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| The Biblical Basis For the 12 Steps |
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Why I Got Interested In 12 Step
I started 12 step because of what I saw in the people in the program (Celebrate Recovery). The people who had applied the steps to their lives showed more Christlike behavior than many of the people who hadn't.
I saw this most in a relative. He was much more at peace with himself and the world around him after going through 12 step. While he would never step into a church for anything other than a wedding or a funeral, he went to 12 step groups regularly. He admitted to my brother that his higher power was Jesus.
Some Sources
I did some research on 12 step, on wikipedia and other sources. I was amazed to discover the 12 steps are very Biblical. In fact, Bill W (one of the guys who developed the steps), used ideas from the Oxford group (wikipedia: History of Alcoholics Anonymous:Twelve Steps). The Oxford group is a Christian organization (wikipedia: Oxford Group).
To me, the only Higher Power is Jesus.
I only go to groups where He is the acknowledge HP.
Rules for the discussion:
* If you feel a verse is taken out of context, prove it.
If I tell you a verse is out of context without showing how it is out of context, I'm merely trying to be God to you, and you shouldn't listen to me.
* If you think another verse or passage supports a step better, please post it.
* Don't rant, or try to hyjack the discussion
If you want to prove the 12 steps as being from Satan, start your own blog. With respect, the steps have helped more people than you.
Here's the steps, with equivalent biblical verses.
1 We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.
Romans 7:18
“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good but cannot carry it out.”
2 We came to believe that a power greater than our selves could restore us to sanity.
Philippians 2:13
“For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good pleasure.”
3 We made the decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God.
Romans 12:1
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
4 We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Lamentations 3:40
“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.”
5 We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
James 5:16
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
6 We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
James 4:10
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
7 We humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.
1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
8 We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
Luke 6:31
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
9 We made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Matthew 5:23-24
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave you gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”
10 We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong we promptly admitted it.
1 Corinthians 10:12
“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”
11 We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and power to carry that out.
Colossians 3:16
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”
12 Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Galatians 6:1
“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin; you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” |
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JessIAm |
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December 15, 2007 at 4:25pm |
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| Sorry about the initial formatting. When I cut and pasted from Word, I didn't realize the editer wouldn't preserve the formatting in Word. |
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| The twelve step program is a wonderful program. We could all benefit from it. |
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| Good work you did your research. God Bless and keep you on the path to righteousness peace Love andJoy. Amen! |
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Bro Bob |
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December 15, 2007 at 6:58pm |
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Jess, I think the Celebrate Recovery Program is a great program. I taught this in my last Church and I saw lives changed through the power of Christ and faith in Him. |
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Adelle |
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December 16, 2007 at 2:49am |
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I believe the 12 Step program can be a safe arena where group members can share their thoughts and feelings for mutual support. It may help atheists or agnostics start their spiritual journey into discovering God and realising there is a higher power bigger than themselves to help them. |
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Grant |
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December 16, 2007 at 4:57am |
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While the 12 step program has worked well for many years and contains certain elements of great wisdom, it can indeed be improved upon. It is not Scripture itself and is therefore far from perfect.
The one thing that I find troubling about this discussion is the trying to retrofit Scripture into a man-made list of 12 steps. That is not the right order of Scriptural analysis. The right order is to start with Scripture and develop some steps from that. If it's 12 great! If not, go with the number that the right exegesis of Scripture gives. Retrofitting Scriptures into preconceived ideas, or finding Scriptures which seem to support our ideas, is known as eisegesis and is not good handling of the Bible.
To try and retrofit Scripture into any list that we come up with is simply the wrong way to go about things. Proper Bible Study is the other way around - start with the Bible first, not a list that someone else has come up with. |
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Donna S |
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December 16, 2007 at 8:44am |
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excellent blog!!! The twelve step program is a wonderful program. We could all benefit from it.
I also am not adding to the debate>>I have gome throughthe 12 step program
and found with out God/Jesus in my life I was still that same person, as is anyone
who goes through the 12 steps. Not everyone wants to change their life they just want to stop the addicition. I know of Celebrate Recovery Program from online and where I live we have a place called American Keswick which is Christ based recovery. My church is involved with it. The older paster is the Paster for the Recovery center.
We all have our opinions, unless you have been through the 12 steps and know Jesus is the answer to freedom of bondage, then.........
