Traditions that a person could, if he chose, make an A.A. group his “higher power.” Some may do that today, but they certainly don’t pray to the A.A. group. In fact, the Traditions that Bill wrote suggested that their ultimate authority was a loving God as He might express Himself to a group conscience.
The Creator Did Not Change, But the Language Did
The Creator, Almighty God, did not change between 1939 and the 1950’s. The two Cofounders had often described Him as He is described in the Bible both had studied and which was stressed as reading matter in the early program.
In fact, Bill said that the Book of James was a favorite; and you can find the “God of the Scriptures” described there as “God” (James 1:1, 1:5, 1:13, 1:27, 2:5, 2:19, 2:23, 3:9, 4:4, 4:7, and 4:8). The “God of the Scriptures” was also there described as “God and the Father” (James 1:27); “God, even the Father” (James3:9); and “the Father of lights” (James 1:17). The same Book of James describes the Son of God as “the Lord Jesus Christ” and “our Lord Jesus Christ” (James 1:1, 2:1). Nowhere does the Bible leave the reader in doubt or lack of understanding as to who God, the Father, was and is, or who His Son Jesus Christ was and is.
In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which the Cofounders considered absolutely essential to their program and said that it contained the underlying spiritual philosophy of A.A., there are the same consistent and frequent references to “God,” “Father,” “heavenly Father,” and “Father which is in heaven.”
A.A.’s Bible Roots Never Condoned an Idolatrous Deity
There is nothing in these Scriptures to suggest that “God” was or is a “Power greater than ourselves”—a substitute “god” that