Is Celebrate Recovery Biblical?

Is Celebrate Recovery Biblical?
http://www.recoveryreformation.org/pastor-chads-blog/is-celebrate-recovery-biblical
12/23/2014 49 Comments

"Any teaching that detracts in the slightest from the glory of God is not a biblical teaching."
- James R. White, The Potters Freedom - A defense of the reformation, pg 181

Because Celebrate Recovery is based on the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and practiced in thousands of Christian churches without ever being questioned or held up to the light of scripture it is one of the most damaging forms of apostasy in the modern Christian church. The twelve steps in no way bring glory to the Lord and false teachings cannot be combined with the word of God.

"Substitute anything for Christ, and the Gospel is totally spoiled!
Add anything to Christ, and the Gospel ceases to be a pure Gospel!
Put anything between a person and Christ, and that person will neglect Christ for that very thing!
Spoil the proportions of Christ's Gospel, and you spoil its effectiveness!
Evangelical religion must be the Gospel, the whole Gospel and nothing but the Gospel!"
- J.C. Ryle

The common argument from proponents of Celebrate Recovery when presented with the truth of the twelve steps heretical origins is that because bible verses are used along with the twelve steps in Celebrate Recovery it is a Christian program - this defense is ridiculous. If bible verses were added to Hitler's Mein Kampf or the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, would these writings then be considered Christian? Of course not. False teachings are false teachings and have no place in a Christian church.

"This [evil] persuasion is not from Him Who called you [Who invited you to freedom in Christ]. A little leaven (a slight inclination to error, or a few false teachers) leavens the whole lump [it perverts the whole conception of faith or misleads the whole church]." - Galatians 5:8,9 Amplified Bible

Is adding to God's word by blending the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous with the scriptures as the Celebrate Recovery Bible does biblical? Not according to Proverbs 30:5-6, "Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar."

Celebrate Recovery is part of Rick Warren's Saddleback church. Rick Warren made the following claims regarding the twelve steps during his "Road to Recovery" series of sermons: "In 1935 a couple of guys formulated, based upon the scriptures, what are known as the classic twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and used by hundreds of other recovery groups. Twenty million Americans are in a recovery group every week and there are 500,000 recovery groups. The basis is God's word."

Rick Warren's statement above is completely false and it is irresponsible for any Christian Pastor to make such claims. He either never took the time to research the origins of the twelve steps and what they teach or he was intentionally making a false statement. There is no way that the twelve steps were "based upon the scriptures" or that their "basis is God's word" as he claims. The concept of God as a Higher Power of our own understanding put forward by Bill Wilson in the twelve steps is blasphemy. The twelve steps also allude to forgiveness of sins by a God of our own understanding while Christ is no part of the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve step program whatsoever.

If you have not yet done so, please read through the sections on this website that disclose The Origins of the 12 Steps, The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Other Alcoholics Anonymous Writings and Publications, and Views and Commentary on the 12 Steps. Then honestly and prayerfully decide if, based on the truth of scripture, it is acceptable for Celebrate Recovery meetings to take place in Christian churches since Celebrate Recovery is founded upon the heretical twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

"You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons."- 1 Corinthians 10:21

The word of God is all we need. There simply is no way to justify the need for anything else - especially something as far from the Christian message as the twelve steps.

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." - Hebrews 4:12

Here is a great article addressing the apostasy of Celebrate Recovery by T.A. McMahon of The Berean Call: "A Way Which Seemeth Right..."



EXTRACT F.B.
Berg
8 hrs ·
I BET YOU ALL DIDNT KNOW THIS...
THE ORIGINS OF THE 12 STEPS
Due to the fact that so many 12 step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery, Hunger for Healing and many others take place in and are endorsed by thousands of churches - the true origins of the 12 steps are extremely important to understand.
For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. - Zechariah 10:2
Alcoholics Anonymous was founded on June 10, 1935. AA's official biography (Pass it On) of Bill Wilson states that he and Dr. Bob, the two co-founders of AA, during the summer of 1935 were involved with practicing seances and communing with demonic spirits. In his biography, Bill Wilson explains one of their experiences with a Ouija board: "The Ouija board began moving in earnest. What followed was the fairly usual experience-it was a strange melange of Aristotle, St. Francis, diverse archangels with odd names, deceased friends-some in purgatory and others doing nicely, thank you! There were malign and mischievous ones of all descriptions."
Leviticus 19:31, Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 18:10-12, There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
Bill Wilson was the man that wrote the 12 steps and together with a man named Dr. Bob co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous. They were originally introduced in 1935 by a woman named Henrietta Seiberling. In a letter she wrote on July 31, 1952 she writes of Bill Wilson's communion with demonic spirits while he wrote the 12 steps, "He imagines himself all kinds of things. His hand 'writes' dictation from a Catholic priest, whose name I forget, from the 1600 period who was in Barcelona, Spain-again, he told Horace Crystal he was completing the works that Christ didn't finish, and according to Horace he said he was a reincarnation of Christ. Perhaps he got mixed in whose reincarnation he was. It looks more like the works of the devil but I could be wrong. I don't know what is going on in that poor deluded fellow's mind."
1 Timothy 4:1, Now the spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,..
Galatians 1:6-8, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Check out this article discussing the search for the Ouija board that was used by Bill Wilson: The Bill Wilson Ouija Board Treasure Hunt
In the book, "The Conversion of Bill W." the author Dick B. writes of Bill Wilson's experiments with LSD during the 1950's. He quotes Bill Wilson as stating, "It is a generally acknowledged fact in spiritual development that ego reduction makes the influx of God's grace possible. If, therefore, under LSD we can have a temporary reduction, so we can better see where we are going-well, that might be of some help. The goal might become clearer."
Revelation 21:8, But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." (Sorcerer, Sorcery in Greek is pharmakos or pharmakeus meaning a druggist or magician).
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​So, Bill Wilson believed that the way to God's grace was through ego reduction? The true and only way to God's grace is through faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6