by goddidit 18 Replies latest jw friends
Does anyone happen to know what the JWs have to say about this?
I know apologists usually have a convoluted answer for everything but I just can't think how they could possibly defend this. So, each 'day' of creation is 7000 years long, Adam was created on the 6th 'day', god rested on the 7th 'day', Adam THEN dies at an age of something like 930 years!!
Have I missed something? I assume they have a workaround and I'd be interested to hear what it is.
Thanks
I think they quietly abandoned the notion that the days were 7,000 years long.
Hi!
Leolaia... your comment is so interesting... has there been anything written in the JW literature that led you to this conclusion? Has the Society even discussed the 7000 year/day theory over the past couple of decades? Just very curious. I have family that are still in and like to try and keep up on the latest "spirit directed" new light! -smile!-
Have a good day!
Expanded Mind
They never OFFICIALLY abandoned the 7000-year days of creation. But they started printing things like the "Creation" book (late 80's or early 90's) and started saying that each stage of creation took "thousands of years." Any younger people who learned from their "secular" education that things took awhile might read into that as meaning "SEVERAL thousands of years," but an older dub that went through the 1975 debacle could still think in their mind, "SEVEN thousands of years."
They did abandon the 7000-year days of creation by never mentioning that length of time ever again.
They still officially say that Adam was 6000 years old in 1975, but they won't be reminding people of that because that reminds them that the end didn't come in 1975.
Edited to add: See http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/1975.php
My super-Dub B.I.L phoned me this morning and during the conversation mentioned that our ills are all "down to Adam".
I wanted to yell at him " Adam is a FICTIONAL character ! " but I refrained, in common with most of my family, they actually believe the s**te they are fed by the W.T
I have resigned myself to the fact that they will never wake up.
So was Adam 936 years old when he died ? In a Hebrew allegorical tale he was. Rip van Winkle was pretty old in another yarn, I recall.
Wobble
Length of the "creative days":
7,000 years:
1/1/1951 Watchtower, p. 27; Let God Be True, 1952, p. 168; 11/1/1952 Watchtower, p. 670; New Heavens and a New Earth, 1953, p. 43; 8/1/1954 Watchtower, p. 478; 2/1/1955 Watchtower, p. 95; From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, 1958, p. 10-18; 6/15/1961 Watchtower, p. 378; 8/1/1963 Watchtower, p. 460; 7/15/1967 Watchtower, p. 427; 5/1/1968 Watchtower, p. 268; 10/8/1968 Awake!, p. 14; Is the Bible Really the Word of God?, 1969, p. 19; 2/15/1970 Watchtower, p. 120; 2/15/1970 Watchtower, p. 120; 11/1/1970 Watchtower, p. 645; 2/1/1973 Watchtower, p. 82; Eternal Purpose Now Triumphing for Man's Good, 1974, p. 53; 12/15/1981 Watchtower, p. 20; 11/8/1982 Awake!, p. 7; 3/22/1983 Awake!, p. 15; 1/1/1987 Awake!, p. 30. Nothing since.
"epochs"/"ages"/"eons"/"many thousands of years"/"considerable lengths of time":
Aid to Bible Understanding, 1971, p. 392; 10/15/1974 Watchtower, p. 629; 4/8/1976 Awake!, p. 12; 4/22/1982 Awake!, p. 17; Reasoning From the Scriptures, 1985, p. 88; 4/1/1986 Watchtower, p. 13; 12/8/1988 Awake!, p. 25; Insight, Vol. 1, 1988, p. 594; The Bible — God's Words or Man's?, 1989, p. 110; 6/8/1991 Awake!, p. 13; Will There Ever Be a World Without War?, 1992, p. 6; 7/15/1994 Watchtower, p. 29; 9/1/1994 Watchtower, p. 6; 4/1/1996 Watchtower, p. 13; Is There a Creator Who Cares About You?, 1998, p. 10; 6/8/2002 Awake!, p. 10; Draw Close to Jehovah, 2002, p. 169; 9/22/2003 Awake!, p. 21; 1/22/2004 Awake!, p. 23; 6/22/2004 Awake!, p. 11; September 2006 Awake!, p. 19.
