Making Known the Biblical History and
Roots of Alcoholics Anonymous An Eleven-Year Research, Writing, Publishing,
and Fact Dissemination Project
www.dickb.com/makingknown.shtml
Monday, March 26, 2012
Workshops/Conference Friday, Golden Hills Community Church, March 30
Announcing!
The
International Christian Recovery Coalition Presents
Dick
B. of Kihei, Hawaii
Speaking
at “Stick With The Winners” Workshops and Conference
Hosted
by
Golden
Hills Community Church – Brentwood Campus
2401
Shady Willow Lane, Brentwood, CA 94513
Location
Golden Hills Community Church Multi Purpose Room 151
The
Pre-Conference Workshop Meetings
Friday,
March 30, 2012, 3:00 to 5:00 PM
Meetings
in Room 151 or smaller room with individuals and/or groups to discuss:
(1)
Their particular fellowships or groups or meetings,
(2)
How Old School A.A. can be used there to enhance their programs with
Conference-approved literature, films, resource libraries, and Guides,
(3)
How their programs can become connected with other recovery programs, events,
speakers, resources, fellowships, and church sponsored recovery work in their
communities,
(4)
Their suggestions for collaboration, networking, community events, and
individual groups.]
Break for Dinner (5:00 PM to
6:15 PM)
Main Conference
(6:30 PM to 8:00 PM)
Dick B. and Ken B. Speakers
Topics
To Be Covered:
·
Old-School Pioneer Recovery and Parallels to 1st
Century Christianity (Book of Acts)
·
The Special Present-day Role Christian recovery leaders, groups,
and fellowships have in making more effective the power, love, and healing by
God in all recovery aspects today.
·
Variety of ways individual recovery efforts can use and present
enhanced Christian healing and cure.
- The
call for integrating various Christian recovery programs, fellowships, and
church-sponsored spiritual growth today in company with other community
resources.
For more information, you may also contact:
Dick
B.
or
Ken B.
Gloria
Deo
March 29, Thursday, Good Book/Big Book Workshop, Livermore, CA
Big Book – Good Book Event, Livermore
Calif. May 29, Cornerstone Church Campus
Be sure to plan on attending the hour and a half
workshop meeting at Cornerstone Church, Livermore, California, at 7:00 PM,
Thursday, May 29, 2012
A Unique Event:
The Big Book-Good Book
Meeting at Cornerstone has set up this special meeting.
Introduced by Dominic D.,
Dick B. and Ken B. of Kihei, Maui, Hawaii, will be addressing three important
aspects of Big Book-Good Book History; and then the floor will be open for
questions from the audience.
This is to train the trainers
as to the opportunities to apply and benefits of applying the practices of
early A.A. in Akron. Enabling recovery meetings, speakers, and fellowships
today to use the highly successful old school techniques that the pioneers used. And taking advantage of the help from
today’s 12 Step Fellowships accompanied by Conference-approved literature as
well as the Bible and the history of early A.A.
Those who come and
participate will learn and understand better the importance of utilizing A.A.’s
own literature, A.A.’s own history, and A.A.’s own highly successful old school
techniques which closely resembled First Century Christianity as described in
the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible. They will learn the many specific
presentations in the Big Book that support such practices today.
You will learn what an early
A.A. meeting in Akron, in the early 1940’s, was like; how the fellowship was
conducted; and how the old school A.A. reliance on the power of God and the
Good Book continued in importance for the decade following publication of the
Big Book in 1939. And why it is important now.
Christian Recovery Conferences and
Workshops
Of
International Christian Recovery
Coalition
Dick B.
Growing List of Sponsors of Conferences
and Workshops
Sponsors
Jeff and Debra Jay, Authors,
Love First, Grosse Point, Michigan
Bob J., Believer and Philanthropist,
Maui, Hawaii
Rock Recovery Ministries, ABC
Sober Living, Soledad House, San Diego
Rev. Bill Wigmore, Chairman
of Episcopal Diocese of Texas Recovery Committee, Austin,
Texas
Rick S., Writer-Speaker, San
Jose, California
Scott C., Men’s Group Leader,
Honolulu, Hawaii
Hazelden Educational
Services, Center City, Minnesota
Golden Hills Community
Church, Brentwood, California
Cornerstone Church
Fellowship, Livermore, California
His Place Church,
Westminster, Orange County, California
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The Importance of Benefactors
The
Importance of Benefactors
By
Ken B.
