I agree that any approach to this subject should retain the idea of free will.mattrose wrote: I think anyone and everyone that ultimately spends time in hell will do so because they have willfully rejected God and the gospel. Secondly, I think even those people who enter the Lake of Fire will still have opportunity to be refined by it and, ultimately, respond to God's grace. I reckon that a good percentage, one way or another, will ultimately humble themselves before God. Some might not... and it is those people who would face ultimate extinction.
I do agree with you that it would be a 'hollow victory' if the vast majority of people ended up extinct.
I also think it would be a hollow victory if the vast majority ended up in heaven against their wishes.
However, I find it hard to believe that anyone can or will outlast God's patience or resourcefulness as He works to bring them to the truth.