Apologetics

God As We Understood Him

by Jeff Drinnan
08/12/26
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"God is not going to rewrite the Bible for your generation. Stop trying to change scripture when it's written to change you." -Facebook post.

Alcholics Anonymous has its roots in the First Century Christian Fellowship, which later was called The Oxford Group, which based the program to help people who abuse alcohol on God. At one point, AA minimized the role of God the programs, as to not turn off people who are not of the Christian faith. I once heard someone in a church say that AA is a secular program.

The Reverend Frank Buchman, who founded The Oxford Group in 1921, said the root of all problems are the personal problems of fear and selfishness. The solution, he said, is to "surrender one's life over to God's plan."
AA used basic tenants of The Oxford Group in its 12 Steps, with some modifications.

The 3rd step of Alcoholics Anonymous reads "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him." The 3rd step in The Life Recovery Bible reads "We made a desision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God."

The 11th step of AA reads "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. The 11th step of 

The Life Recovery Devotional Bible reads "We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowedge of His will and the power to carry that out."

The 12th step of AA reads "having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice all these principles in all our affairs.

The 12th step of The Life Recovery Bible reads "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this messge to others and practice these principles in all our affairs.

God is God. He's who He says He is, and not who we imagine Him to be, the way some people imagine homeless people to be, not knowing who they really are, which is reflected in a homeless group's motto "Don't talk about us, talk with us."

I remember as a kid watching The Fractured Fairy Tales on the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon show. Humorusly, the fairy tales are twisted, rewritten. We shouldn't twist or rewrite the Bible to suit our desires but should seek to walk in God's ways. "Do not turn to the right or the left, keep your foot from evil." 'Proverbs 4:27.

God controls the horizontal, God controls the vertical. The lyrics in Natalie Grant's King of the World tells us who God really is and not just how we understand Him:

I try to fit You in the walls inside my mind
I try to keep You safely in between the lines
I try to put You in the box that I've designed
I try to pull You down so we are eye to eye
When did I forget that You've alrways been
the King of thw world
How could I make You so small
When You're the one who holds it all?
When did I forget that You've always been
The King of the world?

Just a whisper of Your voice can tame the seas
So who am I to try to take the lead?
Still I run ahead and think I'm strong enough
When You're the one who made me from the dust
When did I forget that You've always been
The King of the world?

I try to take life back right out of the hands
Of the King of the world
How could I make You so small
When You're the one who holds it all?
When did I forget that You've always been
The King of the world?

Ooh, you've set it all in motion
Every single moment
You brought it all to be
And you're holding on to me
When did I forget that You've always been
The King of the world?
Try to take life back right out of the hands
Of the King of the world
How could I make You so small
When You're the one who holds it all?
When did I forget You've always been
The King of thw world?
You will always be the King of the world

As for the term "alcoholic", which AA uses, people who abuse alcohol are not who they are, but what they do. It is a sinful choice, which is why alcohol abuser, like any other sinner, needs God to overcome sin. We are all in recovery!

On one occasion in reading passages in The Life Recovery Devotional, I came across what is on point about the view of God as we understood Him. "Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God is like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshipping the very-living God, they worshipped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles." -Romans 1: 21-23

Subsequent verses show how believing this results in sinful behavior.
"Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the creator - who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, they invent ways of doing evil, they disobey their parents, they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." -Romans 1: 24-32

In the book of Judges, we read how Israel again turned away from God: "All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes." -Judges 21-25
God is not as we understand him, but what He tells us He is in His word!