Hehe, I left for a few weeks and the discussion died.
Anyways, as for the anonymous thing, I say that because I know it's something that I struggle with myself. When I feel the urge to serve someone, it is often because I want to be recognised or I want their love. That kind of service is conditional and human. But the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve - He became sin for all humanity, although He knew that many would reject His love. That is unconditional and divine.
Besides, I've hardly ever received anything anonymously either. Maybe I'm just hanging out with the wrong kind of people.
I think the Universalist question does indeed come down to control. When God has revealed to humanity His plan of salvation and grace and we distort it, that is nothing but an attempt to make God whom we want Him to be. But God will not be moved. The path to destruction is wide, and there are many who will turn from faith. This is weaved all throughout Scripture. So maybe the question of Universalism is really a question of Inspiration - one or two (misread!) parts of the Bible decide theology, and the rest are rejected because they don't fit in with what people want of God. And I struggle with the same things - I would very much like to believe that everyone I know will come to know God even in the veiled way that I do, as well as I would like to believe that I'm really a good person overall. But neither of those are in harmony with what God has revealed to us about ourselves. We are depraved, capable only of evil apart from Him. There is no one who does good, no one who seeks God.
And again, maybe the Universalist question comes down to what we find more important: what we want, or what the Bible says. Perhaps there are many Christians who would like to believe that everything in the Word is warm and fuzzy and the only aspect of God is that He is love, when the reality is that spirituality should make us realise the blackness in ourselves and that God is just, and powerful, and holy... To say that God will accept those who do not accept Him is to say that He will deny Himself. He is holy, and if we are not we cannot stand in His presence. We cannot make ourselves holy, only He can do that, but He will not do it if we don't have faith in Him. That is the ultimate test, and that is what the Bible says. I don't like it either, but I accept it because of that faith. At the end of all things, perhaps I will begin to understand God's reasonings for ordering the universe that way, and until then, I'm satisfied that I don't.
Not my will, but His be done.
"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."