Learning and Applying Old School A.A.'s Reliance on God in Recovery Today

Dick B.,  Copyright 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Some alcoholics and addicts today--lacking knowledg of what early A.A. was really like--may shun information about the early A.A. Christian fellowship and its successes. One reason given is that they are not interested in history or in what A.A. was like; they want to know about today, they say. But the fact is that today, secularism, atheism, and unblief have become all too common substitutes for old school A.A. reliance on God--and reliance that healed. In other words, the issue is not higher powers and atheist unbelief. It is that these have a rotten record because they violate God's own precepts about having no other God before Him, and ignore the fact that door knobs, light bulbs, chairs, and other godless gods heal no one. I began studying A.A. history and old school A.A. 27 years ago because I awakened to the nonsens of talking about someone's "higher power" and that it could be anything at all. Then I learned that early AAs studied the Bible, prayed regularly to God, became Chirstians at the very beginning of their quest for healing , and had the teaching and the road signs that told them how to serve, glorify, and live the kind of life God promises to those who become His children. And that was not history. That was the fact that success was achieved so quickly and effectively by those who went to any length to follow the early path. The reason for the success was reliance on God--not simply following some ritual or steps or program. As Dr. Bob said in substance about the early days: We had no Steps, no Traditions, and our stories didn't anything, We believed the answers to our problems were in the Good Book (the Bible). The basic ideas came from the study and effort and teaching that had been going on since 1935. " Yet nobody was talking about, studying or quoting the Bible in the A.A. I entered. So first came verification of the facts above. Once I had that proof, the answer was not history study. It was about finding and reporting the facts about how to succeed with God's help. That meant learning what the early AAs did that was missing today among so many meeting makers. Those facts were belief in God, acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, studying the Bible, praying, observing quiet time, reading Christian literature, fellowshipping with like-minded believers, and attending a religious service once a week. Moreovr, their zeal was so productive and successful that observers and they themselves referred to early A.A. as "First Century Christianity at work" and the group in Akron as a "Christian Fellowship." That has been great news, and I report it with great frequency. Dick B.