Step One -- "Related" Scriptures

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become

unmanageable.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. (Romans 7:18)

Even the scripture itself points out the division present within the believer: the Spirit of God which bears witness of our sonship in Christ (Romans 8: 16), and our fallen bodies, which will still steer us toward self-effort and sin.

Yet the grace of God is greater than our flesh, if we only believe on Him:

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6: 14)

and

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

"Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;" (Titus 2: 11-12)

Celebrate Recovery, Alcoholics Anonymous, and other Twelve Steps groups give way too much power to the flesh, instead of magnifying God's grace flowing in our lives through the Holy Spirit.

As far as God is concerned, our flesh is no longer a problem:

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20)

and

"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." (Galatians 5: 24) 

Step One

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become

unmanageable.

Man is more than powerless: he is dead in his trespasses!

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" (Ephesians 2: 4-5)

This death which weighs on every son of Adam is result of sin, yet this was never God's intention:

God first made man in His image:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1: 27)

Image speaks of the spiritual imprint imparted to them:

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2: 7)

God gave everything to Adam and Eve -- no steps, no rules, except for one:

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. " (Genesis 2: 16-17)

Adam and Eve did eat of the fruit, their eyes were opened to their nakedness, and a life of shame, fear, and exile has taken over mankind every since.

Man did not physically die, but spiritually, for by sin Adam and Eve were cut off from God:

"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." (Romans 5: 14)

and

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." (Romans 8: 6)

From Adam's death, every human being has entered the world spiritually dead, in the likeness of Adam, not God:

"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:" (Genesis 5: 3)

Man is more than powerless, therefore, but dead, and for this reason  man seeks like in pleasures, pursuits, position, and possibilities, or in addictions and comfort measures like alcohol abuse.

The Scriptural "Basis" of Alcoholics Anonymous

One charge that has legitimized the 12 Steps has been the compelling argument that the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are based on the Scriptures.

Unfortunately, the Word of God has not life to impart if not read with the primary focus in min: Christ and Him Crucified.

Paul's primary goal was to preach Jesus Christ, He whom the Scriptures declare:

"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2: 2)

Jesus Christ Himself made the point clearly to the most learned of religious types:

"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

"And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." (John 5: 39-40)

Without Jesus as the central focus in all Scripture, then the Bible can impart nothing to the reader:

"But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

"Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.

"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. " (2 Corinthians 3: 15-18)

The "vail" can be on the heart of any man who reads Scripture in order to promote his own works or to seek out the steps on how to do anything. Moses is a picture of the law, or any attempt for many to receive or achieve anything based on his own merits, as the entire law, Torah and Tanakh, witness to the Old Covenant, in which man had to

Jesus came to give us life, and that more abundantly (John 10: 10).

The Bible will be a closed book to any man who has not received His Holy Spirit, by which we can receive all knowledge (1 John 2: 20, 27)

So, whenever reading and receiving revelation, the Word of God must glorify the One who lives in and through the Believer -- Jesus Christ:

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21)

If we try to be obedient, try to work up instead of work out our salvation (Philippians 2: 12-13), then we frustrate God's grace, for:

"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

"And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

"That no flesh should glory in his presence." (1 Corinthians 1: 27-29)

And

"For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." (Philippians 3: 3)

Scripture must glorify God, not us, make His life manifest, not make anything of man.

So, let us look over the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. I will first attack the untrue assumptions of the steps themselves, then respond to  misapplied Scripture which has bolstered weak and beggarly arguments for the Twelve Steps.

AA: Worse for Christians

I have witnessed Christians in AA meetings have to stuff or suffer for their faith.

One man was a recent arrival to the program. As soon as he began reading from the Sermon on the Mount, the secretary of the meeting just slammed the Bible shut on the podium, then chided the man loudly and openly for sharing the core tenets of His Higher Power apart from the basic elements of the program.

A few weeks later, another man boldly declared that Jesus Christ is his Higher Power. The secretary once again sidled up quietly to whisper to the speaker that he was not permitted to talk about his personal faith, but the man refused to be quiet. He was courageous, not afraid to speak out his beliefs.

Some of the Old Timers started to grovel and complain --"She's always starting sh--", one of them whined.

Then another man, making fun of the drama, stated, "My name is Jesus, and I'm an alcoholic."

It was hilarious.

Then the secretary came up to comment. "My name is ---, and I'm an alcoholic."

She then explained how she had been taught that the meetings are not the place where individuals can share the specific elements of their faith. They can talk about the "Higher Power", but nothing more.

"If you believe in Jesus, in Buddha, it doesn't matter, but you do not get to share about your religion. You get to share about the program, nothing else."

However, I have witnessed a not-so-subtle loophole in this whole arrangement. Members believe in the sea, the sky, the stars, the sun, the moon, the rest. Others talk about My Little Pony or the dragon collections as their higher power. But mention "Jesus", and people in the meetings go nuts.

Of course, Christians are not just victimized outwardly. Because they are attempting to work for their recovery instead of "work out their salvation", they fall from grace (Galatians 5: 4) and make Christ of no effect in their lives.

I have attended Celebrate Recovery meetings, where the Higher Power is Jesus Christ, yet the members still insist on defining themselves according to their problem in life. One Celebrate Recovery leader claimed that he would be recovering for the rest of his life.

