by RR 10 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Quick question. Charles TAze Russell taught and believed that the end of 6,000 years and the beginning of the 7th would commence in 1872.
Later, the Society under Fred Franz would change that to 1975, which resulted in the armageddon fiasco.
Since then, the 1975 date is longer mentioned, is the teaching of the seventh millenium beginning that year also a thing of the past?
RR
All mentions of the 7th millennium since 1975 have been attempts to explain the mistake that they made then. The last was in this 1995 Awake.
g95 6/22 p. 9 Can You Trust God?s Promises? ***More recently, many Witnesses conjectured that events associated with the beginning of Christ?s Millennial Reign might start to take place in 1975. Their anticipation was based on the understanding that the seventh millennium of human history would begin then.
Yeah, I saw that quote when I did a search, but haven't found anything promoting 1975 as the 7th mellennium. I guess it was "chucked."
RR
Another point is that the WTS no longer promotes 7,000 year long creative days. They are not an ambiguous "thousands of years" long.
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g02 6/8 p. 10 Reconciling Science and Religion ***According to Bible usage, a day is a measured period of time and can be a thousand years or many thousands of years. The Bible?s creative days allow for thousands of years of time each.
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g03 9/22 p. 21 Science Was My Religion ***Furthermore, a creative day as understood by the ancients can mean an epoch of extended duration, in much the same way as the terms "period" and "era" are used by science in describing earth history. Thus, the Bible is not at odds with scientific findings. It indicates that the creative days lasted aeons.
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ct chap. 6 p. 93 An Ancient Creation Record?Can You Trust It? ***The fact is, the Bible reveals that the creative "days," or ages, encompass thousands of years.
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w94 9/1 p. 6 Science, Religion, and the Search for Truth ***However, it is the fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible?not the Bible itself?that is at odds with science. The Bible does not say that each creative "day" was 24 hours long; indeed, it includes all these ?days? in the much longer "day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven," showing that not all Biblical ?days? contained just 24 hours. (Genesis 2:4) Some could have been many thousands of years in length.
*** g91 6/8 p. 13 Did Each Creative Day Always Finish What It Started? ***
And the creative days of Genesis chapter 1 were not 24-hour days, but they extended over many thousands of years.?See Life?How Did It Get Here? By Evolution or by Creation?, pages 26-7.
*** si p. 279 Study Number 2?Time and the Holy Scriptures ***
In the Genesis account, the creative day is an even longer period of time?millenniums.
*** it-1 p. 594 Day ***
At Hebrews 4:1-10 the apostle Paul indicated that God?s rest day was still continuing in his generation, and that was more than 4,000 years after that seventh-day rest period began. This makes it evident that each creative day, or work period, was at least thousands of years in length.
*** it-1 p. 545 Creation ***
And, since the seventh day has been continuing for thousands of years, it may reasonably be concluded that each of the six creative periods, or days, was at least thousands of years in length.
*** it-1 p. 545 Creation ***
Ascribing not just 24 hours but a longer period of time, thousands of years, to each of the creative days better harmonizes with the evidence found in the earth itself.
*** gh chap. 7 p. 60 Preparing a Happy Home for Mankind ***
The Bible count of time shows that it is now close to six thousand years since God began ?resting? from his creative works on earth. Just ahead of us lies the thousand-year reign of Christ, by the end of which God?s purpose of filling the earth with a happy human family will have been accomplished. God?s ?rest day? will then end. This would indicate that this ?rest day? would be of seven thousand years? duration.
*** w76 7/15 p. 436 Keeping a Balanced View of Time ***
There are reasons why we cannot know this. For one thing, even though Bible chronology clearly indicates that we have reached the mark of six thousand years since the time of the creation of the first human, Adam, it does not tell us just how long after that event the sixth creative day came to its close and the seventh creative period or "day," God?s great rest day, began. Genesis chapter two, verse three, says that Jehovah blessed and made sacred that "day," and it therefore seems reasonable that it will see within its bounds the removal of the wicked old order and the establishment of God?s righteous new order by means of the thousand-year reign of God?s Son. Thus there is reason for believing that that thousand-year period will form the closing part of that great rest day and will restore the earth and its inhabitants to a perfect state. That would enable God to say of that seventh day and its results?as he did of other creative days?that "it was good."?Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31.
