Video Transcript: Theology of Addiction

1. In the previous video, we discussed the definition of addiction, and  addiction is complex. It helps us to look at the human nature and how we  tend to behave, given our family of origin and also given our  circumstances right now. And the question is, why does addiction happen? Where does this all come from? In the first video, we looked at Romans 7,  the good I want to do I don't do, and the things I hate I do. It's a sense of  frustration in me. I was saying I do those bad things that I don't intend to  do, but I tend to do them anyway, anyway, like cutting somebody off on the freeway or or yelling at my spouse when I ought not, even if you had total  justification or both, fill in the blank, the good that I want, the things I hate I do. Where does this all come from? How does this relate to our  relationship with God? What is the theology, therefore, the study of God?  What is theology of addiction, because Scripture gives us a lot of insight,  as well as systematic theology, which I want to point you to the two  systematic theology books that will have a lot of material for you to look at. I'll specify what to read so you're not reading the whole book that will then  matter on the quiz, but it's Grudem's systematic theology. Wayne Grudem, he used to teach at Trinity International Divinity School, where I went to  school, and he's now moved on, but also Dr John Feinberg, who wrote the book. No one like him, and they're both ebooks, and just click on the link  and you get it right there. It's fascinating, wonderful, thick, in depth and  comprehensive. You'll really appreciate that, because they both look at the doctrine of God. The doctrine of God. Let me give you a story as we look  at the theology of addiction. The story goes like this, I was 18 years of  age, and growing up in a pastor's home, I would often answer the phone  and the person on the other line or other end would say, is the Reverend  there?, or they would say, is Pastor Lou home, or some other way of  saying? And I say, No, can I take a message one day on that August  afternoon, it was Saturday. And I remember it well 18. I was 18 years of  age and and I had been through a lot of training with evangelism and  helping people through the church. And the phone call came to the house,  and I answered it, and she said, her name is Mary. She says, oh, is Pastor Lou there? Seeming distraught. I thought, Oh, I wonder what's happening.  Wonder what's going on. And I said, No, he's not home, but I'm here. Oh,  really. And we proceeded to talk the next two hours about Mary's issues,  her drinking problem, her failed relationships, her handicap, her  insecurities, her questions about God, her doubt and how she really  needed support. I prayed with her. She came to Jesus, she crossed the  line of faith, accepted Christ, walked over the bridge, over from man's side  to God's side, and things were beautiful. We laughed, we cried. We had  such a great time. So I thought, I'm 18, I'm wet behind the ears, I'm green  as they get, even though I've been through the training and so on. Hey, I'm

young. And I said to Mary, after that two hour conversation, you know what Mary? What you can call me anytime. And guess what she did? She called me for the next two weeks, three times a day. She had to talk to me often  if I wasn't there, it was a shambles. I became her drug. I became like we  talked about in the last video. For some people, it's exercise, it's sex, it's  alcohol, it's cocaine, whatever it is. And of course, with codependency,  which we talked about, we as codependents become the drugs, also other codependence, because codependency is an addiction to people, places  and things. And if she is having a bad day, or he is having a bad day, and  I'm having a bad day, she is a reflection of me. He is reflection, a reflection of me. I cannot live unless I fix her problems. I got caught in that trap real  well with Mary. And finally, the church counselor stepped in and said,  Okay, Mark you over here, Mary, you go over there. This is unhealthy. This is codependency personified, classic situation. So I just went on and did  my thing. I even picked her up for church, no less, put the wheelchair in  the trunk. Make sure she had a good you know, and, and, but she became very dependent on me, very dysfunctional, very unhealthy. I learned a lot,  and the church counselor was able to walk with her in a more healthy  manner from there. But as we looked at the addiction remedies, as we  looked at the treatment options, not only is it the counselor, but it's also the 12 step approach and other approaches that we can help each other, but it begins with God. God is the one who can satisfy the human need. And  you're probably saying Amen brother, all right? Or, if you're not that  tradition here, yes, brother, Amen God bless you more. And you're more  reserved, or Amen brother. And, okay, yep, I said it. Okay, Amen brother,  however you want to express it, you're just Yes, God is the way we all  know this. But the question is, how what is the theology of addiction?  Because the theology of addiction takes us into the human experience as  God created it. We have to unpack what happened way back at the fall,  and you're probably way ahead of me saying, Yeah, Dr Mark, original sin,  Adam and Eve. Let's look at this again for the 20th time or the 200th time.  Well, yeah, let's look at it from 200th time, shall we? Because if we don't,  we miss the point. The story goes in Genesis 3. Now the serpent was  more crafty than any of the wild animals, the Lord God had made and just  to summarize, and you've all read this, Did God really say you must not  eat from any tree in the garden? Okay, so the devil setting is setting it up.  And the woman said to the serpent, oh, well, we may eat the fruit. God  said. God did say you must not eat the fruit from the tree that is in the  middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die a definite  consequence, a negative one. Oh, you will not certainly die. You know, you can just imagine that, that serpent in the tree. Oh, you will not die. And I'll  have to stop right there. Stop, stop the process. Hold on. Why I ask this 

