I am an ex-Mormon who is fairly new to this forum. I am currently debating with a Korean JW on how old the earth is. I'd appreciate it if anyone of you could tell me what WT's official statment on this issue is.
What's WT's official statement on the creation of earth?
by ukescott 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Abandoned
If I remember correctly, the earth is however old science says it is. What is in question, is how long have humans been living on it. That, according to the jw, is just over 6000 years.
(I am stating what I remember the jw view to be, not necessarily my own.)
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Kudra
I'm confused too.
In the latest Awake on "intelligent design" they state that the scientific consensus on the age of the earth (~4.5 billion) does not conflict with bible truth (well ok then) so they accent that number.
BUT what about the fossils that are found in those very layers of stratigraphy that the scientists use to date the earth???
What about the very same radio dating techniques that scientists use to date human or proto-human remains that the WTS does NOT accept. They CHERRY-PICK the science that they accept. You CANNOT decide on only SOME conclusions to accept resulting from the very same dating techniques and disregard others...
So there are fossils that show gradualistic evolution, that show "missing" links that are dated, in order, in those stratigraphic sections and they don't accept evolution???
The reason that they don't is because it would negate the original sin thing, which is what all of christendom (including JWs) hinges on and they just can't have that. It threatens the very foundation of their beliefs and the foundation of their control over the JW rank and file.
Too bad. >:(
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undercover
Welcome ukescott,
I don't have the references handy, but for years the Watchtower Society taught that each creative day was 7,000 years each, thus the earth is less than 50,000 years old. Man was created in the last creative day and has been on earth about 6,000 years.
But...in a recent Awake! magazine an article on creationism vs science implied that the scientific fact that the earth is millions of years old is compatible with the Genesis account. So without coming right out and saying it, the WTS has changed it's position on the age of the earth, but still maintains man was created less than 7,000 years ago.
Maybe bumping this to the top will bring it to the attention of someone who has references available to share.
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M.J.
BUT what about the fossils that are found in those very layers of stratigraphy that the scientists use to date the earth???
What about the very same radio dating techniques that scientists use to date human or proto-human remains that the WTS does NOT accept. They CHERRY-PICK the science that they accept.In that latest awake they ridicule those who argue for a young earth, based upon the scientific evidence. But as you state, the very same evidence they say that argues so strongly for an old earth is the same evidence that dates humans way before their accepted timeline.
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Abaddon
The JW's believe in Old Earth Creationism.
They hold Gen 1:1 talks about eons of time before the first creative day and thus explains how light from distant objects can reach us.
They hold the creative days are epochs, many thousands of years long.
This has been the beliefs since the mid-eighties when they revised a former belief that creative days were 1,000 years long.
Welcome to the board, what turned the Mormon into an ex-Mormon? We have one poster here who used to be a JW and now is a Mormon. I can't really describe the uncomprehending look on my face at the mere thought of such a transition, as surely if you've figured out one is whooey... ?
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james_woods
During the time of the 7 * 7000 years "creative day" thinking, there was a sort of Newtonian notion that maybe the rocks of Earth and the Sun & Stars were much older. They kind of flirted with the idea that maybe "light" was already there before the first creative day, but that God somehow thinned out the atmosphere so that the sun became "kind of visible". Dinosaurs and other fossils died out early on in the first few creative days according to God's purpose for them to "terraform" the earth.
Then, later, the "water vapor canopy" got dissolved at the flood and we could really see the heavens.
Much of the old "Creation or Evolution" book was devoted to self-serving (and scientifically untrue) attacks on all forms of scientific dating...Carbon 14, strata, other radioactive means, etc...all wrong and worldly.
Of course, what seems to be going on now is another revisionist trend which borrows heavily from the "Intelligent Creation" crowd.
It still amazes me how easily the rank & file just gave up on the 7000 year creative days without so much as a whimper. Especially when so much was made of the date of Adam's creation, the end of 6000 years of man's existence, and the 1000 year rule of Christ as the last 1000 years in the 7th day.
So, in answer to the thread's question - I don't think there ever has been one consistent official stand (at least one that lasted more than a dozen years or so).
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OnTheWayOut
I had a thread called "Met with the C.O., and need help with 1975" http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/121888/1.ashx
My original thought was that WTS said everything on Earth was created in a short time based on the "7000 years to each creative day" theory.
WT 87 Jan 1st article.
Questions From Readers
In ancient Israel a cycle of 49y ears was followed by a Jubilee year (50thyear). Does that Jubilee correspond to the period following God’s creative week of 49,000 years?Because the number 49 occurs in both cases, it might seem that the Jubilee would foreshadow the time following the end of a creative week of 49,000 years. But for mankind in general who receive God’s approval, what occurred during Israel’s Jubilee corresponds more with what will occur during the Millennium, the last thousand years of such creative week, not what follows after that week. Consider the basis for this:
First, the Mosaic Law required that every seventh year be a sabbath for the land; crops were not to be sown, cultivated, or harvested. After the seventh Sabbath year (the 49th year), there came a special Jubilee year, the 50th year. It was a sabbath during which the land was again to rest. More importantly, liberty was proclaimed. Hebrews who had sold themselves into slavery were freed from indebtedness and servitude. Also, hereditary land was returned to families who had been forced to sell it. So the Jubilee was a time of release and restoration for the Israelites.—Leviticus 25:1-46.
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.
This was inputted by Garybuss
Reasoning From The Scriptures 1989 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.The consensus was that WT taught that all creation upon the earth was completed in the week of 7000 year-long-days, but that they have stopped teaching that, now just saying that each day was "thousands of years." This means that the lifeless planet could have been any age (In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth). Now, we are supposed to forget that they used to teach the 7000 years stuff, but they have not contradicted it, just in case some don't forget it.
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moshe
When it comes to studying science, the JW writers get an "F".
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blondie
Actually, JWs are taught to believe that the earth and the universe are millions of years old, but that getting the earth ready for life began about 48,000 years ago and that humans are living in the end of the 7th creative day.
*** Scripture Inspired book p. 14 par. 9 Bible Book Number 1—Genesis ***
Reaching back evidently through billions of years of time, Genesis opens with impressive simplicity: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
*** Creation book chap. 3 p. 26 par. 3 What Does Genesis Say? ***
The first part of Genesis indicates that the earth could have existed for billions of years before the first Genesis "day," though it does not say for how long.
*** Good News book chap. 7 p. 58 par. 2 Preparing a Happy Home for Mankind ***
Turning to the very first words of the Bible, we read: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) It was doubtless billions of years ago that God performed this stupendous creative act, and regardless of the conflicting theories of some scientists as to how this came about, a glorious heavens and a lovely earth continue to testify to the magnificence of God’s creation.
*** w00 12/1 p. 30 Must You Believe It? ***
And is it not true that today, for example, creationists insist that the Bible teaches that the earth was created in six 24-hour days, when all the facts show that the earth itself is billions of years old?
Blondie