Shien Ransel F. Villaruel: Holiness of Heart & Life Movement (H.H.L.M.

) 2010

“Be ye holy, for I am holy,” says the Lord, (Leviticus 19:2; I Peter 1:16, Bible)
∙ Pangasinan ∙ Metro Manila ∙ Cavite ∙ Laguna ∙ Everywhere ∙
E-mail address: brilliant_shiencel_999@yahoo.com

My Article on “World’s Condition Base on Theological Perspective”

To the “PSU-CAST CHRONICLES” / FROM: RANSEL F. VILLARUEL, A.B. ENGLISH 1-C

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“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23, Bible).
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M AN’ S F UNDAMENTA L P ROBLE M

“And the LORD GOD (YaHWeH) said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good
and evil. He MUST not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and
eat, and live forever.” So the ‘LORD God’ banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the
ground from which he had been taken. After YaHWeH drove the man out, He placed on the east
side of the Garden [of Eden] cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the
way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:22-24, Bible).

“For the wages [or recompense] of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23).

Spiritual death is the ‘separation of human from God His Creator’ relationally & spiritually;
hence, the consequence is ‘decay, aging, infirmities, corruption and, eventually, physical death’. It
may come unexpectedly. There is no age period. “For it is appointed unto each man to die once
and after this is the judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27, Bible).

My REMARKS:
WE HAVE seen the collapse and breakdown of society. We have seen the arrogance, the
impatience, the argumentative attitude of students, the rush but usually faulty judgment and the
many attitudes and manners of rebellion by the young generation. They oppose the law, and they
challenge authorities in a wrongful way: tactless and exaggerated ways. (This should be
understood in the light of the context).

Yes, here is the chaos; here is the breakdown of moral standards. But what is the matter? We
know that acts of Parliament cannot put us right. (I am talking in a general sense: our universal
problem). [An act of Parliament (Act of parliament)[1] is a statute (commonly called a law) enacted
as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament.] We have had many of them, and
they are tumbling out one after another, but the problems seem to increase instead of to lessen.
What is the matter with the world? What is the problem of man? What is the matter with every
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one of us, individually and separately? You know, my dear friends, there is only one satisfactory
answer to that question. It is God’s answer! It is God’s answer! Why is the world as it is? The
answer, according to the Bible─Paul preached it everywhere─is this: “that though God had made
a perfect world, and had made man in a perfect condition and put him into paradise where there
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Man’s Fundamental Problem: “He needs to be restored [through Jesus] unto God’s Favour for
Healing.”
were no problems and no difficulties, YET man’s world is as it is tonight because man, in his
folly, and in his arrogance, man rebelled against God. He did not care what God said.” The Bible
tells us: ‘And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may
freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that
you eat of it you shall surely die.”’ But man did not care what God had said. He pitted his own
mind against God: “Ah! This is what I say,” he said, ─and he brought chaos upon himself; he was
driven out of the garden──was driven away from the Paradise-Garden of Eden, and he has been
out there ever since, trying to get back. He cannot get back and his world is in a muddle and in
chaos. But God has given us the explanation. Why have we had the two world wars? Why may we
have another? Why there are rumors of nations rising up against neighboring nations? Kingdoms
against kingdoms? Hostilities? Why is society collapsing before our eyes? Why the immorality
and the vice, the confusion, the unhappiness, the drug addiction and the alcoholism? Why the
mounting social and moral problem? What is the explanation? Here it is. It is the only
answer──man estranged from God─human beings separated, estranged, or alienated from their
Creator, trying to re-connect, trying to get back, but failed to do so. This is the answer: “Man is
sinful and separated from God.” God is the source of life─of true life─life abundant &
meaningful. But Man turned his back to the holy God; and man follows his own imaginations and
decided to live independently. He had sinned against his Maker. And now, the judgment of God had
come upon him. “For the wages, [or punishment] of sin is death,” says the Bible. Death means not only
“cessation” of existence; but also “separation”. Modern man and woman are disobeying God’s Word.
‘In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.’
“
Nevertheless, man did not abide in honour: He fell from his high estate. He “ate of the tree whereof the Lord
had commanded him, Thou shalt not eat thereof.” By this willful act of disobedience to his Creator, this flat
rebellion against his Sovereign, he openly declared that he would no longer have God to rule over him; That he
would be governed by his own will, and not the will of Him that created him; and that he would not seek his
happiness in God, but in the world, in the works of his hands. Now, God had told him before, “In the day that thou
eatest” of that fruit, “thou shalt surely die.” And the word of the Lord cannot be broken. Accordingly, in that day
he did die: He died to God, ― the most dreadful of all deaths. He lost the life of God: He was separated from
Him, in union with whom his spiritual life consisted. The body dies when it is separated from the soul; the soul,
when it is separated from God. But this separation from God, Adam sustained in the day, the hour, he ate of the
forbidden fruit. And of this he gave immediate proof; presently showing by his behaviour, that the love of God
was extinguished in his soul, which was now “alienated from the life of God.” Instead of this, he was now under
the power of servile fear, so that he fled from the presence of the Lord. Yea, so little did he retain, even of the
knowledge of Him who fills heaven and earth; Adam forgot the omnipresence of God, in that, he endeavored to
“hide himself from the Lord God among the trees of the garden:” (Gen. 3:8) So had he lost both the knowledge
and the love of God, without which the image of God could not subsist. Of this, therefore, he was deprived at the
same time, and became unholy as well as unhappy. In the room of this, he had sunk into pride and self-will, the
very image of the devil; and into sensual appetites and desires, the image of the beasts that perish.
”
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Many students reject the authority of the Scriptures (Bible). They criticize it; they think they are
more intelligent than the plain Word of God. How foolish! And now, Man, being the Boss of his own
life, he brought misery, and inadequacy, pollution, emptiness and dissatisfaction upon himself! Listen
to what Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the greatest British preacher of the twentieth century, told us:

