Check out the 1975 Yearbook. Ralph H. Leffler was one of the informants interviewed about Russell. So it looks like he stuck with the WTB&TS all the way to the 1970s.
The age of the Earth - Golden Age 1921
by undercover 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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besty
science has moved the concept of gods from the physical realm to the spiritual
within my lifetime science will move gods from the spiritual to the unnecessary
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VM44
There are indications that Ralph Leffler had something to do with the radio station WBBR.
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blondie
7,000 year long creative day quotes:
*** 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.
*** w70 11/1 p. 645 It Is Not in the Bible! ***More than 4,000 years later, the apostle Paul understood that this seventh day, the rest day, was still continuing. He referred specially to this rest day mentioned in Genesis, and said: "Let us therefore do our utmost to enter into that rest." (Heb. 4:4, 11) It is only logical that the peaceful thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ (who is identified in Matthew 12:8 as "Lord of the sabbath") also be part of God’s great Sabbath, or rest day. Thus, the great "seventh day" of God’s resting from material creation on earth would include the nearly 6,000 years of Biblical history since Adam, plus the 1,000 years of Christ’s reign that Revelation 20:1-6 shows is yet to come. So, if the other six of this group of seven great creative "days" are as long as the last one, then each one must have been 7,000 years long!
*** w68 5/1 pp. 267-268 par. 17 Understanding Time a Help to True Worshipers ***The word day can refer to a longer period of time. At 2 Peter 3:8 we are told: "One day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day." An even longer period of time than that can be embraced by the word, for Exodus 20:11 declares: "For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and he proceeded to rest on the seventh day." This refers to the creative periods of time, each of which, judging by the seventh, appears to be 7,000 years long. However, there is an even longer period of time that can be attached to the meaning of the Bible word day, one that includes all of the creative days together. Genesis 2:4 states: "This is a history of the heavens and the earth in the time of their being created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven." So the word as used in this sense apparently covers a time period far longer than each creative day.
*** w63 8/1 p. 460 par. 14 Religion and the Nuclear Age ***We could continue verse by verse through the entire period of the six creative days, periods of time that other Bible passages show to have been each 7,000 years in length.
*** Footnote ***
Footnotew63 8/1 p. 460 par. 14 Religion and the Nuclear Age
See "LetGodBeTrue," pages 177-179, for detailed explanation.
*** w61 6/15 p. 378 The Seventh Day—A Sabbath of Rest ***The number seven is used frequently in the Bible and carries with it the thought of completeness. ThePopularandCriticalBibleEncyclopedia points out that the root for the Hebrew word for seven suggests "the idea of sufficiency, satisfaction, fullness, completeness, perfection, abundance." Thus there being seven days of the creative week indicated completeness or perfection. Since the seventh creative day has proved to be thousands of years in length, nearly 6,000 years having elapsed since Adam’s creation, and since Bible prophecy proves that we are living in the time of the end of this wicked system of things immediately preceding the restful 1,000-year Kingdom reign of Christ, it is reasonable to conclude that this great rest day would be complete with 7,000 years. The 1,000-year reign of Christ would logically be included in this 7,000-year rest day of God. This means the seventh creative day is in itself a week of 1,000-year days. Because Jehovah’s name will be vindicated during this time and his purposes for the earth and for man completely fulfilled, the day is sacred. His blessing of it will be manifested in the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah.
*** w61 6/15 pp. 378-379 The Seventh Day—A Sabbath of Rest ***Thus we see God’s use of the perfect number seven. The creative week consisted of seven days that were made up, not merely of hours, but of 7,000 years each. This means that each creative day was, within itself, a week of 1,000-year days. Following this master pattern, the nation of Israel was given a symbolic week of one-year days, with every seventh year being a sabbath rest for the land. This brings us down to the literal week of seven days, the seventh day of which was a sabbath in the nation of Israel. It was logical, therefore, that the fourth commandment should make reference to the great creative week of which the literal week is a small replica.
