The program is based on shame.
Making people feel bad about themselves, and fearful at all times that God will be angry at them and not want to talk to them.
There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus (Romans 8: 1), but outside of Him, we are susceptible to all kinds of shame and dishonor.
He took our shame, he took our wrongdoing, and in its place we receive His glory, we receive His righteousness.
That and so much more took place at the Cross.
To this day, there are wicked people who want to minimize the Cross, and maximize man's efforts.
This is evil.
Alcoholics Anonymous wants to teach people to see themselves as filthy and dirty alcoholics, men and women who are unable to think for themselves, who end up turning themselves over to some God, or rather the projection of another individual's inner deity.
Such was my life, and I fear that this conflict defines the lives of many people who have grown under the frauds and deceptions of Alcoholics Anonymous.
For years, I was taught to see myself as "A flea, a dog, a worm."
Yet what did God the Father do for us through His Son:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 3-6)
I was raised to believe that if I thought highly of myself, or regarded myself well, then it would inflate my ego.
Yet we cannot compete with what God our Father has done for us, nor can we run away from the truth that we are nothing without Him. We did not make ourselves, yet He has made us for all things, because He is good, not us. Because He is lovely, not because we are loveable in and of ourselves.
"3Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." (Psalm 100: 3-5)
I do not want my conception of God. Not at all! I want to know more about the Good LORD revealed in the Word of God!
So, the essence of AA, of all man-centered cults, is to induct people into a false identity, and to fill them with a sense of shame and self-loathing. We hate ourselves because of the sin in our lives, the failures in our behavior and our thinking.
The cult teaches people to try to stay one step ahead of our sin.
The Bible teaches that Jesus paid for all our sins, and for sin in our flesh, and that His blood continues to cleanse us from all our sins:
"2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8: 2-4)
and
"13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting 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; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2: 13-15)
and
"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)
There is no more shame, there is no more condemnation in Christ Jesus:
"Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more." (Isaiah 54: 4)
and
"And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more." (Ezekiel 34: 29)
and
"11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2: 11-14)
We are redeemed from the curse of the law (Galatians 3: 13), and the condemnation of our sin, because Jesus has taken it all for us.
There is no need for us to feel shame, and in fact we must rest in the Truth of God's Grace, that all of our sins are paid for forever. There is no more shame.
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