Hopeful universalism has been the default position of Christians (including infernalists) from the beginning, whether they realized it or not. If you pray for the salvation of all, even after they die, and you believe prayer to be effectual, then you ‘function’ as a universalist.

To be a properly consistent infernalist, one would have to pray not for the ‘salvation’ of enemies ‘in the flesh,’ but their destruction. Calling for destruction not to the power of death over them, but to their person. Not a destruction of hell, but of hell’s antagonist.

This has been my central argument for a few years now. Looking within myself, and honestly examining the content of my own prayer, and the desire to see the wicked repent and ‘not be’ condemned, is the reason why my former antagonism for universalism is gone.

And because man cannot surpass God in love, it must be understood that what man gets right in love, God far exceeds. So if man desires that all be saved, and that this is an accurate picture of love, it cannot be thought that God’s desire falls short of man’s. On the contrary.

Therefore, the point of argumentation must be with regards to what is most consistent with love’s desire: a) the salvation or b) the destruction of wicked persons. This is where it all hinges.

Of course, the Scriptures seem to side with option a: (Eze 33:11, 1 Tim 2:4, 2 Pet 3:9, etc)