Of course, I am not referring to the initial gospel but if it generates statement like 'these kind of message serves much good to Christians and non-Christians alike.' then at least, the passage did its job towards Christians who desire to seek deeper truths on Christian experience.

Unfortunately, today, statement like the above is common as we have a "religious" mind ... dividing things between good and evil. My goal is help Christian to know something about God's purpose:

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BEING NEITHER GOOD MEN NOR EVIL MEN BUT GOD-MEN

Praise the Lord that those who have God’s life have another choice—to be God-men. As those who have the life of God, we would not do evil, neither would we do good; even the more, we would reject death. We are afraid of good, evil, and death. However, there is One of whom we are not afraid, and not only are we not afraid of Him, but we even desire Him. This One is God. Why do we desire God? It is because God is man’s goal and content, and man was created for God.

In the garden of Eden there were two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9). Concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the Bible says that he who eats of it shall surely die (v. 17). When someone eats of this tree, it may seem to be evil, but it is actually death, or it may seem to be good, but in reality it is still death. The issue of evil is death, and the issue of good is also death. These three—good, evil, and death—are inseparable. Then what is the tree of life in the middle of the garden? This tree of life is life itself. What man sees is life, what he eats is life, and the issue of his eating is also life. Who is this life? This life is God Himself.

Please remember that in the garden of Eden the first tree— the tree of life—is God Himself, and the second tree—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—is good, evil, and death. People on earth who do not have God choose the second tree instead of the first. The result of choosing the second tree is good, evil, and death. They are good men, evil men, and eventually dead men. These three kinds of persons are all in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then, as saved ones, are we good men, evil men, or dead men? Praise the Lord, we who have been saved have the life of God in us, so we are God-men.

However, is our real situation like this? Are we God-men in our daily living? This is a big problem. It is very difficult for us to be freed from the law in our human living. We are always turning back to the law, and the law is always following us. Even today, having become Christians, we still cannot easily break away from the law, and instead of living to God, we still live before the law to be people of the law. Although we have been saved and we have God in us, we do not live to God.

As human beings we were created for God Himself. We are vessels to contain God. We should not take good or evil into us; rather, we should take God into us. How can God be put into us? It is by means of the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures tell us clearly that when the Holy Spirit is in us, God is in us (1 John 3:24; 4:13; Rom. 8:9a, 11). What does God want us to do? God wants us to be dead to the law so that we may live to God. Before we were saved, we lived to good and evil; that is, we lived to death. Now that we are saved, we should start learning to live to God. This means that as vessels to contain God according to His purpose in creating man, we should live to God instead of living to the law. We should be neither good men nor evil men but God-men.
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Hope it help you as it has helped me.

How can we forget, ... before God can come into man (if man have taken the tree of life), Satan as the embodiment of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ... entered, mingled, joined, and make himself one with man FIRST. (YUCK!!)

In the fall man has not only a fallen human nature but also a sinful nature mixed with the satanic nature. As a result of the fall, we have been constituted sinners (Rom. 5:19). In order for a substance to be constituted in a certain way, a particular element must be added to it. By God’s creation, we were good, righteous people. However, due to the fall of Adam, sin was injected into our being and constituted us sinners. Sin has been wrought into us and constituted into our being. Therefore, sin is not merely an outward deed—it is an inward, subjective element in our constitution.

When man fell, he did not only make a mistake and do something wrong. In the fall something more serious than a mistake occurred: sin was injected into man’s being. We may think that Adam merely disobeyed God and made a mistake in taking the fruit of the tree of knowledge. We need to realize that when Adam ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, something evil, and even satanic, entered into him. Through man’s fall an evil, satanic element was injected into mankind. The Bible calls this element sin, and sin is the very nature of Satan, the evil one. In Romans 5 through 8 there are many indications that sin is like a living person: it entered (5:12), it reigns (5:21), it can lord it over us (6:14), it deceives us (7:11), it kills us (7:11), and it dwells in us (7:17). Once sin, the evil element of Satan, was injected into man, man was constituted a sinner. Now instead of being proper human beings, we are sinners by constitution.

Sometimes believers wonder how any brother who is spiritual and experienced could fall into serious sin. We should realize that we are capable of such sin. Consider David as an example. David, of course, was an Old Testament saint. He truly was saintly and wrote many spiritual songs. But was David’s sinful nature eradicated? Certainly not. For the sake of his lust he had a certain man murdered, and then he took that man’s wife. Even someone as saintly as David was capable of such sin. David did not become saintly after committing that sin; he was saintly beforehand. Nevertheless, he still fell into sin.

