Paul “FULLY PROCLAIMED the Gospel,” Including About Hell

Aside from Jesus Christ, Paul is by far the most important figure in the New Testament. Over half of the book of Acts, which is a biblical documentation of the early Church, is devoted to Paul’s exploits in ministry. About one third of the entire New Testament and nearly two thirds of the epistles were actually written by Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 3:15-16).

With this understanding, consider a statement Paul made to a group of elders from Ephesus:

26“Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. ²⁷ For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.”

Acts 20:26-27

Paul declares here that he is innocent of the blood of all people because he faithfully proclaimed “the whole will of God” or, according to the King James Version, he declared “all the counsel of God.” Paul backed this statement up in his letter to the Romans:

So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

Romans 15:19b

Why was Paul “innocent of the blood of all men”? Simply because everywhere he went he fully proclaimed the gospel—the whole counsel of God. Paul didn’t hide anything that the Lord revealed to him; he didn’t hide any aspect of the gospel message. He shared it all. He was therefore innocent of “the blood” of all people.

My point is that if Paul fully proclaimed the whole counsel of God, as Scripture verifies, then he would have certainly mentioned something somewhere about unrepentant sinners suffering eternal conscious torment if this doctrine were true. After all, this is way too important of an issue to forget to mention, yet Paul says absolutely nothing about eternal fiery torture anywhere in his inspired writings or in his exploits as recorded in Acts.

Out of the thirteen biblical letters written by Paul — and fourteen if he’s the writer of Hebrews — in all but six of them he repeatedly made very clear statements about the eternal fate of those who reject the gospel of reconciliation. Let’s review them here as viewing everything Paul consistently taught concerning the nature of the “second death” (Revelation 20:11-15) is illuminating and makes a powerful point.

Paul fully proclaimed the whole counsel of God by plainly declaring:

That those who live a lifestyle of unrepentant sin “deserve death” – Romans 1:32
That “all who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law” – Romans 2:12
That sin “leads to death” – Romans 6:16
That sin “results in death” – Romans 6:21
That “the wages of sin is death” – Romans 6:23
That those who live according to the sinful nature “will die” – Romans 8:13
That the gospel is foolishness “to those who are perishing” – 1 Corinthians 1:18
That “in Adam all die” – 1 Corinthians 15:22
That those who preach the gospel are “the smell of death” “to those who are perishing” – 2 Corinthians 2:15-16
That the Old Testament law “kills” and ultimately brings “death” – 2 Corinthians 3:6-7
That the gospel is “veiled to those who are perishing” – 2 Corinthians 4:3
That those who please the sinful nature “from that nature will reap destruction” – Galatians 6:8
That “they will be destroyed” – Philippians 1:28
That “their destiny is destruction” – Philippians 3:19
That “they will be punished with everlasting destruction” – 2 Thessalonians 1:9
That they “are perishing” – 2 Thessalonians 2:10
That “they perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” – 2 Thessalonians 2:10
That “Christ Jesus… has destroyed death” – 2 Timothy 1:10

We can add these next four if Paul was the writer of Hebrews:

That they are like worthless land that will “in the end… be burned” – Hebrews 6:8
That sins are “acts that lead to death” – Hebrews 9:14
That raging fire “will consume the enemies of God” – Hebrews 10:27
That those who “shrink back” in unbelief will be “destroyed” – Hebrews 10:39

In various ways with various words Paul was sure to repeatedly declare precisely what would happen to those who foolishly reject the gospel. He was sure to do this because God appointed him to fully proclaim the whole counsel of God. Paul didn’t hide any aspect of the truth—including the awful truth that those who reject Christ will be utterly destroyed by the raging fire of the Lord. If words have any meaning at all then this is what we must conclude.

Moreover, if Jesus supposedly preached eternal torture, as many contend, then Paul would have certainly reinforced it. Yet Paul taught no such thing because Jesus taught no such thing, not to mention the Bible they taught from—what we know as the Old Testament—teaches no such thing.

Lastly, in Acts 20:26-27, quoted above, Paul declared that he was “innocent of the blood of all men” because he didn’t hesitate to share the whole counsel of God, including the unfortunate news of what will ultimately happen to those who reject the gospel. The very fact that Paul said he was innocent of the blood of all people shows that people will actually die when they suffer the second death. Whether physical blood or spiritual blood, it doesn’t matter: People’s blood will spill on the Day of Judgment, which is called “the day of slaughter” in God’s Word (James 5:5). Gehenna, often translated as “hell” in English Bibles and used as a symbolic reference to the lake of fire, was also known as “The Valley of Slaughter” (Jeremiah 7:30-34 & 19:2-13). “Slaughter” signifies that blood will be spilled, and the simple fact is this: When blood is spilled people die. Paul’s statement makes no sense whatsoever if people don’t really perish in the lake of fire, as Christ plainly taught (Matthew 10:28). If people exist forever in conscious torment their blood would not be spilled at all—they’d still be alive, forever.

This article was edited from chapter 3 of…

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