One of the first things I noticed as out of place, long before I ever had any doubts at all about the teachings of JWs was the aforementioned--the Watchtower's ability to change scriptural statements made in the present tense to future tense, or statements made in the past tense to future tense, as necessary to serve the purposes of their doctrine.
You're probably saying, "SD-7, you bi-polar bastard! Where's the proof for your crazy assertions?" I've got it right here.
John 5:28, 29: "Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment."
Did you notice that Jesus said "did" and "practiced", which are past tense terms, referring to acts that occurred in the past? This scripture made me feel afraid when I really looked at it as a JW. I thought, how can this be, that Jesus says 'practiced', but the Watchtower says that this is referring to FUTURE acts during a 1,000-year Judgment Day? Well, I ignored it, of course. As anyone would have under the circumstances.
But is there any credence to the notion that people will be judged based on past actions, not future? In my reading of the Bible later on, I happened to encounter another scripture that shed light on the issue. 2 Corinthians 5:10: "For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of the Christ, that each one may get his award for the things done through the body, according to the things he has practiced, whether it is good or vile."
The phrasing Paul uses is almost identical to John 5:28, 29. The context of 2 Corinthians 5 helps us appreciate that Paul is clearly referring to a hope of heavenly life, the hope of putting off this physical body and being given a heavenly one. Verse 8: "But we are of good courage and are well pleased rather to become absent from the body and to make our home with the Lord." One can hardly say that in this context, being before the judgment seat of the Christ could possibly refer to humans who lived on earth for 1,000 years. Paul says that we must ALL be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ. ALL.
It occurred to me that the traditional Christian view of the resurrection might actually be true. Or that perhaps the real truth could be somewhere in between. Based on 1 Corinthians 15, my take on it is like so: first we die, then we are raised up as incorruptible beings to stand before Christ and be judged for what we did in our fleshly bodies. Simple. I'd be inclined to hold onto the notion that the soul isn't immortal, but that we get immortality through the resurrection. Jesus bought that for us, and through his own death and resurrection, he showed us exactly what it would be like. The physical body is refashioned into a spiritual one. For Jesus, perhaps this happened in a different manner, his fleshly body being changed over quickly into a spiritual one, not allowed to see corruption--hence why there was no body in the tomb. But it was a body of sorts because he could eat food with it, and acknowledged that he would 'drink the product of the vine in the kingdom of God'. (Presumably, though, we would hope that there is no spiritual bathroom business required...)
Now maybe I'm tossing out more error myself, but hey, at least I'm not going to cut you off from your family if you refuse to believe it.
My bottom-line point? The Society takes John 5:28, 29 and turns PAST TENSE into FUTURE TENSE. "did" and "practiced" become "will do" and "will practice". I could do another example, but I've talked enough already. Happy to hear your thoughts on this. Take care.
SD-7