The Society has been spinning its "word" studies for scores of years. Some times they are very critically oriented in the exact meaning of a word and at other times not (when it's to their convenience). When I explain this subject matter to others I often use the following example for an explanation of a great crowd.
In the future there is going to be a Great Earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's going to be a big one. There will be a loss of many lives. Nevertheless, after the Great Earthquake there is going to be a great crowd of people surviving it. (They will be the fortunate if they are not too severely injured.) What this means though is that in order for there to be a great crowd of survivors, before the Great Earthquake there has to be an even Greater Crowd living in the San Francisco Bay Area in order to have a survival of a Great Crowd of earthquake survivors. Of that Greater Crowd now existing only a lesser amount will survive. Not everyone in the Greater Crowd (before the earthquake) is going to part of the Great Crowd (after the quake) that survives it. So, you can look around at people of this Greater Crowd and "wonder" are you going to be of the Great Crowd, are you going to be of the Great Crowd. . . . So because you have the "prospect" of suriving you can consider yourself to be part of the Great Crowd, is the Society's reasoning. Good reasoning, huh?
Nevertheless, the Great Crowd (of earthquake surivors) or of the Tribulation do not make a showing until after the Great Tribulation. And Jesus Christ does not return until after the Tribulation too.
I have to make a slight correction, the Peace on Earth International Convention was in 1969, not in 1968 as I initially stated. I attended the one at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
--Inkie