The Bible does not say how long they are:
3/22/1983 Awake!, p. 13; Insight, Vol. 1, 1988, p. 545.
From the horse's mouth (or is that ass?)
http://www.watchtower.org/e/200609a/article_01.htm
MANY people claim that science disproves the Bible’s account of creation. But the real contradiction is between science and, not the Bible, but the opinions of so-called Christian Fundamentalists. Some of these groups falsely assert that according to the Bible, all physical creation was produced in six 24-hour days some 10,000 years ago.
The Bible, however, does not support such a conclusion. If it did, then many scientific discoveries over the past hundred years would indeed discredit the Bible. A careful study of the Bible text reveals no conflict with established scientific facts. For that reason, Jehovah’s Witnesses disagree with “Christian” Fundamentalists and many creationists. The following shows what the Bible really teaches.
The Genesis account opens with the simple, powerful statement: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Bible scholars agree that this verse describes an action separate from the creative days recounted from verse 3 onward. The implication is profound. According to the Bible’s opening statement, the universe, including our planet Earth, was in existence for an indefinite time before the creative days began.
Geologists estimate that the earth is approximately 4 billion years old, and astronomers calculate that the universe may be as much as 15 billion years old. Do these findings—or their potential future refinements—contradict Genesis 1:1? No. The Bible does not specify the actual age of “the heavens and the earth.” Science does not disprove the Biblical text.
What about the length of the creative days? Were they literally 24 hours long? Some claim that because Moses—the writer of Genesis—later referred to the day that followed the six creative days as a model for the weekly Sabbath, each of the creative days must be literally 24 hours long. (Exodus 20:11) Does the wording of Genesis support this conclusion?
No, it does not. The fact is that the Hebrew word translated “day” can mean various lengths of time, not just a 24-hour period. For example, when summarizing God’s creative work, Moses refers to all six creative days as one day. (Genesis 2:4) In addition, on the first creative day, “God began calling the light Day, but the darkness he called Night.” (Genesis 1:5) Here, only a portion of a 24-hour period is defined by the term “day.” Certainly, there is no basis in Scripture for arbitrarily stating that each creative day was 24 hours long.
How long, then, were the creative days? The wording of Genesis chapters 1 and 2 indicates that considerable lengths of time were involved.
So apparently they have quietly abandoned the 7,000 year long creative day. They're trying to distance themselves from the creationists, who are really loopy. But f you really think about it...as far as the complete amount of time to get to where we are... what's the difference between a literal 24 hour creative day, 1,000 year creative day or even a 7,000 year creative day? One is just as loopy as the other.
They're trying to distance themselves from the creationists, who are really loopy.
When the Society derides the "creationists", they mean YECs, for they are themselves creationists all the same. The Society feels they are more reasonable on account of taking a concordist interpretation, but their contrived interpretation of Genesis 1 is less faithful to the text than that of the YECs.
...their contrived interpretation of Genesis 1 is less faithful to the text than that of the YECs.
True...
But that's like saying that Disney's movie The Jungle Book was less faithful to the Rudyard Kipling stories of the same name.
It's a fairy tale to begin with and a Mickey Mouse operation re-worked it to fit their particular needs.
I got to thinking about this some years back when the thought was that we were 'waiting' for the gap between Adam's age and Eve's age...anyway...a bit of a tangent sorry but...
We can presume from the Genesis account that Adam was a man when Eve was created...and Eve must have been a full grown woman for God to have blessed them to multiply etc....which means that they couldn't have been in the garden very long together afterwards at all because...as 'perfect' man and woman they would have conceived children more or less immediately wouldnt they? ...however...they were thrown out before she conceived Cain...otherwise he would have inherited the perfection....
Loz x
