Earth not made in 6,000 years - new teaching or was i taught wrong?

dobbie

So i was just wondering about what jws think about dinosaurs cos i can't remember it ever coming up when i was one (a jw not a dinosaur!) so i googled the question and looked at a site. It says that they are ok with dinosaurs (just not any evolutionary aspect of it) as they do not believe the earth was made in 6 literal days or even 6,000 years, but that the 6 days simply means a period of time, so it could be for any number of years. However, is this true or a new teaching only when i was studying and indeed at the study i assisted with last year the conductor taught them that 1 day to God is 1,000 yrs roughly so we could say the world etc was made over 6,000 years. Anyone know which is correct cos it surprised me i had'nt heard of this period of time thought before otherwise there are some in my old congregation who are giving out wrong info - the apostates!

LittleToe

Their leaning is more towards seven days of 7,000 years, making the earth currently 48,032 years old in October.

It still doesn't allow for the dinosaurs, even though many of us have fond memories of the little chap in the old green NWT.

dobbie

So Wikipedia has the wrong information then!

OnTheWayOut

I will try.
In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. That means the lifeless rock could be millions of
years old. It was there before the 7 Creative days. (6 days of creation and the current 7th day of rest.)

They used to teach that the Creative Days were 7000 years long, meaning that the start of all life and
stuff put on the lifeless rock is slightly more or less than 48,000 years ago.

That's 6 x 7000 = 42,000 then 6000 years of the 7th day added to that = 48,000.

They abandoned that teaching totally and now say each creative day was "thousands of years long."
Of course, they never admitted the old teaching was wrong, so some still swear it's the correct
understanding.

That means that dinosaurs can't be millions of years old by the old teaching, but by the new teaching,
"thousands" could add up to "millions." Confused. Join the ex-cult club.

LittleToe

While they quote "a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day" they also used the 7,000 year creative day principle to come to 1975 (allowing the last 1,000 years for the millenium). The excuse for Armageddon not coming in that year was that Eve must have been created several years after Adam.

Hence to them the world is {48,031 - Eve} years old, if we really want to get down to brass tacks.

This will eventually fall completely flat when they realise that Adam was supposed to have had Seth when he was 130, after having time for Cain and Abel in between (thus Eve must have been around). Hence this teaching is going to have to be completely jettisoned some time this century.

Oh, the lunacy!!!

LittleToe

I should also have added that the day as a thousand years text is used to explain why the oldest man who ever [allegedly] lived died at the ripe old age of 969 (Methuselah), and Adam at age 930. "They died in the day of eating the fruit!"

OnTheWayOut

This will eventually fall completely flat when they realise that Adam was supposed to have had Seth when he was 130,
after having time for Cain and Abel in between ( thus Eve must have been around ). Hence this teaching is going to have
to be completely jettisoned some time this century.

Yes, correct. I have been shouting this one, because it's important to me.
1975 (the year that Adam was 6000 years old) + 130 = 2105. Take out the time to have Eve created, and we
come to the end of the 6th Creative day- then give time for her to commit a sin (and Adam, too) and get ousted
from Eden and have a third child before 130 years is up. If she was created in Adam's 128th year, and had all
this happen instantly, then that means the 7th creative day started 6000 years before 2103.

God said at the end of every creative day that "it was good." That's how we know that Eve sinned after the
7th day started (Not during the 6th day). The 7th day must end with God saying "it was good." If we add the
1000 year reign of Christ to the 6000 years of that day so-far, Armageddon has to come by 2103.

This is actually the stuff that Fred Franz wanted everyone to believe. Now you know why they silently dropped it.

OnTheWayOut

This is actually the stuff that Fred Franz wanted everyone to believe. Now you know why they silently dropped it.

Oh, but Fred wanted people living in the late 60's and early 70's to believe that Eve was
created months after Adam (not up to 128 years) and this stuff all happened sooner.
That way, the world could have ended in 1975, like he hinted.

Fred was helping the organization grow and pay for new printing presses. Nothing
encourages growth like thinking ~~the sky is falling~~. the end is imminent.

dobbie

Do you know i still can't believe i used to just sit there and believe everything i was told?I have brainache now just thinking about all the rubbish they spew out!

zack

It all depends on which JW you ask. The literature past 1988 says of "creative days" that they can be "thousands of years long." No mention of the 7000 year creative day.

As LT said, 7000 x 7 = 49,000 years plus or minus. Here is where it gets interesting. OTWO stated what JW's currently teach, which is the "the Beginning" of Genesis 1:1 IS NOT

INCLUDED in the 'creative days'. That's right. The Earth, Universe and all else in it appeared outside of a creative act of God, or at least outside of the creative days mentioned in Genesis.

This contradicts their earlier stands and is done to diffferentiate themselves from the "creationist" fundies.

But make no mistake, I was taught as a JW child that the "Beginning" was in fact the "Beginning", the start of Creation by God on the first creative day, therefore making the Earth and the Universe only 49k years old at best, according to their former teachings.

JW's do not have clue.

RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN THE HEL* OUT OF THERE AND DO NOT LOOK BACK

Earth not made in 6,000 years - new teaching or was i taught wrong?

Share this