When Pat took my sister and me away from our father for nine months, convinced that she was living in an abusive home in which she felt nothing but anger about her situation, her lot in life. I am convinced that she was frustrated with the circumstances in her life. She had quit the meetings, but she did not have something better to replace it. Just like everyone else in the earth, we need fellowship, acceptance, unconditional love, yet we cannot find these things in other people, in the world, or in anything that we say, think, or do. Only in Christ alone and Him Crucified do we find the life, the peace, and the joy of man's desiring.
The problem for many believers, for many people, including my mother and later myself, was that we were trying to live our lives under the Old Covenant, when life is in Christ, and He lives in us because of all that He has done. Our "job" is to believe on Him, and believing on Him is all about knowing Him and receiving more of His grace (2 Peter 3: 18)
But as long as we are operating under an Old Covenant, we will never have a sense of completion, a sense of wholeness, a sense of "rest" because under law, man is condemned, forever unable to meet God's demands.
Paul explained the proper role of the law:
"But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Galatians 3: 23-25)
In the Book of Hebrews, the writer reminds the Hebrews, and every believer in the Body of Christ, of 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.
'In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." (Hebrews 8: 10-13)
The New Covenant is based completely on all that He has done - our "job" is to believe that He has indeed been propitious (has provided a sacrificial substitute in His Son!) to our unrighteousness and remember our sins and iniquities no more. With this New Covenant established through the Blood of His Son (Luke 22: 20), the Old Covenant of the Law is done away, fulfilled forever (Matthew 7: 14) and put away in the Body of Jesus (Colossians 2: 13-15)
Yet for all of her upset with the Twelve Steps, the program indeed never left her, and instead of being rooted and grounded in the love of God, she ended up founded and floundering on the Twelve Steps for the rest of her life.
Monday, November 5, 2012
The Hold of AA
My mother, Pat. went to AA for sixteen years. She had started out in the local Alano Club, then worked her way into more civilized meetings in the South Bay. The type of people who attended these meeings where more civil, more upscale. Women who struggled to stay sober, who relapsed frequently, never frequented those meetings, since the members of these meetings knew each other so well.
After sixteen years in AA, she would tell my sister and me about her last time attending a meeting. She sat with all the women whom she had knownn for so long, and she noticed that the same people showed up with the same upsets, the same gripes, the same physical problems, and nothing was changing. She often talked about one of her friends from the meetings, Jay, an older woman who had stopped drinking, but instead she was smoking packs of cigarettes and taking medications of all kinds. Pat often pointed out that she was not sober.I look back on those days, when she complain how Jay was not really sober, and I can safely so that my mother acted like a real Pharisee, demanding perfection for herself and from everyone else in a program which was fraught with error and folly.
The last meeting she went to, she quickly stormed out as soon as he went in, disgusted with the fact that many of the women whom she congregated with were not "working their program".
Looking back on the nearly ninteen years that passed from the day that she left AA meetings to the day she died, she was convinced that the program was fine, but that people did not work the program well.
The truth is, no one can work the AA program perfectly, and the steps do not give a person the righteousness, peace, and joy that they are looking for, the triple needs which only God grants us through His Son.
The law, crystallized to an extent in the Twelve Steps, can never make someone righteous, at peace, or joyful:
"19Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3: 19-20)
Imagine that -- law of any kind does not produce a sense of peace and fulfillment, but a neverending uneasiness, bringing us to a guilty end before God. Paul explains this more fully in 2 Corinthians:
"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away" (2 Corinthians 3: 7)
The Law is the ministry of death, and the minstry of condemnation (2 Corinthians 3: 9). No one can keep the law, no one can live by a set of rules and expect to live, let alone thrive.
The problem for my mother, and later for me, was the idea that there was nothing wrong with the program. The real problem was with all the people in the meetings, and later in the world, who were not serious about "working their own program."
So, Pat left the program, the meetings of AA, but the program never left her. Yet Bill W. did not die for my sins, Bill W. cannot grant me the life that I need. Dr. Bob or AA #3 could never grant me the righteousness that would forever give me peace and calm in the face of a fallen world, a fallen body, and the fallen Accuser of the Brethren.
