Back in the mid 1980's the ones in charge of "giving food at the proper time" actually released a book called "Reasoning from the Scriptures." Although this publication supposedly used reasoning as a tool to show the truth if the truth, in reality it just served the purpose of spoon feeding the publishers as they ventured out into field service.
It wasn't until I actually used reasoning as a tool that I was able to break the shackles of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
For me it was the issue of Jesus selecting the Watchtower Society as the one and only true religion in the spring of 1919.
As I began perusing though the Society's older publications, I discovered that their teaching of Jesus returning in 1914 was not the firm rock of a teaching that they had long claimed. The 01/15/1993 Watchtower had this to say on page 5.
"The Watchtower has consistently presented evidence to honest hearted students of Bible prophecy that Jesus presence in heavenly Kingdom power began in 1914. Events since that year testify to Jesus invisible presence."
I would soon discover that statements like this were outright deceptions.
The first president of the Watchtower Society, Charles Russell, had befriended a man named Nelson Barbour who published a religious magazine called "Herald of the Morning." Russell became fascinated with the biblical chronology laid out by Barbour and especially liked the scriptural reasoning that Jesus was to return in 1874.
When that time passed and nothing happened Barbour became disillusioned. Russell however latched on to the fact that the Greek word "parousia", usually translated as "coming" or "arrival", could also mean "presence". When Russell suggested that Jesus did return in 1874 invisibly and that he was indeed present, Barbour rejected it and he and Russell went their separate ways.
In 1879 Russell founded the Watchtower Society and began a ministry based on this understanding that Jesus returned in 1874. This statement of belief was repeated in the Society's publications as late as 1929 and was not officially rejected until 1943.
So why did I think that this particular "old light" carried more weight than most of their other "adjustments?"
Simply put because the Society claimed that it was because of the truthfulness of its teachings that led Jesus to select them.
But there is a problem here. If one reasons about this claim then it soon becomes obvious that Jesus either did not select them at all or he was in a trance due to sniffing too much mustard seed.
If he had really looked at the Society after he sat on his throne in 1914, the first thing that should be obvious to him was that the Watchtower was in the midst of a flurry of false predictions and they could not blame them on "Christendom."
First of all, they were not "on the watch for his return" as the organization claims today. They were not watching for such because they currently believed he had retuned and been present since 1874 and took power in 1878. This was being taught well before and well after 1914.
"... 1874 as the time of our Lord's second presence as Bridegroom and Reaper, and to April 1878 as the time when he began to exercise his office of King of kings and Lord of lords ..." Studies in the Scriptures - Thy Kingdom Come (1911 ed.) p.150
"Bible prophecy shows that the Lord was due to appear for the second time in the year 1874. Fulfilled prophecy shows beyond a doubt that he did appear in 1874. Fulfilled prophecy is otherwise designated the physical facts; and these facts are indisputable." Watchtower 1922 Nov 1 p.333
"Surely there is not the slightest room for doubt in the mind of a truly consecrated child of God that the Lord Jesus is present and has been since 1874;…" Watchtower 1924 Jan 1 p.5)
"The Scriptural proof is that the second presence of the Lord Jesus Christ began in 1874 A.D." Prophecy 1929 1,589,000 ed. p.65
So a reasoning person is supposed to believe that Jesus began examining the worlds religions after he took power in 1914 and 5 years later he not only selected a group who was spewing loads of false prophecies, i.e. God would destroy the churches in 1918 and the worldly governments in 1920, he also selected a group was in the middle of a false campaign stating that he had returned some 40 years prior.
It was reasoning on this claim that finally opened my eyes to the deceitfulness of the "faithful and discreet slave. They were neither faithful or discreet and I became convinced that the Governing Body was fully aware of this deception and their only interest was in controlling the thoughts and actions of others.
So I tendered a letter of disassociation on September 1, 1992 and 24 years later I am glad I made that fateful decision in spite of the agony and mental aguish I encountered in the first few years after leaving. From time to time I would recall the lyrics of Boston's song "Don't Look Back."
Don't look back, A new day is breakin'
It's been too long since I felt this way
For those of you still in the grips of the Society, do yourself a favor and actually use reason as a tool to decipher what the Watchtower teaches and see if it really measures up to its nickname "The Truth."