Claim #9: Paul never discussed Hell.
St. Paul, who lived and wrote before the New Testament gospels were written, doesn’t seem to have thought much about hell at all.
The word “hell” doesn’t come up much in Paul’s vocabulary (not that it matters, since the New Testament contains more than just his writings), but eternal wrath and judgment are everywhere in Paul’s writings. Sweeney is outright deceiving readers at this point.
Consider how Paul treats the concept of divine judgment:
- “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10).
- “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18).
- “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2:5).
- “But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Rom. 2:8).
- “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Rom. 5:9).
- “For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:9-10).
Paul didn’t need to reinvent the wheel where the concept of God’s judgment in hell and at the resurrection was already understood. Instead, much of his writing focuses on explaining the nature and cause for God’s wrath—and his frightening point is that no one is under God’s wrath who doesn’t deserve it. That should cause us to take a serious look at the cross of Christ as the solution to our sin problem.
