No offense, Ish, but that is the worst interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream that I've ever heard. If the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is not God's church -- if it is only a bunch of people who appointed themselves as God's faithful and discreet servant, then it stands to reason that the entire organization is way beneath God's prophetic radar. How do you know Daniel's not talking about the Seventh Day Adventists or William Miller?
Remember, no one in the Society ever had a revelation proclaiming them as God's organization, or church. Indeed, the WTBTS has always denied being a church; yet we know that Jesus organized his church because he said the gates of death would not prevail against it. So if the church ceased to be in the second or third century, then the Society, not being a church, cannot claim any authority. If the church did survive, the Society couldn't be it because it denies being a church. And it will disfellowship you if you visit a church of any type. Either way, they have zero claim on representing God.
Paul said that "no man taketh this honor" (meaning the authority to act in God's name) "unto himself, but he who is called of God as was Aaron."
So when did God "call" Russell and Rutherford? How was Aaron called? He was called of God through Moses, God's prophet and chief authority.
And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons.
-=Exodus 28:1=-
Moses' authority had already been established and he was sanctified of God. I see nothing in scripture or the WTBTS' own history that would indicate that anyone in the Society was ever called and ordained by God. Jesus said that at the last day, many would claim to be Christ's disciples, but that he would say, "Away with you. I never knew you." I suspect that both Russle and Rutherford now know better, as it can no longer be reasonably argued that the soul sleeps at death, and no longer exists.
The "disgusting thing" (better translated the abomination) could have been King Antiochus, but the timeframe is all wrong. Many have desecrated the temple, but the abomination of desolation not only was the Roman destruction of the temple, but more precisely, from a prophetic view, he's the Beast, or Gog, or the Antichrist, who desecrates God's third temple in Jerusalem. This has not yet happened.
