Claim #10: Hell depends on the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, which comes from Greek philosophy.
The idea of hell wouldn’t have been possible without the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and that comes most from Socrates and Plato.
This again wrongly assumes that the Bible advocates a sterile, dualistic realm of the dead/realm of the undead doctrine of the afterlife. Pagan philosophers taught this (the “immortality of the soul”), but the Bible has more to say than that—yes, man’s soul is undying, but God’s goal in human history is the literal, bodily resurrection of all the righteous and wicked!
One need look no further than the book of Genesis to see that the Hebrews understood the dead to continue existing in a realm of their own (see Gen. 37:35). Even most skeptical, liberal critics of Scripture only ever push the composition of the Pentateuch as far forward as the exilic period, a solid 500 years (give or take) before Socrates or Plato. The idea of death as the cessation of existence is nowhere to be found in the Old Testament.
To Sweeney, and anyone else reading, I would simply close with this: no true, loving, Bible-believing Christian would ever want to invent the idea of hell. The doctrine of hell is not one that we gleefully use to bash sinners, but one that we fearfully revere—because the overwhelming testimony of Scripture is that we Christians deserve hell too (1 Cor. 6:11)! It is only because we have been touched by God’s Spirit that we can claim Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection as our own; we did nothing to deserve our own release. We continue to preach hell, because the Bible soundly testifies that it is a real place not because we want to.
Believe us: Our lives would be much more laid-back if we didn’t think hell was real. Rather than arguing over the diagnosis, accept Christ’s cure.
Alex Kocman is a recent media graduate with a background in biblical studies. A writer and editor for Christian Life News and Charisma News, he resides in Virginia with his wife. You can follow him on Twitter via @ajkocman.