question every time I go back to Genesis 3, why is it that Eve is talking to  a serpent? Why do some more Bible characters talk to animals? Just a  question, just to think, just to ponder. But anyway, she did well. And of  course, when you have an animal talking to you like Balaam did,  remember Balaam and his donkey? Donkey talks to him because God  enabled him to but here it's Satan entering this tree serpent speaking  through the serpent that becomes the symbol through today, having to do  with Satan and evil and so on. Okay. Well, you must not eat from the fruit.  You will not certainly die. The serpent said, For God knows that. When you eat, your eyes will be opened as if they don't know what they don't know,  what they don't know. Then you will be like God, knowing good and evil,  implying knowledge that is is a prize that she doesn't have yet that new  shiny thing. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for  food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she  took some and ate it, and she also gave some to her husband, Adam, who was with her, and he ate it. And the question always is, what's the first sin? It was, it was Eve taking, taking the fruit and and touching it and so on,  that willful act, I argue it was Adam who committed the first sin, not being  there for Eve and protecting her. That's up for debate, I'm sure, with many  of you, but that's okay. I mean, I we want to say, hey, whether you're male  or female, we're both at fault. We both have sinned and fallen short of the  glory of God. So here we go, the first couple. She also gave some to her  husband. Verse 7, when the eyes of both of them were opened, they  realized they were naked, meaning, not only word did they not have  clothes on, but they also were beginning to see each other in a new way.  And of course, Adam and Eve opened that door for brokenness and the  fall from connection with God the Father, the hand in hand, perfect  harmony, falling from that perfect harmony into disarray, and they're able  to see what that is the opposite of life, seeing what really living death is all  about. And they made fig leaves for themselves. There's embarrassment,  there's shame, and the man, his wife, heard the sound of the Lord God.  They knew when he was coming through. As he was walking in the garden the cool the day. Of course, we know God does not have a body, but he  was coming through. God is Spirit, Jesus said John 4 so he was walking  the garden the cool day, and they hid from the LORD God among the  trees of the garden, but the Lord God called to the man, where are you  now? Hold on a minute, as if God didn't know where they were. This is  rhetorical. God was saying, I know where you are. Stop hiding. I need to  talk to you. He answered, Adam, I heard you in the garden, and I was  afraid because I was naked, so I hid. And he said, God said, Who told you  that you were naked. Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you  not to eat from? Of course, God already knew that, but he was setting 

