In the congregation bible study, the book addressed how "truth" is progressive...
18 Just as Jehovah progressively revealed truths about the Kingdom in the period leading up to 1914, he continues to do so during the time of the end. As Chapters 4 and 5 of this book will show, over the past 100 years, God’s people have had to adjust their understanding on a number of occasions. Does that fact mean that they do not have Jehovah’s backing? On the contrary! He supports them. Why? Because those who fear Jehovah have displayed two qualities that he loves—faith and humility. (Heb. 11:6; Jas. 4:6) Jehovah’s servants have faith that all the promises in God’s Word will come true. They show humility when they admit that they misunderstood exactly how those promises would be fulfilled. That humble attitude is reflected in the March 1, 1925, issue of The Watch Tower, which said: “We know that the Lord is his own interpreter, that he will interpret his Word to his people in his own good way and in his own due time.”
19 When the Kingdom was established in 1914,
God’s people had only partial knowledge of how prophecies relating to
the Kingdom would be carried out. (1 Cor. 13:9, 10, 12)
In our zeal to see God’s promises fulfilled, we have on occasion drawn
wrong conclusions. Over the years, the wisdom of another statement made
in The Watch Tower quoted in the preceding paragraph has become
apparent. The article stated: “It seems to be a safe rule to follow,
that prophecy can not be understood by us until it is fulfilled or in
the course of fulfillment.” Now that we are deep into the time of the
end, many Kingdom prophecies have been and are being fulfilled. Because
God’s people are humble and willing to be corrected, Jehovah has allowed
our understanding of his purpose to become more complete. True knowledge has become abundant!
Refinements in Understanding Sift God’s People
20 When Jehovah refines our understanding of truth, our heart condition is tested. Will faith and humility move us to accept the changes? Christians living in the middle of the first century faced such a test. For example, imagine that you were a Jewish Christian living at that time. You deeply respect the Mosaic Law and take pride in your national heritage. Now you receive inspired letters from the apostle Paul stating that the Law is no longer binding and that Jehovah has rejected natural Israel in favor of gathering a spiritual Israel made up of both Jews and Gentiles. (Rom. 10:12; 11:17-24; Gal. 6:15, 16; Col. 2:13, 14) How would you have responded?
21 Humble Christians accepted Paul’s inspired explanation and were blessed by Jehovah. (Acts 13:48) Others resented the refinements and wanted to cling to their own understanding. (Gal. 5:7-12) If they would not change their viewpoint, those individuals would lose the opportunity to be corulers with Christ.—2 Pet. 2:1.
22 In recent decades, Jehovah has refined our understanding of the Kingdom. For example, he has helped us to see more clearly when those who will be subjects of the Kingdom are to be separated from unresponsive ones as sheep are separated from goats. He has also taught us when the full number of the 144,000 will be filled, what the Kingdom illustrations given by Jesus mean, and when the last of the anointed will be raised to heavenly life.* How do you respond to such clarifications? Is your faith strengthened? Do you see them as evidence that Jehovah continues to educate his humble people? The following material in this book will reinforce your conviction that Jehovah is progressively revealing his purpose to those who fear him.
So really prophesy can only interpreted by what has happened? Sort of defeats the purpose of prophesy it seems to me. In fact the whole study seems utterly ridiculous.
Anyway, The reason I ask if you have been to the meeting is I am curious if this study was rushed in your hall?
In ours we had to view the video about building halls in addition to the local needs talk. It was 16 minutes after 8 by the time the study started! The brother did a great job of getting it done in 15 minutes.
I asked a ministerial servant friend what was up with that and he said at the last minute the society told the brothers to show the video.
I got to thinking, was that a way to gloss over this study and give it short shrift because it was so blatant?
So, did anyone else got a non rushed version of this study it was it rushed in your hall too?