The Conversion of Bill
W.
More on the Creator’s
Role in Early A.A.
Dick B.
© 2014 Anonymous. All
rights reserved
How many times have you heard that the program of Alcoholics
Anonymous is God-given, was divinely-inspired, or was accurately characterized
in the article by a Chicago judge: “Why We Were Chosen?” Or that Bill Wilson
was guided by God when he penned the famous “Twelve Steps?”
On the other hand, how many times have you heard the
expression: “A.A. is spiritual, but not religious?” Or heard that A.A. requires
a belief in a “higher power?” Or heard that A.A. is about “not- god-ness?” Or
is an “any god will do” program?
This book doesn’t
address those questions. It is not about the nature of A.A. Nor about the place
of the Creator in today’s program. Nor about whether AAs are a chosen bunch.
It’s an account of the many ways the Creator seems to have touched the life of
Bill W. and, through him, the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Did He impact
Bill W.’s life and hence A.A. itself? You will meet a Bill W. you haven’t met
in the dozen or so biographies of his life. You’ll look at events in Bill’s
life you’ve probably never heard of— whether inside or outside of A.A. You will
see how many times Bill seemingly had a conversion or religious experience,
whether he called it that or not. You will see how many times religion and
church and clergy impacted on Bill’s activities, whether or not he impacted on
theirs. You’ll note the details about Bill’s decision for Christ at the Calvary
Rescue Mission and his belief he had been born again. You will see the many
examples of conversion experiences that Bill might have run across, just
following his own “extraordinary white light” vital religious experience—the
event resulting from his call for help to the “Great Physician” and his vision
that he had been in the presence of “the God of the Scriptures.”
Was Bill Wilson saved when he attended the East Dorset
Congregational Church and Sunday school, which both the Wilson and the Griffith
families were regular members and much involved—their homes being right next
door to the church? Was Bill Wilson saved when he was enrolled in the Burr and
Burton Seminary in Manchester, Vermont? Where he was President of the Young Men’s
Christian Association? Where he went to daily chapel where he heard reading of
Scripture, hymns, prayers, and sermons? Where he joined other Burr and Burton
scholars when they attended Manchester Congregational Church? When he took his
four year Bible study course?
Was Bill Wilson
converted? Did Bill Wilson ever become a born-again Christian? Did Bill Wilson
truly believe in the one, true, living God? Were all of Bill’s frequent
references to Almighty God, to the Creator, to the Maker, to his Heavenly
Father a manifestation of what he really believed? God knows the answers.
They’re His special province. Not mine.
But you will have the opportunity to focus on a new question
about the part our Creator may really have played in the life of Bill Wilson
and in the worldwide Fellowship which began in Akron in 1935 and of which Bill
was co-founder. For Bill, as a youth, had had abundant Bible study, exposure to
sermons and hymns and Scripture reading, prayer meetings, Sunday school and
church teachings, and YMCA requirements. In other words, Bill had had abundant
exposure in his family to Vermont Congregationalism, Vermont Congregational
academies (Burr and Burton Seminary and possibly Norwich Military Academy),
revivals, temperance meetings, conversion meetings, Bible study at the Seminary
and with his grandfather Griffith, and in company with his lady love Bertha
Bamford—YWCA president and daughter of an Episcopal rector. Until Bertha’s
unexpected and tragic death from surgery just before the two were to graduate.
Bill turned his back on God, blamed God, became depressed for months and
months, and could not finish his Seminary graduation.
Yes. And this is just a part of the Christian upbringing in
Vermont and elsewhere that his friends Ebby Thacher, Mark Whalon, and his family
members had heard about salvation, the Bible, and Jesus Christ.
Contents
Introduction
Ch. 1: “The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth”
Ch. 2: The God of
the Preachers
Ch. 3: Two Heralds of Divine Help on Its Way for
Alcoholics
Ch. 4: The Turning Point: Bill’s Decision for
Christ
Ch. 5: “For Sure I’d Been Born Again”
Ch. 6: Repent, and
Be Converted
Ch. 7: “If There Be a Great Physician, I’ll Call on
Him”
Ch. 8: “Ye Shall
Know Them by Their Fruits”
Ch. 9: Open Their
Eyes That They May See: Manna from Heaven
Ch. 10: The Touch of
the Master’s Hand
Ch. 11: “With a
Mighty Hand, and with an Outstretched Arm”
Ch. 12: As Bill Saw It: “Thy Will Be Done”
Bibliography
Appendix:
“Conversion” in the Bible
Index
Paradise Research Publications, Inc.; 249 pp.; 6 x 9;
perfect bound; 2006; $23.95; ISBN 1-885803-90-7
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