This subject has almost become silly to me. So much repetitive circular debate over something essentially simple and straightforward.
I agree, it's become very silly. As you say, Christian universalism is very simple. It's essentially the belief that, as Paul writes, “’As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’” (Romans 14:11, cf. Phil 2:10, quoting Isaiah 45:23).
Universalists simply believe that this verse (and others that speak similarly) should be understood literally. All Christians believe that only through faith in Christ can we be saved. But it seems only Universalists take these verses into account and believe that eventually all will come to faith and be saved.
Universalism is the expectation, based on scriptural promises such as these, that God's victory will be made complete in the end of the ages, that all the world will eventually be conquered by Christ, and that, "When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all." (1 Corinthians 15:28)
Universalists believe scripture affirms that Hell (which is a word used by Team Hell - they even named.themselves after it -.but which is not found in scripture The Bible uses various metaphors such as the "fires of gehenna" or "the outer darkness", or the "last judgement") is actually a process by which God purifies and redeems his people. This is because we understand the metaphorical fire as a 'refiner's fire', which doesn’t destroy the individual (who bears God’s image and whom God loves and died for), but rather serves to burn away the dross of sin to leave the pure gold of the perfected soul behind. This is a major theme throughout the Bible, verse after verse associates God's fire with purification and purgation for the purpose of redemption.
Otherwise, if Hell was an unending torture that with no end goal, or if a person was simply annihilated so they remained for ever lost to God and their loved ones, that would be a testament of God's failure to save them. If any human was subjected to eternal suffering we could not call that either just or good, and if any person was abandoned to oblivion we could not call that a victory over either sin or death. Both Annihilationism and ECT argue that at the end of everything God will ultimately have failed to save the majority of His creation from the enslavement of sin or the loss of death.
The Universalist belief that eventually everyone will repent and accept Christ does not negate Christ's salvific power, neither does it deny that all must repent and believe in Christ to be saved. It affirms that Christ is the only way to salvation, and that faith in Him is the only means by which we can be reconciled to God. Universalists do not deny any part of the Gospel of Christ. A constantly upheld strawman here is that faith in Christ is not required but that's to confuse Christian universalism with Utilitarian Universalism. This has been pointed out to the Team Hell salespersons umpteenth time but they still repeat the same old thing. We can only wonder why and shiver.
Christian universalists believe that the Good Shepherd will not rest until the last one of his sheep is safe in the fold, however long that takes, for "your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish." (Matthew 18:14) and He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)
We do not believe that God will suddenly switch off His love, turn away from His salvation, and change his nature from a loving Father into an unmerciful judge. We believe that if God saves sinners today then he will save sinners tomorrow, and if he saves sinners in this corrupted age then he can certainly save sinners in the new perfected age. Death, Sin, and the Grave are no barrier or obstacle to Him, for He has declared His victory over all.
Christ revealed God to us on the cross and in His parables as the one who would rather die Himself than allow one of His children to perish. God is the Good Shepherd who leaves 99 sheep in the fold to search the wilderness for a single lost one.
Universalists believe in the promise of Christ in John 6:39, "And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day."
Thus, universalists would say that these verses teach that however long it takes God will continue to be merciful towards us until everyone confesses Jesus Christ as Lord, and through that faith be saved, whether that repentance and faith occurs in this age or the age after the resurrection.
