If we needed any more confirmation of God’s grace and hand on the subject, it surely came a few days ago in the form of an out-of-the-blue phone message and email. “My name is Mark Oppenheimer,” the message said. “I am a religion writer for the New York Times. I am doing an article on the conditionalist view of hell. May I phone you for an interview?” I considered his question for about one-hundredth of a second and immediately responded in the affirmative. He also asked if he could send a photographer to my house to get some pictures.
Turns out that Mr. Oppenheimer has been interested in this subject for some time and finally decided to research and write a piece on it for his bi-weekly column, “Beliefs,” in the NYT. By the time of our phone interview, it was clear that he had done considerable research on the subject and was well-informed. He had even seen the movie, “Hell and Mr. Fudge.” His final product appears in today’s (Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014) in print and on-line editions of the Times. It is a well- crafted, balanced, and detailed introduction to the subject.
The most satisfying detail of all regarding this whole affair is that I had absolutely nothing to do with initiating it or bringing it about. For that, I humbly thank God, who uses us all as he sees fit. To him be all the glory.
To access the on-line article, click here or go to nytimes.com and search for “Edward Fudge”.
