Kevin H Book Review: The Skeletons In Gods Closet

I recently finished reading the book, The Skeletons in God’s Closet, written by Joshua Ryan Butler, a pastor in Portland, Oregon.

The subtitle is, The Mercy of Hell, the Surprise of Judgment, the Hope of Holy War.

As it would suggest, the three main issues the author tackles are hell, judgment, and holy war. In his approach to these topics, he attempts to challenge popular understandings while looking to maintain a biblically orthodox approach. On the whole, I found the book to be quite thought provoking.

In that hell, judgment, and holy war are issues that many people struggle with, Christian and non-Christian alike, I believe this book is a very relevant apologetic for our culture today.
My intent here is not to do a full blown book review. To properly do that would require a much longer article. Plus, I do not have nearly the theological acumen to suitably tackle many of Butler’s assertions with sufficient depth or specificity. I leave that to the experts. Rather, I want to converse a little more about his persuasions.

The coverage of each of these topics will only be a brief synopsis. In the book, Butler carefully draws out and builds upon his thoughts. My short dealings here will not give real justice to the detail and fullness with which he writes.

Let’s start with hell, as he does in the book.

Hell is not an underground torture chamber according to Butler. Instead it is a place that is apart from God, ultimately contained outside of God’s kingdom when Christ returns to redeem all of creation. All of our sins release the powers of hell into our world and God wants to get the hell out of earth. He wills that everything in his kingdom be good, so He will not allow the corrupt elements to be present. He does not banish the “bad” people to eternal torture. Rather people choose not to give up their sinful ways or accept God’s offer of salvation and they are tormented by their losses and own sins. God will not allow them in because he does not want any kind of impurity in his kingdom. God is not “out to get” those who reject him, rather to protect those in his kingdom.

Butler, while holding to the reality of hell, describes a concept appreciably different from the characterizations often given in church or popular culture. If he is correct in his understanding, then it becomes ever more difficult for those who paint caricatures of God as being a sadistic deployer of torture. Butler argues that as he sees hell, it is actually the most merciful of options for those who reject God. Because while God sees justice through, he is also merciful and not one who is out to harrow anybody.

Next in the book comes judgment.

Butler asserts that judgment will be surprising. God judges the world to heal it and rescue it from bondage. God cares for everyone, most especially the weak and downtrodden. Even though Christianity has been primarily a Western religion, especially for the first 1500 years after Christ’s time on earth, God cares for all and we see Jesus saying his kingdom will be made up of nations from both the east and west and also the north and south. Many will say on that day, “Lord, Lord”, but Jesus will send them away saying he never knew them. We are deceived by appearances, God is not. God gathers in his own and weeds out the imposters from his body and bride.

Butler is challenging us not to make assumptions here. God is the one to judge eternal destinations and not us. We shouldn’t be so quick to coldly write off many people because we’re sure we know. And once again God’s mercy and his concern for all peoples of the world, especially the poor and vulnerable, are emphasized. While Butler does not forsake orthodoxy here, I do wish he would have expounded further upon some of his thoughts in this section. But the exhortation is heeded. God is the final judge, not us. And we may be surprised by some of the things we see in that day.

Lastly for holy war, Butler avows that God is not the big bully on the block who is out to beat up anybody whenever he feels like.

Rather, God is sticking up for the poor and oppressed after long periods of patience with those committing great wrongdoing. In many of the battles of Israel, it is not the Israelites fighting a holy war in protection of the name of God, but rather God fighting a holy war on behalf of the downtrodden Israelites. To free them from the tyranny of the strong. Some of those battles have been misunderstood as a complete wiping out of civilizations, including all women and children, when in reality many times they were triumphs over primarily military outposts.  God’s last holy war will be one to reconcile heaven and earth by removing hell from earth.  God will reduce to rubble those earthly powers which represent hell. Not a battle with a primacy on torturing some in a lake of fire.

In this section we see Butler taking on some of the arguments of today that allege God is a moral monster guilty of genocide and worse. He flips those arguments and proclaims God in his mercy is actually looking out for the little guy and bringing justice to wrongful situations. It is an intriguing take on the issue.

I am sure there are those who would want to take the author to task in some of his theological assertions and reasoning. I am not here to declare that Butler definitively has it all figured out. Again, I leave that wrestling to the big boys.

However, The Skeletons in God’s Closet challenges us in how we approach these three very difficult subjects. At the very least, it makes us think about our thought process and attitudes. And Butler makes this more than a theological exercise and makes plenty of his own personal application along the way while also challenging the reader. For one quick example he writes about child sex trafficking being a prime indicator of hell on earth. Yet this is only a symptom. The root cause of the problem is lust.  He readily admits to the lust that can flare up in himself. Many of us could make this same application.

The Skeletons in God’s Closet is a challenging and thoughtful treatise on these tough subjects of hell, judgment, and holy war.

We should guard against being so cold-hearted in our approach to these topics where they cause no real reflection or contemplation. Where we can end up giving the impression to others that God is a big mean jerk who is just as cold as us. We are Christ’s representatives. They should know us by our love. I believe this book helps us to do that.