God of Isaiah vs. the “higher power”

“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake,
And I will not remember your sins. (Isaiah 43:25) 

In 1941, Jack Alexander of the Saturday Evening Post wrote the article that provided A.A. its first national publicity. Describing A.A.’s “higher power,” Alexander noted the following:

[The alcoholic] “may choose to think of his Inner Self, the miracle of growth, a tree, man’s wonderment at the physical universe, the structure of the atom, or mere mathematical infinity. Whatever form is visualized, the neophyte is taught that he must rely on it and, in his own way, to pray to the Power for strength.” [1]

Please note that Alexander’s article, with this A.A. definition of “god,” is distributed as official Alcoholics Anonymous literature.

We can warn against the New Apostolic Reformation, contemplative prayer, The Shack, the Enneagram, Bill Johnson’s Bethel Redding, etc., and that is fine and good. And necessary.

But it is Alcoholics Anonymous that has infiltrated and watered down the visible church for 80 years. Many Christians attend A.A., and A.A. meetings are held in many churches. The sacred has been mixed with the profane.

A.A. has given us the confusion of recovery passing for sanctification, and twelve-step theology has many Christians in A.A. believing it is perfectly fine to encourage alcoholics to go ahead and make up a “god.” To help justify attendance in this non-biblical spirituality, the myth has been promulgated that most alcoholics with custom-designed higher powers will eventually come to Christ. This is simply not so. It is relatively rare but is presented as a common occurrence. This claim is one of the primary ways Christians justify A.A.

In Alcoholics Anonymous, most Christians will experience a transference of faith. The twelve-step experience often becomes an idol. It is not uncommon to speak with Christians who are more concerned with “recovery” than sanctification and who demonstrate a preference for A.A. rather than fellowship with the saints.

Immersion in “higher power” theology has Christians believing it is fine to join spiritually with non-believers in prayer to the “higher power.” (2 Cor 6:14-17) 

I have been to numerous A.A. meeting. Alcoholics never hear that A.A. co-founder Bill Wilson came to understand A.A. simply does not work for many motivated alcoholics, and that he actually began seeking alternatives.

When will we as God’s people begin to examine A.A. according to the Scriptures? Maybe…never.

Yet the Lord is faithful. He has rescued myriads of us from drugs and alcohol, myself included. Lost and hurting addicts cannot be blamed for turning to A.A. What do you expect? This has been society’s answer for decades. But if you are a Christian who has been encouraging people to join A.A., would you at least seek the Scriptures?

So, here from Isaiah 45 is the God who saves. He will do much more than grant you sobriety. No one designed Him. We didn’t make Him; He made us:

¹⁸ For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the Lord, and there is none else.

¹⁹ “I have not spoken in secret,
In some dark land;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘Seek Me in a waste place’;
I, the Lord, speak righteousness,
Declaring things that are upright.

²⁰ “Gather yourselves and come;
Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations;
They have no knowledge,
Who carry about their wooden idol
And pray to a god who cannot save.
²¹ “Declare and set forth your case;
Indeed, let them consult together.
Who has announced this from of old?
Who has long since declared it?
Is it not I, the Lord?
And there is no other God besides Me,
A righteous God and a Savior;
There is none except Me.
²² “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;
For I am God, and there is no other.
²³ “I have sworn by Myself,
The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness
And will not turn back,
That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.
²⁴ “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’
Men will come to Him,
And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.
²⁵ “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel
Will be justified and will glory.”

Source Notes:

1. Jack Alexander, “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others” (Saturday Evening Post, March 1, 1941).  https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-12_theJackAlexArticle pdf