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The book of James, 1 Corinthians and the Sermon on the Mount

Did you know that Bill and Bob and the first more than 100 members of Alcoholics Anonymous considered calling their alcohol recovery fellowship "The James Club", rather than "Alcoholics Anonymous"? The reason AA was almost named "The James Club" is because the early members of AA found much of their guidance and direction, God's instructions, in fact, in the book of James found in the New Testament of the Bible. Almost every step is found in that book, along with other instructions and information that early AA found valuable to faciliating the profound change in their personalities. Scripture is what set the first members of AA free. There was no Big Book in 1935. Bill didn't publish it until 1939, so what did the first AA members use as their basic text? They used the Bible, of course. They focused primarily on the book of James, 1 Corinthians, the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. The Truth that is God's Word set those people free. No door knob or rainbow or some imagined "Higher Power" ever set anyone free. It was - and is - only by the power of the Most High God, Jesus Christ, God the Father and His Holy Spirit who set the captives free. Hence the 78-93% success rate at the time the Big Book was published. The truth is that AA today is a shadow of her former self, and has been riding on the back of AA's early success for decades now, while intentionally watering down the program and demanding the removal of the reference to which all 12 Steps were gleaned: the Bible. Bill and Bob found the Steps in the Bible, yet AA doesn't want a Bible in the room? It's no wonder the success rate is only 1-3% today. The Power which flowed into the first more than 100 men and women of AA did not come as a result of faithfully following the Bible's instructions. The Power which flowed in and changed Bill and Bob and the first more than 100 men and women of AA in such a profound way was the Power of Jesus Christ. That is the truth about AA's wild success when AA first began.

Why Bill Wilson called A.A. "Spiritual Kindergarten"

A.A. founder Bill W. himself called Alcoholics Anonymous "Spiritual Kindergarten" and suggested in the first 164 pages of the Big Book that we would "Be sure to see where religious people are right" and not to suffer from contempt prior to investigation, to keep an open mind regarding things of a Spiritual nature. Those instructions were compiled in his effort to show other alcoholics how they had achieved sobriety. Having had a Spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, Bill knew - and stated - that this was but a beginning of a new Spiritual way of life, and states clearly that an alcoholic "must be reborn" if he or she is to successfully recover.

Ironic, then, isn't it, that of the Spiritual Kindergartners Bill and Bob helped raise up so many generations ago, today many AAers are still stuck in Spiritual Kindergarten. AA fellowships are chock full of Spiritual Kindergartners who liked kindergarten so much they chose to ignore Bill's instructions to "be sure to see where religious people are right" and, in fact, in their arrogance and Spiritual immaturity have even chosen to pretend that somehow AA is better than Christianity as revealed in the mantra "Religion is for people who don't want to go to Hell, but Spirituality is for people who've been there and don't want to go back". Some arrogant and deluded AA's actually imagine "Spirituality" is somehow better than "Religion" which has existed for thousands of years. In fact, Alcoholics Anonymous was born from religion (Christianity) and wouldn't exist today if Bill and Bob hadn't discovered what billions of Christians had already known for thousands of years. You see, the 12 Steps wasn't any new discovery. What was discovered by Bill and Bob is that Christianity works to set the captives free when one takes it seriously and chooses to be "a doer of the word", not just a hearer of the word as Bill read in James 1:22-25.This "program of action"? Simply two men taking James 1:22-25 serously and discovering that it works. Ironically, in "Bill's Story", which is Bill's testimony about how he got sober, an old friend who was instrumental in pointing Bill to the Lord mentioned that "I've found religion". Spiritual Kindergartners look down their noses at religious people in the same way children look down their noses at their parents and their teachers, and we all know who the ignorant are in that scenario.

Recovery Without Half-Measures (personal testimony)

As I trudged the road of happy destiny for the first 7 years of my recovery, I truly did my best to follow the book. Although I, too, disregarded all of the "Lord's" and "His" and "Him's" - all Christian references in the book, as well as the specific instruction to "Be sure to see where religious people are right", as sure as the sun comes up each morning, and as is stated in Jeremiah 29:13, which Bill refers to in several ways as he tells us that "Half measures availed us nothing" and "May you find Him now", I sought the Lord with all my heart. I investigated every major religion and I finally came to know Jesus, just as Bill and Bob knew Him.

Working in secular treatment throughout my 18 years of recovery we considered it a miracle whenever anyone stayed sober. Today, as Director of a Christ-centered 12 Step treatment program we are always amazed when someone doesn't stay sober after graduating the program. We experience the same success rate that Bill and Bob experienced at Akron and Cleveland, which was 78-93%. Over the past 3 years since we began taking men through the 12 Steps and studying what the founders of AA studied - since we began doing AA the way Bill and Bob did AA - we've had an 84% success rate. That's because God's ways work! They worked so well in 1935 that Bill wrote and published a book about it in 1939. I'm here to testify that doing AA the way early AA did it, we're experiencing similar success as early AA did. We continue to pray that the secular Humanists who have diluted and who continue to dilute the program of Alcoholics Anonymous will finally "find Him now" so that AA can enjoy the wild success that both early AA and New Life University experience today.

The truth is that Jesus saves. He restores us to sanity, reconciles our relationships, changes our hearts and minds and truly gives us a new life. A lightbulb, the ocean, the wind, nor any goddess can ever do that for anyone. That's the truth.

Why is A.A. So Different Today When it Worked So Well in the Beginning?

