by euripides 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I have read on some posts here (but have not found a thread) that WTS has abandoned the 7,000 year "creative day" concept in favor of the "we haven't a clue" position. Does anyone know when this happened or if this shift has been documented already?
Euripides
It hasnt happened yet. Just a few months ago on the school we had the horrid #1 talks about time and chronolgy. The SI book is still very plain about the 7000 year day.
***
si pp. 286-287 Study Number 3?Measuring Events in the Stream of Time ***13
Of what significance is this today? The first edition of this book, published in 1963, stated: "Does this mean, then, that by 1963 we had progressed 5,988 years into the ?day? on which Jehovah ?has been resting from all his work?? (Gen. 2:3) No, for the creation of Adam does not correspond with the beginning of Jehovah?s rest day. Following Adam?s creation, and still within the sixth creative day, Jehovah appears to have been forming further animal and bird creations. Also, he had Adam name the animals, which would take some time, and he proceeded to create Eve. (Gen. 2:18-22; see also NW, 1953 Ed., footnote on vs. 19) Whatever time elapsed between Adam?s creation and the end of the ?sixth day? must be subtracted from the 5,988 years in order to give the actual length of time from the beginning of the ?seventh day? until [1963]. It does no good to use Bible chronology for speculating on dates that are still future in the stream of time.?Matt. 24:36."
Well I guess its not that plain. But what it is saying is: the 7th day began not with adams creation but with Eve's So we've been in the 7th day since then according to wts.
Heh dont you just love the last statement. It does us not good. Then why did you? Hahahha
IPSec
Gradualism at work:
1982 = Each day was 7000 years*** g82 11/8 p. 7 Science and the Bible ***
True, the account goes on to say that huge steps in the development of the earth took one day each. But, in the Bible, "day" can mean more than a twenty-four-hour period. It can mean a thousand years or even longer! (Genesis 2:4; Psalm 90:4) The Bible record, together with verifiable history, indicates that the seventh day of that creative week covers a period of 7,000 years. Hence, each of the six preceding "days" would be of the same length.
1988 = Each day was thousands of years long
*** it-1 p. 545 Creation ***
Length of Creative Days. The Bible does not specify the length of each of the creative periods. Yet all six of them have ended, it being said with respect to the sixth day (as in the case of each of the preceding five days): "And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a sixth day." (Ge 1:31) However, this statement is not made regarding the seventh day, on which God proceeded to rest, indicating that it continued. (Ge 2:1-3) Also, more than 4,000 years after the seventh day, or God?s rest day, commenced, Paul indicated that it was still in progress. At Hebrews 4:1-11 he referred to the earlier words of David (Ps 95:7, 8, 11) and to Genesis 2:2 and urged: "Let us therefore do our utmost to enter into that rest." By the apostle?s time, the seventh day had been continuing for thousands of years and had not yet ended. The Thousand Year Reign of Jesus Christ, who is Scripturally identified as "Lord of the sabbath" (Mt 12:8), is evidently part of the great sabbath, God?s rest day. (Re 20:1-6) This would indicate the passing of thousands of years from the commencement of God?s rest day to its end. 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.
2003 = Days lasted Aeons (an indefinitely long period of time)*** g03 9/22 p. 21 Science Was My Religion ***
For example, the fossil record is shown to match the general sequence of the appearance of living forms described in the book of Genesis. Furthermore, a creative day as understood by the ancients can mean an epoch of extended duration, in much the same way as the terms "period" and "era" are used by science in describing earth history. Thus, the Bible is not at odds with scientific findings. It indicates that the creative days lasted aeons. It does not support the conclusion of creationists who believe that those days were each 24 hours in length.
OOOPS looks like another flilp flop for the records
each of the six creative periods, or days, was at least thousands of years in length
1988 = Each day was thousands of years long
*** it-1 p. 545 Creation
Thus, the Bible is not at odds with scientific findings. It indicates that the creative days lasted aeons. It does not support the conclusion of creationists who believe that those days were each 24 hours in length.
they almost said they are not "creationists"...
eon = "a period of time which is so long that it cannot be measured": - http://www.freesearch.co.uk/dictionary/eon
what going to happen to the teaching about the "1000 years" after the big A?
little by litle the wt will be doing away with most of their teachings.
At least the idea that the creation days are indeterminate eons long fits much better with the fossil and geological evidence. I was reading a post (either here or on Channel C) that discussed Mitochondrial DNA and how it is passed on through our genetic mothers. Apparently scientists have concluded that we are all descended from ONE original woman. The problem is that the variations in Mitochondrial DNA now existing could only have developed in 150,000 or so years. This of course clashes with Biblical chronology, which traces Adam’s creation back about 6,000 years. This confuses me quite a bit as written accounts of history by mankind only go back (as far as I know) four to six thousand years. It would seem that if mankind has been in existence 150,000 or more years that there would be a record of historical writings to support this.
FairMind
if mankind has been in existence 150,000 or more years that there would be a record of historical writings to support this.
There are communications that go back much farther than 4K years or so, they are just not alphabetical or written. There are still today peoples who have no written history; it is passed down in stories and legends taught to the children.
Jean
It's evident that some of the Society's leaders know that life has been around for hundreds of millions of years. But if they change the 7,000-year creative day concept outright, they'd face some big problems. Because Russell taught this idea, they'd be abandoning 120 years of teaching, which would be extremely embarassing and cast doubt on a great many other teachings . In particular, the question would arise as to how the "faithful and discreet slave" had been so stupid for so long. Many older JWs would be quite upset at learning that this old notion had been abandoned. Hence, use of the fuzzy term "millennia" triggers no alarm bells in the minds of such older JWs. Such JWs especially include the older GB members and other officials.
Of course, using a fuzzy term like "millennia" also avoids triggering alarm bells in the minds of newer JWs who never heard of the 7,000 year concept.
AlanF
They just wait till the old-timers die off. I can remember being at a book study where an old-time brother made a comment about the 7,000 year long creative day. He had been 40 in 1975 and remembered that well. But the conductor had only been baptized 10 years 15 years after 1975 and had never heard of it and thought the brother was making it up and embarassed him until another old-timer pointed out it used to be that way. That's what made me research it.
When the WTS has a doctrine they want to change, many times they just quit mentioning it and hope that people just forget about it and eventually die off.
Other doctrine they did that with was the vindication of God's name as opposed to the vindication of God's sovereignty. They just stopped mentioning the vindication of God's name without any explanation until 1995.
