And just some extra off to the side questions.
1. If the organization did not actually prophesy the end in 1925 and 1975, then how come so many Witnesses left the faith immediately afterwards? ("They lost roughly three-quarters of the movement between 1925 and 1928, then suffered huge losses after 1975, when the end didn't come as they had implied over and over again," said Jim Penton, an ex-Witness who writes entries on Jehovah's Witnesses for the Encyclopedia Americana.)
I have had a lot of long hard discussions with my husband over this issue because he also points out that the organization was wrong many times. We researched it together and found that in fact, it was never an offical teaching of the organization that 1975 would be when armageddon would occur. It was only some within the organization who made such speculations and it came to be viewed as a teaching...but infact it wasnt.
i want to show you the 1970 May WT article entitled 'An ingathering of all mankind' and you'll see what i mean:
5 Everyone would like to know how much longer the present system will continue and when God’s purpose will be accomplished on earth in the same full way as in heaven. Jesus answered that “this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth . . . and then the end will come.” Here in the Greek Bible text he used the word telos or “end” to distinguish what he meant from the syn‧téleia or “conclusion” of the system of things, the harvest period, in which we now live. (Compare Matthew 24:3, 6, Diaglott.) How close we may exactly be to the end of the present divisive system of things cannot be predicted, as Jesus reported that even he did not know the day or the hour at the time of his earthly ministry. (Matt. 24:36) However, Bible chronology which indicates that Adam was created in the fall of the year 4026 B.C.E. would bring us down to the year 1975 C.E. as the date marking 6,000 years of human history with yet 1,000 years to come for Christ’s Kingdom rule. So whatever the date for the end of this system, it is clear that the time left is reduced"
Now some brothers and sisters took that to mean that 1975 must be the year for armageddon, but the brothers did not say that...they said that 1975 marked 6,000 years of human history...they weren't saying that 1975 was the end.
2. If the Watchtower organization rejects others calling them "inspired" yet the Watchtower organization does call themselves "God's Spirit-directed Prophet" what is the difference? Is there such a thing as an "uninspired prophet"?
The WT organization has never claimed to be prophets. Even brother Russell did not claim to be a prophet. All the prophecies that God has provided have been provided and they are in the bible...there are no new prophecies and the WT organization have not made any new prophecies.
They merely read what is already available and in Gods due time he reveals to them, thru his spirit (hence the term 'spirit directed') what those things mean.
3. Has the Society ever taught anything scripturally incorrect?
Yes they have at times. The reason is because sometimes they have speculated rather then wait for full understanding...and the difficulty in this is that if you have an idea, how do you know if its only your idea or if God gave you the idea. Well the answer comes when Gods gives it, not before and so just like Jesus Apostles, sometimes they have jumped ahead and speculated on what they think best fit a particular scripture and if a clearer understanding becomes available, then they know that they were wrong.
But the important thing is that when they finally understood something, they were willing to make the change and admit the mistake. Thats important for it shows that they really are being led by holy spirit.
4. Might the Society be teaching anything scripturally incorrect now?
Yes its possible. There was a small change about 3 years ago to do with their understanding of the 'generation who would see the end' and that new understanding was welcomed.
The point about our understanding is that God only tells us things as we need to know them... as we get closer to the end our understanding increases. It did not matter to the apostles that Jesus did not know the day or hour for Armageddon...Jesus was smart enough not to speculate... the important thing is that he was approved by God and so it is, i believe, with the WT society. They are approved by God because of the stand they have taken for Jehovah. They are the only ones willing to make his name known throughout the earth...even though that means ridicule and he loves them for that.
5. Since the Organization has received "new light" regarding the 1914 generation, and completely changed their view on this, does this mean that all the former Jehovah's witnesses who were disfellowshipped years ago for the same view the organization is now teaching will automatically be accepted into fellowship again? Were these Ex-Jw's in fact disfellowshipped for truth and knew things that the governing body did not?
Im not 100% what you mean here...from what i understand the 'generation' was originally thought to be those who saw the outbreak of ww1. But in more recent times its been revealed that the 'generation' actually are all people from that time thru to those who will see the end of this system because the 'last days' spans the entire period.
Can you tell me who the 'ex jws' are and why they are 'ex'? Were they disfellowshipped for some reason or did they leave the organization over the change in the meaning of generation??
It's almost here!