My view is pretty simply and based on Revelations 21:7-8* "He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”*
Most of us, sadly, are not going to be overcomers in this first go around. Anyone who is mastered by their flesh is going to be lumped in with unbelievers in Christ. Overeating (Did you really need that cookie?), Gossipers, Pornographers (not the worlds definition – far more strict), Drunkards, Drug Addicts, Covetous, etc… Essentially pleasure seekers. I observe from those around me, even among the best of them, that they are mastered by something. That said, I do believe there are some who overcome in this life. I believe Christ does in fact perfect some people. I believe he can do that for each of us, but we must be willing to co-operate. I myself am hoping for such a state, but also realizing the odds are stacked against the majority. This isn’t an easy thing. Only people who overcome in this life will escape (or rather, not be harmed by it) the second death. I am under no illusions that I will make it.
The second death, though, isn’t eternal. If the punishment were eternal, then that would be unjust and pointless. Both grounds to dismiss an eternal torture chamber. If they are tortured and then annihilated, that makes even less sense. Why would you torture someone and extinguish their life? They will have no memory of it and it will be as if it never happened to them, making the torture part pointless. Imagine with me a child who was tortured and killed. It was terrible for the time, but now it has no memory of it happening. It is done and the baby is no more, assuming we die and stay dead.
Punishment, though, can come in many different forms. Both in this world and I believe in the next. I observe that in this world, punishment doesn’t have to mean getting sick, put in prison, etc… Punishment is having to live with one’s own knowledge that he violated his conscience! Punishment is knowing that a man is wretched to have done such a thing. Punishment is knowing you are mastered by sin and cannot escape without a savior. Punishment is far more than externally inflicted pain. The greatest form of punishment, in my opinion, is to reap what one sows. This enables the person to see that the reason they are punished is because they violated a basic law of the universe. This takes out the arbitrary nature of God punishing people just because he wants to convince them something is bad. I think that is mistaken. If sin itself isn’t always bad and causes God to ‘create’ a punishments for it, then we might as well conclude that righteousness is arbitrary, merely chosen by him. Truth, then, isn’t truth nor absolute, but whatever God says it is, to which I don’t agree with. If God did evil and called it good, it wouldn’t be good. So I am a big proponent of natural consequences. I don’t think, for example, that the two-towers in America were ‘punishment’ directly from God. If it was punishment, it was because of the policies this nation holds towards others that triggers the response it did. But that is only assuming it was punishment. It could have been evil men just doing evil deeds. It happens.
Therefore all that to say that some form of punishment in some abstract form will come to the majority of mankind (including those who profess Jesus Christ). How much and how little depends on what we know. Luke 12:46-48 - the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few.” I believe, in many cases, Christian’s will have a far greater punishment than non-believers. Especially the ones who are hypocrites, tell others how to live and pretend to live as such, but are enemies to the cross.
There are dozens of other verses that I can quote, which in my opinion, debunk this concept of “Christ wiped away all sins, heaven awaits”. Men have created, in my opinion, the idea that a simple belief in Jesus Christ and a mere ‘trying’ is all that is needed. In fact many, I surmise, think that because they are unhappy with their sin and believe in Jesus, that it will be enough. I don’t think so - I think this is a subtle example of rationalization for failing to obey the commands of Christ. Now, the reason Christianity invented the concept of 'Believe in Jesus, get out of jail free card" is because most Christian’s of their time were not doing the will of Christ. What better way than to invent a method to ‘secure’ you salvation? The Bible pleads and pleads for men to endure, carry on, avoid lawlessness. But that is HARD WORK. It is… We must all carry our cross and follow Him. Anyone who doesn’t do that is not WORTHY of Him. His own words. May God grant us the grace to carry our cross and follow him. But either way, if we fail to make It in the first go around, it isn’t His fault. It is our fault. This is the beauty of Christian Universalism. God lets us decide when we are coming into his Kingdom. We will all make it eventually, but those who desire and take by force (that is, forcing their cross on themselves. starving the lower nature, feeding the higher nature) will receive it first!
But it can’t be denied that some even of the Universalist stripe want the sinners to “pay”. heck, even i do. i heard of some bad stuff recently and had to rant that i hoped they had something nasty to look forward to after death, and my technically non-Universalist wife brought me up short saying “what, like purgatory? why would God need to do anything like that? it’s only you wanting the bad guys to pay, and God has a different attitude”