Written by,
Robert Johnson
Joshua 24:15 King James Version (KJV)
“15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Did you ever stop to consider that Paul, our Apostle, never once used the word hell?
He didn’t use the word hell in any recorded messages from the Book of Acts. He didn’t use the word hell in any of his epistles. Not once!
How could this possibly be?
Most traditional religions around the world despise the Apostle Paul because he breaks rank when it comes to the law. Where there is no true understanding of the spirit of God there is hate and anger.
Paul’s theology of the gospel contributed to the separation of the messianic sect of Christians from Judaism, a development contrary to Paul’s own intent. He wrote that faith in Christ was alone decisive in salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike, making the schism between the followers of Christ and mainstream Jews inevitable and permanent. Without Paul’s campaign against the legalists who opposed him, Christianity may have remained a dissenting sect within Judaism.
He successfully argued that Gentile converts did not need to follow Jewish customs, get circumcised, follow Jewish dietary restrictions, or otherwise observe Mosaic law, see also Antinomianism in the New Testament and Abrogation of Old Covenant laws. Nevertheless, in his Epistle to the Romans he insisted on the positive value of the Law in its divine form. Since Paul’s time, the polemical contrast that he made between the old and the new way of salvation has usually been weakened, with an emphasis on smooth development rather than stark contrast. One who stood against eating meat, etc, now gives a different view other than the understanding of Judaism. The issue is it goes against everything that Jesus taught in the gospels. Peter is another key figure where we see it difficult of change.
Acts 13:46 (KJV)
“Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.”
How could Paul have conducted a teaching ministry that brought glory to God, and yet have never even once used the word hell? Isn’t the traditional, orthodox doctrine of hell at the very foundation of the religious system’s creeds?
How could Paul have been so negligent? How could he have gone through his entire ministry, forgetting to use such a crucial word? What’s up with that?
Or, is it possible Paul understood something we don’t? Could it be we have been deeply buried under religious tradition?
Consider for a moment this declaration of Paul himself, found in the Book of Acts:
(Acts 20:26,27)
“Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”
The plain and simple fact is that Paul was NOT negligent in his teaching ministry. Here is a passage that makes this clear. Paul said that he was “pure from the blood of all men,” because he had declared “all the counsel of God” – a counsel which obviously DID NOT include hell at all.
Do we find ourselves perplexed that Paul, the Apostle, never use the word hell and yet was able to declare “all the counsel of God”? Are we amazed that he could have been “pure from the blood of all men” without even once using the word hell? Could our bewilderment here be because we have been steeped in the traditions of men, and not in the traditions of Paul who preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.
1 Timothy 4 King James Version (KJV)
4 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
2 Timothy 4 King James Version (KJV)
4 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
{This is the controversy!}
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
(II Thessalonians 2:15).
“Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle”
“Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus”( II Timothy 1:13)
Again, “holding fast the form of sound words” that we have heard from Paul will remove hell from our doctrine.
We must be like those from Berea and search the scriptures for ourselves (Acts 17:11). We need to diligently test, or prove the things that we believe against the Scriptures.
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (I Thessalonians 5:21).
We need to see for ourselves if religious hell was a part of the vocabulary divinely given to Paul. We must consult an exhaustive concordance if need be. We must not settle for the party line, or a secondhand faith.
“Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Romans 14:5).
Isn’t Paul presented as our present pattern? (I Timothy 1:15,16).
Doesn’t Paul tell us to follow him? (I Corinthians 4:15-17; 11:1; Philippians 3:17).
“Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” ( II Timothy 1:13)?
Wouldn’t we be Pauline, if we like Paul, also excluded hell from our teaching?
“But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1).
Therefore, Paul does not use the Greek words translated “hell,” he does speak about the destination of those who reject Jesus. He teaches that those who go to hell will endure the wrath of God, become useless, be separated from God (the source of happiness and all that is good), and be distressed. This reality should motivate Christians to share the gospel with everyone that they know.
Here’s what Paul introduced:
Jeremiah 31:33 (KJV)
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Why doesn’t Paul reference Numbers 16:22 (KJV) A type of hell
And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.
Romans 10:4 KJV
In his sinless life, Jesus lived God’s laws and by his death he took the wrath of God and the laws demands for justice. The resurrection of Jesus Christ brought a new and better way than the law of Moses for Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness the Bible tell us.
Christ is the end of the law
Galatians Chapter 3
Those under Judaism trying to tare the church up
They could not receive that salvation is as easy as it is.
Yet this same Apostle let each church know grace is not the opportunity to continue in sin Romans 6:1
In 2 King 5 Naaman is great example of someone needing other than what was provided.
Grace has nothing to do what man it has to do with the work of Christ.
It was and inside job, not and outside ability.
“Reference the life of Paul in the spirit.”
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