Is that the technical term Mickey?
The WTS say they are NOT Creationists........
by cantleave 46 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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ziddina
BrotherDan..."They hold to their teaching that each "day" of creation meant millions of years. ..."
Really??? I've never seen that - and I kept my eyes open for their opinions on geological time, since I've been a "rockhound" since I was 5 and would have become a geologist if it weren't for that pre-1975 anti-college hysteria...
The last statement that I recall seeing, stated that they had no idea how old the earth was, but that the seven "creative days" still applied. Then they went through a number of twists of logic attempting to explain how the earth could be older than 42,000 years [6 x 7,000 years...], but that the 'life' on planet earth could only be around the 42k age...
I agree with HintOfLime - "What they mean to say is that they are not Young Earth Creationists. They are clearly still Old Earth Creationists. ..." and SlimBoyFat - "It means they can claim a modicum of scientific respectability while also maintaining they adhere to the Bible. ..."
They ARE "Creationists"; they've just put their own bizarre spin on "Creationism"...
Zid
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Mad Sweeney
I'm looking for a reference to the creative days being millions of years. I am pretty sure that's the current light but still haven't found it yet. But while searching I came across the following DOOZY! They have the audacity to redefine the verb "make" just as badly as they have redefined "generation!"
Scriptural
1:16—How
QuestionsAnswered: couldGodproducelightonthefirstdayiftheluminarieswerenotmadeuntilthefourthday? The Hebrew word rendered “make” in verse 16 is not the same as the word for “create” used in Genesis chapter 1, verses 1, 21, and 27. “The heavens” that included the luminaries were created long before the “first day” even began. But their light did not reach the surface of the earth. On the first day, “there came to be light” because diffused light penetrated the cloud layers and became visible on the earth. The rotating earth thus began to have alternating day and night. (Genesis 1:1-3, 5) The sources of that light still remained invisible from the earth. During the fourth creative period, however, a notable change took place. The sun, the moon, and the stars were now made “to shine upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:17) “God proceeded to make” them in that they could now be seen from the earth. -
Mad Sweeney
As recently as 1994 they were still saying "thousands of years long" when talking about the creative days. No "millions" yet.
Still looking.
Edit: In the December 15, 1994 Watchtower they reference looking at galaxies that are "millions of light-years" across. Either they didn't understand that to see something a million light-years away requires that object to be at least a million years old or someone in Writing finally "got it" that the universe is billions of years old, not thousands by the end of 1994.
Still looking.
February 15, 2007 Watchtower is the earliest Watchtower reference to the earth being "millions of years" old. (I only looked in Watchtowers, though, not books or Awake!)
For countless millions of years, the gravitational force of the sun has held the earth and other planets in stable orbits.
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pirata
The photo-drama of creation stated "The Genesis account tells nothing about the formation of the Earth itself. It says, "In the beginning the Earth was--without form and void"--shapeless, empty. There were neither mountains nor valleys, trees nor shrubs, rivers nor oceans, but the Earth was. How long before that it had been created, is not stated." (Photo Drama of Creation). In all the JW literature I have seen, it has been stated that the earth existed for unknown periods of time before the first day.
From The Photo Drama of Creation up until the mid-80s, JW publications referred to the creative days as 7000 years long.
However, the 1985 Creation book stated "It would seem reaonable that the 'days' of Genesis could likewise have embraced long periods of time - milleniums" (Life How Did it Get Here - By Evolution or Creation, Chapter 3, pg. 27, par 7).
In 1987 they briefly went back to the 7000 years teaching in a Questions For Readers article: "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." (Watchtower 1987 January 1 pg. 30).
After that articles have referred to the creative days as "thousands of years" (Awake! 2002 June 8 pg 10) or "considerable lengths of time" (Awake! 2006 September pg 19)
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Mad Sweeney
Good catch on that 87 article, Pirata. I searched "creative length" with paragraph scope and "millions years" with sentence scope. I guess I probably should have just searched "creative days" but I was afraid of too many results to wade through. What did you search, if you recall?
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pirata
I just looked up "creative days" in the Index. It listed most of the references above (except for the photo-drama of creation!).
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Mad Sweeney
You mean you picked up an actual BOOK?!? I don't know when I last opened a WT book of any type. Probably the Kingdom Interlinear around a month ago.
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Quandry
They hold to their teaching that each "day" of creation meant millions of years.
They have NEVER taught this! They taught each day was 7,000 years long, because of the "thousand year reign of Christ" counting the last of the "rest period."
This is like saying they never pointed to 1975 as any date of importance....
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goddidit
Well as Adam was created on "day" 6 of 7 and died AFTER the 7 creation days at an age of 930, I guess each day can be no more than about 930 years long. Hmmmm