*** po chap. 15 p. 189 Making the Seventh Creative "Day" Sacred ***
The making of God?s seventh creative "day" a blessed day, a sacred day. After God created Adam and Eve and gave them their commission of work, setting before them their purpose in life in Paradise, the sixth creative "day" of God ended and the seventh creative "day" began, about six thousand years ago. He ordained this creative "day" as a Sabbath "day" for Himself. On it he would desist from earthly creative work, resting from such work, not because of weariness, but to let the first human pair and their descendants worship Him as their only living and true God by serving him, carrying out the service that he had assigned to them. He knew that his stated purpose for them could be carried out during the next seven-thousand-year period, His Sabbath "day."
*** w73 5/15 p. 301 Avenging the Blood of the Innocent Ones ***
However, some fourteen thousand years later, in the fifth creative day, when sea creatures and the flying creatures began to be created, and another seven thousand years later, in the sixth creative day, when land animals began to be created,
*** pm chap. 1 p. 18 Our Basis for Hope in Its Restoration ***
If it is his purpose to have this beautification of the whole earth accomplished by the end of his seventh creative day?Scripturally a period of seven thousand years, then the time is near at hand for the ruining of the earth by exploiters to be stopped by theocratic power and for the blessed transformation to a delightsome garden to begin. Already, nearly six thousand years of man?s existence from the close of the sixth creative day have run their dreary course. We must be approaching the threshold of that thousand-year-long reign of Jesus Christ, which must be accompanied by Paradise according to what Jesus promised the sympathetic evildoer on the stake there at Mount Calvary.
*** w70 2/15 p. 120 The Days of Creation from God?s Viewpoint ***
This accounts for 6,000 years. Is that the length of the seventh day? No, because we read that "God proceeded to bless the seventh day and make it sacred." Its outcome must be "very good," and that is not true of present world conditions; so the "day" must still be continuing. Actually these six thousand years have been, as it were, man?s workweek, in which he labored by the sweat of his face. But he will get rest during the coming thousand-year reign of Christ, which Bible chronology and fulfillment of Bible prophecy show is to begin very soon.?Gen. 2:3.
The seventh one thousand years of the seventh "day" will thus in itself be a sabbath. During it Satan and his demons will be bound. Christ and his anointed followers will rule with him as kings and priests. With what result? That all God?s enemies will be put beneath Christ?s feet. By means of this sabbath the seventh day will truly be sacred, for it will cause righteousness to flourish.?1 Cor. 15:24-28; Rev. 20:1-6; Psalm 72.
*** w70 2/15 p. 120 The Days of Creation from God?s Viewpoint ***
Thus we find the seventh "day" of the creative week to be seven thousand years long. On the basis of the length of the seventh "day" it is therefore reasonable to conclude that each of the other six "days" also was a period of 7,000 years. This length of time would be ample for all that the Bible tells us took place on each of the six days of creation.
*** w70 2/15 p. 120 The Days of Creation from God?s Viewpoint ***
Thus gradually on the first "day" light appeared on the "watery deep" that enveloped the earth. During the second 7,000-year "day" the atmosphere was formed between two layers of water.
*** w70 2/15 p. 120 The Days of Creation from God?s Viewpoint ***
There is, as we have seen, good reason to believe that the days of creation were each 7,000 years long.
*** w61 6/15 p. 378 The Seventh Day?A Sabbath of Rest ***
Since the seventh creative day has proved to be thousands of years in length, nearly 6,000 years having elapsed since Adam?s creation, and since Bible prophecy proves that we are living in the time of the end of this wicked system of things immediately preceding the restful 1,000-year Kingdom reign of Christ, it is reasonable to conclude that this great rest day would be complete with 7,000 years. The 1,000-year reign of Christ would logically be included in this 7,000-year rest day of God. This means the seventh creative day is in itself a week of 1,000-year days. Because Jehovah?s name will be vindicated during this time and his purposes for the earth and for man completely fulfilled, the day is sacred. His blessing of it will be manifested in the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah.