The Bible teaches otherwise, at least regarding our identity in Christ:

"For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore." (Hebrews 7: 28)

Christ is our perfect sacrifice:

"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 14)

By this perfect sacrifice, we become perfected before God, accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6)

I listened to many stories of Christians who on the one side were depending on Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, then on the other hand they felt compelled to work twelves steps in order to break free.

One man claimed nine months of sobriety from alcohol, for the third time in three years.

Another man, crumbled and crest-fallen to the core, admitted that he had worked the steps completely, left not one thing unadmitted, yet he went back to committing the same perversions that he was trying to end in his life.

The law, and steps to work out obedience, are doomed to fail for a man or woman who has believed on Jesus Christ for salvation. The law, weak and beggarly elements, cannot compare to the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit, who leads us to walk in the victory which every believer already has:

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." (Romans 8: 37)

Why work for what God has already given you? It's crazy!

12 Steps: Weak and Beggarly Elements

"But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" (Galatians 4: 9)

The Twelve Steps are steps down, not up, which lead me to look at themselves, even though the inherent element is finding a power greater than oneself who will grant an alcoholic the power to break free of the addiction.

Yet even in meetings men and women will share their knowledge of friends and acquaintances who have gotten sober without the twelve stepts.

Discernment Ministries concludes simply that two steps -- salvation and sanctification -- can lead a man to break free of alcohol abuse.(http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/codep/12step.htm)

Anything that is built upon man's effort and not the Holy Spirit working in our lives will produce nothing but hay and stubble:

"According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

"Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

"If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

"If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (1 Corinthians 3: 10-15)

It is the grace of God that works in us to accomplish anything:

"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Corinthians 15: 10)

If a man follows a set of rules in order to accomplish or get something, he will inevitable reap for himself the very thing that he is trying to escape:

"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." (1 Corinthians 15: 56)

The law speaks of the Ten Commandments, certainly, but the "weak and beggarly elements" described in Galatains 4: 9 indicated any system of merit or" steps to something". "Elements" renders the Greek word στοιχεῖον, stoicheion, which scripturetext.com expounds on thus:

"4747 stoixeíon– properly, fundamentals, like with the basic components of a philosophy, structure, etc.; (figuratively) "first principles," like the basic fundamentals of Christianity.

[4747 (stoixeíon) refers to "the rudiments with which mankind . . . were indoctrinated (before the time of Christ), i.e. the elements of religious training or the ceremonial precepts common alike to the worship of Jews and of Gentiles" (J. Thayer).

The RSV however renders stoixeia as "elemental spirits," i.e. spiritual powers or "cosmic spirits" (DNTT, 2, 828). This views 4747 /stoixeíon ("elements") as ancient astral beings associated with the very beginning (make-up) of the earth.]" (http://concordances.org/greek/4747.htm)

Christ died on the Cross not just to free man from his sin, including alcoholism, but also to fulfill and end the tyranny of the law, rules of living which no man can live by:

"Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;" (Ephesians 2: 15)

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;" (Colossians 2: 14)

We do not need 12 Steps to break free of sin. We need life, transformation, a new birth, which we receive through Christ:

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15: 57)

Any system of merit, or steps, or rules, or program will inevitably produce failure, as even members of Alcoholics Anonymous plainly admit that members can only "work" the First Step perfectly.

Forget steps, forget efforst, forget inventories. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, receive forgiveness of sins and everlasting life through the Holy Spirit.

Honesty is a Matter of Heart -- a New Heart

"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest." (AA, 58)

"Completely give themselves" -- this would be laughable but for the excruciating pain which men and women put themselves through trying to "work the program."

Man is incapable of being honest with himself:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17: 9)

All the knowledge in the world, all the study and rigor, all the attendance in meetings, cannot rid man of the sin problem, deeper than alcohol abuse, more profound than human alienation.

Man needs a new heart, a new life:

"And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

"That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 11: 19-20)

We cannot be honest with ourselves about everything as a matter of fact. How much time can one man spend looking over his past, his present, his inner failings. We do not go blind looking in, for man is blind apart from regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Alcoholism as Cult-Like Polylogism

Austrian economist Ludwig Von Mises published a seminal work on the inner failings of totalitarian systems.

First, he established that every human being, regardless of his standing, bearing, upbringing, or rearing possessed the same ability to reason and be informed:

"Until the middle of the 19th century no one ventured to dispute the fact that the logical structure of mind is unchangeable and common to all human beings. All human interrelations are based on this assumption of a uniform logical structure. We can speak to each other only because we can appeal to something common to all of us, namely, the logical structure of reason. Some men can think deeper and more refined thoughts than others. There are men who unfortunately cannot grasp a process of inference in long chains of deductive reasoning. But as far as a man is able to think and to follow a process of discursive thought, he always clings to the same ultimate principles of reasoning that are applied by all other men." (http://mises.org/daily/1457/What-the-Nazis-Borrowed-from-Marx)

Mises further explained this common trait of mankind that while every man grasps 2 + 2= 4, there are some who have not advanced beyond arithmetic, while there are men and women who have chartered space and time using dimensional math, college algebra, or even quaternions. Still, just because a man does not grasp the higher order thinking does not mean that he is incapable of doing so, nor does it therefore relegate a man to second-class citizenship or bestial status. A man still possesses the same common capacity for reasoning.

The "uniform logical" structure belongs to everyone. Mises explains further:

"There are people who cannot count further than three; but their counting, as far as it goes, does not differ from that of Gauss or Laplace. No historian or traveler has ever brought us any knowledge of people for whom a and non-a were identical, or who could not grasp the difference between affirmation and negation." (Ibid.)

