) and gave it to a friend. The Library still shows the 7000 year period - or if you like (7) thousands of years. This is one point which start me thinking of all the WT doctrines. They also still wait for the fullfilling of 6000 years with the reason that we don't know the time Adam was in Eden - maybe 30 years? Would this mean the end is 2015?
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  Thirdson

  mineralogist,
  

  The idea that God would wait until Adam was 30 years old is a good one. But 30 years after 1975 is 2005 and thus the end is next year year .
  
  However, the Watchtower is good at stretching dates and could perhaps state that since Adam's life-expectancy was eternal there was no need for God to rush things. Afterall, some of Adam's early descendants did not have children until their 70s or 80s. That way the WTS could keep the 7000 year creative day, and Eve's creation date could decades after Adam, even a century if the WTS survives into the 2070s.

  3rd

  PS According to Genesis, Adam was 130 years of age when he became father to Seth. Considering that Cain and Abel were born and appeared to reach maturity before Seth was born and that Cain had a sister to marry there is an upper limit to the time between Adam's creation and that of Eve...that's assuming that the Genesis account is history and not myth.
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  garybuss

  Reasoning From The Scriptures

  p. 88 Creation

  Was

  all physical creation accomplished in just six days sometime within the past 6,000 to 10,000 years?

  The facts disagree with such a conclusion: (1) Light from the Andromeda nebula can be seen on a clear night in the northern hemisphere. It takes about 2,000,000 years for that light to reach the earth, indicating that the universe must be at least millions of years old. (2) End products of radioactive decay in rocks in the earth testify that some rock formations have been undisturbed for billions of years.
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  peacefulpete

  There was an article on dinosaurs in the late 90's that said something like, "many thousands perhaps millions of years" when referring to life on earth before man. This word"millions" or worse yet "billions" invokes a knee jerk reaction from creationists. Even old earth creationists repell from the use of these words. The article spawned a conversation in a car group wherein the older publisher was sure thy were WRONG to have said 'millions'. I think that was the last time they have. The obvious reason is that this allows room for evolution. The Creation Research Institute (pseudoscientific young earth creationists) loaths the WT for apostatising from the Bible on this point for this reason. It has been necessary for these young earthers to reimage carnivorous dinosaurs as Barney. They post pictures on the web of Dino's getting on and off the Ark! Once you sacrifice science for belief the explanations become more and more preposterous. The WT is playing a balancing act, trying to impress the general public with it's new reasonablness while satisfying the Bible literalist crowd.
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  mineralogist

  Would this mean the end is 2015?

  Ooops ... of course i mean 2005
  

  I found another interesting point regarding the thousands of years

  *** ct "Is there a creator who cares?" (1998) chap. 6 p. 93 An Ancient Creation Record?Can You Trust It? ***A person can see this from what the Bible says about the seventh "day." The record of each of the first six "days" ends saying, ?and there came to be evening and morning, a first day,? and so on. Yet, you will not find that comment after the record of the seventh "day." And in the first century C.E., some 4,000 years downstream in history, the Bible referred to the seventh rest "day" as still continuing. (Hebrews 4:4-6) So the seventh "day" was a period spanning thousands of years, and we can logically conclude the same about the first six "days."

  And what can we conclude about the time involved? look at this

  *** it-1 p. 545 Creation ***The week of days set forth at Genesis 1:3 to 2:3, the last of which is a sabbath, seems to parallel the week into which the Israelites divided their time, observing a sabbath on the seventh day thereof, in keeping with the divine will. (Ex 20:8-11) And, since the seventh day has been continuing for thousands of years, it may reasonably be concluded that each of the six creative periods, or days, was at least thousands of years in length.

  So if we span the the creation days to - let say - millions of years, the 7th day should be the same length ... hence no harmagedon in sight.