slimboyfat : I take it that’s what Russell also taught [about the Sheep and the Goats]
No, not quite. In Pastor Russell's Sermons on The Judgment Day Pictured by Jesus (p.224) he applies the parable of the Sheep and Goats to those resurrected in the Millenial Reign :
Our text [Matthew 25:40] refers, not to Christians, but to Gentiles—the world in general. Before Messiahʹs Throne shall be gathered all people, all nations…The whole picture refers to the thousand years of the Messianic Reign, the worldʹs judgment, the worldʹs trial.
At the beginning of the article on The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in the October 15, 1923 Watchtower, Rutherford discusses what was previously understood :
Heretofore we have applied the parable to the Millennial reign of Christ, and the final judgment of the parable to the end of that reign. Such interpretation has been difficult to harmonize. If we find objections to its application during the Millennial age, and if we find the physical facts now known to us to fit the word picture, we would be justified in concluding that we might not have heretofore had the proper interpretation.
With no disposition to criticize what has heretofore been written, we believe it profitable to consider whether or not our former application has been the right one. There seems to be a number of legitimate reasons why the parable will not be applicable at the final judgment of the Millennial reign of Christ.
So there were two changes in the understanding of the Sheep and the Goats. One in 1923 with the Millions Now Living Will Never Die teaching, and the other in the in the 1930s when the new teaching of the “great crowd” was developed.