Neville, first of all, what lie? I have no idea what you’re talking about. While the Rebbe was alive it was completely reasonable to expect and hope that he would be the moshiach. Where is the lie in that? Now that he’s no longer alive (at least in the usual sense) it’s no longer a reasonable thing to expect, but however unlikely it’s technically possible, so if someone wishes to hold out hope for it, and it helps his avodas Hashem, where’s the lie?
As for Shatbai Tzvi, I did *not* write that he was not rejected before his shmad. I wrote that he was not rejected until he went off the derech. When he publicly did aveiros, and instructed his followers to do so, *that* is when those not under his spell rejected him. Not earlier. And had he not done that, had he remained a tzadik throughout his life, we would now be speaking of his memory with reverence, not contempt, just as the Rambam does about Bar Kochva, because there is no shame in trying and failing to be moshiach. The concept of “moshiach sheker” is invalid, an invention of maskilim, in order to cool off the whole idea of moshiach.