We know how he feels. We have shared his honest doubt and prejudice. Some of us have been violently anti-religious. To others, the word "God" brought up a particular idea of Him with which someone had tried to impress them during childhood. Perhaps we rejected this particular conception because it seemed inadequate. With that rejection we imagined we had abandoned the God idea entirely. We were bothered with the thought that faith and dependence upon a Power beyond ourselves was somewhat weak, even cowardly. (AA, pg 45-46)
The fact is that the program forces members to cram their idea of "God" into the Twelve Step formulat mantra, including a God who sees men and women as "alcoholics who have lost their legs."
In many books following the AA Book, the leaders of the program instructed individuals to run their lives by other people all the time, including their sponsors. Many times, these sponsors are sicker than the people starting out in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The Bible does not record that individuals need to seek help from another person in order to break free of diseases, dysfunctions, or other perversions.
The LORD is bigger than Twelve Steps, and He invites every one of us to believe on Him whom He sent to die for us -- Jesus!
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6: 29)
Could it be any simpler?
Another passage speaks to the dangers of trusting in men, in other people:
"Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in
man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD." (Jeremiah 17: 5)
Yet for those of us who trust in Jesus Christ, we can rest in the peaceful power of the New Covenant:
"31Behold, the
days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32Not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they
brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33But 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. 34And 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." (Jeremiahj 31: 31-34)
Now, most people will answer: "I am not of the House of Judah or Israel."
God provides a Way, through His Son:
"12Therefore,
brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13For if ye live
after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds
of the body, ye shall live. 14For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15For ye have not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16The Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17And 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: 12-17)
We are joined to Israel through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the promise." (Galatians 3: 29)
Who needs dependence on man or man's programs, when you can depend on God, who gave His Son for us?
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