Church can do better than A.A.

For more than seven decades Alcoholics Anonymous has been portrayed as a “spiritual program,” a harmless adjunct to one’s religious belief system. Because of this misrepresentation, most Christians in A.A. are sincerely unaware that they have joined a pantheistic religion.

An A.A. meeting is essentially a devotional service: The “higher power” receives worship; confession is heard; testimony is given; the Serenity Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer are recited. The 12th Step instructs A.A. members to go forth and Spread The Word. On November 15, 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand the Second Circuit Court of Appeal’s ruling that A.A. is indeed religious in nature.

New Age Publisher Ehud Sperling, quoted in Publisher’s Weekly, calls A.A. a “subtrend of the New Age.” But A.A. is no mere subtrend. It has changed the cultural understanding of God. The A.A. “higher power’” can be anything conceivable, from a tree, to diverse versions of Jesus Christ to inner divinity.

The Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, considered a spiritual masterpiece by many Christians, states, ”Sometimes we had to search fearlessly but He was there. He was as much a fact as we were. We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis, it is only there that He may be found.” (Bold mine)

Yet we do not have God dwelling in us until we are saved. Unsaved people will not find a god within. Thus this A.A. theology directly contradicts the Word of God. 

A.A.’s early influences include Carl Jung, Swedenborg, William James, New Thought theologian Emmet Fox, and a tidal wave of demonic contact through spiritualism.

Tragically, much of the Christian acceptance of A.A. has taken place due to the prolific writing of author and A.A. apologist Dick B. and others. Any and all early Christian influence on A.A. has been glamorized and magnified, until all people hear today is that the early A.A. cofounders were Christians. They were not. http://mywordlikefire.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/seances-spirits-and-12-steps

It is time for the Church to not only reassess its relationship with A.A., but to take back its rightful role in deliverance from bondage. Should Christians even be present in a religion that teaches anything and everything can be “god?”

Certainly we should be there as missionaries, but spiritual participation in this belief system is Biblically forbidden. 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 tells us to come out and be separate. Ephesians 5:11 warns against fellowshiping with darkness. The early Church understood what was required to remain the “peculiar people” God calls for.

Those Christians refused to allow Christ to be added to the pantheon, the temple of the gods, where he would be just one deity among many. But now, in the 21st century, the pantheon is back in the form of Alcoholics Anonymous. In ignorance we have placed Christ into the very thing the early Christian were willing to risk persecution to avoid.

According to 1 Kings 11:1-10, Solomon, despite the Lord’s warnings, came to worship false deities after being continually exposed to them by his heathen wives. The Christians in A.A. undergo a theological weakening due to 12 Step participation. Some are fearful, others simply unwilling to leave, because the A.A. experience has become an idol. All have been taught that without A.A. drinking is inevitable.

The Church has been told that Alcoholics Anonymous is highly effective. This is untrue. A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson came to understand that A.A. helps only one alcoholic in eighteen. It is important to understand he was talking about motivated people, those who wanted sobriety through A.A., but were unable to receive it.

Wilson was concerned enough about this that he began experiments with LSD in the 1950s, hoping it would allow the “influx of God’s grace,” thereby helping alcoholics for whom A.A. was ineffective.

God’s grace through LSD? This is not exactly a Biblical understanding. Remember, revisionists are trying very hard to recast Bill Wilson as a Christian. Unlike Wilson, Christians know where grace really comes from. How long must we be yoked with this all-gods religion? Alcoholics Anonymous teaches that those freed through Jesus Christ, blessed with peace and joy, whose “program” is simply worship, Christian fellowship, and His Word, are “dry drunks.” The Big Book, the A.A. “bible,” warns there is no “easier, softer way.”

Let us be grateful for those who have come to sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous. But Satan, like any military strategist, will easily give up one or two to gain thousands. Everything has been turned upside down: Alcoholics Anonymous can supposedly help everyone, but experiencing Jesus in church with the 12 Steps can supposedly help noone. The idea of getting sober through the Body of Christ is strongly discouraged in A.A.

How long will we send unsaved and hurting people into this religion that denies Christ as Savior? How long must we cling to these 12 Steps, insisting we have “Christianized” them? 

In his book, ‘The Truth War,’ the 12 Steps are addressed by John MacArthur. He writes, “Others would formally affirm Christ’s sovereignty and spiritual headship over the church, but they resist His rule in practice. To cite just one instance of how this is done, many churches have set various forms of human psychology, self-help therapy, and the idea of ‘recovery’ in place of the Bible’s teaching about sin and sanctification.” …”So wherever the work of God’s Word is being replaced with twelve-step programs and other substitutes, Christ’s headship over the church is being denied in practice.” (pg.159)

  

 

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