The law of identity and the excluded middle, per Aristotle, is not open for debate. From the universal premise that either something exists or something does not, man can construct his understanding and communicate with his fellow man.

The communist argument, according to Von Mises, could never persuade anyone based on its merits, for the results of a system based on common store and ownership inevitably fail. So, instead of debating the merits based on one system of logic, one which belongs to every man, regardless of race, class, or upbringing, the Marxists, and later the Nazis, formulated the fanatical and erroneous hypothesis that individuals who did not receive, or openly disputed, the policies and false reasoning of statism were simply incapable of understanding what they were saying.

Basically, an individual who repudiates Communism or Nazism is operating under a "false consciousness", a different and dysfunction form of logic which cannot yet fathom the party line of hostile regimes.

As for those individuals who have been brought up as true-believers, who then abandon the regimen of force and falsehood, the are eventually branded "traitors".

The heinous heresy of "polylogism" is based on the unjustified proposition that individuals of a different class or race think differently, and thus they simply cannot understand the argument posed by the economic and political terrorism of others.

This line of hierarchical shaming is common in cults, where a limited elite dictates to lesser adherents who do not have the same "access" to the truth, or the proper or encompassing revelation essential to the movement.

This cult-like division is manifest in Alcoholics Anonymous:

"If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison.

"We turned back to the list, for it held the key to the future. We were prepared to look at it from an entirely different angle. We began to see that the world and its people really dominated us. In that state, the wrong-doing of others, fancied or real, had power to actually kill. How could we escape? We saw that these resentments must be mastered, but how? We could not wish them away any more than alcohol.

"This was our course: We realized that the people who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick." (AA, pg 66)

"Normal men", indeed. Right away, the program of Alcoholics Anonymous conveys the frayed message that there are different classes of people.

The beginning of Chapter 3 dramatizes the essential, polylogical distinction further:

Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death. (AA, pg 30)

"The persistence of the illusion" touches on a different view and value of the world entirely. The growing division continues:

"We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals - usually brief - were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.

"We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones." (Ibid.)

"The people who wronged us were spiritually sick," the passage later relates. Even the formation itself is fraught with contradiction. If spirit speaks of something that is neither material or mental, then where is the disease? Disease speaks of physical condition, not a spiritual matter, which in many cases results from an error in thinking, which can be corrected with proper respect for the truth and the facts of an issue.

The division of "normies" and "alcoholics" implies a meaningless distinction, one which keeps members in bondage to the false idea that they are "different", which in fact they manifest a behavior which has no place in healthy and prosperous living.

Alcoholism: Work of the Flesh, not a Disease

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness

"Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

"Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5: 19-21)

The Bible is clear: drunkennes, alcoholism, is a work of the flesh. Whether man is trying to be good or just out to get something for himself, the results of his self-effort produce all kinds of evil, including drink.

Alcoholics Anonymous claims that alcoholism is an illness, one which afflicts only certain people, while "normies" can drink with damaging or doom.

There is no evidence that alcoholism as such is a biological issue.

Resentment is the "number one" offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. (AA, pg 64)

If we receive "resentment" as "hatred, variance, wrath, strife", then we have not so much a "spiritual malady", but rather a man or woman who is living according to his efforts instead of resting the Finished Work of the Holy Spirit:

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

"But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." (Galatians 5: 16-18)

Those who suffer from alcoholism do not need to follow a program; they need to be led by the Spirit, they need to be regenerated from dead in their trespasses to alive in the Spirit:

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." (Romans 8: 14)

Very Much a Glum Lot

We have been speaking to you of serious, sometimes tragic things. We have been dealing with alcohol in its worst aspect. But we aren't a glum lot. If newcomers could see no joy or fun in our existence, they wouldn't want it. We absolutely insist on enjoying life. We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor do we carry the world's troubles on our shoulders. When we see a man sinking into the mire that is alcoholism, we give him first aid and place what we have at his disposal. For his sake, we do recount and almost relive the horrors of our past. But those of us who have tried to shoulder the entire burden and trouble of others find we are soon overcome by them. (AA, pg 132)

Having visited a number of AA meetings, there is no truth to this empty truism "We are not a glum lot."

I met one man who was barely getting by in the program, one who has about two months, had no idea what to do beyond staying sober one day at a time.

About five years later, I say the same man digging through trash outside of a McDonald's in Harbor City. The program either did not work for him, or he was not able to be "rigorously honest", but either way, I believe that the AA program failed him.

How many men and women did I run into who would sing about the "pink cloud experience", only to lament about their lives.

Another man told me that he remained down on his luck, even though he had stopped drinking.

Many individuals frequent meetings only to brag about their lives before getting sober. The number of people who treat meetings like a "dumping ground" for their problems is just stifling.

Men and women will crow about their lives at the podium, but have little warmth or light to share once they come down among mere mortals once again.

I cannot recall how many people would end up crying either because they had failed to remain sober or because a friend or relative was taken in by the disease.

Indeed, to break free of drinking is a welcome experience for the man who thought that there could be no fun without a drink, but the life that men and women crave cannot be found in a meeting. "We absolutely insist on enjoying life" claims the writer, but apart from Christ, man remains dead in his trespasses.

AA Meetings --- The Pharisee Spirit Still Lingers

Some members will claim that they are "friends of Bill W.".