That God?s rest day consists of seven 1,000-year days was also observed by some Jewish rabbis several hundred years ago. In 1626 Henry Ainsworth quoted one of them in his Annotations upon the First Booke of Moses Called Genesis as saying: "If we expound the seventh day, of the seventh thousand of years, which is the world to come, the exposition is, and he blessed, because in the seventh thousand, all souls shall be bound in the bundell of life . . . so our Rabbins of blessed memory, have sayd in their commentarie; God blessed the seventh day, the holy God blessed the world to come, which beginneth in the seventh thousand (of years)." The world to come is the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah, a fitting climax to the symbolic week of 7,000 years that make up man?s existence on earth during God?s rest day. It will bring to mankind rest from slaving toil and from the bondage of sin.
Thus we see God?s use of the perfect number seven. The creative week consisted of seven days that were made up, not merely of hours, but of 7,000 years each. This means that each creative day was, within itself, a week of 1,000-year days. Following this master pattern, the nation of Israel was given a symbolic week of one-year days, with every seventh year being a sabbath rest for the land. This brings us down to the literal week of seven days, the seventh day of which was a sabbath in the nation of Israel. It was logical, therefore, that the fourth commandment should make reference to the great creative week of which the literal week is a small replica.
*** w56 9/1 p. 528 The Divine Origin of Marriage ***
The seven thousand years of the sixth creative day were drawing to their close when Jehovah God spoke to his only-begotten Son, his co-worker in this earthly creative work.
*** w87 1/1 p. 30 Questions From Readers ***
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.
Noting the similarity in numbers, some have compared the 49 years of the ancient Jubilee cycle to such 49,000 years of the creative week. Reasoning this way, they have thought that Israel?s Jubilee (50th) year should prefigure, or foreshadow, what will come after the end of the creative week.
However, bear in mind that the Jubilee was particularly a year of release and restoration for people. The creative week largely relates to the planet Earth and its development. But with regard to the outworking of God?s purpose for man on earth, the globe itself has not been sold into slavery and thus is not in need of liberation. It is mankind that needs that, and humans have existed, not for 49,000 years, but for about 6,000 years. The Bible shows that some time after Adam and Eve were created, they rebelled against God, thus coming into captivity to sin, imperfection, and death. According to Romans 8:20, 21, Jehovah God purposes to liberate believing mankind from this slavery. As a result, true worshipers on earth "will be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God."?See also Romans 6:23.
While the small group selected to be taken to heaven have had their sins forgiven from Pentecost 33 C.E. onward and thus already enjoy the Jubilee, the Scriptures show that the liberation for believing mankind will occur during Christ?s Millennial Reign. That will be when he applies to mankind the benefits of his ransom sacrifice. By the end of the Millennium, mankind will have been raised to human perfection, completely free from inherited sin and death. Having thus brought to an end the last enemy (death passed on from Adam), Christ will hand the Kingdom back to his Father at the end of the 49,000-year creative week.?1 Corinthians 15:24-26.
Consequently, for believing mankind with earthly prospects, the liberation and restoration that marked the Jubilee year in ancient Israel will find a fitting parallel during the coming Millennial Sabbath. Then liberation and restoration will be experienced. That will be under Christ?s rulership, "for Lord of the sabbath is what the Son of man is."?Matthew 12:8.
*** w81 12/15 p. 20 Hold Fast the "Good News"! ***
The earth will be filled with perfect humanity, just as Jehovah purposed when he first created man, some 7,000 years earlier. His 7,000-year "day" of rest will be at its end, and it will not have been in vain, for his grand purpose toward our earth will have been fulfilled. What now?
*** w73 2/1 p. 82 Will Your Days Be "Like the Days of a Tree"? ***
Since each of the creative "days" or periods was evidently seven thousand years long, the whole creative "week" takes in 49,000 years.
*** w70 2/15 p. 120 The Days of Creation from God?s Viewpoint ***
Thus we find the seventh "day" of the creative week to be seven thousand years long. On the basis of the length of the seventh "day" it is therefore reasonable to conclude that each of the other six "days" also was a period of 7,000 years. This length of time would be ample for all that the Bible tells us took place on each of the six days of creation.
*** w52 11/1 p. 670 Questions from Readers
? Revelation 20:7 speaks of the loosing of Satan from the abyss after the 1,000-year reign. Does this final testing come in the closing years of the 1,000-year period, or after it? Does it come within the seventh creative or rest day of 7,000 years, or after its close? Also, does Christ turn the Kingdom back to Jehovah before or after the test by Satan??W. G., New York.