After sixteen years in AA, she would tell my sister and me about her last time attending a meeting. She sat with all the women whom she had knownn for so long, and she noticed that the same people showed up with the same upsets, the same gripes, the same physical problems, and nothing was changing. She often talked about one of her friends from the meetings, Jay, an older woman who had stopped drinking, but instead she was smoking packs of cigarettes and taking medications of all kinds. Pat often pointed out that she was not sober.I look back on those days, when she complain how Jay was not really sober, and I can safely so that my mother acted like a real Pharisee, demanding perfection for herself and from everyone else in a program which was fraught with error and folly.
The last meeting she went to, she quickly stormed out as soon as he went in, disgusted with the fact that many of the women whom she congregated with were not "working their program".
Looking back on the nearly ninteen years that passed from the day that she left AA meetings to the day she died, she was convinced that the program was fine, but that people did not work the program well.
The truth is, no one can work the AA program perfectly, and the steps do not give a person the righteousness, peace, and joy that they are looking for, the triple needs which only God grants us through His Son.
The law, crystallized to an extent in the Twelve Steps, can never make someone righteous, at peace, or joyful:
"19Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3: 19-20)
Imagine that -- law of any kind does not produce a sense of peace and fulfillment, but a neverending uneasiness, bringing us to a guilty end before God. Paul explains this more fully in 2 Corinthians:
"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away" (2 Corinthians 3: 7)
The Law is the ministry of death, and the minstry of condemnation (2 Corinthians 3: 9). No one can keep the law, no one can live by a set of rules and expect to live, let alone thrive.
The problem for my mother, and later for me, was the idea that there was nothing wrong with the program. The real problem was with all the people in the meetings, and later in the world, who were not serious about "working their own program."
So, Pat left the program, the meetings of AA, but the program never left her. Yet Bill W. did not die for my sins, Bill W. cannot grant me the life that I need. Dr. Bob or AA #3 could never grant me the righteousness that would forever give me peace and calm in the face of a fallen world, a fallen body, and the fallen Accuser of the Brethren.
Number One Problem: Expectations
Even as a "newcomer" of sorts in AA, I was told that one of the biggest sources of frustrations and resentments in our lives was "unmet expectations".
Of course, this simplistic assessment gives one the impression that there is not much to expect in this life. If we are not to lives with any sense of expectation, then what's the point?
AA conditions people to expect that the good life begins and ends in the fellowship of AA. As I sat in many meetings, I found the same people who were frustrated and empty in their lives, unable to see of find anything of worth beyond "not drinking", so afflicted by the "living problems" of this life.
And the backbiting that took place in meetings. Sometimes, it was just appalling the lack of respect that dominated in those congregations, and much of the time no one in leadership would do anything about it.
Still, the issue of "expectations" as a source of trouble in the lives of others gave me the impression that I was just supposed to put up with life as it was.
I have since learned that that is not the case. I do not have to put up with disrespect, I do not have to question my thoughts and feelings, and I do not have to look at, consider, or judge myself in any capacity.
There is no condemnation in Christ (Romans 8: 1), and Christ Jesus is my new life (Galatians 2:20), and on Him I can expect all things:
"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He 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)
We can expect good things from God through His Son, but not from the world or other people in the world:
"15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1 John 2:15-17)
We need eternity within us, for we need life. Man is dead in his trespasses (Ephesians 2: 1), but in Christ he finds redemption and life:
"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)
and
"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10)
The real problem with expectations, the need for validation, security, the ease for all that ails man, is that we try to find these deep-seated needs in other people, and we will never find them.
I share this only because I realize now more than ever that much of the time, when people were hurting my feelings, I was convinced that I had done something wrong, or that there was something wrong with me.
