At that time, Brother Covington stepped aside as a director to comply with what then seemed to be Jehovah’s will—that all directors and officers of the Pennsylvania corporation be anointed Christians.
Mark these words - "what then seemed to be Jehovah's will".
In the JW world, whenever present time is, Jehovah's will is unquestionably whatever is being said by the Governing Body. Dare you question it, you're questioning Jehovah himself. It doesn't matter if you're right and they're wrong; it's about authority. They have been (supposedly) appointed by God and Christ, and you haven't. They hold the real authority, and you're nothing but a tiny, replaceable cog in the machinery, no matter how high up on the organizational ladder you may be.
However, in retrospect, some of their decisions and options were clearly wrong. How do you deal with those inconvenient truths? You resort to word play. 'It seemed then to be Jehovah's will'. But, back then, whenever that might have been in the past, they were absolutely certain about it! What sort of oracle do they have on what is currently "Jehovah's will", that they can only say 'it seems to be this way'? What sort of leaders are Jehovah and Christ that they allow their supposed earthly organization to guess what is their will at any given moment?
Either Jehovah and Christ are incompetent leaders, because they're unable to communicate clearly and without ambiguity what their will is; or this Organization isn't being directed by God and Christ through Holy Spirit because simply is the work of men; or the whole God / Religion / Organization is a scam. Pick your answer.
Eden