Not absolutely sure it has been completely abandoned. They now say the earth has been created for millions of years before the creative days began. However I know someone who wrote to the WTS about this and I am trying to get a copy of their reply. The last reference I found of 7000 years is the last one below from 1987.
Even though the actual earth may be millions of years old, having creative days of 7000 years still leaves the problem of coal and oil deposits being formed in just a few (13000) years which is unreasonable.
***yp2chap.36p.301HowCanIDefendMyBeliefinGod?***
Mysciencetextbooksaysthattheearthandthesolarsystemhavebeeninexistenceforbillionsofyears. The Bible says that the earth and the rest of the universe were in existence before the first creative day. Thus, the earth and the solar system may well be billions of years old.—Genesis 1:1.
Myteachersaysthattheearthcouldnothavebeencreatedinjustsixdays. The Bible doesn’t state that the six creative days were literal 24-hour periods.
***clchap.5p.56par.20CreativePower—“TheMakerofHeavenandEarth”***
20 Has Jehovah stopped exercising his creative power? Well, the Bible does say that when Jehovah finished his creative work on the sixth creative day, “he proceeded to rest on the seventh day from all his work that he had made.” (Genesis 2:2) The apostle Paul indicated that this seventh “day” is thousands of years long, for it was still ongoing in his day. (Hebrews 4:3-6) But does “rest” mean that Jehovah has stopped working altogether? No, Jehovah never stops working. (Psalm 92:4; John 5:17) His rest, then, must simply refer to the cessation of his work of physical creation respecting the earth. His work of bringing his purposes to fulfillment, however, has continued uninterrupted. Such work has included the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. His work has even involved the bringing forth of “a new creation,” which will be discussed in Chapter 19.—2 Corinthians 5:17.
***w041/1p.28HighlightsFromtheBookofGenesis—I***
The opening words of Genesis, “in the beginning,” reach back billions of years into the past. The events of the six creative “days,” or time periods of special creative works, are described as they would have appeared to a human observer had he been present on the earth. By the end of the sixth day, God created man. Although Paradise is soon lost because of man’s disobedience, Jehovah gives hope. The very first prophecy of the Bible speaks of a “seed” who will undo the effects of sin and bruise Satan in the head.
***w871/1p.30QuestionsFromReaders***
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.
George
It is understood that = EVIDENTLY!