*** w55 2/1 p. 95 Questions From Readers ***According to Genesis 1:24-31 Adam was created during the last part of the sixth creative-day period of 7,000 years. Almost all independent chronologists assume incorrectly that, as soon as Adam was created, then began Jehovah’s seventh seven-thousand-year period of the creative week. Such then figure that from Adam’s creation, now thought to be the fall of 4025 B.C., why, six thousand years of God’s rest day would be ending in the fall of 1976. However, from our present chronology (which is admitted imperfect) at best the fall of the year 1976 would be the end of 6,000 years of human history for mankind, 6,000 years of man’s existence on the earth, not 6,000 years of Jehovah’s seventh seven-thousand-year period. Why not? Because Adam lived some time after his creation in the latter part of Jehovah’s sixth creative period, before the seventh period, Jehovah’s sabbath, began.
*** w54 8/1 p. 478 The Purpose of Your Witnessing ***
Each creative day was 7,000 years in length. See "NewHeavensandaNewEarth", pages 40-43.
*** w52 11/1 pp. 670-671 Questions From Readers ***
Questions From Readers
? Revelation 20:7 speaks of the loosing of Satan from the abyss after the 1,000-year reign. Does this final testing come in the closing years of the 1,000-year period, or after it? Does it come within the seventh creative or rest day of 7,000 years, or after its close? Also, does Christ turn the Kingdom back to Jehovah before or after the test by Satan?—W. G., New York.Revelation 20:7 is explicit in stating that Satan’s loosing is after the 1,000-year reign is over: "Now as soon as the thousand years have been ended, Satan will be let loose out of his prison." (NW) In this section we have previously shown that the 1,000-year reign of Christ and the 1,000-year abyssing of Satan and his demons run concurrently, that they start and end together, and that hence when it says of Satan that "after these things he must be let loose for a little while" it is conclusive that the final test comes after the 1,000-year reign has ended. (See TheWatchtower, March 15, 1951, and Revelation 20:1-6, NW.) Then it is that Satan and his demons are brought forth from the abyss "for a little while".
Christ’s rule for a full thousand years without any encroachment or interference from Satan and his demons allows for the accomplishment of the things foretold at 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 (NW): "He hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed all government and all authority and power. For he must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet. As the last enemy, death is to be destroyed. For God ‘subjected all things under his feet’. But when he says that ‘all things have been subjected’, it is evident that it is with the exception of the one who subjected all things to him. But when all things will have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also subject himself to the one who subjected all things to him, that God may be all things to everyone."
All government and authority and power contrary to Christ’s kingship will be eliminated, and at the last even the enemy death will be destroyed. That is to say, the death resultant from Adam will vanish by Christ’s wiping out every evil trace of that death and its consequences in the human family. From then on the human family could live forever in their physical perfection. They would no longer die because they were descendants from Adam, all condemnation inherited from him being gone. Then it is that Christ turns over the Kingdom government to Jehovah God, that He might be "all things to everyone". It is necessary for Jesus to do this, because Jesus himself cannot grant everlasting life to this group of human creatures. The Scripture principle remains true that it is Jehovah God who justifies, or, in modern translation, "God is the One who declares them righteous."—Rom. 8:33, NW.
Now, if God is going to justify them or declare them righteous and worthy of everlasting life he must be the one that acts as a judge. Jesus, by his Kingdom for a thousand years, has acted as a screen over mankind so that the wrath of God might not be exercised against them while he is uplifting them to human perfection and sinlessness. Then at the end of the thousand years when he turns over the Kingdom to God he also turns over the human family for God’s attention and for God to act directly as the judge of the human family. In order that he can apply a test on which he can base judgment for or against, he lets the Devil loose. He uses Jesus to loose the Devil because Jesus is the one who abyssed the Devil and demons. Out they come, and they put humanity to the test.
