Are the Creative days 7000 years long? (page 2)

Vernon Williams

Steve,

Welcome to the Board.

Here is where science and the interpretaiton of the Bible conflict (Notice I said "interpertaion of the Bible" NOT "Bible")

There is no doubt AT ALL that the Earth's age is ancient and that the record of many epochs that are buried in the rock is very, very old. It is simply an impossibility that the Earth's productive days are only 50,000 years old. Our six year old would not even believe that, dinasour addict that he is.

Thsi fact does not nullify the aurthority of Scripture.

Wishing you well in this Joureny,

V

NewYork44M

The 7,000 creative day was the framework the wt used to focus on 1975 as the date for Armageddon. I was supposed to be 6,000 years since the creation of Adam that plus the 1,000 reign of Christ was to make up the seventh day of god's rest.

Once 1975 came and went, the 7,000 creation day was forgotten.

Narkissos

Here's an interesting short article including some of the rabbinical sources Leolaia might be thinking of:

http://www.sdanet.org/atissue/end/MillenialFever.html

Note that it comes from an Adventist site.

Leolaia

Okay, I found the reference I was looking for....here are the relevant sources:

1) Jub. 4:30; Justin, Dial. 81; Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 5.23.2; Midr. Ps. 25:8; Gen. Rab. 19:8, 22:1; Num. Rab. 5:4; Pirqe R. El. 18. (Psalm 90:4 as key to exegesis of Genesis 2:17 and 5:5, such that Adam's 930 years fit within a single 1,000-year "day")

2) Rev. 20:4; Justin, Dial. 81; b. Sanh. 99a; Midr. Ps. 90:17; Pesiq. R. 1:7 (Psalm 90:4 as key to messianic exegesis of Psalm 90:15; Isa. 65:22, etc., such that the "day" or "days" of the Messiah equal a thousand or several thousands of years)

3) Barn. 15:4; Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 5.28.3; b. Sanh. 97a; cf. 2 Pet. 3:8-10, Pirqe R. El. 28 (Psalm 90:4 as key to messianic analogy of Genesis 1 creative days, such that six "days" of 1,000 years each are followed by a millennial "Sabbath")

Steve J

Hi ya all,

Thanks for all your post and for clearing that up for me. The question arose because we had some JW friends call the other day and they still seem to believe that the creative days were 7000 years. They also believe that as we're nearing the end of God's rest, we are all about to die...That's if we don't return to the "truth" of course and repent of our sins...

Well, there aint much hope for me then!

It looks like the rest of you are doomed too. Ha! Ha!

Thanks again

Steve J

SG Seattle

I found something interesting in the Photo-Drama of Creation. Russell refers to the existing "theory" (that had been around for a very long time) that each day was 7000 years, and that some believed the millennium would come after 6000 years of history. But according to this, the 6000 years had just ended in 1914! He didn't claim credit for this idea, but it was definitely around before F. Franz. (Even the "just ended" part :))

In this presentation, we are following a line of thought which seems to be growing in acceptance among Bible students. We are living in the Seventh Creative Epoch, or Day -- that began where the Sixth Day closed, after God had created Adam in His own image and likeness. [...]
It is claimed that, according to the Bible chronology, six thousand years from Adam have already passed. If so, the thousand years of Messiah's Reign, which is to close the great Seventh Epoch-Day, is near at hand.
According to this beautiful theory, the work of Messiah in His thousand-year Reign soon to begin will complete the creation. (page 8; page 10 in the PDF file)

btw His explanation of the word "day" is the same one in the Live Forever book.

In the common affairs of life we use the word "day" similarly, when referring to Caesar's day, Napoleon's day, etc. (page 3; page 5 in the PDF file)

lrkr

Ok - old thread- but heres a little bit of backstory.

The official teaching of WTS was for a long time that creative days are 7000 years long (6000 years ends with Armageddon- last thousand years is millenial reign, blah blah blah)

But then, there was a sister in the engineering department in Brooklyn who was a geologist who told them that it was not possible to create oil, coal and other fossil fuels in 50,000 years. It takes much longer.

So, although some members of the GB didn't buy it- they quietly abandoned the 7000 year long approach and adopted the "a day is a time frame of unspecified length" teaching.

(Still doesn't explain the sequencing of the days of creation) This is one of those "Bethel rumors" relayed to me by someone who had just discussed it with someone in Writing. Take it for what its worth.

ragingmad

1975 wasn't presumed by the witnesses, it was presumed by some witnesses who based their life choices on rumors and hearsay rather than what was written, and they were weeded out. Which is why you should always confirm what you hear against what is written. Jesus clearly stated "no one knows the day or the hour".

Each creative day was followed by a life-impacting asteroid-like event, and science confirms that five such events have taken place. The 6th creative day was not followed by an impact, and this was where land animals and humans arose. Likely, the water plants, water animals and bacteria and millions of microscopic creatures which depend on a rhythm of day and night, and everything created on days 1-5 survived the 5th epoch-ending impact.

Simplified, there has been 5 events that extinguished all life on earth, marked by an x which signifies the end of that figurative creative day:

1x

2x

3x

4x

5x

6-humans created- vis-a-vis no new impact

7-rest day.

Likely the creative day needed to end with the impacts for some reason, but I can't fathom why. Some scientist might know why.

Whoever still believes the 7000 years lunacy is probably an "ancient astronaut theorist". Nothing happened on the jewish calendar at 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, or 6000.

On a tangent, the nuclear blasts described in Bhagavad-Gita (which was read by oppenheimer, neils bohr, etc...) referred to the (highly intelligent if they are children of angels in human form) nephilim pitting humans against each other.

The big bang is now thought to have happened 13.8 billion years ago (likely the beginning of creative day #1), and the earth, about 4 billion years.

@lrkr states

But then, there was a sister in the engineering department in Brooklyn who was a geologist who told them that it was not possible to create oil, coal and other fossil fuels in 50,000 years. It takes much longer.
So, although some members of the GB didn't buy it- they quietly abandoned the 7000 year long approach and adopted the "a day is a time frame of unspecified length" teaching.

So just throw out all the 99.9% of good and get stumbled on the small details? The geologist was probably relating a relatively scientific discovery.

Ideas like this are like numerology and have been removed with good reason. OTOH Tesla was obsessed with 3, 6, and 9 but he clearly saw something normal people don't see.

stan livedeath

1975 wasn't presumed by the witnesses, it was presumed by some witnesses who based their life choices on rumors and hearsay rather than what was written, and they were weeded out

oh good...thanks for clearing that up. i was an active jw in the late 60's / early 70's and i can assure you it was anything but rumours or hearsay..although a lot of dubs did take it to heart and planned their lives and finances on it .

As for being weeded out--the district servant who spoke openly about 1975 ended his career at watchtower HQ in the UK.

waton

some wt writers seem still secretly to hang on to the "rest day" ides, in that they want to help the deity to finish the mess by the time the last day ends. Not to drag it into the 8st day.

They always misquote scripture to saying the final test, execution of judgement happens at the end and not "after the 1000 years are ended"

The whole thing is a fairy tale. The Earth was not created at the beginning .

Ladies are the final masterpiece though.

Are the Creative days 7000 years long?

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