The downloadable research guide is going to add much to the current cycle of Bible reading.

[TrueTomHarley]

The downloadable research guide is going to add much to the current cycle of Bible reading.

Already with Genesis 1:1 are links to articles observing that there is no reason to quarrel about the age of the earth. Scientists say 4 billion years? Let them. There is no objection, since “in the beginning” is BEFORE the creative days begin.

Nor is there any objection to a ‘big bang’ as a means to which God created the cosmos.

Genesis 1;3 I have always loved: “and God’s active force [spirit] was moving about over the surface of the waters”—as though saying, “okay—ready, here—gimme something to do.”

”The riot squad is restless; they need somewhere to go.”—Bob Dylan. Nah, it doesn’t really fit, but I just like Dylan.

And, technially, my prediction that the system should have ended yesterday since JWs have reached the end of their multi-year Bible reading cycle and it would be too inconveiniest to make them start all over again still holds, since I know of no mid-week meetings that falls on Monday.

[Melinda Mills]

My sister's congregation has mid-week meeting starting on Monday.  Four congregations there.

[Arauna]

28 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

since I know of no mid-week meetings that falls on Monday.

In Sweden mine was on a Monday and watchtower on Saturday.

29 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

beginning” is BEFORE the crea

True. 

29 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

objection to a ‘big bang’ as a means to which God created the cosmos.

Evolutionists hate the big bang because it points to a "beginning".  It may have been a controlled big bang because the elements that formed all have order and specific patterns emerge.

[TrueTomHarley]

27 minutes ago, Melinda Mills said:

My sister's congregation has mid-week meeting starting on Monday.  Four congregations there.

Rats

10 minutes ago, Arauna said:

In Sweden mine was on a Monday and watchtower on Saturday.

Rats. So much for home-baked prophesies.

[TrueTomHarley]

Let scientists be scientists and Bible teachers be Bible teachers. Don’t squabble unless there is a reason to. 

That there is not a reason to in some battlegrounds is highlighted in the downloadable Research Guide to accompany the NWT Study Bible. Regarding Genesis 1:14 and the creative days, there is a link to a 9-year old Watchtower article:

“These are not 24-hour days but are epochs. On the first creative day, Jehovah caused light to begin to appear at the earth’s surface. That process would be completed when the sun and the moon later became discernible from the earth. (Gen 1:3,14) On the second day, the atmosphere began to be formed. (Gen 1:6) Earth then had water, light, and air but still no dry land. Early on the third creative day, Jehovah used his holy spirit to produce dry land, perhaps harnessing powerful geologic forces to push continents up out of the global sea. (Gen 1:9) There would be other astounding developments on the third day and during later creative periods.”

I made reference to this article in my own post, entitled “Epochs and Aeons,” after reading the Sean B Carroll book, “The Making of the Fittest - DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution.” You have to use the middle initial of Sean Carroll, a ‘B’, because there is another well-known contemporary scientist with an ‘M’ for a middle initial—this one specializing in physics. It’s surprising, but no more surprising than to consider that the public face of JW persecution in Russia—the first one to be sentenced (to six year’s imprisonment) has a surname (Christensen) that evokes both his Lord and his Lord’s profession.

It turns out that there is also a local broadcaster by that name—Sean Carroll—who has since moved to Syracuse. I followed them all on Twitter and introduced them to each other. They hit it off and began to talk baseball! Then I made some remark about the trinity and in what way the three men might foreshadow that. All three Seans fell silent at that. Who can blame them?

They would have fallen more silent still had I tweeted the skit that I inserted in No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash: 

Crack! “Mike Behe hits a grounder to shortstop! Sean Carroll scoops it up and flips it to Sean Carroll at second base – one out! Sean Carroll fires it to Sean Carroll at first – double play! And the Denver Denyers lose to the Cincinnati Smarts! Jock, those Smarts have one helluva team this year. I almost think Sean Carroll will be named MVP.” “Yeah, and if not Sean Carroll, then maybe Sean Carroll! Or maybe even Sean Carroll!”

Oh, and I also like this link to a 2004 Awake with regard to verse 16: 

“How could God produce light on the first day if the luminaries were not made until the fourth day?” is the question. The answer is that the Hebrew word rendered “make” in 16 is not the same as the word for “create” in 1, 21, and 27. The bodies that are the source of light were created before any of those creative days began. Their light did not reach the earth, however, until the early impenetrable atmosphere began to clear. Not surprisingly, Genesis is written from the standpoint of someone on earth, not someone hovering in space.