We would not say that it is to tempt them, because humanity will have knowledge then. It is the same as Adam, who was not deceived, because he had knowledge from God, but when the test came upon him he went into temptation because of his own lust and selfish desires with respect to his own wife. Then he sinned, willfully so, and not because he was deceived. So it will be at the end of the thousand years. They are not to be deceived because of any lack of knowledge, but the Devil will work on humanity to stir up evil and selfish desires and to lead them into temptation in that way. God will permit it as a test, to see who really loves him with all his heart, mind, soul and strength. Any who yields to selfishness and follows the Devil and demons is destroyed, and finally the Devil and his demons are pitched into the "lake of fire and sulphur", the antitypical Gehenna. (Rev. 20:8-10, NW) Thus Jehovah arranges for the test, passes judgment for or against, and executes the sinners and rebels, visible and invisible. He is the one who crushes Satan, as foretold at Romans 16:20, but in doing so he uses Christ Jesus as his executioner and thereby brings about fulfillment of Hebrews 2:14 (NW): "Through his death he might destroy the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil."
While the Scriptures definitely establish that Satan’s abyssing at Armageddon for a thousand years thereafter runs concurrently with the thousand-year reign of Christ, and that the loosing of Satan for the final test comes after the millennial reign is over and Christ turns the Kingdom government over to Jehovah God, we cannot say at this time whether this final testing will fall within the 7,000-year rest day of Jehovah or whether it will come right after its close. We shall have to wait and see when Armageddon ends and the millennial reign begins before we can be definite on where the final season of testing at the end of the millennium will come relative to the 7,000-year day. If Armageddon ends before we reach the 6,000-year mark in human existence, then the 1,000-year reign would also end before the 7,000-year rest day would, and the final test could occur within the 7,000-year day. But on this we cannot be definite, but must await Jehovah’s disclosing of our exact position in the stream of time before we can locate with any reliability the placement of the testing period with regard to the 7,000-year day.
*** w51 1/1 p. 27 The Christian’s Sabbath ***Then the days mentioned in Genesis chapter 1 were not 24 hours long? No; remember that the sun did not shine upon the earth until the fourth day and it is the sun that gives us the 24-hour day. Besides, from such sciences as geology it appears that both plant and animal life have been on this earth far more than 6,000 years. Note too that the entire period of creation is referred to as "the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven". (Gen. 2:4, AS) A day in the Bible is not always 24 hours long; 7,000 years for each of the creative days as well as the rest day is consistent with the Scriptures.—2 Pet. 3:8.
*** g83 3/22 p. 15 Evolution, Creation, or Creationism—Which Do You Believe? ***
Creative days of Genesis chapter 1: "a first day," "a second day," and so forth, 7,000 years each.
*** g82 11/8 p. 7 Science and the Bible ***The fundamentalists believe that their teaching is based on the Bible, but a careful reading of Genesis chapter one reveals that they are mistaken. The Bible states that the earth was created at some unspecified time in the past, and the famous "six days" involved the preparing of it for man to live there.—Genesis 1:1-31.
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.
*** w73 2/1 p. 82 Will Your Days Be "Like the Days of a Tree"? ***Since each of the creative "days" or periods was evidently seven thousand years long, the whole creative "week" takes in 49,000 years. If that period is likened to a twelve-hour clock, then trees and other vegetation appeared between about three-thirty and five-fifteen. And man? Much later—sometime after ten o’clock! Yes, trees on earth for between twenty-seven thousand and thirty-four thousand years far outdate man’s nearly six-thousand-year tenure.
*** w73 5/15 p. 301 par. 4 Avenging the Blood of the Innocent Ones ***Thus it might be said that the life of the tree is in the sap, which carries the life-sustaining properties of the plant throughout its entire system. However, some fourteen thousand years later, in the fifth creative day, when sea creatures and the flying creatures began to be created, and another seven thousand years later, in the sixth creative day, when land animals began to be created, Jehovah prepared in them a different kind of circulatory system.
*** w73 8/1 p. 466 par. 10 Appreciating the Salvation of Our God ***Above all, Jesus was interested in seeing Jehovah’s holy name and purpose vindicated in connection with the original human family. For ‘God had rested from his creative works in confidence that his grand purpose of filling a paradise earth with righteous descendants of Adam would be accomplished by the end of his seven-thousand-year-long ‘rest day.’—Gen. 2:1-3; 1:27, 28.
