Way of the Master says hell is real, does the Bible?

The website wayofthemaster.com presents some core Christian ideas. One of the main doctrines pushed in the street preaching they use is teaching that unless they become Christians, they are sinners and thus will be given life eternal in hell. 

What is the hell they advertise? The Evidence Bible, a KJV edition as shown on the website answers:

"There are three words translated "hell" in Scripture:
Gehenna (Greek): The place of punishment (Matthew 5:22,29; 10:28; and James 3:6)
Hades (Greek): The abode of the dead (Matthew 11:23; 16:18, Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27)
Sheol (Hebrew): The grave (Psalm 9:17; 16:10)

There are those who accept that hell is a place of punishment, but believe that the punishment is to be annihilated—to cease conscious existence. They can’t conceive that the punishment of the wicked will be conscious and eternal. If they are correct, then a man like Adolph Hitler, who was responsible for the deaths of millions, is being "punished" merely with eternal sleep. His fate is simply to return to the non-existent state he was in before he was born, where he doesn’t even know that he is being punished.

However, Scripture paints a different story. The rich man who found himself in hell (Luke 16:19–31) was conscious. He was able to feel pain, to thirst, and to experience remorse. He wasn’t asleep in the grave; he was in a place of "torment." If hell is a place of knowing nothing or a reference to the grave into which we go at death, Jesus' statements about hell make no sense. He said that if your hand, foot, or eye causes you to sin, it would be better to remove it than to "go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:43–48)."

The last paragraph comments on a "different story", that of the rich man and Lazarus, found in Luke 16:19-31. Let's briefly look into this story and see if it teaches that hell is not only real, but that it is a place of eternal torment.

The NKJV tells it this way:

"“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. ²⁰ But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, ²¹ desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

²⁴ “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

²⁷ “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, ²⁸ for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ ²⁹ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”"

For us to fully understand what is meant, consider the context. The story is a parable, not a true life experience, and yet, it is treated as if it were a literal statement. Think about these absurdities:

1. The rich man went to hell, or hades, because he had enjoyed many Earthly blessings and because he wouldn't give anything but crumbs to Lazarus.

2. Nothing is said about his wickedness.

3. Lazarus is blessed, not because he was good or full of faith in God, but because he was poor and sick.

So if we are to take this story as literal evidence that there is a firey hell, what lesson can we draw from it? That only poor beggars will enter eternal bliss? That if we wear any fine linen and purple and have plenty to eat everyday then we are sure future residents in hell? Again, the coveted place of favor is Abraham's bosom; and if the whole statement is literal, the bosom must be literal, and surely would not hold many of Earth's millions of sick and poor.

Lastly, one thought. A parable is a story which illustrates one or more instructive principles or lessons. This parable teaches us a lesson, but it isn't a lesson on hell.

Little-Known Facts About Hell

The average man believes in hell, but thinks few people go there and nobody knows much about it. The Bible is the only authority on the subject, and no one can know anything about it, aside from the Bible.

When we consider Christ's statement that unless a man loves Him more than "father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26) and reflect that probably not one professed Christian in a hundred has reached either this standard or the other one which He set in the same chapter , that "any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33), it should make us willing to consider carefully what is to become of the 9,999 out of every 10,000 of Earth's population that do not meet these conditions.

Well all know that "The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that forget God" (Ps 9:17); but how many of us know that they will be returned there; that the passage, correctly translated reads, "The wicked shall return to (hell), all the nations that forget God" - showing that there are nations which go into hell once, come out of hell, learn of God, forget Him and are returned there.

We all know (Judges 11) that Korah went to hell, but how many of us know that he was accompanied to this place by his house, with all his household and all the goods that belonged to him? - Numbers 16:32,33.

We all know know that the Sodomites went to hell (Gen 19), but how many know that they were accompanied by the city in which they lived and that there are other cities there? - Matt 11:23.

We may all suppose that many heathen warriors of long ago went to hell, but how many of us know that they took with them their weapons of war, and that their swords are there now, under their heads, with what is left of their bones? - Ezek 32:27.

We may understand that the wealthy go to hell, but how many of us know that in the same place are sheep, gray hairs, worms, dust, tress and water? - Ps 49:14; Gen 44:31; Job 17:13-16; Ezek 31:16.

We all know that bad men go to hell, but how many of us know that the men of faith, Jacob and Hezekiah, fully expected to go there, and that faithful Job prayed to go there? - Gen 37:35; Job 14:13.

We may all wish to keep out of hell, but how many of us know that David said there is not a man that liveth that shall deliver his soul from its power and that Solomon says thou goest there, whosoever thou art? - Ps 49:10; Eccl 9:10.

We may think that those who go to hell go there to stay forever, but how many of us know that Samuel said "The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to hell and bringeth up" out of hell, and that David said God has the same power to aid those in hell that He has to bless those in heaven? - 1 Sam 2:6; Ps 139:8.

We may think that those who go into hell never come out, and that there is no record that any have come out, yet there are at least two persons in history who have been in hell and come out of hell. One is Jonah, who prayed in hell and was delivered from hell (Jonah 2:2), and the other is Christ, whose soul went to hell, but "His soul was not left in hell," for God raised him up out of it. (Acts 2:31) And when Christ came out of hell He brought with Him "The keys of hell" and now has the power and the right to let all it's captives free. - Rev 1:18.

We may suppose that hell is to last forever, but the Prophet speaks of it's coming destruction, and John the Revelator says that it is to be made to "deliver up the dead" which are in it, and it, itself is to be destroyed. - Hosea 13:14; Rev 20:13.

The last passage cited affords the explanation of the whole subject, for in the margin opposite Rev 20:13 the translators have explained that the word "hell" means "grave". Reversely, in the margin opposite 1 Cor 15:55, the translators have explained that "grave" means "hell". The terms are interchangeable and the meaning is the same. In every place in this article in which the citations appear in italic type, the translators have rendered Sheol or Hades by "grave" or "pit" instead of "hell".