WT covers its rear end with this concept.
*** w11 12/1 p. 13 Who Can Interpret Prophecy? ***
Other prophecies are fully understood by servants of God only after their fulfillment. Many events in Jesus’ life had been prophesied centuries before his birth, but this was not fully understood by his disciples until after his resurrection. (Psalm 22:18; 34:20; John 19:24, 36)
*** w04 2/1 p. 21 pars. 12-13 “The Scene of This World Is Changing” ***
12 In recent years, politicians have often used the phrase “peace and security” to describe various human schemes. They even dubbed 1986 the International Year of Peace, although that year did not live up to its name. Do such efforts by world leaders constitute the complete fulfillment of 1 Thessalonians 5:3, or was Paul referring to a specific event of such dramatic proportions as to claim world attention?
13 Since Bible prophecies are often fully understood only after they are fulfilled or are in the process of fulfillment, we will have to wait and see.
*** w00 3/15 p. 13 par. 12 ‘O God, Send Out Your Light’ ***
Just as the apostles understood many prophecies concerning the Messiah only after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Christians today understand Bible prophecy in its finest detail only after it has been fulfilled. (Luke 24:15, 27; Acts 1:15-21; 4:26, 27) Revelation is a prophetic book, so we should expect to understand it most clearly as the events it describes unfold. For example, C. T. Russell could not have correctly understood the meaning of the symbolic scarlet-colored wild beast mentioned at Revelation 17:9-11, since the organizations that the beast represents, namely, the League of Nations and the United Nations, did not even exist until after his death.
*** w51 7/1 p. 399 par. 5 Release to the Captives ***
It is further established that prophecy may be understood only after it has been fulfilled or during the course of its fulfillment. No matter who tried to grasp the meaning of these visions they could never know until Jehovah the “revealer of secrets” (Dan. 2:47) disclosed them by bringing the actual events to pass.
*** sl chap. 11 pp. 190-191 par. 20 No Harming nor Ruining in the Spiritual Paradise ***
Therefore the time for the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the transformation of the disposition of animal life dates from the postwar year 1919 C.E. onward. This marked the beginning of a period of education in the written Word of God from the standpoint that Bible prophecy is best understood after it has been fulfilled. So there needed to be a correction of our previous views, and the surviving remnant of spiritual Israel needed to be readjusted to the postwar realities and opportunities.
