CREATIVE "DAYS" - What do JWs believe?

by Bloody Hotdogs! 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Bloody Hotdogs!

  So, in summery, based on what I’ve seen:

  FACT: JWs have always taught that "day" seven can be used to infer the length of the other days. This has been explicitly stated as recent as 1998 (see Creator Book, quoted above). Nothing has been published that contradicts or revises this teaching.

  FACT: If the "end" comes as soon as JWs say it will, "day" seven will end up being about 7000 years long.

  FACT: All six creative days are described as encompasing "thousands" of years each. The only reason for this slightly vague choice of words is that JWs cannot pinpoint the date of the beginning of “day” seven (something they once tried to do: 1975 fiasco) and therefore cannot know exactly how long it will end up being.

  FACT: Neither the expression "billions of years" nor "millions of years" has ever been applied to the creative days. Both expressions, however, are routinely applied to the age of the universe and "formless" Earth.

  FACT: "Billions of years" and "millions of years" are frequently used to describe the "false" teachings of science: evolution, geologic time scale, geologic column, etc...

  CONCLUSION: JWs actually teach that each creative "day" was something like 7000 years long.

  Based on JW literature, both past and preasent, I don't think it is possible to come to any other conclusion. And, I'm not even sure JWs are trying to hide it.
• 

  bigmac

  no--you got it all wrong guys.

  you either believe the bible is the truth--or you dont.

  its perfectly believable that almighty god created the lot in 7 actual days---why not--? he created everything from nothing--so why not in the time frame as stated in the bible. its all a matter of faith.
• 

  Apognophos

  I basically agree with your findings, Hotdogs, except:

  FACT: JWs have always taught that "day" seven can be used to infer the length of the other days. This has been explicitly stated as recent as 1998 (see Creator Book, quoted above). Nothing has been published that contradicts or revises this teaching.

  Although the Creator book is obviously more recent than Insight, leaving_quietly's Insight quote shows that the Society has considered the possibility that the other days were not 7,000 years. Notice the phrase at the end "at least thousands of years in length", which is allowing for a range of possible lengths for those days.

  That being said, I think that it's probably an unpleasant thought for the higher-ups to contemplate the other six days being different lengths because it intrudes on the circular reasoning behind day 7 being 7,000 years. If the other days were longer then it brings into question why this one has to be 7,000 years and not longer. So most WT quotes do seem to be hinting that they want all days to be even in length, but they're still avoiding any definite statements about that.

  For that reason I still urge caution in making an assertion about something which does not have direct quotes from the Society to back it up. I know it's tempting to say that they believe this since it places them into a clear conflict with science, but even in the Creator book they are only saying "the other days must be thousands of years long", without using any wording like "of equal length to day 7". We may think we know what they are getting at, but it's not spelled out, so it's easily deniable on their part.

  FACT: If the "end" comes as soon as JWs say it will, "day" seven will end up being about 7000 years long.

  FACT: All six creative days are described as encompasing "thousands" of years each. The only reason for this slightly vague choice of words is that JWs cannot pinpoint the date of the beginning of “day” seven (something they once tried to do: 1975 fiasco) and therefore cannot know exactly how long it will end up being.

  No, day 7 is still exactly 7,000 years, in their opinion. It's just a question of when the day starts. Clearly Franz' date of 4026 B.C. was wrong; even if it were the date of Adam's creation, it seems that Eve's creation was more than 39 years later or else the 6,000 years would have been up by now and Armageddon would have come. This simply means that Eve's creation, the final act of day 6, happened after the fall of 3987 B.C. (if my math is right). It doesn't change the length of day 7 in the minds of the WT leadership.
• 

  Bloody Hotdogs!

  OK, let me try this again:

  FACT: JWs teach that "day" seven can be used to infer the approximate length of the other six creative "days".

  FACT: JWs teach that "day" seven is 7000 years long (or something every close to that). They refer to this length of time, correctly, as being "thousands" of years.

  FACT: JWs teach that each of the six creative "days" was "thousands" of years long. Based on the understanding of "thousands", noted above, these "days" were probably somehting like 7000 years each, or perhaps a bit longer.

  FACT: JWs never describe the six creative "days" (or even the entire creative period) as being billions of years, millions of years, hundreds of thousands of years, or tens of thousands of years long. They do, however, use these expressions to describe the age of the universe and "formless" Earth.

  FACT: "Billions of years" and "millions of years" are frequently used to describe the "false" teachings of science: evolution, geologic time scale, geologic column, etc...

  CONCLUSION: JWs actually teach that each creative "day" was something like 7000 years long.
• 

  Gustv Cintrn

  Go to JW.org and search "Do Jehovah's Witnesses Believe in creationism?"

  Much better than coming here and expecting a true answer. It's like getting good, reliable, unbiased, truthful info from Fox News. Get a clue already!

  GC
• 

  sir82

  Miz!
• 

  Bloody Hotdogs!

  Gustv Cintrn where exactly do you think the information we are discussing comes from? Do you seriously think the FAQ article on JW.org answers the question asked by this thread?
• 

  bigmac

  its ok--i think Gustav is a true believer--as i alluded to in my post above.
• 

  Apognophos

  Hotdogs: Yes, that sounds pretty correct. As close as we will come to agreeing, anyway :-) You can certainly acknowledge the ambiguity and say on your site that the teaching *was* 7,000 years per day at one time, and that they have maintained the "thousands" remark for a while now rather than confirm or deny the 7,000-years-per-day teaching.

  When it comes to the final day, however, I am pretty sure that the Society still thinks day 7 is precisely 7,000 years and that the delay in creating Eve (and thus ending day 6) is simply much more than Franz thought. After all, why would the day be something like 7,040 years or 7,235? The Society wants to believe it's precisely 7,000 because it's a nice round, Biblical number and because it means the end is coming any time now.
• 

  blondie

  We knew jws that come in around the end of the 90's who had never heard of the 7,000 year creative day. Or those that came in young and had never heard of it. Unless they get an idea from outside the WTS, there is no reason to look it up. Most jws today can hardly keep up with "present truth" let alone research the past.