Claim #8: The Old Testament doesn’t talk about hell.
The Old Testament speaks only of Sheol, not Hell, and Sheol is the dusty place in the earth where everybody goes after they die.
As previously noted, it’s true that the Old Testament talks about Sheol, but to use that as an argument against hell is unfair to the text of Scripture.
In Luke 16, we in essence learn that the punishment compartment of Sheol involves torture, shame, fire, heat and pain—in other words, hell. The Old Testament also depicts “the grave” (Sheol, or the Pit) as a fate earned by the wicked (Psalm 55:23) while holding it in tension as the destiny of the righteous (see Psalm 16:10, 28:1, 30, 49:9). There is a clear Old Testament expectation that God had more in store for the righteous than Sheol: eventual resurrection and vindication. Thus, Christ’s resurrection—which enables us to be raised from the dead (see 1 Cor. 15)—is that long-awaited solution for God’s people through the ages.