IN GENERAL

Since the time of Adam, everyone born of woman bears this sinful nature; all of them are of the flesh. We cannot expect this flesh to improve. Human nature is hard to change. In fact, it will not change. The Lord Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” We should focus on the word “is.” That which is born of the flesh is flesh. No matter how much a person reforms, improves, and cultivates himself, the flesh is still the flesh. No matter how much a person tries to perform charitable, benevolent acts, send relief aid, love others, or serve, he is still the flesh. Even if he can do all these things, he is still the flesh.  “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” <B>Good flesh is still flesh</B>. Since it is the flesh that is born, it will be the flesh that will result. No man on earth can change his flesh. Neither can God in heaven change man’s flesh, that is, man’s nature.

We know that the flesh is always the flesh. This is why God gave us a new life and a new nature. But what shall we do with the flesh? Since God considered it hopeless and impossible, He decided to terminate it, that is, to put it to death. There is no better way than to cause the flesh to die. Hence, “they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.”  (Gal 5:24).

This is why we need daily, gradual salvation of God's infusion into our being. When we were saved, our spirit was regenerated, but our soul will take our whole life. (offtopic ... man because very complicated after salvation having two elements (God and Satan) warring in him/her -- another time)

Saved but Not Receiving the Kingdom Reward

In the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation, there is a line of thought concerning reward, and we would do well to pay attention to it. In Matthew 5 and 6 the Lord Jesus speaks repeatedly concerning reward (5:12, 46; 6:1-2, 5, 16). In 1 Corinthians 3:8 Paul says, “Each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” Then in verse 14 he goes on to say, “If anyone’s work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he will receive a reward.” In Revelation 22:12 the Lord Jesus says, “Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me to render to each one as his work is.”

There is a great difference between salvation and reward. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works that no one should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). This clearly and emphatically reveals that eternal salvation is altogether by grace through faith, having nothing to do with our works. Nothing that we have done, are doing, or will do can affect our eternal salvation (a gift) which is absolutely a matter of God’s grace (a gift) through our faith (a gift) in the Lord Jesus. God has imparted to us the ability to believe in the Lord Jesus, and by believing we are saved and have life inHis name (Acts 16:31; John 20:31).

Once we have been saved, we cannot be lost; that is, we cannot suffer eternal perdition. Those who have been saved by grace through faith will never perish (John 10:28-29). Our eternal salvation is forever secured by the will of God, by the selection and calling of God, by the love and grace of God, by the righteousness of God, by the covenant of God, by the power of God, by the life of God, by God Himself, by the redemption of Christ, by the power of Christ, and by the promise of Christ. We have been born of God, and we cannot be unborn. By faith we have been joined to the Lord to become one spirit with Him in a marvelous organic union. This joining and union are eternally secure in the divine life. Regarding eternal salvation in relation to the kingdom re- ward, we must avoid extreme theological views. One extreme view insists that we are saved eternally and that we can lose neither our salvation nor the kingdom reward. The other extreme view claims that salvation is conditional upon good behavior and that we can lose both our salvation and the kingdom reward. The truth in the Bible is balanced: eternal salvation is by grace through faith, and it cannot be lost; the kingdom reward involves righteousness and works, and it can be forfeited.

A Reward according to Our Works

Hebrews 10:35 says, “Do not cast away therefore your boldness, which has great reward.” This reward is the kingdom reward, which is something in addition to eternal salvation. Whereas eternal salvation is by grace through faith, having nothing to do with our works, the kingdom reward is given for our work as believers in Christ. According to 1 Corinthians 3:8 we will be re-warded according to our labor, for the Lord will give to us according to our work (Rev. 22:12). Although we are saved, we may not receive the kingdom reward because we are devoid of the work which the Lord can approve (1 Cor. 3:15; Matt. 7:21-23). If we do not labor by the Lord’s all-sufficient grace to carry out His economy (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9) and if our work does not remain after it has been tried by fire, we will not receive the reward of the kingdom. It is contrary to the Scriptures to teach that all believers will receive the kingdom reward no matter how they live and work after they are saved. The basic truth concerning the kingdom reward is this— receiving the kingdom reward is not a matter of God’s saving grace but of our subsequent work. If we are faithful servants in this age, we will enjoy the kingdom with the Lord in the coming age (Matt. 25:21, 23). If we are not faithful, we will suffer loss and undergo some kind of dispensational punishment (v. 30).

The kingdom reward will be decided at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10), where the Lord will “bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (1 Cor. 4:5). At His coming back, the Lord Jesus will set up His judgment seat and judge all the believers with respect to their life and work. There, at the judgment seat, the decision will be made regarding the kingdom reward, with the Lord, the righteous Judge, determining who will receive the kingdom reward (2 Tim. 4:8). Those who receive this reward will enter into the joy of the Lord and reign with Him as His co-kings, sitting with Him on His throne. This will be the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise in Revelation 3:21: “He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne.”