“The Bible claims to be the Word of God - the Word of God about Himself, the Word of God about man, the
Word of God about the world, the Word of God which tells us why the world is as it is, and the Word of God
as to how the world can be put right. That is the whole case of the Bible. It claims that it has a unique
teaching with respect to the problem of man. It tells us right at the very beginning that man's troubles in this
world and in this life, whether you think of man as an individual or man as a collection of people, have come
upon him because of something that happened at the very beginning, at the very dawn of history. The Bible
says that man fell from God, that he sinned against God, and that as the result of so doing he is in a state of
sin. It says that man, the whole world, has been in that condition ever since the Fall, and that this is the most
important and the most significant thing about man that we can ever learn and understand.

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Man’s Fundamental Problem: “He needs to be restored [through Jesus] unto God’s Favour for
Healing.”
 “In view of this, the Bible says that the whole story of man from that first beginning has always been the
same. It does not matter what changes there may be, the real truth is that man is in a state of sin and alienation
from God, and that is the cause of all his troubles and of all his problems. So whenever you read your Bible,
it does not matter whether you read the Old Testament or the New Testament, whether it is an historical
portion, prophetic portion or Psalm, it does not matter whether you are reading about one man, or whether
you are reading about the Christian of Israel as a nation, you will find that the story, the message, is always
exactly the same in principle. It is always this story of man in trouble because he is sinful. That is why the
Bible is always contemporary, and always up to date, for it says that man is still what man has always been
ever since that original sin, ever since that first fall in the Garden of Eden.”

MAN’S ONLY HOPE

How tragic it is that mankind should so long have been guilty of the foolish error of reversing the true
order of Christian Revelation & Religion and morality! Reversing the true order of [1.] Pure Christian
Faith (Relationship with Christ Jesus, Religion & Lifestyle) and exalting the [2.] Man-made Traditions
(System of Ethics & Rules of Conduct, or what is commonly termed as ‘morality’the universal, flawed
morality). They are two different positions! How tragic it is, then, that mankind should so long have been
guilty of that foolish error! They now put primacy on morality before Christ’s way of life. This was a great
tragedy! For once they are placed in their right positions, the situation is entirely changed. Yes, once they are
placed in their right positions, the situation is entirely changed! In precisely the same way as morality alone
fails, the gospel of Christ succeeds. The Gospel of Christ starts with God and exist to glorify His holy Name.
It restores man into the right relationship to Him, reconciling human to God through the blood of Christ. The
Gospel [or “Good News” of Salvation BY FAITH] tells human being that he (or she) is more important
than his own actions or his environment, and that when he is put right, he must then proceed to put them
[his own actions and environment] right. Man’s problem is not only that he does wrong things; his ultimate
problem is that HE HIMSELF was WRONGhis inclination is wrong, at the very center of his person. Why
I said that? Because man is a fallen nature! He has a natural tendency to oppose God [because he has a
“sinful nature”]a nature inherited from his original parents. His will was seriously affected; his emotions
had been corrupted, his intellect has, somehow, been pollutedthat’s why human being is inclined to choose
evil rather than known good. And apart from the restraining grace of the Sovereign Lord and God, man will
give way to his passions and lusts and acts as rebel and try to live an independent way of life, apart from the
demands and claims of God his Creator. Without the enabling grace of God, man is helpless, as well as,
hopeless. Listen to what Lloyd-Jones said:

