(This is a similar question as, "Why not do whatever we want to if we're going to be saved anyhow?" I've met those that make the same objection referring to the grace of God, "If Christ died for my sins so they're forgiven, what difference does it make what I do?)
If Universal Salvation were true,
Why did the prophets and apostles put their lives and their loved one's lives in jeapardy every day?
It's counter-intuitive to place your family, your children and your friends lives in harms way when all shall be saved in the end regardless of their actions and beliefs.
I would have to say from experience, those who exercise such abuse of authority as persecution of those faithful to their conscience in matters of what they believe about God or what is good are also so impetuous about their use of power that anybody can inspire their vengeance unpredictably for the most frivolous impingements, real or imagined. Most of the persecutions I've received were not remotely appropriate for whatever I'd done, even if I'd been wrong. There also was no ordinary way to anticipate such reactions. In other words, apostles, prophets and testifiers to the truth are not intentionally producing the behavior of wicked men against themselves. In fact, sometimes some of them actually repent.
The love spoken of in the statement, "God is love" is the true motivator in God's kingdom. Self-preservation is not to be despised, whether from threat of immediate temporal harm or more protracted infernal destructions. Beyond what is willed, a rat in a trap struggles, however futilely, with the same drive as a trapped man in testimony to the hope for a better future God has planted in this creation. Self-preservation is also a part of legitimate self-love. When it must be overridden by more important considerations the man shows his superiority to the rat. Because the love of God has not been but slightly experienced, many who claim some affinity to the idea of it show little regard to the ultimacy of it. Casual acknowledgment does not reflect overwhelming habitual immersion.
God's own explanations of faith includes the fact that, "Faith operates by love." Out of love of God and the truth people suffer. It hurts to go against what you like. It's trouble to disagree with others. People who love the truth do this, however. Richard Wurmbrand recounts how those in the Soviet Gulag for faith were nominally Baptists, Pentecostals, Jehovah Witnesses, Lutherans (and did he mention Mormons?) These distinctions became non-existent in their fellowship of suffering. They were brethren in a sense deeper than their differing mental constructs on Bible themes would have implied if brought together under better circumstances. We are becoming enmeshed in a way of thinking in the USA where all parents holding to a standard Christian or Jewish morality will be liable to prosecution for child abuse for trying to deliver their beloved children from a homosexual lifestyle. Such situations are not resulting from conscious applications of theories of ultimate destiny. Christian Universalists, anihilationists, as well as those believing most will suffer fires eternally in screaming agony are in the same boat here. They will live for the truth regardless. A statistical study (from France?) I read a while back inquired into the beliefs of those that helped people escape the Nazis at the risk of their own lives. Only about a third of them were Christians. Atheists were motivated to help out of a sense of common humanity. It is simply true that some people will help others. Sad to say, most Christians didn't get involved. We all face death soon. If for love of the truth it comes a little sooner, many think that's good enough.
Through verse 35 in Hebrews 11 we see faith and subsequent victories. In verse 35 there is a transition to those whose outcome for faith in this life was to suffer and die without obtaining the promise; in other words, believe and fail. "Others are flogged, not anticipating deliverance, that they may be happening upon a better resurrection." Contrary to your question, this passage doesn't imply there is no difference in the outcome of a life forfeited for faith versus compliance with those coercing you. You propose the idea that the belief in the ultimate salvation of all mankind means a belief that everybody ends up the same. In a number of places, this isn't what Scripture teaches.
To the question, "How are the dead being roused? Now with what body are they coming?" (1 Cor 15
35) we find, in the midst of the discussion that there are varieties of bodies and degrees of glory, that as, "...star is excelling star in glory, thus also is the resurrection of the dead." (1 Cor 15
41-42) Not everybody is nor will they be the same. Differences will increase.
Consider that there is an inherent quickening to life corresponding to engrafted Divine nature producing behavior from a deeper reality than conscious choice. You can need to lose weight and will to diet, yet keep getting into the refrigerator for a snack. If the underlying subconscious motivation isn't dealt with, often a "hunger" for personal affirmation, then the behavior won't change. You'll continue raiding the leftovers to give yourself tangible approval regardless of constant choices to the contrary. Attempts to use willpower to divert underlying drives from their fulfillment usually fail.
From one person to the next, various beliefs reside differently within each. The degree one is influenced by conscious thought concerning any particular in Christian doctrine, or even anti-christian for that matter, is not consistently the same for anybody. Of course there is an important connection between faith and works. This has proved disasterous for many in human history who have been wrong about what they believed. It will prove to your benefit as you make progress in the knowledge of the Truth. For the multitudes that've heard, it is the few that press in to obey Jesus's words that receive the blessing.
To propose the trueness of a belief should determined by the comparative behaviors of those who do or do not believe it is so problematic as to be completely in doubt. Such a comparison would be interesting, but the actual comparison should be made by compiling facts. An assumption as you've made may blow up a balloon if you place it to your lips while speaking it, but shouldn't be regarded as expanding our minds with truth.
---James Rohde