The Watchtower mentality is about taking something established and erasing a bit of it only to replace the erased part with something different which is novel and unexpected. They then pass this novelty off as Truth.
This is not unlike what the self-described "Apostle" Paul did to Judaism. He did what the Cuckoo bird does and laid his eggs in another bird's nest.
The Watchtower has taken the well-established Christian doctrine of the Second Coming of Jesus and kept the "return" part. They erase the VISIBLE and replace it with the INVISIBLE.
They take the reason for Christ's return and chop it up into little segments. Between each slice they insert a bit of their own Watchtower pseudo-history and pass it off as prophecy come true.
Christ didn't return to rapture the true church to heaven and judge the wicked in the established way either. Christ returned to select Pastor Russell's bible students as his true religion and to appoint the Pastor as his Faithful and Wise Servant. Why? Not for Russell's accuracy nor for his humility; but, solely because Russell was pouring his personal fortune into propping up the William Miller expectations about a return! Russell was, in fact, wrong at every turn while insisting he was right and that it was "god's dates-not ours" which placed the blame on Jehovah and not himself.
Rutherford continued the policy of chopping up established Christian ideas and inserting new twists. Rutherford and subsequent Watchtower presidents have had a gleeful time even dissecting their own established doctrines and erasing what is embarassing about them.
Too many people responded to the door to door work and it became clear that more than 144,000 were being selected out of Earth's faithful to go to heaven. This clashed with the literal number of pre-ordained in scripture. Not to worry! The doctrine of the GREAT CROWD appeared to rescue the failure of interpretation.
Where would these people end up spending their immortality? Why Earth, of course!
Naturally this scenario has changed gradually too. Ideas about the Great Tribulation have come and gone over the decades and the concept of who the bible was written for has dramatically changed. The Great Crowd are outsiders who must rely upon the words and instructions of the elite now. Even the anointed aren't just one group either! There is the Faithful and Discreet Slave who feeds the Anointed and is clearly superior to them with only a few crumbs left over for the Great Crowd of stupid outsiders left over.
The lion and the lamb lying down together use to be an actual lion and actual lamb. Now it is mere hyperbole and metaphor.
They just can't help themselves! Change this and change that and move this around and erase that----I'd swear the Watchtower Society invented Photoshop and has been tricking out photos of scripture for the last century and a half!
It does not matter to the Governing Body right now what is true and what isn't about scripture or established doctrine. They are concentrating full bore on mere OBEDIENCE to themselves. You can't question them or their doctrines. This takes the burden off making their feckless pronouncements and opinions seem plausible.
The Internet is Public Enemy #1 and they've lost the battle of plausible deniability.
T.
