Universe's 6,000th birthday ... (page 2)

Sirona

As far as I was aware, the dubs never said the universe was created 6000 years ago, just that human beings were.

Didn't they say that the creative days could be of undeterminable length?

Sirona

Narkissos

WT 8/15 1968:

Why
Are You Looking Forward to 1975?
WHAT about all this talk concerning the year 1975? Lively discussions, some based on speculation, have burst into flame during recent months among serious students of the Bible. Their interest has been kindled by the belief that 1975 will mark the end of 6,000 years of human history since Adam?s creation. The nearness of such an important date indeed fires the imagination and presents unlimited possibilities for discussion.
2
But wait! How do we know their calculations are correct? What basis is there for saying Adam was created nearly 5,993 years ago? Does the one Book that can be implicitly trusted for its truthful historical accuracy, namely, the Inspired Word of Jehovah, the Holy Bible, give support and credence to such a conclusion?
3
In the marginal references of the Protestant Authorized or King James Version, and in the footnotes of certain editions of the Catholic Douay version, the date of man?s creation is said to be 4004 B.C.E. This marginal date, however, is no part of the inspired text of the Holy Scriptures, since it was first suggested more than fifteen centuries after the last Bible writer died, and was not added to any edition of the Bible until 1701 C.E. It is an insertion based upon the conclusions of an Irish prelate, the Anglican Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656). Ussher?s chronology was only one of the many sincere efforts made during the past centuries to determine the time of Adam?s creation. A hundred years ago when a count was taken, no less than 140 different timetables had been published by serious scholars. In such chronologies the calculations as to when Adam was created vary all the way from 3616 B.C.E. to 6174 B.C.E., with one wild guess set at 20,000 B.C.E. Such conflicting answers contained in the voluminous libraries around the world certainly tend to compound the confusion when seeking an answer to the above questions.

Narkissos

Didn't they say that the creative days could be of undeterminable length?

Awake! 3.22 1983 p. 15:

BIBLE
DAYS?HOW LONG?
The
Hebrew yohm:?A day; a long time; the time covering an extraordinary event.??Old Testament Word Studies, page 109.
Daylight: "Light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day is firmly established."?Proverbs 4:18.
24-hour day: "The deluge went on for forty days."?Genesis 7:17.
Day can include seasons: "It must occur in that day . . . In summer and in winter it will occur."?Zechariah 14:8.
Day can mean many days: "The day of harvest." "In the days of the wheat harvest."?Proverbs 25:13 and Genesis 30:14.
Day as 1,000 years and a watch in the night: "A thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday . . . and as a watch during the night."?Psalm 90:4; also 2 Peter 3:8-10.
"Day of salvation," many years.?Isaiah 49:8.
"Judgment Day," many years.?Matthew 10:15; 11:22-24.
Man?s lifetime a day: "Noah?s day," "Lot?s day."?Luke 17:26, 28, The Jerusalem Bible.
Creative days of Genesis chapter 1: "a first day," "a second day," and so forth, 7,000 years each.
All six creative days referred to as one day: "In the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven."?Genesis 2:4.

gumby

As far as I was aware, the dubs never said the universe was created 6000 years ago, just that human beings were.
Didn't they say that the creative days could be of undeterminable length?

Sirona....the society has taught that the age of the "earth and heavens" is undetermined since the bible simply states..."In the beginning". They believe his "Creations on the earth...animals, and plants are about 42,000 years old since they believe each creative day was 7,000 years long, and that man has only been here 6,000 years since he was created on day 6 with the 1000 year reign of christ completing the 7,000years since mans creation.

Gumby

Sirona

Narkissos and Gumby

Thanks for the clarification. So they're saying 42000 years... and before that undetermined?

I was always told that the creative days could account for the millions of years that science says the earth has been around for....

Sirona

gumby

I was always told that the creative days could account for the millions of years that science says the earth has been around for....

According to the society, the length of each creative day was based on Adams creation till Armageddon which was once figured to be 1975 with Christ reign running parallel to it. See the book "Life Everlasting in the Freedom of the Sons of God" book.

Gumby

Narkissos

Sirona,

Actually they imply 48,000 years [(7 x 7,000) - 1,000] for the development of vegetal, animal and human life (which is ridiculous). Leaving the "creation of earth" in Genesis 1:1 out of this figure doesn't help much (they avoid outright conflict with geology but don't care for biological evidence).

Of course it does not justice to the text either which clearly imply normal days in the night and day sequence ("And there was evening and there was morning"): what about the "nights" in a JW perspective?

willyloman

Interestingly, the WTS has dropped any mention of these "7,000 year long creative days" in recent years. I don't have my CD handy to check, but I would bet it has been several years since those calculations or any specific reference to the length of creative days has popped up in an official WT journal.

Their educational "strategy" on doctrines that no longer hold water is to stop mentioning them in print for several years, and then dismiss them as "old light," as though these doctrines were held by some ancient eccentrics who are no longer alive.

Universe's 6,000th birthday ...

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