The program also gives off the impression that they are an open and friendly congregation, one which welcomes all, just that the sole criterion for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

The original implication is that the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous are filled with kind and cordial, in some cases full-on working class types, men and women who in humility seek a better way of life.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Most meetings usually split into old-timers and new-comers, with the old-times self-confident in their sobriety, as if they have all the answers by virtue of the fact that they have stayed "dry" for more years than other people.

The rank arrogance is off-putting and cynical, yet common in all religious organizations, where men and women of certain standing start lording it over other people.

The Apostle John contended with this same spirit:

"I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not."" (3 John 9)

Men and women will seek preeminence inevitably, no matter how ideal or determined their spiritual walk, if men and women do not see themselves in Christ, who alone deserves preeminence:

"And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence." (Colossians 1: 18)

If man cannot submit to believe on Jesus Christ for redemption and receive His life for sanctification and regeneration, then he will be sucked into the never-ending treadmill of trying to earn what no man can get through his own merits.

The Pharisee spirit still lingers, especially when a newcomer enters the rooms. The old-timers will rush in a frenzy, pushing aside other members to get to the prospect. So much for "love and tolerance".

The outright disrespect which some members foist on others is very troubling, too. Men and women who have been beaten down by their own sin and shame are then roped into finding a sponsor, a confessor of sorts who is more interested in buffing up his owns sobriety.

Even if members achieve long-term dry spells from alcohol, they have now entered into a fold, a hierarchy in which the preeminence of some gives them permission to talk during meetings while others are sharing or to complain ad nauseum in local bars. While claiming that it is God who has granted  them sobriety, many members carry on as if staying sober is work which they can credit themselves for.

Jesus has a response for such presumptuousness:

"And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

"Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

"I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

"And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." (Luke 18: 9-14)

If we seek justification, if we seek reconciliation and life, let us find it in Christ, not in our works, our merits, or in our sobriety.

God the Father Casts Out Fear

"We reviewed our fears thoroughly. We put them on paper, even though we had no resentment in connection with them. We asked ourselves why we had them. Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us? Self-reliance was good as far as it went, but it didn't go far enough. Some of us once had great self-confidence, but it didn't fully solve the fear problem, or any other. When it made us cocky, it was worse.

"Perhaps there is a better way - we think so. For we are now on a different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God. We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us to match calamity with serenity.

"We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness. Paradoxically, it is the way of strength. The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear." (AA, pg 68)

To understand the perfect love of God. we must see Him as more than "our Creator".

We must receive Him as our Father based on covenant.

David understood God in terms of covenant. That's why he stood up to the Giant Goliath, knocking him down with one smooth stone:

"Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

"This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel." (1 Samuel 17: 45-46)

David did not refer to God as "God", but as "LORD", indicating the covenant that He made with father Abraham, based on faith! (see Genesis 15: 1-6)

Every believer today can enter into a better covenant with God, based on the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Through His death, we pass from death in our sins to life in righteousness, which breaks us free of every fear:

"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." (Romans 8: 10)

Then:

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8: 15-17)

When you see yourself as adopted into the family of God, when you see God as your Father, through Christ, or more intimately as your "Daddy" ("Abba" is Hebrew for "Daddy"), you have no reason to fear, for God the Father is watching out for you:

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)

The more you see Jesus, the more that you see yourself in Him, as a child beloved of God, then every fear will be cast out of your life!

We Do Not Outgrow Fear - God Casts Out Fear

"We reviewed our fears thoroughly. We put them on paper, even though we had no resentment in connection with them. We asked ourselves why we had them. Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us? Self-reliance was good as far as it went, but it didn't go far enough. Some of us once had great self-confidence, but it didn't fully solve the fear problem, or any other. When it made us cocky, it was worse.

"Perhaps there is a better way - we think so. For we are now on a different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God. We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us to match calamity with serenity.

"We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness. Paradoxically, it is the way of strength. The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear." (AA, pg 68)

Fear indeed is a major problem for many people, including those who drink over their problems. Alcoholics Anonymous provides nothing but empty comfort and comfort measures to deal with the problem of fear.

This "corrosive thread" is not something that we outgrow, nor can we reason fear out of our lives, nor do we talk our fears out of our lives.

Only the perfect love of God can take on our fears, and He doesn't merely "deal" with it:

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4: 18)

Not "negotiate", not "beg and plea", and certainly not "outgrow", but CAST OUT! The Amplified Bible is more compelling on this point:

"There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love ^[a]turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear ^[b]brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection]." (1 John 4: 18, AMP)

And who sends fear "out of doors?" God, but we must receive the growing revelation of His love through the sacrifice of His Son.

Instead of outgrowing our fear, let us grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3: 18).

His Love -- The Antidote to Fear

"We reviewed our fears thoroughly. We put them on paper, even though we had no resentment in connection with them. We asked ourselves why we had them. Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us? Self-reliance was good as far as it went, but it didn't go far enough. Some of us once had great self-confidence, but it didn't fully solve the fear problem, or any other. When it made us cocky, it was worse.

"Perhaps there is a better way - we think so. For we are now on a different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God. We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us to match calamity with serenity.

"We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness. Paradoxically, it is the way of strength. The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear." (AA, pg 68)

Reviewing our fears merely revives them, never removes them.

I have lived this "fear-reviewing" process time and again, and the fears would never go away.

The Bible provides the perfect antidote to fear: God's perfect love:

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4: 18)

I cannot stress this enough -- it is "perfect love" that casts out fear. In the original text, "perfected" or "completed" love would be the proper translation.