© 2012
Anonymous. All rights reserved
Over the years, benefactors have played
a significant role in making possible travel, research, writing, and book
distribution by my dad, Dick B. And, it turns out, a benefactor played a key
role in a series of meetings that very likely had a profound impact on the
family of A.A. cofounder Robert Holbrook Smith (“Dr. Bob”), his boyhood church,
his town, and his Christian upbringing. These meetings became known as “the
Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.[1]
During our first research trip to St.
Johnsbury in October 2007, my dad and I learned of the “Great Awakening” of
1875 in St. Johnsbury in a book I found in the small reading room library of
North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury. This amazing series of meetings, spread
over a number of months beginning on February 6, 1875, was launched when laymen
from the Young Men’s Christian Association—led by H. M. Moore of Boston and R.
K. Remington of Fall River—began the first of a series of “Gospel meetings” in
St. Johnsbury. These meetings resulted in the conversion of somewhere between
500 and 1,500 people in that town of about 5,000 people. The town historian, Edward
T. Fairbanks, said: “. . . [T]he influence of the religious uplift here was
extended for a hundred miles around, and left its permanent mark on this
community.”[2]
In fact, what eventually led to this
“Great Awakening” began in a meeting at Detroit in 1868 between Henry Martyn
(H.M.) Moore and his friend, the evangelist K. A. Burnell, where they decided
that “by the help of God the old Bay State [of Massachusetts] should be
conquered for Christ.”[3]
Then Moore made an “extended visit” to the home of his friend Burnell, who
lived near Aurora, Illinois, in the summer of 1871. That meeting “produced the
‘regular canvass of Gospel meetings’ that started in the State of Massachusetts
(in January 1872), was expanded into the State of New Hampshire (in November
1873), and was further expanded into the State of Vermont” on the basis of
decisions made at the State YMCA Convention in Norwich, Vermont, on November
19-20, 1874. H. M. Moore and R. K. Remington of Massachusetts both attended
that Vermont YMCA Convention.[4]
K. A. Burnell was selected by the State
of Massachusetts YMCA Committee to lead the first and following “regular
canvass of Gospel meetings” in Massachusetts. And he was involved, at least to
some degree, in the canvasses in New Hampshire and Vermont that followed.
Burnell did a great deal of traveling in sharing the gospel—not only in going
from his home in Illinois to Massachusetts to lead the “canvasses,” but also in
traveling to many other parts of the United States. How he was able to pay for
the expenses involved in his evangelistic work is the subject of the following
three short articles.
What a Christian
Banker May Do[5]
Mr. K. A. Burnell,[6]
the Evangelist, has been supported by Mr. C. D. Wood,[7]
a banker in New York,[8]
who was one of his playmates in their boyhood. Zion's Herald tells how this partnership was brought about. The
banker invited the western itinerant to his house in the country, in the
vicinity of New York. After tea they had a ride, and after the ride a long
walk, and many questions were asked about his mission work. The next morning
Mr. Burnell was asked, “How would you like a salary and go forth as the
banker's representative to do the Master's work as it shall open before you?”
“Nothing could be more gratifying.” Thus the firm was organized and began
business. The older partner just enters upon his twenty-seventh year of
continuous service, for seventeen of which C. D. Wood has supplied the sinews
of war. Certainly firms like this should multiply. Boston has several of them.
There are men who could furnish the capital for such a firm and reap the
richest interest on their investment. The junior partner has many other
investments of this character. Colleges and seminaries have received many
thousands at his hand, and he has often had as many as a half dozen young men
and women in college and seminary training for future usefulness. These two
partners are still comparatively young, and look forward to many years of labor
in the Lord's vineyard.—Honolulu, (H. I.), Friend.
Personal.
Trustees.[9]
“A noble instance of long-continued and
unostentatious giving to a single cause is that of Mr. C.
D. Wood, a Wall street
banker. For seventeen years he has paid
a salary of $1,000 per annum to Mr.
K. A. Burnell, the well-known evangelist, and the
whole sum given him that time now exceeds $22,000, Mr. Burnell devoted himself
most assiduously to gospel work, helping many a soul to a better spiritual
life. Would that there were hundreds of
such copartnerships as this between Mr. Wood and Mr. Burnell.” Mr. Wood is one of the largest yearly donors to
the college.
