rejected by the rest of the Governing Body. Despite its earlier description as being "beyond question", the "generation of 1914" teaching was discarded in 1995. Rather than a literal lifespan of 70 to 80 years, the definition of "generation" was changed to "contemporary people of a certain historical period, with their identifying characteristics," without reference to any specific amount of time. This class of people was described as "the peoples of earth who see the sign of Christ's presence but fail to mend their ways". Mention of 1914 was dropped from Awake! magazine's mission statement as of November 8, 1995. The Watchtower insisted, however, that Armageddon was still imminent, asking: "Does our more precise viewpoint on 'this generation' mean that Armageddon is further away than we had thought? Not at all!" In 2008, the "generation" teaching was again altered, and the term was used to refer to the "anointed" believers, some of whom would still be alive on earth when the great tribulation begins. This was a return to a belief previously held between 1927 and 1950 when the teaching of the "generation of 1914" not passing away was adopted. In 2010, the teaching of the "generation" was modified again, to refer to "the anointed who were on hand when the sign began to become evident in 1914" and other "anointed" members whose lives "overlap" with the first group. In 2015, it was asserted that the "generation" would include any individuals "anointed" up until 1992 at the earliest. Controversy Fall of Jerusalem Jehovah's Witnesses assert that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 BC and completely uninhabited for exactly seventy years. This date is critical to their selection of October 1914 for the arrival of Christ in kingly power—2520 years after October 607 BC. Non-Witness scholars do not support 607 BC for the event; most scholars date the destruction of Jerusalem to within a year of 587 BC, twenty years later. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that periods of seventy years mentioned in the books of Jeremiah and Daniel refer to the Babylonian exile of Jews. They also believe that the gathering of Jews in Jerusalem, shortly after their return from Babylon, officially ended the exile in Jewish month of Tishrei (Ezra 3:1). According to the Watch Tower Society, October 607 BC is derived by counting back seventy years from Tishrei of 537 BC, based on their belief that Cyrus' decree