That’s the English translation, the actual Greek word in Mathew 24:8 is “birth pains.” Then He starts talking about in verse 14 how the gospel is preached and then the end comes. But then the end doesn’t really come because in verse 15 He talks about an abomination that makes Jerusalem desolate. Then He talks about cosmic signs in the heaven, and then He talks about how that things are going to get really bad but the Son of man’s going to come back on the clouds of glory.
And then He, then He says this statement that honestly has confused people: “But this generation shall not pass ‘til ALL these things are fulfilled.” Now all of these things would imply the destruction of the Temple, all of the signs of deception, wars, earthquakes, pestilence. And then the cosmic activity that would happen in the heaven, and suddenly the Son of man appearing in the, in the heavens. Now this is why, this verse in Matthew 24 is one of the reasons why that you have people such as “preterists” who always telling us “Wait a minute, it all had to happen in a generation.”
Now here’s what they don’t understand. In Acts, chapter 2, Peter talks about this, and I like the way it’s translated in the King James because it does, it does an accurate translation in both Joel 2 and Acts 2. In Acts chapter 2 Peter says: “It shall come to pass IN the last days I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And you know where he’s quoting? He’s quoted from Joel chapter 2. The only thing is if you go to Joel chapter 2 it reads almost exactly the way Peter quoted it except for one phrase. Joel said: “It shall come to pass AFTERWARDS I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.” Joel did not say “last days.” You can look at it in the Hebrew. “Afterwards.” But Peter talks about “the last days.”
Now this brings me to a thought that’s very important. There would be two outpourings of the Spirit. One that Peter talked about and he said it’s “the last days.” What’d he mean by the “last days?” Well, you got to remember something. Jesus had already told the Jews in Matthew chapter 23 destruction was coming in a generation. He said, “All of this will come upon this generation.” Remember that?