What is this perfect love, exactly?

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)

God sending His own Son to die on the Cross for all of us: that is love. Of course, there is the verse in the Gospel of John, which everyone, believer or not, knows by heart:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. " (John 3: 16)

"God is love" is meaningless without a sure, sign, a clear token, of this love, and that is the Cross. John explains how this love is perfected in the believer:

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)

This love, through Jesus' death and resurrection, then gives to every believer the same standing before God that Jesus Christ has. In effect, by faith in His name, we becomes children of God:

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1: 12-13)

The more that we esteem God's sacrifice for us, taking us from death to life, witness as every fear in your life is expelled!

Fear -- The Real Solution

"Notice that the word "fear" is bracketed alongside the difficulties with Mr. Brown, Mrs. Jones, the employer, and the wife. This short word somehow touches about every aspect of our lives. It was an evil and corroding thread; the fabric of our existence was shot through with it. It set in motion trains of circumstances which brought us misfortune we felt we didn't deserve. But did not we, ourselves, set the ball rolling? Sometimes we think fear ought to be classed with stealing. It seems to cause more trouble." (AA, pg. 67-68)

Fear is not the biggest problem. Pastor Joseph Prince of New Creation has  made the case many times that the root of all our problems is condemnation.

Scripture confirms this:

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4: 18)

What is the root of fear, according to the beloved disciple? "Torment", which can be more accurately rendered "punishment", or condemnation for doing something wrong.

We can take our inventories as much as we please, but sooner or later everyone of us falls victim to the idea that we will have to pay for our sins.

God has offered a better way:

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8: 1, NIV)

Christ Jesus took the condemnation, the punishment, for all our sins, whether you know which ones or not, whether you have confessed them all or not.

In Christ, there are No Secrets (and No Shame!)

""You're only as sick as your secrets.”

This cliche echoed frequently in AA meetings leads people to share the  most inappropriate and unacceptable admissions in a meeting.

As explained in previous posts, admitting our sins does not break us free from the shame,  but merely recycles.

We need more than just "getting it off our chest." We need our minds  purged of the shame, yet even the best of actions and intentions cannot relieve us.

Only the Blood of Jesus Christ offers a perfect cleansing from all of our sins:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1: 7)

In the light of  Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the World (John 8: 12), not only do we enjoy true fellowship with other believers, but in that light the blood of Jesus is actively, presently, eternally cleansing us of all our sins.

God Himself has sworn that He will not remember our sins:

"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103: 12)

and

"I, even I, I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." (Isaiah 43: 25)

The New Covenant, written in Christ's blood, is based on the forgiveness and forgetting of our sins:

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

We have no need to worry about our sins catching up with us, either for the Gospel speaks of repentance and remission of sins, with remission meaning that our sins and the just consequences of our sins have been sent away, taken out on Jesus Christ:

"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53: 4-5)

Our sins have all been justly punished at the Cross. For this reason God is faithful AND just to forgive us all our sins (1 John 1: 9)

There is no guilt, shame, or condemnation in Christ Jesus (Romans 8: 1), in whom every believer has a new life and new identity, for by faith in Christ we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5: 17)

Indeed, in Christ there are no secrets, nothing under which we must feel any bondage or bane, for Christ has removed our reproach and made us one with Him!

There is no need, therefore, to confess our secrets, but instead we can accept His grace by faith that all of ours sins are forgiven.

Errors of Alcoholics Anonymous -- Taking One's Inventory Part III

In addition to the insurmountable task posed by Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount of reconciling with every person who may have ought with us, there is this question whether a human being can even perform the necessary fact-finding required by an inventory.

There are sins which we commit -- the standards for which the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous is conspicuously lacking -- in many cases are beyond even our conscious conception:

"Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults." (Psalm 19: 12)

Beloved King David did not even presume that who could identify, let only confess his faults.

The sins that a man commits go deeper than just his thinking:

"9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

What a despairing statement for the man who would attempt to clean his own heart -- who indeed can know the human heart, out of which comes all manner of evil! (Matthew 15: 19) What is to be done?


"I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." (Jeremiah 17: 10)

We cannot take our own inventory, and even if we did, it would not be enough to transform us. We need a heart change, which God has offered us through the death of His Son:

"And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:" (Ezekiel 11: 19)

and later

"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

"And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31: 33-34)

The Lord supplies the rules that we need by the power of the Holy Spirit, who indwells every believer, directing a believer in the ways to think, speak, and do:

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." (John 14: 16-17)

and later

"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:" (John 15: 26)

In fact, by the power of the Holy Living and dwelling within us, we do not have to work the Tenth Step, always trying to look out and work out our future shortcomings!

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5: 16)

And if we do sin:

"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: (1 John 2:1)

Why is this so? John explains in the previous chapter of his First Epistle:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1: 7)

Note in this verse that the blood of Jesus "cleanses" us, ongoing, constant, now and forever. Before God, every believer need never worry again about some unconfessed or undiscovered sin, and therefore never again will a believer have to worry about broken fellowship with God.

God has not called us to a life of chronic inventory-taking, which reeks of self-centered condemnation:

"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8: 1, NASB)

Instead of going over our sins, Christ has given us a different set of commands:

"Rejoice evermore.

"Pray without ceasing.