Yet in Christ, as far as God is concerned, He sees us as righteous, completely justified in regards to the law:
"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)
Righteous people can expect the following in their lives:
"Blessings are on the head of the just (righteous): but violence covers the mouth of the wicked." (Proverbs 10: 6)
and
"The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covers the mouth of the wicked." (Proverbs 10: 11)
and
"I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
"He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed." (Psalm37: 25-26)
then
"The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever." (Psalm 37: 29)
No wonder that Jesus said:
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6: 33)
This righteousness is a gift that we receive (Luke 12: 32; Romans 5: 17), and with this gift every man on earth receives, can expect the very things that he hopes to find:
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14: 17)
So, the "alcoholic's" number one problem is not expectations, necessarily, but the source of man's need, where he finds the answers that he is seeking, the solace for a man lost in a fallen world. These needs are met in Christ, we gives and gives more, whose grace abounds in a world of sin and failure, where His love is lavished on us unconditionally because God gave His Son to die for us on the Cross (1 John 4: 10). The one thing that Paul prayed for every believe to receive is a growing revelation of God's love through Christ (Ephesians 3: 16-19) When we have a growing revelation of His love, then:
"20Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Ephesians 3: 20-21)
When you understand how much He loves you and more through His grace, then He gives to us beyond our wildest dreams and our greatest expectations.
Of course, this simplistic assessment gives one the impression that there is not much to expect in this life. If we are not to lives with any sense of expectation, then what's the point?
AA conditions people to expect that the good life begins and ends in the fellowship of AA. As I sat in many meetings, I found the same people who were frustrated and empty in their lives, unable to see of find anything of worth beyond "not drinking", so afflicted by the "living problems" of this life.
And the backbiting that took place in meetings. Sometimes, it was just appalling the lack of respect that dominated in those congregations, and much of the time no one in leadership would do anything about it.
Still, the issue of "expectations" as a source of trouble in the lives of others gave me the impression that I was just supposed to put up with life as it was.
I have since learned that that is not the case. I do not have to put up with disrespect, I do not have to question my thoughts and feelings, and I do not have to look at, consider, or judge myself in any capacity.
There is no condemnation in Christ (Romans 8: 1), and Christ Jesus is my new life (Galatians 2:20), and on Him I can expect all things:
"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He 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)
We can expect good things from God through His Son, but not from the world or other people in the world:
"15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1 John 2:15-17)
We need eternity within us, for we need life. Man is dead in his trespasses (Ephesians 2: 1), but in Christ he finds redemption and life:
"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)
and
"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10)
The real problem with expectations, the need for validation, security, the ease for all that ails man, is that we try to find these deep-seated needs in other people, and we will never find them.
I share this only because I realize now more than ever that much of the time, when people were hurting my feelings, I was convinced that I had done something wrong, or that there was something wrong with me.
Yet in Christ, as far as God is concerned, He sees us as righteous, completely justified in regards to the law:
"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)
Righteous people can expect the following in their lives:
"Blessings are on the head of the just (righteous): but violence covers the mouth of the wicked." (Proverbs 10: 6)
and
"The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covers the mouth of the wicked." (Proverbs 10: 11)
and
"I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
"He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed." (Psalm37: 25-26)
then
"The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever." (Psalm 37: 29)
No wonder that Jesus said:
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6: 33)
This righteousness is a gift that we receive (Luke 12: 32; Romans 5: 17), and with this gift every man on earth receives, can expect the very things that he hopes to find:
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14: 17)
So, the "alcoholic's" number one problem is not expectations, necessarily, but the source of man's need, where he finds the answers that he is seeking, the solace for a man lost in a fallen world. These needs are met in Christ, we gives and gives more, whose grace abounds in a world of sin and failure, where His love is lavished on us unconditionally because God gave His Son to die for us on the Cross (1 John 4: 10). The one thing that Paul prayed for every believe to receive is a growing revelation of God's love through Christ (Ephesians 3: 16-19) When we have a growing revelation of His love, then:
"20Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Ephesians 3: 20-21)
When you understand how much He loves you and more through His grace, then He gives to us beyond our wildest dreams and our greatest expectations.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Fellowship is in Christ, not in AA
We have shown how we got out from under. You say, "Yes, I'm willing. But am I to be consigned to a life where I shall be stupid, boring and glum, like some righteous people I see? I know I must get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute?"
Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. There you will find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead. Thus we find the fellowship, and so will you.
"How is that to come about?" you ask. "Where am I to find these people?"