Adam up to confess. And he said, Who told you? And the man said, verse  12, the woman you put here with me. She gave me some of that fruit from  that tree, and I ate it, that woman. Hold on. Now we come into blame  shifting. We come into self preservation. We come into the act of a sinful  act, immoral act of projecting on someone else the shortcoming of self.  And then the Lord God said the woman, what is this you have done?  Woman said, The serpent deceived me and I now she's she's blaming a  serpent. So the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done  this, and yes, God does hold the serpent culpable. He also holds Adam  and Eve culpable. He said, If you eat the fruit, you will, in fact, die, cursing  above all livestock, wild animals, you'll crawl in your belly. You'll eat dust all the days your life. I will put separation enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head. In other  words, God already knew that he had to be the answer. He knew Adam  and Eve could not be the answer. Theologically, we know this. Practically,  we miss the point every day in dealing with our own sin, therefore dealing  with addictive or addiction or addictive behaviors, tendencies and actions  and consequences. To the woman. He said, I will make your pains and  child bearing, bearing, very severe. And of course, let's not forget he Jesus will crush your head. God is coming the form of Christ, fully God, fully  man, and you will strike his heel. We the church, are persecuted. To the  woman, he said, I will make your pains in child birth very severe with  painful labor. You will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your  husband, and he'll be he'll rule over you. To Adam, he said, Because you  listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded  you, you must not eat from it. Curses the ground because of you. And of  course, this is where God says you will. You will then toil, work the ground  in order to survive. And apparently, as we can just imagine, the fruit and  the food was probably just grew naturally. Now Adam has to work for it.  Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all  the living and the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife  and clothed them. And the LORD God said man must not become like one of us knowing good and evil, ah, we learn how God is plural, as well as  being one God, the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three persons, one  God, he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the  tree of life and eat and live forever. So the Lord God banished him from  the Garden of Eden to work the ground when she had been taken after he  drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden  cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to the guard the way of tree of life and unpack this even more as we look at the rich theology.  Here, first, the Lord God banished. Well, actually, God said man has now  become like one of us. Interesting, Adam and Eve are already like God. 

That was the whole point. The line was, you have to become like God.  God said, okay, they want to be like us, in knowing good and evil, not just  having that perfect relationship with us. Of course, they're already like God because they handle their the likeness of God created in as Genesis 1:27  says, Let us. God says to himself, make mankind male female in our own  image. And so that's where we then come back to. It circles back to where  God says, yeah, they were already like us. They apparently, apparently  were deceived and fell for the lie that Satan gave them or to destroy them.  And of course, as we read earlier, Genesis 3:15, God, God knew he had to be the one to come and rescue them and restore what was lost. And this is where we get into the theology of addiction, because, like the story of  Mary, she mistakenly thought I could be her drug. I could be her answer. I  could be the one who could solve her problems when I couldn't. It was  God who realized that Adam and Eve could not solve their own issues and could not save themselves to restore the original relationship they had with God. Not only to talk about original sin, but we also need to talk about the  original relationship and connection with God the Father, God the Son,  said, I will go at the appropriate time. As we know from biblical studies that all the Old Testament points to Jesus Christ, who did come, who did pay  the price and and have justice for what happened here. So that's where  mankind wanted to be God. There you have it. If you were to, if we didn't  go any further on, the theology of addiction, if we don't unpack anything  more, I would suffice. I would surmise to you, I would argue with to you,  giving the argument that addiction based on its definition, and go back to  the Bible and the theology of God, the doctrine of God and the doctrine of  mankind, which we will hear. Here, and we'll pretty much highlight things,  because this is not a theology, a doctrine, course, but it's important to to  link the theology with the issue of addiction and the breaking of the  addiction cycle, because it all begins here, and the addiction cycle starts  with the fact that we think, as human beings that we need to be our own  God. That's exactly what Adam and Eve thought. It thought, Well, my  goodness, if we don't know have this knowledge yet of good and evil, then  what are we missing out on something that that God, God screwed up.  God was fell short of giving us all that we ought to have. They thought in  that moment. And it's hard to quantify, but the moment means David. They thought and and interacted and then did the act. And so it's just beat by  beat. It's where they start to begin to think that they need to take care of  something themselves, whereas God took care of them. We were totally in dependence, not independent, but in dependence on God, the Father, to  provide for them. And therefore it produced behavior that became  compulsive, addictive, because they they then had to turn other things,  other than God, starting with themselves to figure out what to solve their 