. . . K. A.
Burnell[10]
In 1868, Mr. C. D. Wood of Brooklyn
suggested that Mr. Burnell devote his life to evangelistic work from wherever
the call should come and he would furnish the salary. For 37 years he led a
life of intense activity along many lines. In 1869 he settled in Aurora, Ills.,
and from that center he traveled at the rate of 1,000 miles per month. He was
intimately associated with that wonderful circle of workers, Mr. McGranahan,
Major Whittle, P. P. Bliss, D. L. Moody, B. F. Jacobs, and Ira D. Sankey. . . .
Mr. Sankey was singing in meetings Mr. Burnell was holding in Ohio when Mr.
Moody first heard him, and soon secured his services. In 1875 Mr. Burnell made
a trip around the world, spending three of the fourteen months with his brother
Thomas, for forty years a missionary in India.
Perhaps
you may be such a benefactor!
[1] For much more information on “the
Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury, see Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His
Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont (Kihei, HI:
Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2008). http://dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml
[2] Edward Taylor Fairbanks, The Town of St. Johnsbury, Vt; A Review of
One Hundred Twenty-Five Years to the Anniversary Pageant 1912
(General-Books.net reprint of: St. Johnsbury, VT: The Cowles Press, 1914),
234-35.
[3] Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous, 6.
[4] Again, please see Dick B. and Ken
B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous,
for these and many more details.
[5] “What a Christian Banker May Do,”
in The Sailors’ Magazine and Seamen’s
Friend, Vol. 56, July, 1884. No. 7. (American Seamen’s Friend Society),
227; http://goo.gl/2uggw
; accessed 3/20/12.
[6] Kingsley A. Burnell (1824-1905) was
born in Chesterfield, Massachusetts. He learned the trade of carpenter and
builder in Northampton. He married Cynthia Pomeroy, of Williamsburg,
Massachusetts, daughter of “Old Deacon Pomeroy.” In 1852, Burnell decided to
“drop the jack-plane” and entered Sunday-school work under the American
Sunday-school Union. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he entered the service
of the Christian Commission, meeting Dwight L. Moody. See “. . . K. A.
Burnell,” in The Advance, September
21, 1905, 318-19. http://goo.gl/v7AnG ; accessed 3/20/12.
[7] Cornelius Delano Wood (1832-1906)
was born on December 12, 1832, in Northampton, Massachusetts. He was a member
of the banking firm of Vermilye & Co. during the Civil War and “exercised a
large and useful influence upon the financial arrangements of the Government at
that crisis.” He later lived at 880 St. Mark’s Avenue, Brooklyn.
He
was a Trustee, a member of the Executive Committee, and a Vice President of the
Union Trust Company for many years; and he was one of the most prominent men in
Wall Street. His listing in the book Notable
New Yorkers of 1896-1899 reads: Wood, Huestis & Co. (Special Partner),
Bankers. Here is other information about that firm: Wood, Huestis & Co.,
bankers, No. 31 Pine Street, New York. Government securities. Stocks and bonds,
bought and sold on commission: New York Stock Exchange sales, October 14, 1887.
Sales of bonds and stocks from 10:00 A.M. to 12 M. [Wood, Huestis & Co.
were the successors to Wood & Davis (C. D. Wood and S. D. Davis), bankers
and brokers.]
In
Brooklyn, he took a large share in the foundation of the Children’s Aid
Society, donated $125,000.00 to erect the Young Women’s Christian Association
building, and had a large share in building the Tompkins Avenue Congregational Church.
He was widely known in Wall Street as the representative of the affairs of the
Congregational Church. See “Cornelius D. Wood . . . The Former Banker Was Well
Known as a Philanthropist,” in The New
York Times, published June 12, 1906; http://goo.gl/K0cxZ ; accessed 3/20/12.
[8] “C. D. Wood.—Banking and
securities. Was formerly with Vermilye & Co., New-York City.” See “American
Millionaires: The Tribune’s List of Persons Reputed to be Worth a Million or
More,” in The Tribune Monthly, Vol.
IV. June, 1892. No. 6., page 36; http://audio44.archive.org/details/cu31924029948258 ; accessed 3/20/12.
[9] A note in the Lafayette College Journal, Vol. 9, No.