You are going to meet these new friends in your own community. Near you, alcoholics are dying helplessly like people in a sinking ship. If you live in a large place, there are hundreds. High and low, rich and poor, these are future fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous. Among them you will make lifelong friends. (AA, pg 152)
This glowing appraisal of AA is one of the biggest scams, one of the biggest frauds presented in the "Big Book."
"The fellowship of AA" is just a group of empty people much of the time who talk about the problems in their lives which have not changed. Just because someone stops drinking does not mean that everything else gets taken care of. Much of the time, the members in AA spend their time going over the past, how much they hurt themselves and others, yet many of them find that the living problems that they were trying to run from still haunt them.
Then there are the entitled few who have stayed sober for decades, many of whom have purchased mugs and have set themselves up for the long-haul in the halls of AA.
The number one need that most people have it -- acceptance. You cannot find acceptance in a room with people who are craving acceptance of their own, just as two lonely people when they marry do not solve their "loneliness" problem, but in fact make it worse.
In AA, the leaders of the program promise a fellowship. In a number of meetings, what I witnessed was a bunch of adult-children who still live as if the world revolves around them. What value can one find in sitting with people who have the same problems yet engage in the same failed solutions of "share and care" which is really "share and despair"?
Real fellowship is found in Christ, and entrance into this fellowship has nothing to do with us:
"7But 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)
Jesus is the light of the world (John 8: 12), and in the same chapter of First John, the beloved apostle identifies that God is Light (1 John 1:5). Fellowship, therefore, has nothing to do with meetings, eating, drinking, church services, or even meeting in the same place. It's all about walking in the light, in the person of Jesus, who through His Holy Spirit has joined us to His one body.
In this light, we are cleansed from all sin. To know that in Him you face no condemnation (Romans 8: 1), to know that we have the same righteousness as God Himself through His Son (2 Corinthians 5: 21), that we have received His Spirit of Sonship (Romans 8: 15), and that we are sons of God (1 John 3: 1)
This is acceptance eternal and unshakable, a standing which can never be taken or compromised in our lives! This is the fellowship which every human being longs for, the acceptance which makes us kings and priests (1 Peter 2: 9).
Established in His righteousness, no weapon formed again a man can prosper (Isaiah 54:17), including the scorn and shame of human rejection and pain. The same pain which inevitably awaits a member of AA trying to find the love and peace which he could not find in the bottle, and will never find in a "fellowship" of like-minded men and women who have given up one thing, but cannot find the best.
Friday, November 2, 2012
"I Believe in Jesus"
In the Celebrate Recovery meetings that I attended for one year, every member would say
"Hi, my name is. . . , a believer in Jesus Christ who struggles with. . ."
The more that I learn about who Jesus is, and what He did for more, the more I realize that many of these people did not seem to believe in the Jesus Christ who was crucified for all our sins, and in the Great Exchange at the Cross we can receive His righteousness by grace through faith.
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6: 29)
That is the one "work", the one "entrance fee" for the believer to receive the Kingdom of God into his life. "Believe on Him whom He hath sent."
Jesus is God in the flesh, sent to be the propitiation, the mercy seat for all our sins, and the sins of the entire world. If we really believe that all of our sins have been forever put away, then there is no reason for us to keep confessing our sins, or to confess our sins in order to "get right with God."
Paul explains the basis for the Great Exchange to the Corinthians:
"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)
The issue of righteousness requires more attention that it currently receives:
"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
"For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe." (Hebrews 5: 12-13)
If we want to grow in the Lord, we need to get an advanced understanding of our righteousness, to keep receiving the gifts or righteousness and grace which God makes available to us through His Son, who has given his Holy Spirit to all who believe.
Believe that through Him, all your sins are forgiven:
"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." (Colossians 2: 13)
Now, the quickening life of Jesus cannot flow in our lives as long as we frustrate His grace, convinced that He has not put away our sins. As long as believers in the Body of Christ insist on taking their inventory, remembering the sins which God Himself has sworn He will remember no more (Hebrews 8: 12). Let us believe that He has paid for everything and walk in His grace and truth.
