According to the Watchtower magazine 01April1968 the universe was created in 48026 BCE Do you agree Why?

Answer 1

NOTE: I can find no such reference in the Watchtower, 1st April 1968

In the event that this was the case it was probably based on the assuption at the time that the creative days were 7000 years long. However, that is not currently the viewpoint from the Watchtower Society. Especially regarding how old the universe is.

Notice the wording of this statement from the Awake! magazine, 9/2006, page 19 ("When Was "the Beginning"?):

"The Genesis account opens with the simple, powerful statement: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) Bible scholars agree that this verse describes an action separate from the creative days recounted from verse 3 onward. The implication is profound. According to The Bible's opening statement, the universe, including our planet Earth, was in existence for an indefinite time before the creative days began."

"Geologists estimate that the earth is approximately 4 billion years old, and astronomers calculate that the universe may be as much as 15 billion years old. Do these findings-or their potential future refinements-contradict Genesis 1:1? No. The Bible does not specify the actual age of "the heavens and the earth." Science does not disprove the Biblical text."

The opening words of Genesis, "in the beginning," could reach back billions of years into the past. The events of the six creative "days," or time periods of special creative works, are described as they would have appeared to a human observer if ther had been one present on the earth.

The Watchtwer Society has had to make adjustments from time to time on some matters as the spiritual "bright light gets lighter and lighter." (Proverbs 4:18); It is possible the witnesses once held this as the end of the creative days however they view the creative days as periods of time rather than 24 hour days..e.g. "in my grandfather's day"