Again THANK YOU FOR such insight and God Bless you!!!!!! |
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Donna S |
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December 16, 2007 at 8:46am |
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| OH Grant, they did get the Steps from scripture, like you staed, the scripture came first ;) |
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| This is awesome, Jess. When I was involved in the ministry school (through a street ministry) I met many a person involved in it. As well, down home a lady from my church attended them. And they are godly, and there is a real companionship, fellowship, love and support. I hear it from everywhere. People even get saved through these meetings! One guy told me they were playing Christian music at one one time! So I agree with you. Even though they may not say "Jesus", it points to Him, and I think the programs are a good thing. A God thing. |
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| awesome post. The 12 steps were a just but a begining for me and they lead this low bottom alkie/addict to know Christ. For me that is where I needed to start as when I came into the program I was one very angery person and just did not beleive that there was a God who loved me with all that happened to me in my life, course most of it I learned was of my own making and other things I just had no control over,but working the 12 steps I was able to let go of it all, the shame guilt and resentments that I had carried all of my life. Once I was cleared out of all of that then I was able to be open to moving further in my spiritual life and that lead me to church. My church has the celebrate recovery as well. The 12 steps were what lead me to the freedom from the bondage of alcohol/ drugs and from self. All I know is that I thank God daily for the 12 steps and where it has brought me to and where I am being lead too a day at a time. Life is better than I ever thought it could be and it's all because of the 12 steps that lead me to know Christ and accept Him as my savior. Thank You again for this awesome blog. May the Lord continue to Bless you a day at a time. hugssss, your sister in Christ. Tina |
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Jess I think whether or not the 12 step programs are biblical enough to suite some of us there is no doubt that Jesus used them to save my life. Once I was way to stubborn to give my life to Christ. I believe Jesus didn't want to see me overdose. NA people tend to be more dead set against all things religious from My experience.
I like the Celebrate Recovery thing myself but that has chaged dramatically over the last four months. I have been Clean and Sober for 18 years thanks to the help of some of our brothers and sisters who reached out to me in NA, Even when I was railing against them that religion didn't belong in the rooms. I want to keep this post short (Oops to late for that.) I personally say if you can't overcome dope, or booze or whatever. Do What Works. AA and NA worked for me when nothing else would. I go now as part of my job. I work in an addictions house. God's still working with me.
I don't introduce myself as an addict, or alcoholic anymore. I simply say it's only by God's Grace that I stayed Clean. I Identify myself by what I believe. Not by the problem.
Thanks for Posting this,
Jess
P.S.Sorry about the long post. |
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Deb |
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December 16, 2007 at 4:33pm |
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| Thanks for sharing this Jess. |
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JessIAm |
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December 16, 2007 at 8:53pm |
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one thing that I find troubling about this discussion is the trying to retrofit Scripture into a man-made list of 12 steps.
Howdy Grant, thanks for sharing your view. I agree that people often have a pet viewpoint they try to legitimize using scripture out of context. Can you show me how these verses are out of context for the steps? I realize people would see this as jury rigging scripture to the steps. Please do research and show how the verses are being used in error. |
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The actual name for the Oxford Group was a First Century Christian Fellowship. A lot of this can be investigated in a book called turning points by Dick B. I think you'll find a lot of scriptural references there.
I don't know how it happened Jess but I somehow got unsubscibed to your BLOG.I'll take care of that Post Haste I wondered what hapened to ya. |
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JessIAm |
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December 16, 2007 at 11:13pm |
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Thanks All,
BTW, if you know of a scripture that fits a step better than what I've posted, please post it =D
Also, if you think a verse is being mis-applied, please state why. |
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| Jess, I don't know very much about 12-step. Funny though, if you aren't one of the folks that "needs" it, it is likely that you know more of the anti-12-step perspective, since they are very vocal. I have tried to stay away from those voices, since I know nothing about 12-step why would I listed to someone criticize it and bias me from the get go? It seems you've supported the steps very well from scripture. Nice blog! ~mike |
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Eliza |
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December 17, 2007 at 9:48am |
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| I think your blog is a good one....I find it helpful...Thanks for sharing.... |
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suzanne |
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December 17, 2007 at 10:00am |
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| Jess--very encouraging blog. I was in A.A. for a couple of years, and I still go sometimes. But now I'm in a Christian recovery support group, and that's been so much more encouraging. God bless,and Merry Christmas. |
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JessIAm |
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December 17, 2007 at 2:05pm |
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BTW, I'm going to start another blog to discuss the 12 steps. This blog is more for presenting the idea that the 12 steps are applications of Biblical principles. I hope my "discussion rules" aren't to authoritarian. |
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MaKelly |
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December 18, 2007 at 12:50pm |
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Jess everybody has a choice, so did i, if 12 steps work for you and others that's great. But I don't belive in it and I would never campaire 12 steps to the word of God because know where in the Bible it states. it, I'm not debating anyone on it I just know that 15 years ago and belive me it has not change I was going in and out of rehaps heard many speakers from 12 step tell and introduce them selves as addicts I'm sorry I can not do that I'm not an addict. I not affended I just though every christian who once was drug addict aclohlic or anything when they where living for then enemy a carnel life, now that Jesus went to the cross for all that and when became born again, Now you serve belong to the most high God is name is above all names JESUS CHRIST
ll Corinthians5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
LOVE U JESS
GOD BLESS KEEP ON BLOGGING |
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JessIAm |
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December 18, 2007 at 1:13pm |
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MaKelly, I totally agree - every believer's identity should be in Christ. We tend to live as we identify ourselves. At the groups I go to, I introduce myself like this: "Hi I'm Jess, an adored believer in Jesus who struggles with ....". I've noticed a number of people in recovery came to the realization that they never owned their weaknesses. Paul did that. He said he would rather boast about his weaknesses, because where he was weak, God was strong. For some, saying "Hi I'm Bubba, and I'm an alcoholic" is their way of taking ownership. I still prefer to identify myself with Jesus, and admit to my weaknesses. I think it's more biblical. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!
