Question about the "7000-year" Creati...

by Bendrr 7 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Bendrr

  In all the time I was in the Witnesses, I too was taught that the "creative days" of Genesis were 7000 years long. What is the scriptural evidence supporting that?
  In the Bible, it also says that to God a 1000 years is a day. Therefore if taking everything in the bible literally, then God changed to a new model of clock after creation.
  That the earth and all living things were created in only 42,000 years goes against everything known by modern science. It seems as though the Witnesses pick and choose what passages in the Bible to take literally and what to take figuratively. The "7000-year-day" theory only works to support their "end-is-near" predictions, specifically the 1975 [we didn't say THAT!] prophecy.
  Mike.

  "You can't have everything, where would you put it?" -- Steven Wright
• 

  barry

  Bendrr,
  I studied with the witnesses and from what i remember the 7000 year theoryis based on Bishop Uushers cronology, that the world is 6000 years old and we are in the 7th creative day the last 1000 years of the 7th creative day would be the millenium. Uusher was very specific about when God started creating the world. He even calculated he started his creative work 9am monday. Most churches dont follow Uushers cronology now.
  Barry
• 

  Room 215

  Bendrr,

  It's my understanding they got the concept from Bishop Ussher. Basically, they calculate by using Bble genealogies going back to Adam they conclude that he was created in4026 BCE. Add 2,000 years for the Christian era and 1,000 for the millenium, and bingo! you've got 7,000 years.

  However, it's quite clear that over the past couple of decades since 1975, that the Society has undertaken to distance tself from the 7,000-year number. They often do the, i.e. stop ``pushng'' soemthing in the hopes it will fade from the JW collective consciousness.

  It's reminiscent of the Soviet ear, when a high-ranking apparatchik ran afoul of the big shots, he was purged and his name never uttered... he became a non-person, like he never existed.
• 

  ISP

  This aspect has been banished to the cutting room floor of Bethel. This never failed to get a mention every other article in the 60s and 70s but now there is only silence!

  Go figure! The typical life of many a WTS teaching!

  ISP
• 

  Bang

  It seems as though the Witnesses pick and choose what passages in the Bible to take literally and what to take figuratively.

  Hey, they don't even deny it. This is from their website, seconds ago, from 'beliefs'.

  . They rely on both of these, the Greek and the Hebrew Scriptures, and take them literally except where the expressions or settings obviously indicate that they are figurative or symbolic.

  So when they aren't applying spiritual teachings to the flesh, they're coming up with other strange ideas. In the mean time though, they'll rigidly subject your bodies to the teachings meant for the spirit, and then add some new ones as well, and unless a crowd exposes their shamefulness, they won't stop or change.

  So in years to come they'll eventually look so foolish about creation that they'll say they have 'new light' (even though it's someone else's old discovery). And there'll be a time delay while they form a pack - no plain apology for harm done and they'll infer that "we're not really responsible, you've been mistaken as well".

  Even the language used is continually changing to enhance deception. Not response-able? I don't think so, not only 'able to respond', but prompted by a moral duty as well.

  The statement from their own website is clear. Until it is proven in this world that being hard and imparting guilt on a matter is both incorrect and immoral, they'll simply carry on in the same manner. It's the result of being more concerned about their own asses than yours - and that's the spirit driving the WT org.

  Bang
• 

  Bang

  If anyone is thinking of lawsuits, try the official site for some inspiration. They are quite cunning, but don't let it put you off, humans can outwit even a pack of wolves.

  One thing that is readily noticed is how they refer to the organisation as 'they' instead of 'we'. It provides a way to both talk about other people in an endearing manner and at the same time share all responsibility with them, very clever - "who are they?" and "what do they believe?" - there's no 'we', so don't blame us.

  See if you can find 'we' on that website.
  Anyway, here's a classic I just read in one paragraph
  - "In each congregation, there are elders, ..They take the lead in teaching in the congregation. They are not given special titles."

  Like 'elder', or teacher?

  Bang
• 

  rhett

  Anything you hear saying the earth is any younger than aproximately 4.55 billion years old is probally a twisted version of what some nut case thinks the bible says.

  I don't need to fight
  To prove I'm right
  I don't need to be forgiven.
• 

  TheOldHippie

  It must be some 20 years ago at least that you could read in articles that the creation days were millions of years long, so the 7,000-years ideas was disbanded decaded ago.