Monday, February 25, 2013

Continuing Series: Support for Old School AA in Present-day AA


Part Five: Transmission of the Original Lessons

          The Learners:

                                                             i.      Dr. Bob – a Christian

                                                          ii.      Bill W. – a Christian

                                                       iii.      Ebby Thacher – a Christian

                                                        iv.      Bertha Bamford—a Christian and Bill’s high school love

                                                           v.      Rowland Hazard – a Christian who followed Jung’s advice; and taught Ebby ideas from the Bible, Christianity, and prayer, as well as the Oxford Group.

                                                        vi.      Shep Cornell – a Christian who taught Ebby and Bill

                                                     vii.      Cebra Graves – a Christian who taught Ebby

The Teachers and the Transmitters

                                                  viii.      Parents, grandparents, and the Bible

                                                        ix.      Church and Sunday school

                                                           x.      Seminaries and academies

1.     Required church

2.     Required  Bible courses

3.     Required daily chapel (Scripture reading, sermons, hymns, prayers)

4.     YMCA activities

                                                        xi.      Evangelists – Moody, Sankey, Folger, Meyer

                                                     xii.      The Young Men’s Christian Association

                                                  xiii.      The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor

                                                   xiv.      Professor William James – varieties of religious experiences

                                                      xv.      Rev. Sam Shoemaker – Must “find God” through vital religious experience and need Jesus Christ

                                                   xvi.      Dr. William D. Silkworth – Jesus Christ could cure

b.     What were they learning

                                                             i.      Belief in God

                                                          ii.      Salvation (John 14:6; Rom 10:9-10; Acts 4:12; Rom 15:3-8);

                                                       iii.      The word of God;

                                                        iv.      Creeds and confessions;

                                                           v.      (From) sermons;

                                                        vi.      Group and individual prayers

                                                     vii.      Hymns

                                                  viii.      (From) revivals

                                                        ix.      (From) Temperance meetings

                                                           x.      (From) the YMCA meetings in the churches

c.     Laboratories

                                                             i.      The “Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury;

                                                          ii.      The Young Men’s Christian Association

                                                       iii.      Rescue missions

                                                        iv.      The Salvation Army

                                                           v.      The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor

d.     Bill W.’s special emphasis

                                                             i.      A vital religious experience [Bill cried out to God; his hospital room blazed with an indescribably white light, and he experienced the presence of god—“the God of the Scriptures”]

                                                          ii.      “For sure I’d been born again”

e.     The Bible (The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous)—How the first three got sober

 

 

No comments: