Acts 2:17:   17 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams”

Thank you to Let us Reason Ministries for giving me permission to post their article:

Are we seeing the Latter Rain that the book of Joel predicted?

There are three facets to keep in mind to have a correct interpretation of (Acts 2:17) which refers to (Joel 2,3).

1. Time                   
2. Place               
3. Recipients

All three need to be accurate to determine if in fact it this outpouring has taken place.

1. Time-   this occurs in the tribulation period near the end, so it is impossible for this to be happening now.
2. Place-  It begins in Israel specifically Mt. Zion (Jerusalem).
3. Recipients-   It is to the Jewish people primarily for them to be saved. If this is not taking place with all three elements then it has not happened as the Scripture records and it is not fulfilled prophecy.

Latter Rain adherents have a movement that believes in a last day’s revival unlike any other in history. This revival is for the church.  They incorrectly apply eschatological passages specifically for Israel to the church. The common mistake is taking the scripture in (Acts 2:17) which says: ‘God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh,’ to substantiate what is happening in the new revivals today. This is not the meaning of this verse and cannot be applied today for the above mentioned reasons.

If we go back to the book of (Joel 2:28-32), we find that the timing of these events are just before the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, which is the day he comes back (Armageddon). The location where this takes place is the land of Israel. The people being referred to are the Jews. Peter himself is in Jerusalem and speaking to the Jews at Pentecost. (Joel 3 states: ‘for behold in those days and in that time...’ It then goes on to speak of Armageddon and judgement). This is also mentioned earlier in (Joel 2:10-11). So we see that this is speaking specifically to the Jewish nation concerning a future event. What Peter is referring to in (Acts 2) does not include all of what is to happen in (Joel 2). It is partial fulfilment at Peters time and a complete fulfilment will be at a later date. There is a main similarity that Peter explains, to say this is what Joel spoke of- it has to do with the pouring out of the Spirit (a manifestation of the Spirit among the Jewish brethren).