Systematic Theology, vol. 4: The Church and the Last Things

What is a Christian Church? How will the church survive? How will Jesus return? How will the Cosmic Conflict end? These questions and more are ardently probed in light of scriptural revelation in this fourth and final volume of Norman Gulley's Systematic Theology. Here he culminates this work of a lifetime by examining the doctrines of ecclesiology and eschatology within the theological framework of the cosmic controversy between Christ and Satan. This volume examines controversial questions about God's Who is its Head? Who is its Vicar? How does it receive God's grace? Who has ultimate authority? Gulley both examines and critiques some of the traditional answers by his interpretive framework of Scripture enunciated in his system. The Reformation is not finished, and there is thus a need for increasing clarity. The Bible refers to a coming tribulation, and this work examines how it can be understood and survived. The books of Daniel and Revelation play a pivotal role here, as Gulley surveys and critically examines various approaches to prophetic eschatology that have been held throughout Christian history--preterism, futurism, historicism, and idealism--including their related views regarding the return of Christ. He builds his eschatological outlook on a historicist approach, with biblical prophecy fulfilled throughout Christian history, as well as in the present and the future. The foundational principle employed is that which Gulley began in his Prolegomena--sola scriptura. This final volume of the immense and wide-ranging Systematic Theology thus culminates where the first began with the primacy of Scripture in the cosmic conflict worldview. And it fittingly climaxes with the final resolution of that conflict--the Second Coming of Christ and the final judgment. Cover......Page 1 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 22 Acknowledgments......Page 26 The Church......Page 28 1. Daniel and Revelation: Contribution to Ecclesiology and Eschatology......Page 30 2. Doctrine of Ecclesiology: Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox......Page 68 3. Apostolic Church: Nature and Mission......Page 112 4. Apostolic Church Holy Spirit as Vicar of God......Page 146 5. Roman Church: Further Background......Page 166 6. Roman Church: Apostolic Succession......Page 196 7. Roman Church and Paganism......Page 224 8. Roman Church: Replacement Theology......Page 260 9. Roman Church: Replacement Theology, Sabbath Debate 1......Page 306 10. Roman Church: Replacement Theology, Sabbath Debate 2......Page 328 11. Roman Church: Replacement Theology and the Rise of Sunday......Page 372 12. Reformation Unfinished: What Is Missing?......Page 404 13. Reformation Unfinished: Church Ordinances......Page 416 14. Reformation Unfinished: Church and State......Page 458 15. Finishing the Reformation: Toward a Theology of the Remnant......Page 478 16. Eschatology: Importance of Sola Scriptura......Page 514 17. Eschatology: Apostolic Teaching 1......Page 530 18. Eschatology: Apostolic Teaching 2......Page 546 19. Eschatology: Apostolic Teaching 3......Page 570 20. Eschatology: Global Gathering......Page 588 21. Eschatology: Global Test, Left-Behind, and Armageddon......Page 638 22. Eschatology: Second Advent......Page 666 23. Eschatology: Millennium......Page 696 24. Eschatology: New Earth......Page 724 Appemdix A: Evidence against Antiochus IV Epiphanes......Page 738 Appendix B: Where Did Purgatory Come From? Biblical Refutation......Page 745 Appendix C: Rejection of the Biblical Sabbath......Page 754 Appendix D: Sacred Times Compared......Page 768 Appendix E: Preble's Thesis Examined......Page 771 Appendix F: Sabbath as One Day in Seven......Page 773 Appendix G: Tertullian's Answer to Marcion......Page 776 Appendix H: Justin Martyr's Sunday Statement......Page 777 Appendix I: Gnostic Roots of Sunday Keeping......Page 782 Appendix J: In Defense of Christ's Divinity......Page 785 Appendix K: Sacramentum Mundi (Twentieth Century)......Page 788 Appendix L: Islam......Page 790 Name Index......Page 798 Scritpure Index......Page 812 Subject Index......Page 842