The beauty of Bible prophecy is that it can be interpreted in such a way to "prove" just about anything. I had a co-worker that dabbled in various Christian denominations, and it seemed like he always had a new, interesting way of interpreting the book of Daniel. A lot of fundamentalists believe that their particular interpretation of the Book of Daniel is foolproof (probably about as foolproof as William Miller's and Charles T. Russell's). When it is clear that world events no longer match up with the Society's interpretation of prophecy "new light" will spring forward to correct that doctrinal point. Isn't Jehovah's organization grand?
The sad thing is that most will just continue to live their day to day lives without much of a disturbance. I was in the conversion process when the "new light" on the generation teaching came out. It was right before I got baptized. I was so excited. The light was getting clearer. I called up an elder and chatted with him about it. I was probably one of the first to find out in the congregation because I read every magazine as soon as they came in the mail. A nosy elder's wife came up to me at the hall one day because I was telling everyone about this new light that we had just received. She waited until I was by myself and began to ask me some questions. She wanted me to explain myself. I remember getting really nervous. She didn't seem pleased. I now understand that she thought I was spreading my own "apostate" ideas about Bible interpretation. It turns out that the interpretation she was questioning sounded like an apostate concept when it was coming from me, but it was right there in her Watchtower for her to read.
About four or five years ago I remember sitting through a Watchtower study that covered various "proofs" that Armageddon was not delayed. The list consisted mostly of Watchtower interpretations of Bible prophecy. How does your interpretation of Bible prophecy prove that the end is near? Incidentally, one of those "proofs" was that the anointed had been sealed in 1935 and there would still be anointed here on Earth when the Great Tribulation started. Therefore, Armageddon had to be right around the corner because soon all of the anointed would die off. Post 1935 anointed were just replacements. We couldn't expect Armageddon to come 100 or 200 years from now because all of the anointed would be dead by then. So much for that!