As for these "Twelve Steps', they merely war at the Finished Work of Christ Jesus, and bring believing men and women into bondage, thus giving them a form of godliness, yet denying His power in their lives (2 Timothy 3: 5)
"Hi, my name is. . . , a believer in Jesus Christ who struggles with. . ."
The more that I learn about who Jesus is, and what He did for more, the more I realize that many of these people did not seem to believe in the Jesus Christ who was crucified for all our sins, and in the Great Exchange at the Cross we can receive His righteousness by grace through faith.
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6: 29)
That is the one "work", the one "entrance fee" for the believer to receive the Kingdom of God into his life. "Believe on Him whom He hath sent."
Jesus is God in the flesh, sent to be the propitiation, the mercy seat for all our sins, and the sins of the entire world. If we really believe that all of our sins have been forever put away, then there is no reason for us to keep confessing our sins, or to confess our sins in order to "get right with God."
Paul explains the basis for the Great Exchange to the Corinthians:
"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)
The issue of righteousness requires more attention that it currently receives:
"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
"For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe." (Hebrews 5: 12-13)
If we want to grow in the Lord, we need to get an advanced understanding of our righteousness, to keep receiving the gifts or righteousness and grace which God makes available to us through His Son, who has given his Holy Spirit to all who believe.
Believe that through Him, all your sins are forgiven:
"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." (Colossians 2: 13)
Now, the quickening life of Jesus cannot flow in our lives as long as we frustrate His grace, convinced that He has not put away our sins. As long as believers in the Body of Christ insist on taking their inventory, remembering the sins which God Himself has sworn He will remember no more (Hebrews 8: 12). Let us believe that He has paid for everything and walk in His grace and truth.
As for these "Twelve Steps', they merely war at the Finished Work of Christ Jesus, and bring believing men and women into bondage, thus giving them a form of godliness, yet denying His power in their lives (2 Timothy 3: 5)
Court-Ordered? Compulsion, not Attraction
The program of AA is based on attraction, not promotion. This basic tenet governs AA's connection with the outside world.
If that is the case, then why do they receive "prospects" form the court system?
Those convicted individuals are required to go. They do not attend meetings out "attraction", but rather "compulsion."
I have recently learned who dangerous criminals then end up in meetings, where they can threaten women and children. This trend is unacceptable.
Even if the threat of physical and sexual violence did not exist, putting young people through such a regimented program sets them up for a life of greater conformity to rules that cannot bring them life beyond maintaining sobriety of falling off the wagon again and again.
Neither promotion nor attraction, AA is more and more about "compulsion", with court-ordered offenders going to meetings, putting themselves and others in greater danger, while threatening the well-being of newcomers who are just trying to break free, and now find themselves in greater trouble with people who just promote the same source of sickness which led them to drink in the first place.
The courts have no right ordering people to engage in a religious program of any kind. The whole matter violates the rights of individual citizens, even if they have broken the law by driving drunk or engaging in any other corrupted activity.
If that is the case, then why do they receive "prospects" form the court system?
Those convicted individuals are required to go. They do not attend meetings out "attraction", but rather "compulsion."
I have recently learned who dangerous criminals then end up in meetings, where they can threaten women and children. This trend is unacceptable.
Even if the threat of physical and sexual violence did not exist, putting young people through such a regimented program sets them up for a life of greater conformity to rules that cannot bring them life beyond maintaining sobriety of falling off the wagon again and again.
Neither promotion nor attraction, AA is more and more about "compulsion", with court-ordered offenders going to meetings, putting themselves and others in greater danger, while threatening the well-being of newcomers who are just trying to break free, and now find themselves in greater trouble with people who just promote the same source of sickness which led them to drink in the first place.
The courts have no right ordering people to engage in a religious program of any kind. The whole matter violates the rights of individual citizens, even if they have broken the law by driving drunk or engaging in any other corrupted activity.
AA is not From God (in Christ) -- It Will Not Last
Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of
the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the
apostles forth a little space; 35And said unto them, Ye
men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these
men. 36For before these days
rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about
four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him,
were scattered, and brought to nought. 37After this man rose up
Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him:
he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.
