Finkelstein - Yes I agree. I also think there is more to it than people knowing it is wrong. It is like Macbeth when the three witches speak about fair is foul and foul is fair. They also speak about the hurly burly being done.
I made this video which deals with the subject in a gentle/amusing way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW6I9TdA8kY&t=2s
The way Watchtower messes with the figures from the 13th year of Josiah to the years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign puts people in a mental fog. They can't quite grasp the maths but think, "oh they must know what they are talking about." Therefore, people who join the Watchtower don't know it's right, even from the beginning. They still have questions when they come in. Watchtower is like a man-trap for Christians which abuses people's reasonableness. Reasonable people accept they don't know everything.
I got told, "if the GB have anything wrong they'll correct it." That was a lie. Yes, they'll change it (if they have to) but they never really address the anomalies. You are told to wait - again an abuse of a person's reasonableness. It is reasonable to give people a chance to change. But what if the person has NO intention of ever changing? And if they have no intention, how can YOU be certain?
Well I am certain because I know the Bible and I know that when Dan 1:1 speaks of the 3rd year of Jehoiakim's rulership, it means... the 3rd year of Jehoiakim's rulership.
Now, you might not realise this but for Watchtower, that year is 8 years long. And no there is no scriptural cross ref to say, "I give you a year for 8 years." :D And I know the WT refuse to change it because I have dealt directly with the GB and they have refused to change. I gave them a chance, plenty of fair warning but they did nothing. I told them that if they did nothing, I would interpret that as their refusal to correct the 1914 doctrine.
Watchtower isn't wrong with the maths. It is insane with the maths. But sad for them, the Bible's clarity is awsome when you know just the right 7 scriptures. These 7 scriptures are SO powerful in exposing the WT that elders REFUSE TO LOOK AT THEM.
Well what's going on there? Why do people, who purport to be helping other understand the Bible, refuse to read it?
Yes you end up with an exclusive group of apostate remaining in. The courageous Christians leg it. But some go into that crisis of conscience and that does damage. So very few get away without damage and it's not their fault, they were conned. I think there is an intention to destroy people's faith in Jesus Christ and their sense of self-worth if they don't do things Watchtower's way. I think it is deliberate cruelty of the very worst kind, designed to destroy people's thinking ability and wreck their emotional state.
And on that note - the one elder who I thought might help me (a capable businessman and mathematician) - when I said I was certain the 3rd year of Jehoiakim's rulership really was the 3rd year, he called me irrational. He refused to look at the 7 scriptures I wanted to draw his attention. So he wouldn't look at the facts. He just wouldn't look. Even to this I can't believe what he did.
TD - Shem Tov is curious. If I remember correctly, he was opposed to Christianity but did a Hebrew translation of the gospel of Matthew (which was in Greek). This translation by Shem Tov is held up by Watchtower as evidence that the book of Matthew was originally written in Hebrew. So they us a translation by an apostate as a authority! But the apostate did a fair translation and Watchtower mistranslate it, deliberately.
I don't know if Shem Tov used the name Jehovah in his Hebrew translation.