5, February 1884, 78; http://goo.gl/ktk8J; accessed 3/20/12. Cornelius D.
Wood was a Trustee of Lafayette College.
[10] “. . . K. A. Burnell,” in The Advance, September 21, 1905, 318-19.
http://goo.gl/v7AnG
; accessed 3/20/12
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
International Christian Recovery Coalition: Three Christian Recovery Priority Plans and Your H...
International Christian Recovery Coalition: Three Christian Recovery Priority Plans and Your H...: Three Christian Recovery Projects We Would Like to Undertake Right Now, with Your Help By Dick B. © 2012 Anonymous. All rights...
Three Christian Recovery Priority Plans and Your Help
Three Christian Recovery Projects
We Would Like to Undertake Right Now,
with Your Help
By Dick B.
© 2012 Anonymous. All
rights reserved
Christian Recovery
Project #1
Conducting, recording, and posting free of charge on www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com
interviews with Christian leaders and workers in the recovery arena.
For many years, my son Ken and I have spoken of interviewing
key people we have met in our travels, such as members of Rev. Samuel
Shoemaker’s family, Dr. Bob’s children, Seiberling family members, Oxford Group
activists and Sam Shoemaker associates and friends, archivists, historians, and
devoted AAs and Christian leaders. During our September 2011 International
Christian Recovery Coalition North American Summit Conference at The Crossing
Church in Costa Mesa, California, I mentioned this idea publicly from the
platform. And we received a very positive response. As a result, we secured the
www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com
domain name, began building a Web site, and posted some early audios and new
videos on the site.
Today, we know personally hundreds of Christians who are
long-sober alcoholics and addicts, historians, authors, archivists,
professional recovery people, treatment and sober living leaders, counselors
and interventionists, clergy, pastoral counselors, recovery pastors, or
otherwise informed and truthful people who can tell their stories, share how
they serve, and present their ideas for advancing the International Christian
Recovery Coalition’s mission. Because we know them, we can easily arrange
interviews, record them, and post them on the Web free of charge.
Christian Recovery
Project #2
Sharing with people in person, by phone, and via Skype how
and where to study A.A. history, develop Christian recovery outreach, and
conduct programs and group studies of various types that carry three important
messages: (a) Conference-approved literature supports Christians’ sharing in
their stories at 12-Step meetings and in their work with newcomers “how they
established their relationship with God”—including mention of Jesus Christ and
the Bible. (b) The seven principles and major practices of the early,
highly-successful Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” are known from current,
Conference-approved literature, and are therefore well within the Traditions.
(c) The application in early A.A.—especially in Akron and Cleveland—of practices
of First Century Christianity as found in the Book of Acts produced much-desired
healing, love, forgiveness, power, and status as children of God.
Christian Recovery
Project #3
Publishing my existing and future research on the history of
A.A. and its Christian heritage in the form of print-on-demand books, and in
Internet-friendly forms such as electronic books, audios, and videos, in order to
reduce selling prices substantially (and to make possible free distribution
frequently). Help us make known the unknown, little-known, and/or
previously-distorted facts!
Dick B. Introductions and Questions for Christian Recovery Leaders and Workers
Dick B. Introduction
and Questions for Christian Recovery Leaders and Workers
Copyright 2012
Anonymous. All rights reserved
1.
Dick B.’s areas of expertise: Dick B. has
published 43 books (several of which
have gone through multiple editions), written more than 900 articles, given
more than 100 recorded audio talks, produced a 4-video class (with a second one
in production right now), done 16 YouTube videos, and conducted meetings and
conferences throughout the United States and in Canada. This over the course of
22 years of active research, writing, and speaking on the following topics:
a.
The history of Alcoholics Anonymous;
specifically, relating to:
i.
Did A.A. “come from” the Bible?
ii.
What roles did God, His Son Jesus Christ, and
the Bible play in early A.A.’s astonishing successes with “medically-incurable”
alcoholics (and addicts!) who thoroughly followed the early (Akron) A.A. path.
b.
The Christian predecessors to A.A. who influenced
A.A., N.A., and C.A. and/or were effective in working with alcoholics and
addicts; e.g.:
i.
The Young Men’s Christian Association;
ii.
The Salvation Army;
iii.
