Website owner:  James Miller

The Natural Way -- The Unnatural Way

   There are two ways:  1. The natural way  2. Another way that we 
   will call "the unnatural way".

   The Natural Way.  The way we are naturally inclined to go, the 
      easy way, the way of following our natural inclinations.  
      It is the way of impulsiveness, impetuousness, self-
      indulgence, self-gratification, selfishness, pride, vanity, 
      dishonesty, deceit, impatience, self-will, anger, malice, 
      envy, jealousy, hatred, vengeance, laziness, overindulgence, 
      gluttony, prodigality, promiscuity, pleasure seeking, etc.  
      It is the way in which if you desire to do it, you just do 
      it.  Want, wish, desire, impulse and natural inclination 
      rule.  Want, wish, impulse and desire, unwilling to be 
      restrained by reason, sense or conscience, decide action and 
      behavior.  Reason, sense and conscience is ignored, 
      overruled, or just not heard. 
     

   The Unnatural Way.  The way of self-restraint, self-denial, 
      self-control; the way of following mind, intellect, reason, 
      sense, judgment, moral knowledge, conscience, moral 
      principle, religious or moral teaching; the way of prudence, 
      wisdom, reflection, thought, forethought, unselfishness, 
      kindness, benevolence, humility, honesty, truthfulness, 
      caution, patience, industry, thrift, perseverance, 
      diligence.  It is the hard way, a way that doesn't come 
      naturally.  It is a way that is learned, acquired, built up 
      through practice and cultivation, a way that is instilled 
      and created.  It is a way of inhibitions -- for reason, 
      sense and conscience place inhibiting, restraining or 
      regulating effects on thought, action and conduct.  It is a 
      way of self-imposed habits and discipline, a way that arises 
      out of an understanding of life and truth that comes through 
      fear of God, knowledge of Biblical teaching, thought, 
      reflection, and observation (of life and people); a way that 
      arises out of a love of God, virtue, goodness and truth and 
      the pursuit of those things.  


   In almost all ways the two ways are opposites.  For in the 
   later way impulsiveness is replaced by thought, care and 
   caution; self-gratification is replaced by self-denial and 
   self-restraint; laziness is replaced by industriousness; 
   prodigality is replaced by thrift; dishonesty is replaced by 
   honesty; pride is replaced by humility; overindulgence is 
   replaced by temperance; etc.  In the later way our mind causes 
   us to go against natural inclination and do that which is 
   contrary to our natural inclination; it subjects all our 
   behavior and conduct to restraint and discipline.

   The natural way is the low way.  It is the way Christian 
   scripture refers to as the way of "the natural man", "the way 
   of the world".  It is the way Christian teaching says leads to 
   hell.  The "unnatural way" is the high way.  It is the way 
   taught by Christ, by Christian scripture.  It is the way of the 
   "reborn", the true Christian.


   Oct 2004