WHAT THE "PUREST GOSPEL" SAYS ON HELL

I can't help but return at least once more to the topic of hell vs. annihilation after studying Romans. 

I noted before that, although the whole book is concerned with salvation - what it means, who is saved and how - you will not find the word hell or the phrase lake of fire in Romans.

Wrath and judgment are mentioned a few times:

For example, in 1:18 - "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." (The use of the present tense is interesting here!)

But over and over again, death or perishing is cited as the punishment for sin:

Such as in 1:32 - "Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."

And most famously: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (6:23) 

The most complete statement in Romans concerning God's judgment of the wicked comes in 2:5-10:

"Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew and then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew and then for the Gentile."

If in Romans - the book Martin Luther called "the chief part of the New Testament" and "truly the purest gospel" - Paul chooses "trouble and distress" as the words to describe an eternity of torment in the fires of hell, then he should be crowned The Master of Understatement.