Oxymoron
Definition: A figure of speech combining incongrous or contradictory words, usually for descriptive purposes.
Examples: silent cry
living death
loving hatred
Actually, I think that phrase is "present truth." The only current WT publication that uses it now is an old Kingdom song.
***
song 91 Being Taught by Jehovah ***And keep in step with present truth,
Or quotes from old WT publications:
*** w81 3/15 p. 22 Glorifying the Ministry ***
Ministers?
No, say the world and the nominal church, only ours who wear "clerical" garments and preach from our pulpits are God’s ministers. Yes, says the Lord, my servants (
ministers)
they are because they serve me, dispensing present truth to my household. I have sent forth the message which they bear. He that despiseth them despiseth me, and he that receiveth the sealing in the forehead which I send by them will know the doctrine, that it is of me. "My sheep know my voice."(See also the issue of February 1, 1899, paragraphs 6 and 7, under the heading "Is Present Truth Unreasonable?")
***
w81 12/15 p. 25 Zealous for "the Work of the Lord" ***The
Watch Tower of October 1, 1909, had this to say:
"Our friends insist that this Scripture indicates that in the end of this Gospel age the Lord would use not many channels for the dissemination of the Truth, but one channel . . . They hold that all of them received their knowledge of Present Truth directly from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society’s publications, or indirectly through those who have received their enlightenment through this channel. They are glad correspondingly to co-operate as ‘fellow-servants’ with the Society’s work, believing that thereby they are following the leadings of the Divine Providence, as well as the instructions of the Divine Word."
***
Proclaimers book chap. 10 p. 121 Growing in Accurate Knowledge of the Truth ***Frequently they referred to their Scriptural beliefs as "present truth"—not with any idea that truth itself changes but rather with the thought that their understanding of it was progressive.
================================================
But it is from this scripture that they get it, 2 Peter 1:12, KJV. Notice how different the NWT renders it now which is partly why they dropped the phrase.
King James Version (KJV)
Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
NWT (2 Peter 1:12) 12
For this reason I shall be disposed always to remind YOU of these things, although YOU know [them] and are
firmly set in the truth that is present [in YOU].
