More specifically, citing Paul’s teaching, Sproul stated that those who died will rise first and be taken up into the air and those who are alive at the second coming of Christ will also be taken up to meet the Lord as he descends.

Now that Harold Camping has been proven false again with the coming and going of May 21 and no signs of any judgment or rapture, the world is left to wonder what Christians really do believe about the end times.

Ligonier Ministries, a prominent Reformed education organization, released a series of teachings on the subject of the last days to provide some clarity amid apparent confusion.

“There’s all kinds of debate about what actually is going to take place in the rapture and again when the rapture will take place,” said prominent theologian Dr. R.C. Sproul, founder of Ligonier.

What Sproul lays out in his lectures are the various positions Christians hold with regard to the end times.

What the public may be most familiar with, following Camping’s Judgment Day proclamation, is what is called dispensational premillennialism. Adherents of this theological view expect the rapture to take place, where the church will be caught up to meet Jesus in the air, right before a period of great tribulation. Afterward, Jesus will return again with the saints for his final manifestation and reign for a thousand years.

“This scheme has two returns of Jesus at the end of the times: one … just for his saints and then his final return after the tribulation,” Sproul summed up.

Disagreeing with this view, Sproul pointed to the imagery that the Apostle Paul used in his account of the rapture in the New Testament book of 1 Thessalonians.
“The whole point of the imagery here echoes and reflects something that was commonplace in the contemporary world in which Paul wrote – namely, the pattern and practice of the triumphal return to Rome of the Roman armies,” the Reformed theologian stated.

After winning a battle, Roman armies would camp outside the city and send a messenger to announce their arrival. The city would then be prepared with decorations and an arch of triumph. At a prearranged time, a signal would be made whereby trumpets would be blown. That is when the armies would march in triumph into the city.

“But before they began their march at the signal of the trumpet, everyone who was an actual citizen of Rome was invited to come outside the city to join the parade to march back in through the arch of triumph with the victorious army,” Sproul said.

With that, the Pittsburgh native concluded, “What I hear Paul saying is that when Jesus comes, he’s going to come back to this earth with his whole church; the church will be caught up to meet him as he descends and he will continue to descend along with his whole entourage of believers.”

Read More: http://www.christianpost.com/news/theologian-offers-clarity-to-rapture-last-days-beliefs-50376/