The God of the New Testament, the one whose essence is perfect love, is as far removed from the vengeful monarch that so many Christians have learned to fear as heaven is from hell itself. There is indeed much to fear from a loving God who seeks our perfection, particularly if we want nothing more than to be left alone in our imperfections, but too many Christians are terrified of God for the wrong reasons.
Having no confidence in the love of God, they must endure an ever-present fear of eternal separation. They may fear, on the one hand, for their own salvation, worrying that God might reject them in the end, or they may fear, on the other, for the salvation of others, worrying that God might reject one or more of their own loved ones--a husband who dies "in unbelief," for example, or a son who leaves the faith, or a friend who commits suicide.
In either case, whether they fear their own damnation or that of another, the source of their fear lies in the destructive (but inbred) belief that, because God is ultimately untrustworthy, he might very well enforce an eternal separation between any one of us and the loved ones who give meaning to our lives.
The Inescapable Love of God -Thomas Talbott
Legacy of fear & persecution
Saint Paul's universalism
God freedom & human destiny
Thomas Talbott- The Inescapable Love of God - 2nd Edition (http://www.thomastalbott.com/index.php)
Serious failure on the part of the Creator of all ? ?
As an escape from the doctrine of eternal torment, I at first embraced the doctrine of annihilation for the wicked, and for a little while tried to comfort myself with the belief that this life ended all for them.
But the more I thought of it, the more it seemed to me that it would be a confession of serious failure on the part of the Creator, if He could find no way out of the problem of His creation, but to annihilate the creatures whom He had created.
One day a revelation came to me that vindicated God, and settled the whole problem forever. I saw that it was true, as the Bible says, that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
As was the first, even so was the second. The "all" in one case could not in fairness mean less than the all in the other. I saw therefore that the remedy must necessarily be equal to the disease. The salvation must be as universal as the fall. I saw this that day on the tram-car on Market Street, Philadelphia not only thought it, or hoped it but knew it. It was a Divine fact.
From that moment I have never had a questioning thought as to the final destiny of the human race. The how and the when I could not see; but the one essential fact was all I needed somewhere and somehow God was going to make everything right for all the creatures He had created. My heart was at rest about it forever.
Hannah W. Smith- (My unexpected discovery)