*** w70 2/15 p. 120 The Days of Creation from God’s Viewpoint ***Thus we find the seventh "day" of the creative week to be seven thousand years long. On the basis of the length of the seventh "day" it is therefore reasonable to conclude that each of the other six "days" also was a period of 7,000 years. This length of time would be ample for all that the Bible tells us took place on each of the six days of creation.
*** w56 9/1 p. 528 par. 11 The Divine Origin of Marriage ***The seven thousand years of the sixth creative day were drawing to their close when Jehovah God spoke to his only-begotten Son, his co-worker in this earthly creative work
*** w56 12/1 p. 724 par. 10 Jehovah, God of Production ***At that day’s end, seven thousand years later, the earth will be finished, a perfect jewel in the heavens, reflecting the creative skill of Jehovah.
*** g75 8/8 p. 13 Putting Nutrients Back into the Soil ***Most importantly, the Bible indicates that earth’s soil was formed rather quickly. It speaks of the dry land and vegetation as all appearing within one creative "day"—a period that the Bible indicates was seven thousand years in length. (Gen. 1:9-13) Appropriately, The EncyclopediaAmericana asks: "How long does it take to produce an inch of soil—an inch of fine rock material that supports plants? One may say a few minutes or a few million years. It all depends upon the exact spot and what stage in the cycle we reckon from."
*** sl chap. 16 p. 294 par. 26 Awaiting the "New Heavens and a New Earth" ***Jehovah God inspired Moses also to speak of the seven-thousand-year-long creative period as "days." (Genesis 1:1-31; Exodus 20:11)
*** pm chap. 1 p. 18 par. 30 Our Basis for Hope in Its Restoration ***If it is his purpose to have this beautification of the whole earth accomplished by the end of his seventh creative day—Scripturally a period of seven thousand years, then the time is near at hand for the ruining of the earth by exploiters to be stopped by theocratic power and for the blessed transformation to a delightsome garden to begin. Already, nearly six thousand years of man’s existence from the close of the sixth creative day have run their dreary course. We must be approaching the threshold of that thousand-year-long reign of Jesus Christ, which must be accompanied by Paradise according to what Jesus promised the sympathetic evildoer on the stake there at Mount Calvary.—Revelation 20:4, 6.
*** pm chap. 22 p. 407 par. 29 An International Festival in Paradise ***It is the close of the last day of the divine week of seven creative days, each seven thousand years in length. As God the Creator examines and sees everything that he has made, look! it is "very good."
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drwtsn32
within my lifetime science will move gods from the spiritual to the unnecessary
That happened a long time ago. Gods are not necessary to "explain" anything any more.
As to the 7000 year creative days, I never remembered this teaching. I was born in 1975 and had always understood the creative days as an "indefinite" amount of time. I also never remembered them teaching the Earth was only ~48,000 years old. I did see that when I was researching, but it was an older teaching.
Crazy about the "time covered" in the Green NWT. (I remember those, btw...)
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StAnn
I remember the 7,000 year day teaching. I stood and "explained" it to my 8th grade science teacher, Mr. Somers, who just put his head in his hands. I didn't know they had abandoned that teaching.
Now, the fact that they've gotten their science completely wrong again~and not apologized for it or taken responsibility for it~should be something else that could be used to show Dubs that the WTS doesn't have any scientific credentials and therefore can't be considered an authority on medical science, either, i.e., fictitious blood fractions. People are dying for the WTS pseudo-science. Shouldn't this be proof they have made the WTS an idol?
StAnn
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undercover
Blondie, you are the bomb!
Thanks for all those references.
How anyone can read the "new" WT info as found at their website and compare it to those old quotes and not see the dishonesty or deceit is amazing.
I think sometimes instead of debating doctrines like 1914, generations, blood, etc. it might be easier to show the absurdity of the Society's teachings by pointing out these incredulous claims when it comes to creation and chronology of events.
If anyone choses to continue to believe that man has been on this planet for less than 7,000 years, after all the evidence proves otherwise and they're shown that their own leadership has backed away from promoting it, then they belong in a cult and away from the mainstream population.