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." (1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18)

Why can we do this? Are we not responsible for doing other things? Paul responds to this concern thus:

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21)

Later, Paul writes:

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;"

Which Paul later explains thus:

"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

We have died, crucified with Christ, and we are now alive, because Christ is the believer, our confident expectation of good and glory (cf Colossians 1: 27), lives and directs us. We rest in Him, He works in us, and we release Him with fear and trembling [great joyful humility]!

Errors of Alcoholics Anonymous -- Taking One's Inventory Part II

 

Looking beyond the inefficacy of the Old Covenant Sacrifices, let us look closer at what Jesus told His listeners to do after leaving the gift at the altar:

"Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." (Matthew 5: 24)

"Reconcile" renders the Greek word " διαλλάσσομαι, diallassómai" which means change, exchange, as in "change enmity for friendship." Yet the prefix "diá," indicates "thoroughly," which intensifies the meaning to render a "complete change."

The same term is used in Pauls second Epistle to the Corinthians:

"18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5: 18-19)

Here, the word "reconcile" renders the Greek word "katallassó: to change, exchange, reconcile

καταλλάσσω goes further than διαλλάσσω, for where "δια" speaks of "thoroughly", "κατα" indicates a far greater reconciliation, one which is "down to an exact point,"

Where Jesus demands a "thorough reconciliation" in the Sermon on the Mount, by His death He provides for us a complete, thorough, permanent, permeated, and impermeable reconciliation, with His Father and the world!

We are expected to perform a "thorough reconcilation" with every person who has ought with us, an impossible order -- yet through His death and resurrection, Christ Jesus has accomplished this for us. Instead of drawing up an inexhaustive list of aggrieved parties, we can trust in the blood of our Savior to make our standing right with all who may have ought with us -- and there is no other way than through Him!

Errors of Alcoholics Anonymous -- Taking One's Inventory

In the "How it Works" section of Alcoholics Anonymous, recent converts to the program are instructed to engage in a "fearless moral inventory" of their lives, going every wrong thought, word, and deed which they have committed in the past, which may induce guilt or shame or other resentment and cause a person to drink again.

Even Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren's "Celebrate Recovery" program champions this "necessary" step in order for believers to overcome their "hurts, habits, and hangups." To justify this approach, Warren's program references a verse from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount:

"Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

"Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. "(Matthew 5: 23-24)

The rest of the passage in Jesus' celebrated will shed light on what Jesus was really communicating to His listeners:

"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:

"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

"Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

"Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

"Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

"Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." (Matthew 5: 21-26)

First, we must point out that Jesus gave this sermon while still under law:

"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

"To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." (Galatians 4: 4)

Jesus made a point of bringing the law back to its pristine, divine, and unmanageable height:

"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5: 20)

The Pharisees had a nasty history of watering down the law:

"He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.


"Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." (Mark 4: 6-7)

On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus brought the law back to its original intent: to hold man accountable for his inward state, and to bring him to the end of himself:

"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." (Matthew 5: 22)

and

"But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5: 28)

and

"But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." (Matthew 5: 32)

To three points Jesus made here, it is certain that no one had kept any of these laws perfectly.

Now, let us return to Matthew 5: 21 - 26.

Verse 23 states:

"Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee."

In this passage, "ought" renders the Greek word "τις, τι", and indefinite pronoun which means "any one, some one, a certain one or thing." The verse could just as well read "anything." So, someone is angry with you about not waving "Hello" to him in the morning. Or perhaps someone is burned up because you did not join his book club or come to his son or daughter's recital, any of these perceived slights would count as "ought."

Next, the writer of Hebrews declares that that at the altar, an offerer cannot avoid remembering sins:

"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

"For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." (Hebrews 10: 2)

At the altar of sacrifice, there is no end to the recriminating remembrance of wrongdoing.

Moreover, the fact that an altar is mentioned already points out that Jesus is speaking about Old Covenant practices, none of which pertains the believer under the New Covenant:

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:


"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

Under the New Covenant, in which Christ Jesus has become the finally, fulfilling, and eternal sacrifice, there is no further remembrance of sins!

Errors of Alcoholics Anonymous: "Keep Coming Back"

One of the biggest scams in most cults, including Alcoholics Anonymous, is that if a member leaves, he is likely to get drunk again, or “go back out.” Every meeting ends with, "Keeping coming back. It works if you work it!"

I have met many people who stopped going to meetings after a couple of years, and none of them drank again. One lady got so fed up with listening to arrogant reprobates crow about their sexual conquests, admitting to murder or other terrible crimes, but they were convinced that they were OK because they did not take a drink that day.

After sixteen years of attending meetings, one lady stormed out of a meeting, where she saw the same people year after year having the same problems, never getting better. People may stop drinking, but they do not start living. For some adherents to the program, they just keeping coming back, convinced that their lives will just get better.

For many people, however, it seems that their lives just get worse. They have quit drinking, they have taken their inventory, but they find that they are still unhappy, they wish they could go back to drinking, only because in the early days of their addiction, they were at least having fun. Now, life has become about not drinking, and they have nothing else to show for what they have in their lives beyond going to meetings, where the listen to a bunch of adults whine like little children about their adult lives and childish problems. Like the Israelites who fled Egypt by the might arm of the Lord, they begin to long for the stable misery of Egypt, where they had some fun, instead of entering God’s Promised Land by faith. They stop doing the bad stuff, they stop drinking, but they have nothing life-enhancing to do instead.

In meetings, old-timers will then mentor newcomers, a way to stave off the boredom of their lives.

