Here's the Q:
I have read several of your books and heard you speak in Greensboro NC last spring. I convinced my 23 year old son to go listen to you speak in Chicago last month, even though it required a 90 minute traversing of the city on a friday evening. Needless to say, I'm a fan. I love what you have to say in your books because it truly speaks to my heart, but I still come away with some question/concerns. I guess I always feel the need to be able to defend what I believe through scripture even though my heart seems to speak the loudest when it comes to my beliefs. In your recent book you write about Paul's quote and say that "the language of divine mercy and promise is retained." You also write about Jesus' "dehostilization" of Isaiah 61:1-2. I know that Jesus'overall message is one of love but he also uses some harsh words. It's hard for me to ignore (or make sense of) his words in The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (18:34-35) or his warning in Luke 12:5 and 12:46. Not only do verses like these (and there are many more)make me question what I've come to believe~that our God loves all of his creation and will save us all~but it also makes me question the validity of scripture. I need your help. Any thoughts? Can you speak directly to those verses?32Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?” 34And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. 35So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister* from your heart.’
45But if that slave says to himself, “My master is delayed in coming”, and if he begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces,* and put him with the unfaithful. 47That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating.4 ‘I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. 5But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority* to cast into hell.* Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. 7But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows
Here's the R: