Joshua Ryan Butler

In the vein of Timothy Keller or N. T. Wright, The Skeletons In God's Closet helps Christians and skeptics wrestle with some of today's toughest criticisms, deepest doubts and questions on faith

The Mercy of Hell, the Surprise of Judgment, the Hope of Holy War

The Skeletons in God's Closet

Discover America’s four political religions and why Jesus is crashing them all! “A must-read for any and all who seek the way of Jesus.”—Jay Kim, pastor and author of Analog Christian The political divide is wider than ever. Each side demands ultimate allegiance that’s incompatible with the Christian faith. The fervency with which so many advocate their political ideals is best described in religious terms. Four political “religions” have arisen in America: • Religion of Progress: “We can change the world.” • Religion of Responsibility: “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” • Religion of Identity: “Live your truth.” • Religion of Security: “Good fences make good neighbors.” In this insightful, nonpartisan work, Pastor Joshua Ryan Butler first exposes the religious nature of these political movements and how they compete for our loyalty to Jesus, and then he prescribes ten political commandments for Christlike engagement. Fortunately, Jesus is the ultimate Party Crasher. And he is disrupting politics-as-usual to invite us to embrace a bold vision capable of redeeming our partisan divide.

How Jesus Disrupts Politics as Usual and Redeems Our Partisan Divide

The Party Crasher

How God's Vision for Sex Points Us to the Good, Unlocks the True, and  Explains Everything

Beautiful Union

How can a loving God send people to hell? Isn’t it arrogant to believe Jesus is the only way to God? What is up with holy war in the Old Testament? Many of us fear God has some skeletons in the closet. Hell, judgment, and holy war are hot topics for the Christian faith that have a way of igniting fierce debate far and wide. These hard questions leave many wondering whether God is really good and can truly be trusted. The Skeletons in God's Closet confronts our popular caricatures of these difficult topics with the beauty and power of the real thing. Josh Butler reveals that these subjects are consistent with, rather than contradictory to, the goodness of God. He explores Scripture to reveal the plotlines that make sense of these tough topics in light of God’s goodness. From fresh angles, Josh deals powerfully with such difficult passages as: The Lake of Fire Lazarus and the Rich Man The Slaughter of Canaanites in the Old Testament Ultimately, The Skeletons in God's Close uses our toughest questions to provoke paradigm shifts in how we understand our faith as a whole. It pulls the “skeletons out of God’s closet” to reveal they were never really skeletons at all.

Is God lost? Many of us feel that way. It’s as if God’s gone missing, out in the universe somewhere—and we must pick up the hunt, following any trail of breadcrumbs he may have left to go out and find him. We speak of “searching for God,” “exploring spirituality,” and “finding faith.” But what if we have it backward? What if God is the one pursuing us? What if our job is not to go out and find God, but simply to stop running and hiding? Not to earn God’s love, but to receive it? Not to turn on the light, but to step out of the shadows? Jesus reveals a God on the prowl, pursuing us, hunting down his world for reconciliation. And the question we’re left with is not whether we’ve pursued hard enough, searched long enough, or jumped high enough . . . The question is, “Do we want to be found?”

Joshua Ryan Butler

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