Rescue Missions;
iv.
The Young People’s Society of Christian
Endeavor;
v.
Christian evangelists, such as Dwight L. Moody
and Ira D. Sankey, Henry Moorhouse, Henry M. Moore, Allen Folger, and F. B.
Meyer.
c.
Key First Century Christianity concepts,
principles, and practices—particularly as found in the Gospels and the Book of
Acts—which were successfully employed by A.A.’s Christian predecessors and by
early A.A., and which can be used to enhance Christian Recovery efforts today.
d.
Modern Christian Recovery Efforts
i.
Working within A.A.;
ii.
Christian-oriented, 12-Step efforts outside of
A.A., N.A., and/or C.A. that incorporate
attendance at these fellowships;
iii.
N.A., C.A., and other 12-Step efforts to deal
with alcoholism, prescription drug abuse, and addiction to illegal drugs;
iv.
Encouraging non-12-Step Christian Recovery
efforts—such as Teen Challenge—to incorporate the lessons learned from the
godly aspects of A.A. and its Christian predecessors as to working effectively
with alcoholics and addicts.
2.
Questions for Christian leaders and workers in
the recovery arena:
a.
What program(s) are you working on now that are
focused on alcoholics, addicts, and others with life-controlling problems,
and/or those impacted by the lives of alcoholics and/or addicts?
b.
Why did you start the program(s)? What need(s)
did you want to address?
c.
Which program(s), if any, did you start and
later abandon? Why?
d.
What would you like to see happen in “carrying
the message to those who still suffer” in the short-term? How about the
long-term?
e.
What problems, if any, have you encountered
along those lines with which you would like help in resolving?
f.
How many times each week do you offer meetings
addressing these issues? Why that frequency?
g.
What other local churches or groups, if any, do
you work with in these efforts?
h.
What other Christian Recovery efforts are you
networking with in other parts of your state, other states, and/or other
countries? Do you want to do more of that?
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Alcoholics Anonymous History and A.A.'s Christian Roots
Alcoholics
Anonymous History
Alcoholics Anonymous History and Its Christian Roots
Alcoholics Anonymous History and Its Christian Roots
Dick B.
© 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
I am one of the tens of thousands (probably hundreds of
thousands) of Christians who deeply appreciate the recovery from alcoholism and
addiction that Alcoholics Anonymous made possible in our lives. Many of us have
been criticized for mentioning Jesus Christ and the Bible in our talks at
meetings. But most of us know that God is our sufficiency. We ask Him in the
name of Jesus Christ to deliver us. And we recover. So did Bill Wilson as he is
quoted on page 191 of the latest edition of Alcoholics
Anonymous.
Many of us who are Christians involved in A.A. do believe
in God, the accomplishments of His Son Jesus Christ, and the truth about both
that is found in the Bible. Many of us, as Christian members of Alcoholics
Anonymous, had no idea whatsoever that early A.A. was a Christian fellowship,
that its members believed in God, surrendered to Jesus Christ, and studied the
Bible on a daily basis. Many of us had no idea whatsoever that the early,
Christian-oriented A.A. claimed an overall 75% success rate among the
“seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last gasp case” alcoholics who
thoroughly followed the pioneer A.A. program. And many of us never learned that
the Original Akron program is summarized rather well in on page 131 of the A.A.
General Service Conference-approved book, DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers.
How could so many of us have been unaware of these facts?
The answer, in part, is that, as the First Edition of
A.A.’s Big Book manuscript was being written and edited in 1938 and early 1939,
many additions, omissions, and changes were made to the highly-successful Akron
Christian program Bill W. and Dr. Bob began developing in the summer of 1935.
For example, as Bill W. stated on pages 166-67 of the A.A. General Service
Conference-approved book, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age:
We [Bill W., Hank P., Ruth
Hock, and John Henry Fitzhugh M.] were still arguing about the Twelve Steps.
