Okay, there are some candidates out there. This brings up the question: is eternal punishment/suffering commensurate with horrendous evils committed in finite time and space? I guess Hitler or some such is the obvious example. I don't know, but maybe.
Still, even if we allow that there are some that have committed evils that are so horrendous they require a severe divine response, is that justification for a doctrine that says many (most?) will be eternally punished for much lesser crimes? If the doctrine of ECT pertained only to the very worst, it would be a difficult doctrine, but not the absurd one that says people are punished eternally for lying, resenting, and not believing (or whatever set of sins obtain).
Perhaps the worst are annihilated? I bet we could find a verse that implies as much. But, wonder of wonders, what if the eternal love of God can redeem the worst of the worst? Impossible? I don't think so.
Reasonable as this sounds, doesn't it reflect exactly what the problem is with almost all discussions of fringe positions such as universalism?
Inevitably, it seems to me, the proponents do two things: (1) they ignore the clear thrust of the Bible and seize upon verses that, often taken out of context. "could" be interpreted to support their position; and (2) more significantly, they substitute their very human notions of the way God "should be" or "ought to be" or "I'd be if I were God."
God is the transcendent eternal Creator whose ways are not our ways and thoughts are not our thoughts. He has communicated what He wants to communicate in the Bible. On the issue of a distinctly different and unpleasant fate for the unsaved, there is little wiggle room - except by doing the two things identified in the preceding paragraph. This is why universalism has never been more than a tiny fringe position that was regarded as unbiblical and dangerous by the vast majority of Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants.
Inevitably, it seems to me, these fringe positions dilute the Gospel, sometimes past the point of what is recognizable as Christianity. Almost
always, the watering down is in the direction of a benign, toothless, endlessly tolerant, non-judgmental God and Gospel that pretty much takes God's holy justice out of the equation. This is why I believe the increasing interest in universalism is characteristic of what the Bible says will occur in the End Times.
This is why the position I have arrived at after 52 years as a born-again Christian, involving extensive studies of theology and apologetics across the entire spectrum, is that (1) I must accept the pretty clear and unequivocal biblical position, counterintuitive and even unpalatable as it may seem to my human sensibilities, and (2) I will simply trust that the fate of the unsaved, even if it is eternal torment as the Bible strongly indicates, will be seen to be consistent with the perfectly holy, perfectly loving, perfectly just God in whom I believe and whose eternal transcendent perspective I can't even comprehend.
The God of universalism isn't bigger than mine, as universalists like to think. He's way,
way smaller.
I previously "bowed out" of this thread, and will do so again, for two reasons: (1) consistent with my extensive previous discussions of topics such as this on internet forums over a period of more than 25 years, Saint Steven was clearly becoming very upset, past the point where further discussion was likely to be edifying or worthwhile; and (2) as we see here, these discussions never go anywhere - say what you will, those who hold fringe positions typically
are one-dimensional Christians whose fringe positions are the only doctrines they really even care about. They are not interested in discussion, at least if it involves serious, substantive challenge to their fringe ideas; they are only interested in "Gotchas!" and shouting down those who hold to traditional theology.