Moses looked away to the kingdom reward (Heb. 11:26) and Paul endeavored to obtain it (1 Cor. 9:24-27). Throughout the course of his Christian life, Paul was running the race for the kingdom reward, not having the assurance that he had laid hold of this reward. Only at the end of his life, immediately before his martyrdom, did he know for certain that the crown of righteousness had been prepared for him and for all who love the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim. 4:7-8). With Paul as our pattern (1 Tim. 1:16), we should run the race set before us, not trusting in ourselves or assuming that all is well simply because we are saved. We may receive the kingdom reward or we may not. For all of us, this matter is pending the Lord’s decision at His judgment seat. The Lord’s word concerning the kingdom reward is serious and weighty. It is truly a word of righteousness...

If we cooperate with God's supplying grace, we will mature in life in the church age, and this earlier maturity in life will constitute a prize with which the Lord will reward us at His coming back. However, those who do not mature in life in the church age will not be ready at the Lord's coming back to enter into the millennial kingdom and share in the divine blessings of that age as a prize. Therefore, during the millennial kingdom their names will be erased from the book of life. After being disciplined by the Lord and growing in life unto maturity during the millennial kingdom, they will share in the divine blessings in the stage of eternity. They did not cooperate with the Lord in the church age, will be dispensationally disciplined by the Lord during the millennial kingdom and will miss the divine blessings in that stage. However, the names of those who have lived an overcoming life in the church age will remain in the book of life during the coming age of the kingdom.

To participate in the coming kingdom is also to gain our soul, to save our soul, and to enjoy the salvation of our soul. If today we love only the Lord and not our soul, that is, our self, and if we live by Him and according to His standard, then when He comes back He will reward us with the kingdom. In the kingdom we shall have no problems, sorrows, or sufferings in our soul, for at that time we shall gain our soul, we shall save our soul, and we shall enjoy the salvation of our soul. However, if we are defeated believers, we shall be punished during the kingdom age, and that punishment will involve our soul, with the gnashing of teeth as a sign of suffering in our soul. (Matthew 16).

The question: will you be gained by the Lord in these 70-80 years or be perfected during the 1000 years? .... The good news, all will be matured as the New Jerusalem after the millennium.

No, you got me wrong. I mean we look up to Jesus. Jesus drank, and drinking was common at the time. But it don't mean it's a simple fast rule we can drink and we don't need to care about everything else. No one thought it was wrong at that time Jesus was drinking. But then read the parts in 1 Corinthians that I mentioned above. We can drink and we can do alot of things. But when we do these things, we should ask ourselves are we doing this for God? Is it bringing glory to God? Is it helping our brothers in Christ? Or we discouraging them? We have the mindset that we know it's OK to drink so we drink and we can prove everyone wrong. It might not be a sin to drink, but if it serves no purpose for God, we shouldn't indulge in it. If it's detrimental to the faith of our brothers in Christ don't. Why don't, because we don't want to. Not because it's a black and white rule. In others words
Another after thought, this doesn't just pertain to the things our society passes some moral judgment on. Is folding origamis a sin? I don't think anyone, secular or not would think folding origamis is a sin. Now should we fold origamis? Ok yea let's fold origamis, nothing wrong with that. It's kinda fun or some people, some people can make really beautiful crafts out of it. Now let's say I want to devote my whole life to origami, I'll do nothing but fold origamis all day, making new creations all the time. So when I decide to do this, I should first think, am I doing it for my pleasure or for God's pleasure? Am I helping anyone in the faith with this? Is this the way I'm fulfilling my call to be a witness for Christ? Am I thinking about Jesus when I make this decision? Is that anything from doing origami all day that I might use for God's purpose?

Actually I do, I cycle two miles a day back and forth and around school. I even cycle to the supermarket to do groceries. However I'm doing it to save money that can be better spent on other things. I'm not convicted to decrease pollution but I'm sure others are. It's 3 am now almost 4am where I am and I'm posting this because you were asking question and I hoped to share some of my view and some passages in the bible that related to your question. Besides, it's really not up to you or anyone else to judge what I am doing as glorifying God or not, because as I said it's a relationship between me and God. I said we should glorify God and you pick on something I am doing and say it's not glorifying God. Whether am am trying to glorify God or not depends on my intentions right?  And we were on the topic on how to decide what is right or wrong. My reply was essentially that if we love God, we try to glorify him. We're not ticking off a checklist if right and wrong or the right way to glorify or the wrong way etc. Glorifying God doesn't mean making everyone happy. Jesus and the apostles didn't make everyone happy. In fact they made alot of people angry and invited alot of persecution for the themselves. Glory is given to God by his standards, not ours.

