“A God of our own understanding” vs Lutheran Christian God.
Why does AA refer to “a God of our own understanding”?
It’s easy to understand why the original 12-step authors would begin to use the phrase, “a God of our own understanding”. It was a convenient workaround to the objections to AA from atheists and agnostics.
When atheists or agnostics balked at the 3rd step (made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God), those in AA could quickly respond, “we mean, ‘a God of your own understanding’”.
(See the book U.S. of A.A. by Joe Miller for a great description of AA’s early days)
This verbal sleight-of-hand made the program more palatable to a wider audience. Thus, more people could be helped.
Likewise, the squishy concept of “a God of our own understanding” has prevented the splintering of the organization over theological doctrine. Each person agrees to respect the other’s views on God while not giving up one’s own belief. Rather than doctrinal unity, AA has opted for a sort of tolerant pluralism.
The decision to use “a God of your own understanding” can be seen as a wise one because the mission of AA is to help as many people as possible.
Why is there a problem with referring to “a God of our own understanding”?
To illustrate the problem with referring to a God of our own understanding consider the case of Victor.
Victor came to a Resilient Recovery Group last week and was blown away by our workbook. He started taking pictures of the lessons so he could review them when he got home.
What would cause Victor to take pictures of the pages of our workbook?
In a word: Jesus.
Victor had been to AA for a while, and he knew all about “God as he understood him”. This God of his own understanding acted very much like a human. He disapproved of Victor’s drinking and he offered Victor freedom from addiction if Victor would surrender to him and faithfully follow the 12-steps.
The God of Victor’s understanding prescribed a process of making amends. If Victor followed the process, his life would improve and his slavery to addiction would come to an end.
But, Resilient taught him something new. It taught about a God so immense and so merciful that he is incomprehensible.
A friend of mine—a pharmacist who got hooked on pills and is now sober— says, “His ways are so far above mine that he is a God I don’t understand”.
The Christian’s unique problem with “a God of our understanding”.
Although the intent of referring to “a God of our own understanding” is to make AA a comfortable place for all people, it actually has a chilling effect on many Christians.
I haven’t been to many AA meetings since my early 20s, but my friends who attend now tell me they feel pressure not to say the name of Jesus or to discuss any Bible verses that have helped them.
While it is admirable that they stifle themselves to avoid offending others, it is sad they can’t “speak their truth openly”.
Christians generally accept that they will be vilified, misunderstood, or persecuted for their beliefs (see the New Testament). But Christians in recovery often yearn for a place where they can unbutton their ties and speak in an unguarded manner.
Like most other people, Christians have a desire to be transparent and authentic. They want to speak freely—not to proselytize— but to avoid surpressing their stories and their identities as followers of Christ.
Most Christians I know appreciate and want to bless AA, but they don’t want to have to live a double-spiritual life in which they must scour their language to remove references to Jesus or the Bible in order to fit in.
What are the benefits of the Christian God over “a God of our own understanding”?
There are some very real benefits from having a place where Christians in recovery can speak of the God of the Bible. I’d like to list them below. I hope some of these benefits will motivate non-Christians in recovery to consider what might be gained from delving deeper into understanding the Christian God.
The benefits of a historical figure.
A God of our own understanding is essentially an imaginary friend. It only has the personality that we give to it. We can’t be truly surprised by anything it says or does because it only says and does what we tell it to. It will necessarily be a figure of our time and subject to all pitfalls and follies of our current historical moment. To understand this try a thought experiment. Take for example, a first-century Roman male. A God of his understanding will approve of pedaphilia, infanticide, slavery of conquered peoples, cruel corporal punishment for minor infractions, and grusome public executions that involve too many human rights violations to name.
The God of the Bible would challenge all of those practices—just as he challenges us and our culture today.
2. The benefits of being confronted.
The God of the Bible confronts us with the truth that we’d rather ignore. When we are in the wrong, the God of the Bible requires us to change. On the contrary, a God of our own understanding only pleases us. It approves of what we approve of and it bends the rules whenever we bend the rules. A God of our own understanding will be as flexible and lenient with us as we are with ourselves.
That might sound like a good thing. But, try recalling your last 10 purchases—were they all solid and justifiable? How about your most recent 2,500 calories? Your statements in the last 48 hours of conversations? Your last 15 webpages? All healthy and appropriate?