10 So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength). |
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GrammyB |
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December 18, 2007 at 8:22pm |
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| Thanks for sharing this! My favorite thing about so many of the people involved in programs like this is that they are REAL. Their humility draws me into relationship with them -- they are often so aware of their own failures that they make the best 'safe harbors' for any other 'battered ship' to come to for acceptance, encouragement and healing. |
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JessIAm |
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December 18, 2007 at 8:24pm |
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Thanks GrammyB, You're response helped me define what I like about people in recovery! Thanks =D |
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JessIAm |
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December 18, 2007 at 8:31pm |
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| Once I was in a group, where someone who was rather codependant confronted the leader. He blamed the leader for something that really was a misunderstanding. The "blamer" (sorry, I don't know how else to identify him) shouted and cried and blamed the leader for not calling him back. The leader apologized to him. I was amazed by the leader after the meating, when he and I talked about it. The leader didn't blame the guy,and wasn't defensive in any way. He just admitted that he had hurt the guy. They guy kept coming back, and improved to a very large extent. |
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Great Post!
Yep AA/NA was my backdoor to Christ! Praise the Lord! Without 12steps I would still be out there lost.
The first time my husband went as support for me he said "This is just the bible in application".
Whether you are in a program or not or following some program, I do believe taking inventory and asking God to remove those character defects is always a good thing. I don't want to become a "crusty Christian" HA. |
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Lourdes |
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December 20, 2007 at 1:55pm |
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Celebrate Recovery has been a great blessing to our church.
Great blog and I hope you and your group grow stronger every day.
Bless you! Lourdes |
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MaKelly |
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December 21, 2007 at 3:19pm |
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Jess that's better
Never call yourself nothing but a child of God, who has been made free by JESUS CHRIST |
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JessIAm |
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December 24, 2007 at 4:24pm |
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| You know, MaKelly, all the Christ centered recovery groups I've gone to have always come to agree concerning identity. We agree our identity should be in Jesus, with an acknowledgement of our weaknesses. |
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Jess I'm glad you posted this.
SPLAT
consider this a drive by anointing.
Merry Christmas buddie |
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JessIAm |
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December 25, 2007 at 12:03pm |
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| Ha! Right back at you Dave =D |
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JayKTX |
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December 25, 2007 at 5:05pm |
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| Thanks, Jess, for an informative blog and for hosting a worthy discusssion board. I'm sure we are all learning from it. |
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Our church Garden Lake Bible Church in Lindenwold NJ uses a 12 step program with a group called Addictions Victorious. We have found that Rapha's 12 Steps are very similar to those posted here. We have been up and running for 2 years and have seen many people came to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus. As a pastor I use the principles of the 12 steps quite frequently in my teaching. Most people don't even realize that's what they are unless I tell them during the message. Celebrate Recovery is actually an 8 step program based on the Beatitudes if I'm not mistaken. Although they do cover all of the 12 step principles. For the last few months we have been using the "Life Recovery Workbook" by Steven Arterburn. We have found it to be useful in how it relates many different kinds of addictions (not just alcohol and chemical) to the 12 steps. Thanks for giving me your time in this long comment. Pastor Dave |
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JessIAm |
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December 30, 2007 at 2:28pm |
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Thanks, Pastor Dave. I'd feel comfortable in your church. It seems to me the churches that have 12 step or other recovery groups realize the church is supposed to be a place of healing.
Celebrate Recovery uses 8 principles, which are, in my opinion, a reorganization of the 12 steps. The Samson and the Pirate Monks groups use a 7 step "path", which is also a reorganization of the 12 steps. |
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