Titus 1:2
Titus 1:22in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
Watchtower commentary cites ("God, who cannot lie") as supporting the integrity of Jehovah's revealed truth — including the truth dispensed through his organisation. The verse is sometimes paired with assurances about the reliability of Watchtower teaching: if Jehovah cannot lie, his channel of communication on earth must also speak truth.
cuts directly against the new-light defence of the Watchtower's doctrinal reversals. If God cannot lie, there are only two options for any teaching the Governing Body has reversed. Either (1) Jehovah gave the original teaching and it was true, in which case the reversal is a human invention contradicting God; or (2) the original teaching never came from Jehovah, in which case the Governing Body is not God's channel — they are men guessing and getting it wrong. The 1874 → 1914 change in the date of Christ's return, the 1925 prophecy of resurrected patriarchs, the 1975 Armageddon expectation, the 1947 → 1952 reversal on disfellowshipping — each forces this dilemma. Russell's own standard ("new light never extinguishes older light but adds to it") cannot survive the reversals. closes the escape route.
The NWT renders pro chronōn aiōniōn as "promised long ago" — consensus reads "before the ages began" (ESV), "before times eternal" (NASB), "before the beginning of time" (NIV), or "before the world began" (KJV). "Promised long ago" reduces a pretemporal promise (in eternity past, before time) to a merely ancient one. Paul's point is that the promise of eternal life is grounded in God's pre-creation purpose, not just in his historical faithfulness. The flattening fits the NWT's pattern with aiōnios (compare Rom 16:26 "everlasting" for "eternal").