All this time I had refused to budge on these steps. I would not change a word
of the original draft, in which, you will remember, I had
consistently used the word "God," and in one place the expression
"on our knees" was used. Praying to God on one's knees was still a
big affront to Henry. He argued, he begged, he threatened. He quoted Jimmy
[B.—i.e., Jim Burwell] to back him up. . . . Though at first I would have none
of it, we finally began to talk about the possibility of compromise. . . . In
Step Two we decided to describe God as a "Power greater than
ourselves." In Steps Three and Eleven we inserted the words "God as
we understood Him." From Step Seven we deleted the expression "on
our knees." . . . Such were the final concessions to those of little or no
faith; this was the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics. [Emphasis
added]
Bill W.’s wife Lois spoke about another major change on
page 113 of her autobiography, Lois Remembers:
Finally it was agreed that the
book should present a universal spiritual program, not a specific religious
one, since all drunks were not Christian.
Such major manuscript changes from the Original Akron
A.A. “Christian Fellowship” program obscured the simple solution the A.A.
pioneers in Akron discovered; specifically, that a cure from alcoholism was
available through reliance on Almighty God, coming to Him through His Son Jesus
Christ, and reading and studying the Bible—along with the other principles and
practices of the early days. [For the Frank Amos summary of the Original Akron
A.A. “Program,” and the other principles and practices of the Akron fellowship,
see: Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Manual (Kihei,
HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2009), 44-46, 49.]
The Lesson from the
First Three AAs
Early AAs knew one another. They visited one another.
They had address books with the phone numbers (if a given member had a phone)
and addresses of the other members. And they kept rosters which showed the
sobriety dates and sobriety history of the members.
The 75% overall success rate early A.A. claimed was
remarkable because it was attained by what Bill W. called the
“seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last gasp” cases who gave their
all to God and received the blessed healing and deliverance that followed. Bill
W. and Dr. Bob did indeed state that there were “failures galore.” But there
weren’t failures galore among the real hardcore members who turned to God and
gave the program everything they had.
A very important part of the historical record is how the
first three AAs got sober in late 1934 and in 1935. When they got sober:
There was no Big Book (Alcoholics
Anonymous was published in April 1939);
There were no Twelve Steps;
There were no Twelve
Traditions;
There were no “drunkalogs”; and
There were no “meetings to
make”—at least of the kinds normally seen in today’s A.A.
The Creator of the heavens and the earth was there. See,
for example, Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed.:
“my Creator” (page 13)
“My Creator” (76)
“our Creator” (pages 25, 68,
72, 75, 83)
“a living Creator” (page 28);
“his Creator” (page 56, 80,
158)
“their loving and All Powerful
Creator” (page 161)
The “Great Physician,” Jesus Christ, was there. See, for
example: Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator’s Role in
Early A.A. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), 59ff.
The Bible (which Dr. Bob often called the “Good Book”)
was there. See, for example, page 13 of the A.A. General Service
Conference-approved pamphlet, The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous
(Item # P-53; available for reading online at http://aa.org/pdf/products/p-53_theco-foundersofAA.pdf;
accessed 8/5/09):
At that point, our stories
didn’t amount to anything to speak of. When we started in on Bill D., we had no
Twelve Steps, either; we had no Traditions.
But we were convinced that the
answer to our problems was in the Good Book. To some of us older ones, the
parts that we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the
thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James.
A.A. Number One, Bill W., learned from Dr. Silkworth that
Jesus Christ could cure him. Bill learned from his old drinking friend Ebby
Thacher that Ebby had been to the altar and been reborn, causing Ebby to tell
Bill that God had done for him (Ebby) what Ebby could not do for himself. Bill
then went to the altar at Calvary Rescue Mission, made a decision for Christ,
wrote that he had been born again for sure, and then decided to seek the help
of the “Great Physician,” Jesus Christ. At Towns Hospital, Bill cried out for
help, had a dramatic spiritual blazing “indescribably white light” experience,
perceived that he had been in the presence of the “God of the Scriptures” (as
Bill wrote on page 284 of The Language of the Heart), and never drank
again. Bill proclaimed he never again doubted the existence of God. And his
message became: “The Lord has cured me of this terrible disease, and I just
want to keep talking about it and telling people.” (Alcoholics Anonymous,
4th ed., 191) No Big Book. No Twelve Steps. No Twelve Traditions. No
drunkalogs. No meetings. Just the power and love of God that Bill had sought
and relied upon.
A.A. Number Two, Dr. Bob S., prayed for deliverance on
the rug at the home of T. Henry Williams in Akron. Miraculously, help showed up
in the visit of Bill W. to Akron. Henrietta Seiberling declared Bill’s visit to
be “Manna from Heaven.” Bill soon moved in with Dr. Bob and his wife, studied
the Bible with them, and nursed Dr. Bob back from one, brief and last binge.