Again, we have to point to the fact that A.A. founder Bill W. himself called Alcoholics Anonymous "Spiritual Kindergarten". That, and the fact that we're talking about alcoholics here. Wet or dry, members of AA are all alcoholics. Left untreated or guilty of "resting on our laurels" for even a short period of time as alcoholics are prone to do, alkies become the epitome of "self-will run riot". Particularly when a member has never really grown out of Spiritual kindergarten, who has become like a big fish in a little pond (AA community) solely because of the years he or she has abstained from alcohol, alcoholics tend to forget that our Serenity is contingent on the daily maintenance of our Spiritual condition.

Thnk about this for a moment: If a person has done so little homework that they remain in Kindergarten for 5, 10, 20 years or more rather than continuing their education and growth as normal folks do, would you expect them to be intellectual giants or even to be reasonable, being that they only have a Kindergarten education? Hardly. It would be absurd of anyone to expect even a life-long kindergartner to be mature, logical or reasonable. Nor do we expect from Kindergartners any semblance of social skills, discernment, grace, patience or education. We don't expect Kindergartners to know very much about anything because they simply are not educated yet.

AA's leadership structure is such that anyone can volunteer for virtually any leadership position. Clearly, over time, Secular Humanists with a grudge against religion have - just as they are everywhere else on the planet - been loud and rude and intimidating and have fostered a climate of ignorance that is now found relatively accepted in the AA community. That is to say, SHs have lowered the bar considerably from where Bill and Bob and the first more than 100 men and women had set it, so far, in fact, that the success rate of the Alcoholics Anonymous program has dropped from 78-93% to what AA today estimates to be 1-3%. Any business or relationship which had suffered such a dramatic drop in success would consider themselves bankrupt, would they not?

So there you have it. AA has morphed into a shadow of it's former self because alcoholics have spent years embracing Political Correctness rather than seeking the Lord with all of their heart. More concerned that someone might be offended by the mention of the Real Founder of the 12 Step program, alcoholics have been busy codepending the next Newcomer for years, keeping real AA history a secret from them and pretending that anyone or anything might be God. Bill didn't write "May you find IT now" or "May you find HER now". Bill wrote "May you find Him now" because Bill was referring to the Lord that is so openly referred to throughout the book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Granted, people still find sobriety there. By AA's own estimation, 1-3% of the people at a given meeting will be sober in a year.Yay. Not exactly statistics worth writing home about, let alone writing a book about. But just like the story of the old man throwing starfish back into the water at low tide, when someone pointed out that "Why bother when what you're doing isn't making any difference" Picking up another starfish and tossing it back into the water the old man said "It made a difference to that one". How many more people, then, might AA help if the leadership and the oldtimers simply humbled themselves and did what the book says to do? Bill spoke glowingly about the church community, clergy and about Our Father, who art in Heaven. It doesn't take rocket science to understand that Bill was pointing us to Jesus. And yet, all it takes is the collective belligerence of a few Politically Correct nazis coupled with the fear inherent in alcoholics in early recovery and suddenly the Lord becomes an unwanted guest. Oh, and the success rate for helping alcoholics recover drops from nearly 100% to virtually 0%. Stark, that.

The James Club vs. Alcoholics Anonymous

Bill and Bob focused largely on and gleaned all 12 Steps from three areas of Scripture: The book of James, 1 Corinthians 13 the Sermon on the Mount found in the book of Matthew 5-7. Daily devotions were part of early recovery routines as the power in Holy Scripture shaped and molded the first recovering alcoholics in AA. So reliant were the early AA members upon the book of James that they considered naming this alcohol recovery fellowship "The James Club" rather than "Alcoholics Anonymous. The book of James has almost every Step in it, as well as a whole lot more that contributed substantially to helping the first AA members find real freedom from alcoholism and to experience the "Spiritual awakening" (Bill originally called it "a Spiritual experience", so profound was the Spiritual revelation they experienced from their Bible studies and devotions). James warns us to be doers of the Word, not just hearers of the Word. James also clearly points out the nature of the Spiritual warfare that AA today leaves out: the devil! James told early AA members to resist the devil and he will flee, as true today as it was back then. Why AA decided to pretend there is no enemy is beyond me. Bill and Bob knew that there is a devil. They studied James and in fact, James was Bill's favorite book from Scripture. Part of the watering down that's taken place over the years which has brought a 75-93% success rate down to just 1-3% has much to do with what General Service decided to LEAVE OUT which the first more than 100 members found critically important, foundational, even.

It's no surprise that AA was far more effective when Bill and Bob began the AA program. Political Correctness didn't exist and the first AA members were so amazed at their own recovery that none of them had a problem giving Jesus Christ the credit for restoring them to sanity and reconciling their relationships, for changing their hearts and their minds in what they described as "a profound change in your personality".

Fortunately, there are many drug and alcohol recovery programs which teach and embrace the same 12 Steps in the same way AA's founders did. Celebrate Recovery and New Life University are just two of them. Having morphed a program with nearly a 100% success rate into just a 1-3% success rate created a reason for recovering individuals to ask themselves "Why?" that is, which led to a more thorough investigation of how early AA discovered a way that works. Fortunately, alcoholics and addicts of all kinds are now privvy once more to the same program which Bill and Bob had originally discovered was effective to overcome alcoholism and other living problems. AA is still, in Bill W.'s words "Spiritual Kindergarten", but there are now new Christ-centered programs who facilitate the same Spiritual growth that the founders experienced, which embrace not only the 12 Steps found in the Bible, but everything else Bill and Bob and the early members found in God's Word as well, in their Bible studies and daily morning Scriptural devotions.

Alcoholics no longer need be resigned to a life-time of Spiritual Kindergarten. Now all alcoholics have the same opportunity to grow up Spiritually and emotionally as AA's founders did, embracing a way of life that has been in practice for more than 2,000 years. Hallelujah!