This reminds of one bum, a man who had collected so many newcomer chips, that he could have sold them for money if he wanted to. He had tried the program for a year or two, but he said that he was bored. It was boring for him. This indigent man, like many people in the world, are trying to treat an infinite need with finite seed, when only the Spirit of God living within us can grant us life, and that more abundantly. We are not called to live lives of self-propulsion, as the writers of the Big Book suggested, but neither are we called upon to trust ourselves to some Higher Power, yet in the mean trust to our own efforts and step-keeping to stay sober.

It is a pernicious lie to deceive people into thinking that the must attend a meeting every week, or risk getting drunk and dying. I recall that many times, individuals would share their stories after taking another cake for another year of sobriety. Invariably, someone would share that they had plenty of friends who quit drinking but never went to meetings.

Members of Alcoholics Anonymous inevitably became the staunchest witnesses against the efficacy of the program. To this day, there is not empirical evidence which supports that this program works. Alcoholism is not a disease, but a perversion of the mind.

The reason why men and women are trapped in the bondage of drinking is that they suffer intense condemnation. The more that they try to break from the substance, the more in bondage the individuals become to the substance. “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” Paul also related that he saw another law working in his members. He wanted to be obedient to the law, but the more he tried, the greater the bondage that he suffered. The law brings out the worst, not the best, in people.

So, individuals are not in bondage to some physical allergy, they are suffering from the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve. We have a sin nature that gets activated when we try to be obedient, when we strive in our flesh, through our own efforts, to do the right thing or the wrong thing.

The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit living within us leads us into all righteousness. As we receive His grace to live according to His will, His Spirit working within us, we find ourselves by faith living obedient lives. We do not struggle to get sober, to get free of unclean or unhealthy habits because we draw our life from God’s Son, who lives in us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Errors of Alcoholics Anonymous: The Promises

"If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness."

The Bible tells us where Freedom and Happiness -- better yet, joy -- are found:

"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8: 36)

and

"11These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15: 11)

Jesus spoke the second verse to His disciples, telling them to abide in Him, that they may bear much fruit, for without they, and we, can do nothing.

"We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others."


That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.

Of ourselves, we are useless (John 15: 5). In Christ, we can do all things (Philippians 4: 13)

We do not break free from fear by our own efforts, even when rehashing our past and working a series of steps. The Epistles outline the true source of every need, Jesus Christ:

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4: 19)

About our fears:

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4: 18)

We cannot reason or amend our way out of fear. His love, revealed to us at the Cross (1 John 4:16) is the love that leads us to overcome every fear.

We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

The Holy Spirit indwelling every believer does a far better job of guiding and informing of us of the truth and right action in every situation:

"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." (John 16: 13)

and

"But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." (1 John 2: 20)

and

"But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. " (1 John 2: 27)

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them." (AA, pg. 83-84)

The Promises of AA are not only not extravagant, they are weak and beggarly compared to the unsearchable riches man receives through Christ. We do not work for promises, for then they are no longer promises:

"And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work." (Romans 11: 6)

and

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

"Not of works, lest any man should boast.

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. " (Ephesians 2: 8-10)

We cannot work for a promise, we cannot work for our salvation, so what makes any man think that he can earn anything else on his own? Through the Gospel, there is an exceedingly better way to reap the grace and goodness of God in our lives:

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 31-32)

Errors of Alcoholics Anonymous: Anger as Dubious Luxury

"If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison." (AA, 66)

We cannot, nor should we, live our lives "free of anger". For the believer, there is a time, place, and reason for getting angry.

There are times when we do get angry, when we see individuals abused, when we witness individuals who are taught a lie as if it were the truth, who are then brought into bondage because of errors. Those who believe that only certain sins are forgiven at the Cross, for example, labor under a hellish deceit that they must work off the sins that they commit after they have been saved. Jesus died for all of our sins, past, present, and future. We are no longer under law, but now under grace, and it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance, it is the grace of God that teaches us to reject ungodliness, which in itself is a gift.

There is a time and place for anger. Jesus displayed this grief toward the religious leaders who rebuked him for healing a man on the Sabbath:

"And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other." (Mark 3: 5)

Jesus also demonstrated a great capacity to correct great wrongs in His presence:

"And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;

"And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.

"And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

"And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine." (Mark 11: 15-18)

He was displeased to see His Father's House transformed into a place of merchandise.

Paul exhorted his fellow believers to be angry:

"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath." (Ephesians 4: 26)

In order to appreciate this verse fully, we must recognize that "angry" is just that, whereas "wrath" indicates inordinate anger, upset which we have not released.

Even in the Old Testament, we are exhorted that there is a proper time for being angry:

"Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah."

Here "Stand in awe" is better rendered thus:

"Don't sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. Interlude." (New Living Translation)

We will get angry, and there are times when we must respond appropriately because of this anger, but we are not to be controlled by this anger:

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:" (Ephesians 4: 31)

Still, when Paul was upset with the Galatians, who were following a false doctrine, he did not mince words:

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

"Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

"As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1: 6-9)

He did not stop with his railing then:

"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" (Galatians 3: 1)

Here, Paul really calls the Galatians "idiots." Pretty harsh stuff. And of course, not to be done with that, Paul then attacks the Judaizers who were corrupting the believers in Galatia:

"I would they were even cut off which trouble you." (Galatians 5: 12) which would be better translated as: "As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!" (New International Version.) In the face of error, in the face of injustice, in the presence of disrespect, there is a time and place and reason to get angry. Those who subscribe to the "Big Book" philosophy of never getting angry or trying to avoid anger will force themselves on a tread mill that they can never escape. For those who trust in the Finished Work, we are commanded even to be angry, but not let it slip into wrath.

