Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

 Good Sunday morning. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. First of all, the word “not” in Greek is a double negative. In English, that would mean that it would be a positive statement. In Greek that means that for certain it will not happen. There have been various attempts to explain what it means by “this generation will not pass away until all these things take place”. That's because the generation alive when Jesus said it did pass away before all of those things happened, and we had a double negative that guaranteed they would not pass away. So some have said that the word generation refers to the Jewish people. The Greek verb used for the statement “take place" normally refers to the simple past tense. I read that it can mean inception; that is, begin to happen. They are the same Greek words that the angel used to tell Zachariah that he would not speak until all these things happened concerning his son John the Baptist that was to be born. Some of the things that the angel said about John would not happen for 30 years. However they had begun to happen when Zachariah spoke. That would mean that the verses in Matthew 24 could be interpreted as “this generation will not pass away until all these things begin to take place”. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away. Again there is a double negative. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. In Revelation it has the Son of Man sitting on a cloud with a sickle. An Angel comes out and tells Him it is time to reap. It is like He does not know that it is time. Father thank You that You hear and answer all of the reader's requests. Help him/her to hear something today that he/she can use in his/her life.