38And now I say unto you,
Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be
of men, it will come to nought: 39But if it be of God, ye
cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." (Acts 5: 34-39)
Gamaliel, the mentor for Saul (later Paul) the apostle warned the ravening council of Pharisees that they could not defeat the "Christian" sect that was taking root and branching out throughout the known world. "If it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it."
God is revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. Still, there are many who attack those who believe on Him, believing that they are doing "God a service" (John 16: 2)
You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8: 32)
AA, like many cults, is based on distortions of the truth, taking Scriptures out of context, telling people what they have to do instead of trusting all that Jesus Christ has done! They talk about "God", but this "god" can take varying
I have run into many people who have sat in the meetings, listened to the drunk-a-logs, then get away.
One businessman from Hermosa Beach told me how he learned "tools" from the meetings, then left and lived his life. AA is not about people living. I have already written a number of times that the members of AA more often than not are a glum lot, no way out of it.
AA is not from God, even though they talk about "God", a god of one's understanding. The god that men and women come up with in their minds cannot foresee the challenges that we face in this life. The god that men and women come up with cannot overcome the things that life comes up with that we never think will happen.
God as witnessed in His Word gave His own Son to die for us on the Cross, to give us His life, His Standing, and His favor in our lives. This revelation of unconditional love cannot spring from the mind of man. This Gospel is declared, and we can accept it or reject it.
AA is not from God, and there are signs going abroad how the program is faltering. I have read recent reports in which members have suffered sexual assaults in meetings. I have also read about the trauma that men and women have endured trying to fit their lives into a program which revolves entirely around a bunch of meetings, a set of steps, and no real plan for living beyond recovery.
AA is not from God, but from the minds of men who wanted to make themselves feel better, who wanted to find lower companions, keep them in bondage to a program which no one can work, not even passably.
AA is not from God, and already the AA program is violating its own traditions, advertising about meetings and reaching out the public through the mass media. Men and women in the program are announcing their membership, when one of the hallmarks of the "steps" is that no one shares or announces their status in the program.
I believe that as more people share how heinous and unhelpful the program has become, a greater number will leave those halls and find real life and that more abundantly in the extravagant and infinite goodness of God who gave His Son to give us Life.
Gamaliel, the mentor for Saul (later Paul) the apostle warned the ravening council of Pharisees that they could not defeat the "Christian" sect that was taking root and branching out throughout the known world. "If it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it."
God is revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. Still, there are many who attack those who believe on Him, believing that they are doing "God a service" (John 16: 2)
You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8: 32)
AA, like many cults, is based on distortions of the truth, taking Scriptures out of context, telling people what they have to do instead of trusting all that Jesus Christ has done! They talk about "God", but this "god" can take varying
I have run into many people who have sat in the meetings, listened to the drunk-a-logs, then get away.
One businessman from Hermosa Beach told me how he learned "tools" from the meetings, then left and lived his life. AA is not about people living. I have already written a number of times that the members of AA more often than not are a glum lot, no way out of it.
AA is not from God, even though they talk about "God", a god of one's understanding. The god that men and women come up with in their minds cannot foresee the challenges that we face in this life. The god that men and women come up with cannot overcome the things that life comes up with that we never think will happen.
God as witnessed in His Word gave His own Son to die for us on the Cross, to give us His life, His Standing, and His favor in our lives. This revelation of unconditional love cannot spring from the mind of man. This Gospel is declared, and we can accept it or reject it.
AA is not from God, and there are signs going abroad how the program is faltering. I have read recent reports in which members have suffered sexual assaults in meetings. I have also read about the trauma that men and women have endured trying to fit their lives into a program which revolves entirely around a bunch of meetings, a set of steps, and no real plan for living beyond recovery.
AA is not from God, but from the minds of men who wanted to make themselves feel better, who wanted to find lower companions, keep them in bondage to a program which no one can work, not even passably.
AA is not from God, and already the AA program is violating its own traditions, advertising about meetings and reaching out the public through the mass media. Men and women in the program are announcing their membership, when one of the hallmarks of the "steps" is that no one shares or announces their status in the program.
I believe that as more people share how heinous and unhelpful the program has become, a greater number will leave those halls and find real life and that more abundantly in the extravagant and infinite goodness of God who gave His Son to give us Life.
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