If you are honest person, you know that you let yourself off the hook way too often. Having a God who can confront you and reign in your worse impulses is a good thing—a very good thing.
3. The benefits of a plan of salvation
God has a plan of salvation for humanity, in which he saves humanity. We receive salvation as a gift. We are rescued, liberated, saved, and redeemed by God’s actions.
No other belief system or plan for improvement makes God the hero. AA and every other religion, spiritual practice, or psychological technique are based on OUR works. Although there is not time in this post to delve into this topic fully, you can see the works-based message in AA. For example, those in AA are told to “work the steps”. They also repeat this phrase weekly, “It works if you work it.” Although these might be considered empowering statements. They can also be oppressive to the person whose life’s problems are burden are already to difficult to bear.
In Christianity, we are able to set down our load. We’re not stuck with the results of cause and effect. We escape Karma and are not punished for our wrongdoing. All our sins, bad behavior, and embarrassing moments are washed away by Jesus and the work HE did on the cross. To those who are doing well in life, God’s plan of salvation may seem like a cop out—a way to avoid taking responsiblity. But, to those who are being crushed by their own poor choices, the plan of salvation is a welcome lifeline. The plan of salvation is also a great leveler. It flattens hierarchies built on power and competence. It makes everyone a child of God—equal in their need for divine assitance. This verse is short summary of the Christian belief.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. [Ephesians 2]
4. The benefits of Amazing Grace
The old hymn “Amazing Grace” is appropriately titled. It is not called “standard, customary, and understandable grace”. That’s because there is nothing routine and commonplace about the grace of God. Shockingly, it is given to those who do not deserve it, like prizes and gifts given by humans and institutions. It is not held in a trust until a person is able to handle it, like an earthly treasure. Instead, it is freely lavished upon anyone who asks. Even more outrageously, Jesus goes out and seeks the lost bringing his grace to who had previously refused it.
A very good friend of mine—and as solid a Christian as you can imagine—attends NA often. We had a conversation that applies to this idea of amazing grace. He told me that when he was using meth, he accumulated a pile of certain unsavory behaviors. Now that he was sober, with the help of NA, he was building a new pile of behaviors. He was rightly proud of his new pile. But he forgot a basic Christian principle. He forgot that we are all tainted by Orginal Sin and even our best and most moral works are like filthy rags before the LORD.
In God’s Kingdom, our best and brightest deeds are dull and lackluster.
He also forgot that regardless of where he was in the sobriety journey, he always had a third pile of behaviors. This is the pile of behaviors that Christ accumulated and that he imputes to us regardless of our status in the moral hierarchy. It is the pile of Christ’s works that God sees when he looks at us—not any pile of our own.
That is grace. That we are not judged by our own behavior. We are Judged by Jesus’ behvaior. And there is no limit to this grace either. It is not dependent upon sobriety. God’s grace and mercy are poured out on those who deserve it the least—on those with repeated failures and those who are “Chronic Relapsers”.
5. The benefits of new life
Believers in Jesus are given a new life. That is not just a metaphor. Once a person receives saving faith, they are born again. They are a new man or a new woman. The new person in Christ has different desires than the old person.
Of course, the old man or woman is still there. And the two people—the old and the new—are in conflict throughout our lives. But, at the moment of death, the old person dies and only the new person lives on. When I ask people in recovery what it will be like not to struggle with temptation anymore, they use words like, “a relief,” “true freedom,” and “joy”!
In most other programs of improvement—like AA—you also gain something. But it is something that you can lose. A person can lose 18 months of sobriety in one day of drinking. A person who attained a healthy weight can gain back all the excess pounds. Certificates, medals, chips, watches, etc are temporary, earthly possessions that stay here on earth when we pass away.
However, a person with new life will never lose it. They will live forever with God in a new heaven and a new earth.
Conclusion
Sadly, Victor could attend a 12-step program for his entire life and never once learn about the 6 benefits of belief in the God of the Bible.
In Resilient Recovery, were not trying to supplant AA. But, we believe we have something unique to offer. We offer Christians a place to speak freely. And we offer those curious about Christianity a place to learn what the God of the Bible has to say to us about recovery and new life.
