Hello, Max—I have read you over the years and I appreciate your thought and writing style. You said not one biblical inerrantist believes Mt. 5:38-48.
   I’m an inerrantist.
   I believe those words.
   Now what? – Regards…

   O, my dear friends in newspaper land, I have other things to talk about, but I am drawn back to this subject.
   I appreciate my gracious reader for sticking with me through the years. But I must say right out that you cannot—CANNOT—be a biblical inerrantist and believe Mt. 5:38-48 or Lk 6:27-36 or even the Parable of the Prodigal.
   The God Jesus shows us would not order the slaying of the Amalekites or even get mad, repent a mistake, and drown all creation in a flood.
   Yes, even Jesus used that last story in a parabolic way. He knew it would preach. But that is not the God he preached.
   Jesus tells us that “an eye for an eye” is not God’s reality. There is no retribution in God.
   No retaliation. No getting even.
   We must love our enemies as God loves his.
   Jesus tells us God is “kind to the ungrateful and to the wicked.”
   (Oh!!!, if I had a mere dollar for every time I have quoted that verse, I’m a rich man!)
   Jesus makes it clear. God does not punish his enemies! God takes the punishment upon himself!
   God suffers for our sins. We are all forgiven.
   Now. As we are.