A.A. and Big Book Grounded on the Bible

A.A. Big Book Grounded on the Bible

 

Dick B.

© 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

Let’s Start at the Right Place

 

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in June, 1935. There was no Big Book. There were no Twelve Steps. There were no Twelve Traditions. There were no drunkalogs. There were no meetings as newcomers see them today.

 

What was there? The Bible!

 

In the A.A. pamphlet P-53 (The Co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks), A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob stated, in the plainest and most easily understood words: (1) In the early days, we had no Twelve Steps and no Twelve Traditions. (2) The old-timers believed the answers to their problems were in the Bible. (3) The parts they considered absolutely essential were Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, the Book of James, 1 Corinthians 13. (4) It wasn’t until 1938 that the 12 Steps were written. Dr. Bob did not write them and had nothing to do with the writing of them. But the basic ideas came from the teachings, efforts, and studies that had been going on since 1935. Those basic ideas came from the Bible.

 

Start with the Bible – Where AAs Found Their Answers

 

As you start with the Bible and look for the foundations of Alcoholics Anonymous, the source of the basic ideas it took from the Bible, and the facts and documents that prove the biblical origins.

You can find them in A.A.’s DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, page 131. You can learn more of the facts from Dick B., The Good Book and the Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible and The James Club and the Original A.A. Program’s Absolutes Essentials. Then you can read two recent titles by Dick B. and Ken B., Stick with the Winners! www.http://mcaf.ee/s50mq and Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous http://mcaf.ee/gj7iw.  And, before you look at the rantings of half a dozen writers (who think the Twelve Steps are the pathway to destruction and that even an association with unbeliever is an assurance that you are hell-bound), be sure to read the personal stories of the pioneers of A.A. as published in the First Edition of its Big Book. http://mcaf.ee/j4hq5.

 

Let the Facts Lead You to the Truth and to Seeking God’s Help

 

It matters not that some participant in A.A. has a beef against religion, his church, the nuns, or God. Nor does it matter that some anti-A.A. critic wants to paint A.A. with a brush of devilishness.

 

Nor is talking about what A.A. is or does or believes, or supposedly requires or teaches.

Such erroneous speculation helps nobody—whether it is from the “wisdom of the rooms” or the erroneous reporting from those who fancy themselves liberators of Christians from A.A., rather than among those dedicated to liberating Christian AAs from the ravages of alcoholism and addiction.

 

Begin with what early AAs studied in the Bible:

 

In Hebrews 11:6: “But without faith, it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” And move to the verse that led all early AAs to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” (John 14:6)

 

For further information on Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book biblical roots and sources, contact A.A. author and historian Dick B. at dickb@dickb.com.

 

Gloria Deo