Errors in Alcoholics Anonymous -- Blocked from the Sunlight of the Spirit

Contrary to the assertions of many believers, those in recovery from some addiction of bad habit and those who have suffered with friends or relatives in the depths of addiction, the tenets and principles of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Gospel (and the Word of God as a whole) are not compatible.

For example, the Anonymous writers declare on pg 66:

"It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die.'

"For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. . ."

One could equate "sunlight of the Spirit" with God's love:

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." (1 John 1: 5)

Later in his First Epistle, thet Apostle John writes:

"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4: 16)

So one can argue concretely that since God is love = light, therefore love = light.

From this line of holy common sense, we can then dispute the notion that our resentment cuts us off from "the sunlight of the Spirit":

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8: 38-39)

Nothing can separate us from the love of God -- not one thing -- not ourselves, and certainly not our sin:

"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." (Romans 5: 20)

To confirm this, John later writes:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1: 7)

If we walk in the Light -- and God is light, then His blood keeps cleansing us from sin, including resentment! How does a believer know that He is in the light? Consider the glorious inheritance of believers:

"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light." (Ephesians 5: 8)

Later, Paul writes to another body of believers:

"For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to darkness." (1 Thessalonians 5:5)

We cannot be separate from the sunlight of the Spirit:

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13: 5)

Nothing can separate us from God, who is Light, and as we walk in His light, we are also cleansed from all unrighteousness, whose grace teaches us to live righteously (cf Titus 2: 11)

In the respect of resentment blocking us from God, nothing could be further from the Truth for a believer.

Alcoholic or Child of God

Everyone of us needs to identify with something or someone. That is the only source of stability in our lives.

Some people identify with their families, others identify with their jobs, some identify with the prowess of their minds or their bodies.

In Alcoholics Anonymous, men and women identify with their perversion:

"My name is . . .and I'm an alcoholic." This is not the way for anyone to get healthy, wealthy, or wise. What good does it do anyone to be defined by a bad habit?

Once a man or woman gives up drinking alcohol, then what does he have?

For the believer in Christ Jesus, we identity with One person: Christ Himself:

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)

God sees us in His own Son, therefore He sees us as His Son:

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5: 21)

and

"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1: 27)

and

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1: 12-13)

The number of scriptures alone wars against the folly of identifying oneself with drink, drinking, or one's drinking problem.

God has greater things in store for every person who believers on Him! More than an alcoholic, God wants to take us through adoption (Romans 8: 15) to make us one with Him through His Son (John 17: 23). May you believe in Him now!

Errors of Alcoholics Anonymous: The Floundering Fathers

There are many things that I could wrote about the presumptive (and putative) founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. I am fully aware that I may side-track at times in the indictments which I present about these flounding founders, individuals who evinved no real recovery, who infused Biblical principles without the theme of all Scripture, which is Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

Bill Wilson and Robert Smith, the cofounders, and co-offenders, who founded AA, were part of the Puritan New England Stock in which the founding religious dissidents who had founded that colony rejected the authority of one perception of God for another, one that was more authoritarian, cruel, uncompromising, yet not on purpose.

These Vermont natives descended from a culture and tradition of human effort leading to supernatural holiness, even though Paul castigated fellow believers in Galatia for thinking that they could be made perfect in the flesh. The Puritanical ancestors of the region tried to evince lies of holiness in order to demonstrate that they were the predestined elect, to prove that they have received the grace of God. Such thinking was as illogical and antithetical as their conformist stance against dissent, despite their dissenter origin against the Established Church of England and the empty tenets of a faith tradition. The greater blasphemy, however, followed when the man suggested to the distraught alcoholic, “Choose your own conception of God!”
 

Where does anyone get the flimsy notion that we can just conjure up our own idea of God? This privatized form of faith is nonsense. God as creator of the Universe cannot be understood; rather, he must be received in accordance with His revelation according to Scripture.

These men were unfit and fussy people who had no life in them. The chronic smoking binge that led Bill W. to succumb to cancer, followed by his final clamoring for alcohol at the end of his life, bear witness to a man who was not set free from drinking. A philanderer who preached adherence to a creed instead of Christ, Bill W. and his "spiritual" program has not brought people into the life that Christ Jesus has promised to all who are willing to believe on Him.

The Grand Blasphemy: "Higher Power"

Alcoholics Anonymous teaches its adherents to choose their conception of God, as if a "Higher Power" is enough.

Yet the first scripture that comes to mind when I hear such thinking is:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1: 1)

and

"Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?" (John 40: 9)

This God spoke to Job, a man in bondage to a false conception of God, believing that his continual sacrifices would allay his fears and appease the Lord, when in truth only righteousness gives us standing before God, and this righteousness we receive by faith in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 21)

One of my favorite verses to conflate AA's arrogant notion of "Choose your conception of God" is:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55: 8-9)

God cannot be understood by the limited mind of man, but we can only believe on Him and thus receive His testimony based on His Word!

Alcoholics Anonymous meetings rely on portions of scripture in presenting a spiritual program, but like any cult these oblique references merely point out that every cult has an element of truth, but like new wine in old, leaky wineskins, the truth is adulterated and lost when mixed with the meandering thoughts and plans of men.