“Let us honestly face ourselves. Such are our natures. They love the darkness, they hate the light. They are twisted,
they are perverted; they prefer the wrong to the right and enjoy evil rather than known good. What we need is not more
light, but a nature which will be capable of loving the light instead of hating it. The light is there, we know it to be there
but we dislike it. We hate it. What is the point of hoping vaguely and theoretically for some supposed additional light,
when we cannot appreciate and enjoy the light we already have? What we need is not knowledge, but love. We know
what is right and good but we fail to do it because our natures are such that we do not love it. All the knowledge,
culture, and training of the whole world can never change the nature, can never teach us how to love God. Try your best
and utmost to do so. In the name of this gospel I defy you to succeed. But do not be so foolish, do not be so blind, do not
be so mad. Acknowledge and admit here and now that it is your nature that is wrong, your heart, your essential
personality and being. See further that as the years tend to pass, you do not improve but tend to get worse. Has anyone
ever succeeded in turning his own hatred of God into love? He may have given up this sin and that, but has he come to
love God? Has anyone ever done so? Can a man entirely and completely change his own nature? Do you now love God?
for if you do not, you hate Him! No! no one has ever succeeded in bringing this change about and yet it has happened.
Paul and millions of others at one time hated Christ and persecuted His church, but afterwards came to say, “For me to
live is Christ”. What had happened? How come there is this change? ‘Oh, well, they had seen themselves as they really
were in the light of Christ, they cried out to Him for mercy.’ And they obtained it, and a new nature also in addition.
There it is. If you do not recognize it you are damned. But, see it and accept it, and you are safe to all eternity. Amen.

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Man’s Fundamental Problem: “He needs to be restored [through Jesus] unto God’s Favour for
Healing.”
 That is the Gospel. It caters for the whole human, body, soul, and spiritit caters for the whole person: intellect (or
mind), desire (or emotion) and will (or volition)it really caters for the whole man by giving him THE MOST
EXALTED VIEW OF ALL and filling him [or her] with a passion and zeal and a desire to live the good life in order to
express his gratitude to God for His amazing love. And it provides him with power and energy, in the depth of his
shame and misery as the result of his sin and failure; the GOOD NEWS of God in Jesus Christ also restores man to his
original state BY assuring him or her THAT Christ has died for him and for his sins, and that God has forgiven him.
There is an assurance of pardon in Christ the Savior. It tells us also that Christ rose from the dead on the third day, and
that His resurrection is the evidence of His victory over death, which is man’s greatest enemy. The Gospel of Christ
Jesus provides solid hope and assurance of gradual healing of his distorted image & character. It calls him to a new life
and a new start, promising him power that will overcome sin and temptation, and will at the same time enable him to
live the life he believes and knows HE OUGHT TO LIVE.

There, and there alone, lies the only hope for men and for the world. Everything else has been tried and has failed.
Ungodliness is the greatest and the central sin. It is the cause of all our other troubles. People must return to God and
start with Him. And, [God be praised], the way for them to do so is still wide open in “Jesus Christ who was
crucified”.

THAT IS THE GOSPEL IIN THE BIBLE. THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS OF CHRIST JESUS.

HAVE YOU SEEN THE BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL CHRISTIANITY AND BIBLICAL
CHRISTIANITY? DOES IT MAKE SENSE? IF IT IS, CHOOSE WISELY. LET YOUR HEART BE MOVED TO
RESPOND TO THE CALL OF GOD. “REPENT YE AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL,” said JESUS CHRIST.

WILL YOU RESPOND ACCORDINGLY?

Every Monday and Wednesday the ‘FOUND’ Organization meet together to discuss this “genuine Christianity.” It’s our
earnest prayers that you may hear, understand, and investigate the old, old, old story of Jesus, His holy love, and His glory. We
conduct Bible Studies and offer fellowships for those who have their vacant classes from 2:15-3:30 PM of Monday and
Wednesdays. You can see the group at the Soccer-Open Field at the said time, sitting upon the grasses in a circle form, and
enjoying the Biblical Studies being conducted there. This may be your first opportunity to get involve in this camaraderie. So
We Invite You to Come and Join Us in our single pursuit and passion: GOD. “To God alone be the glory.” Amen.

By Ransel F. Villaruel,

March 05, 2010, Friday Morning.

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Man’s Fundamental Problem: “He needs to be restored [through Jesus] unto God’s Favour for
Healing.”