While the Scriptures definitely establish that Satan?s abyssing at Armageddon for a thousand years thereafter runs concurrently with the thousand-year reign of Christ, and that the loosing of Satan for the final test comes after the millennial reign is over and Christ turns the Kingdom government over to Jehovah God, we cannot say at this time whether this final testing will fall within the 7,000-year rest day of Jehovah or whether it will come right after its close. We shall have to wait and see when Armageddon ends and the millennial reign begins before we can be definite on where the final season of testing at the end of the millennium will come relative to the 7,000-year day. If Armageddon ends before we reach the 6,000-year mark in human existence, then the 1,000-year reign would also end before the 7,000-year rest day would, and the final test could occur within the 7,000-year day. But on this we cannot be definite, but must await Jehovah?s disclosing of our exact position in the stream of time before we can locate with any reliability the placement of the testing period with regard to the 7,000-year day.
The WTS is still with the 7000 years per creative day (one point which made my way out) and it is only replaced by ambigous (seven) "thousands of years", but you are right that no JW is aware of it. This reasoning still applies to 1975 as the end of 6000 years after Adam's creation but has to be adjusted by the time until Eve's creation (29 years by now) to get the end of the 6th creative day. It is not mentioned anymore but neither is it replaced by new light.
This reasoning still applies to 1975 as the end of 6000 years after Adam's creation but has to be adjusted by the time until Eve's creation (29 years by now) to get the end of the 6th creative day. It is not mentioned anymore but neither is it replaced by new light.
Yes.
The following quote reflects what I recall as the "tacking" that occurred (bold added):
*** si pp. 286-287 Study Number 3?Measuring Events in the Stream of Time *** (1990)
Adding 1,656 years to our previous date of 2370 B.C.E., we arrive at 4026 B.C.E. for the creation of Adam, perhaps in the fall, since it is in the fall that the year began on the most ancient calendars.
13
Of what significance is this today? The first edition of this book, published in 1963, stated: "Does this mean, then, that by 1963 we had progressed 5,988 years into the ?day? on which Jehovah ?has been resting from all his work?? (Gen. 2:3) No, for the creation of Adam does not correspond with the beginning of Jehovah?s rest day. Following Adam?s creation, and still within the sixth creative day, Jehovah appears to have been forming further animal and bird creations. Also, he had Adam name the animals, which would take some time, and he proceeded to create Eve. (Gen. 2:18-22; see also NW, 1953 Ed., footnote on vs. 19) Whatever time elapsed between Adam?s creation and the end of the ?sixth day? must be subtracted from the 5,988 years in order to give the actual length of time from the beginning of the ?seventh day? until [1963]. It does no good to use Bible chronology for speculating on dates that are still future in the stream of time.?Matt. 24:36."
I especially like that last sentence.
Craig
The Watchtower dirty dozen never read their Bible even though it was "only" written for them!
The description of the Creation Days in Genesis follow each segment with the following words:
And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.
And there was evening, and there was morning-the second day.
And there was evening, and there was morning-the third day.
And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day.
And there was evening, and there was morning-the fifth day.
And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day.
IF THESE WERE EPOCHS; why the "evening" and "morning" descriptives which make it abundantly clear they were 24 revolutions of the Earth on its axis???
: Since then, the 1975 date is longer mentioned, is the teaching of the seventh millenium beginning that year also a thing of the past?
While the WTS is moving away from the 7,000 year creative day teaching, it has not repudiated it. Officially, it is still doctrine.
Farkel
You will find that a creative day is no longer officially 7,000 years long but an ambiguous "thousands of years" long now. No official article but all mention of creative days in the last 10 years has no, and I mean no mention, of 7,000 years. Elders who became JWs since 1990 have no idea about the 7,000 year one. Creative days were discussed in the Daniel or Isaiah book and that point was cleared up by 2 elders, no longer 7,000 years.
Blondie
IF THESE WERE EPOCHS; why the "evening" and "morning" descriptives which make it abundantly clear they were 24 revolutions of the Earth on its axis???
I agree with you that the text does refer to typical 24-hour days with mornings and evenings....I just want to clarify that the text has no concept of a spherical Earth spinning on its axis. This is a modern scientific concept alien to the ancient cosmology involved in the creation story.
