Alcoholics Anonymous spirituality is not biblical

In Alcoholics Anonymous Comes Of Age,  Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson writes, “That we have chosen this symbol is perhaps no mere accident. The priests and seers of antiquity regarded the circle enclosing the triangle as a means of warding off spirits of evil, and AA’s circle of Recovery, Unity, and Service has certainly meant all that to us and much more.” [1] (emphasis mine)

The pagan symbol, for years closely identified with A.A., speaks volumes. Erroneously portrayed as a Christian, A.A. co-founder Bill Wilson was used to bring 12 Step spirituality into the culture and into the very Body of Christ.

According to Wilson, “Christ is, of course, the leading figure to me. Yet I have never been able to receive complete assurance that He was one hundred per cent God. I seem to be just as comfortable with the figure of ninety-nine per cent. I know that from a conservative Christian point of view this is a terrific heresy.” [2]

Wilson was correct. That is a terrific heresy indeed.

According to Christ:

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is BROAD that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. (Matthew 7:13)

Yet A.A. teaches the exact opposite:

“We found that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. To us, the Realm of the Spirit is BROAD, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we believe, to all men. When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God.” [3] (emphasis and capitals mine)

People in A.A. are just trying to get sober or stay sober. They cling to what they have been taught. And they have been taught it is okay to design or imagine a “higher power” in whatever manner they choose.

Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me. (John 14:6)

Christians by and large have not influenced A.A. Rather has A.A. influenced–and weakened–the visible church.

Secular author Christine Wicker notes:

[Alcoholics Anonymous] slowly exposed people to the notion that they could get the power of God [higher power] without the dogma, the doctrine, and the outdated rules. Without the church, in fact. It was a kind of mini-Reformation, cutting out yet another middleman between ordinary people and God. Only it just wasn’t the pope being eliminated this time. It was the preacher and the Bible and tradition. [4]

Related article: How heretics shaped Alcoholics Anonymous

Source Notes:

1. Alcoholics Anonymous Comes Of Age, pg.139

2. Mel B., My Search For Bill W., pg. 21 ( from a letter dated July 2, 1956 from A.A. co-founder Bill Wilson to Mel B.)

3. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS “Big Book,” pg.46-47 (capitals and bold for BROAD, mine)

4. Christine Wicker, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation, pg.139