WT's own comments are as revealing as they are self-condemning; it's simply that WT is so focused on shifting blame they fail to see the false prophecy forest for the trees.
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"True, there have been those in times past who predicted an "end to the world," even announcing a specific date. Yet nothing happened. The "end" did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing? Missing from such people were God’s truths and the evidence that he was guiding and using them." -- Awake! 1968 Oct 8 p.23
Laughably, WT is too focused on the error of others to see that it just shot itself in the foot.
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"Does this admission of making mistakes stamp them [Watchtower] as false prophets? Not at all, for false prophets do not admit to making mistakes." {WT Nov 1 1972 644}
There you have it, straight from the most prolific false-prophecy organization in existence!
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While WT may consider this to be a genuine moment of candid honesty, is it? Not really. When an honest person makes a mistake, they admit it and take full responsibility for it. WT euphemizes its lies, deceit and false prophecies couched in the following terms:
"tacking"
"seemingly"
we "inferred"
"suggested"
"evidently"
"misinterpreted"
'we never said it'
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The most eggregious maneuver WT makes is to simply deny what it previously published in tens of millions of magazines as if it never happened. A lie is compounded by insulting the intelligence of its very own readers:
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"Jehovah's Witnesses, in their eagerness for Jesus second coming, have suggested dates that turned out to be incorrect. Because of this some have called them false prophets. Never in these instances, however, did they presume to originate predictions ' in the name of Jehovah '. Never did they say, ' These are the words of Jehovah'." (AWAKE! 22. March 1993)
Oh, really? Then how do you explain this?:
"This chronology is not of man but of God . . . of divine origin . . . absolutely and unqualifiedly correct." --Watchtower 7/15/1922, p.217
"We see no reason for changing the figures - nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God's dates, not ours..." --W 7-15-1894
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And, after three decades of WT wolfing about what would positively happen in 1914, the failure came, and here's how WT handled it:
"We did not say positively that this would be the year [1914]." --Watchtower 11/1/1914, p.5565
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Finally, how did WT address the mass exodus of its followers after the failure of 1914, 1925 and 1975? Blaming the rank-and-file for being gullible enough to actually believe WT's message! and accusing those same people of "lacking faith" for leaving the Org.
... which makes the following statement absurd at best (again, an epic shoot-yourself-in-the-foot fail by WT):
"Stumble" is just another word for "make a mistake." And though we all make mistakes, how difficult it is to admit making one! It goes against one’s pride. When one is charged with making a mistake one is prone to want to justify oneself, to make excuses, to shift blame onto others, or to deny having made the mistake. It takes bigness to admit a mistake, to shoulder the blame, to admit that one has been wrong, or used poor judgment. -- W 11-1-72
