Alcoholicss Anonymous: Vain Philosophy Indeed

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

"For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

"And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: " (Colossians 2: 8-10)

"The Twelve Steps" are a perfect example of the "philosophy and vain deceit", for it is in vain that a man can take his own inventory in full, when God has offered us grace through His Son to atone for all of our sins -- past, present, future -- those sins we know and those sins that we are not even aware of.

Psychology would have it that a man can confess and clean himself up with knowledge -- yet the heart of man, unregenerate and unrepentant, is evil, and no man can know it (Jeremiah 17: 9).

We need more than knowledge, certainly, but the transformation that we need, we cannot create for ourselves. We receive this grace by faith in Christ, not by works (Ephesians 2: 8)

Even if men and women replace the "Higher Power" with Jesus Christ, there are still those "traditions of men", those Twelve Steps, which do not take a man up to God, for no one could ever come to Him, but rather throw roadblocks in the way to receiving and releasing His life in them (Galatians 5: 4).

Paul indicts anything that man would add to Christ Jesus and His Finished Work:

"Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

"(Touch not; taste not; handle not;

"Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

"Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh." (Colossians 2: 20-23)

No greater display of will-worship is manifested than in the meetings where men and women crow about five, ten, thirty days, months, years etc. of sobriety.

And the program was supposed to be about ending self-centeredness!

Alcoholics Anonymous -- vain philosophy indeed!