Anyone can find at least something wrong with anything by using some arbitrary, secular or not. As good example is what you just did. To me I was trying to help you understand Christianity better and that was my way of serving God. You saw it as using my time that I should be studying and that's not glorifying God. All the "many things" that you said we should not do are things based on arbitrary standards. What should be decrease pollution? That answer to that lies upon many arguments and standard or morality. My answer was that one should seek out a relationship with God and be guided by the Holy Spirit as to what he should do and should not do. Lets God personally guide the person. What matters in the end is how God judges and now how the world judges a person by any worldly standard. 

I don't know what no-ending-laws I am following. I also don't see how putting down anything on a piece of paper is going to track how much I repented. I don't think there's a quantity or depth to repentance. I'm am happy because I've come to know God. I also don't see how I'm certainly struggling to be happy or how that translates into a list of laws either.

I've a feeling you're not bothered to read what I wrote or the passages I pointed out. If the Church pastor knows that drinking wine is going to invite condemnation to himself and the church, then it would not be wise to drink it. And if such a thing did happen in the Church I attend or the local Christian community I am in, I will talk to the person. I can't and I won't force anything down the person nor am I judging the person. He can hear me and whatever he does it's his own decision. If he feels there is nothing wrong with it in the end, that's his conclusion. I can't read a person's mind or measure his faith and I can't know whether he does what he does or God for not. That is between him and God. And this applies for any other situation as well.

You can read the Bible yourself and you'll see that we are to live a life to glorify God. As to how and what glorifies God, I nor anyone else possesses the rulebook for that because it's a matter of the relationship with the believer and God. God knows what he wants, so we should be talking to God. So it's pointless if you throw out an example and ask if that is glorifying God. I'm telling you to ask God.

Even if there wasn't God, humans aren't capable of living in peace with everyone. Even by completely secular means, there is no way world could become a place where everyone keeps what's right for himself and not force it unto others. This is because what's right for someone can end up wrong another person. Social dynamics dictate that no such egalitarian system can exist.

Fundamentally I believe that as Christians, we want to let the world know about Jesus. But we can't change people into Christians, it has to come from their own conviction and God's grace.

As to looking for faults withing the practice of Christianity, looking for faults isn't something we should be doing. But if we see a fellow believe going astray, we would want to guide him back. That's doesn't mean we're forcing our view unto him, which I say it's wrong. There's no way we can force something which is a matter of faith onto another person. That would just lead to external compliance.

Finally as usual I'm not interested to argue over our viewpoints. I replied to some of our post because you seemed to be looking for answers to Christianity for yourself and I shared come of the things I know and some of my thoughts on looking for answers yourself. I'm surprised at the last sentence because I thought you were asking about the conditions of going to heaven and hell and not about find flaws in people or living in peace with everyone. You don't have to agree with all the things I said. It's your prerogative in the end to find the answers yourself. If you want to seek God, you can keep an open mind, seek God, read the Bible and you can pray. You can read all the philosophies of the world and all the other religious books too. You can ask people to share their experience and knowledge with you. But if your pursuit is not to find God, but to come in with a set ideal and and find every part that disagrees with you, Christianity or not,  you'll just end up arguing with people over things you disagree and nothing comes out of that. You won't find God if you're looking for an explaining or interpretation of Christianity that will suit all your ideals. I can say it doesn't suit all my ideals either. If you don't agree with the way God does something, I can't help you with that. God decided it to be that way.

But you have always remember the audience at the time were the disciples, the representative of us, the believers. (Your question on who[/b] are these people that self blaming) I did answered that in the previous post, that they are the defeated believers in the church age. If we are not the overcoming ones in this age, we will be the defeated ones who will be punished. The punishment to the unbelievers is one of condemnation and perdition. However, to the defeated believers, the punishment is a discipline. The Lord will discipline the defeated ones to perfect them. We may have been Christians for years without being perfected. If we have not been perfected in the present age, we will miss the reward and receive a punishment as a discipline to perfect us in the coming age.

They are self-blaming with regret of not being an overcomer in the church age. They are being disciplined (outer darkness, saved as through fire) in the kingdom of a thousand years revealed in Revelation 20:4-6. It is generally called the millennium. The kingdom of a thousand years is different from the New Testament church.

This is according to the Lord’s promise in Revelation 3:12: “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore, and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” The mentioning of the New Jerusalem as a prize to the overcomer indicates that this promise will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom. The New Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom will be a prize only to the overcoming saints, whereas the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth will be the common portion of all the redeemed for eternity. Thus, the overcomers will enter into the New Jerusalem a thousand years earlier than the defeated believers. Those who are defeated in this age will delay their entry in becoming the New Jerusalem by a thousand years.

(You want me to share more on 10 virgins according to this principle of reward?  kinda a bit tired on typing  )