Is Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) a Christian program?
On the onset, if you quickly look at the credo of Alcoholics Anonymous, their 12-step "recovery program" one might conclude that the program could be compatible with Christianity. But when you carefully read it, a biblically void Pandora's box emerges. Notice the problems that we have emboldened below:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
As wonderful as it is to bring people together to strengthen each other to recover from serious problems, the A.A. approach to healing and recovery is racked with New Age liberalism that accepts any false god and the unbiblical doctrines attached to that entity. Alcoholics Anonymous does nothing to get to the root of the drinking problem problem, which is sin and they fail to understand that there is an absolute disconnect from the true biblical God, which ultimately feeds the progression of any addictive habit. This type of therapy takes a person away from the true God of the Bible opening a wide door to false religious practices.
Any addiction is a form of sin, and yes people can get very physically, emotionally and psychologically dependent upon alcohol and create massive problems and tragedies for themselves and countless others. But until alcoholics come to truly know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and surrender their lives to the Holy Spirit, they will always be in bondage. Man made rules (recovery programs not based on Christ) cannot cure a person's sin problem or addiction problem. Right believing produces right living.
Alcoholics Anonymous means well, but the organization's program for recovery is based on a faulty premise elevating false gods to depend on for the hope of sobriety. Only Jesus Christ can truly free anyone from the bondage of substance abuse and addictions of any kind. Countless stories have been told how participants of A.A. continue to drink even though they go to meetings again and again. The recovery rate is very low.