Dr. Bob never drank again and told the nurse at City Hospital that he and Bill
had found a cure for alcoholism. No Big Book. No Twelve Steps. No Twelve
Traditions. No drunkalogs. No meetings. Just the power and love of God that Dr.
Bob had sought and relied upon. Dr. Bob closed his story in the Big Book with
these words:
Your Heavenly Father will never
let you down!
Bill W. and Dr. Bob sought a drunk to help. They found
A.A. Number Three, the hospitalized Akron attorney Bill D., a Christian. After
Bill D. heard what Bill W. and Dr. Bob had to share, Bill D. decided to entrust
his life to God’s care. Shortly, when Bill W. and Dr. Bob returned to the
hospital, Bill D. told them what had happened. Bill D. then left the hospital a
free man and never drank again. No Big Book. No Twelve Steps. No Twelve
Traditions. No drunkalogs. No meetings. Just the power and love of God that
Bill D. had sought and relied upon. Bill D. found himself echoing Bill W.’s
statement on page 191 of the Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous:
The Lord has cured me of this
terrible disease, and I just want to keep talking about it and telling people.
Bill D. called Bill W.’s statement the “golden text of
A.A.” for him and for others.
Three men! The first three AAs. All healed by the power
of God—never to drink again!
What they did is scarcely known by AAs and recovery
workers today. I know, for I have spoken and written about it in front of
audiences all over the United States and in Canada—in person, in books, in
articles, in emails, in phone calls, and on radio and television. Yet that is
the message they seem hungry to hear.
These first three AAs recovered by the power of God. And
other “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last gasp case” alcoholics
who thoroughly followed the early Akron A.A. “Christian Fellowship” program
path were able to recover by the power of God. But what I especially want you,
the reader, to take away from this discussion is that what was done in 1935 and
the next three years can be done and is being done today.
Benefitting Today from
the “Lessons Learned” by A.A.’s Pioneers
I’m a proponent of A.A. I recovered immediately when I
entered the rooms of A.A. in 1986 and have never relapsed since. I credit the
support I received in A.A., the work I did in learning the program of recovery
in the Steps and helping others to take those Steps, and the complete
dedication I had to the A.A. way. But I have never for one moment doubted that
God must ultimately receive the credit—just as He received the credit from the
mouths of the first three AAs—Bill W., Dr. Bob S., and Bill D. I believed and
still believe that once a person has become a child of the living God through
Jesus Christ, he can diligently seek God’s help, ask for it in the name of
Jesus Christ, and be healed—whether involved in the A.A. program or not. And
the challenge then becomes one of maintaining fellowship with God, His Son
Jesus Christ, and other believers, and heeding the warning about temptation in
Chapter One of the Book of James.
When a Christian in A.A. is buffeted with intemperate
remarks from others about the Creator of the heavens and the earth, His Son
Jesus Christ, the Bible, his faith, or his church, he needs to stand solid on
the real recovery factor that is available in A.A. today, just as it was
available in the Christian Fellowship founded in Akron in 1935. A.A. was
founded on statements such as this: God could and would if He were sought. He
can. He will. He does. And He is available to every drunk or addict who wants
to seek and obey Him. That was proved in 1935. It is being proved today among
those Christians in recovery who choose to avail themselves of His help. His
help is available in prisons, mental hospitals, A.A., other Twelve Step
Fellowships, homeless shelters, treatment programs, and counseling offices.
The problem with naysayers is that they cherry pick
stories, irrelevant associations, and certainly sins and shortcomings which,
they say, prove that, if they stray into A.A., they are disobeying God and
most surely on the way to destruction. If that were true, then the teachings of
Jesus and the other New Testament books would be of no importance. But they
are. Anyone who reads the first six chapters of the Book of Acts, and then the
story of Paul’s conversion, will have no problem with the need to repent and be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and receiving the gift of the Holy
Spirit. In fact, a look at Romans 10:9 will provide the starting place—followed
by ample statements that obedience to God’s commandments and asking in
accordance with His Word, are a necessary part of receiving the promises in 1
John 5:14 -15.
Dick B.: PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837; (808)
874-4876; Email: DickB@DickB.com;
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