problems. In this broken state that we're in with original sin, we then tend  to gravitate to man made rules, man made solutions, because we can't  see past ourselves many times, and we finally hit that bottom, as I talked  about in the first video, we finally look up and say, Okay, God, I surrender.  I surrender. Well, let's back up the bus. Okay, and here we go to the  PowerPoint presentation I want, I want you to take a look at as we look  forward to the quiz and as we now understand where how addiction and  theology connect, how they Help us understand the behaviors of others,  starting with ourselves, well understanding addiction through theology.  Part one was the doctrine of God, Dr Grudem. Dr Feinberg did an  excellent job in helping us to understand the doctrine we're going to glean  from mostly from Grudem. But again, with Feinberg, he compliments  Grudem when it comes to understanding God and also different world  views of who God is, which also leads to other ideas of who God is, other  God views as well. Secondly, we're looking at the doctrine of mankind to  unpack that so that, again, we're building the case. We're building the  case addiction comes out of the human experience, which is theological,  not just clinical, for example, when we go to the hospital, the psychiatric  hospital, because we need help with our addiction to alcohol, we need to  start with the foundations of mankind, and also Part Three doctrine of  salvation. God said with Genesis 3:15 that that was the prophecy, I will  come and save mankind. I'm going to crush Satan's head. I'm going to win the war. And we know that Jesus did, dying and rising. And now there's  that progressive deal of sanctification, that progressive redemption that  happens from one day to the next day and so on, which is always  fascinating, because to God, a day is 1000 years, and 1000 years is a day. It's always today, and God's timing, ah, refer to Jesus return where things  are going to be complete. Until then, we have to understand what's going  on with human behavior, how to break that cycle of addiction and  compulsive behaviors. So understanding addiction through theology,  doctrine of God, the existence of God. Grudem talks about the existence  of God in that we first have a human sense that there is someone bigger  than ourselves, greater than ourselves, that made everything around us,  including ourselves. Yes, for example, How can doctors invent or create all of the biological systems of the body? They're still trying to figure out, the  brain, for heaven's sakes, as well as all the intricacies. It's interesting how  science today is now saying, Well, we're looking into the mysteries of  science now, as we've come out of a very naturalistic relative era where it  all depends or all subjective. It's all relative. But if we go back to absolutes, the absolute thing is that God created inside of us, the whole sense of  eternity in our souls. Secondly, when it comes to the human sense of God, we can point back to the ancient day as look at the Greeks and look for 

Romans, as we look at ancient people groups. If we do some Anthropo  anthropology, if we do some sociology back then, and some some study of as well as religion, religious study, what happened back in the ancient day  before Christ came, and all the ancient peoples after the fall, and, of  course, after the flood and and all those people groups, what you have is  mythology. And mythology is the study of story. Myth means story, not only non true stories or false stories, or they're just a story, but also true stories. Mythology. Why is that important? Is because the ancient human beings,  mankind could not explain what happened around them. Why not explain  how the mountain got to ancient to be there, or how the sky is the sky as it came to calling the water to be water, to be there. Or how, once upon a  time, there was this sky god who did this, and that they have a God for  everything. If you take careful study of mythology and understand how the  Greeks assign gods to every function of creation, as well as the Norse.  And of course, I'm sure, have you been watching all the Marvel movies  and with Thor and The Avengers and and also, I mean, it's been  popularized. Why? Because mythology has helped to explain somewhat,  or make sense of, rather, sense of of the world, least to the ancient people that also a lot of people still today. The truth of the matter is that this truth  of Scripture explains the creation and human beings and so on. But we  still have mystery. We still have questions. And God says, That's okay. I'm  so mysterious. God says, I will always be you always will get to know more and more about me. Even when we pass away and are in heaven, we  learn even more of the depth and the eternal nature of God. We all have  this human sense. God is real in recovery step two, it says, it states this,  we come to acknowledge that the power higher than ourselves can restore me, us to sanity. Obviously, the question is, who is that higher power?  Who? What is the higher power? And then eventually, in the 12 steps of  recovery, it then terms that higher power as God. God. Arguments for God. There's the cosmological argument for God, knows all the universe,  everything you see around you, terms of the stars, planets and the Earth  itself. All teleological? Are you? Because, in other words, the evidence of  that we see the cosmos is to see things that are there. They're beyond  ourselves. There has to be a higher being rate of that, as well as the  environment. Teleos, teleological argument for God, as well as the  ontological argument for God, he is again, and also that the moral  argument for God, and God is moral that there, because we have in our  innards, we have this sense that there is a sense that we moral, that there, because we have inner judges, we have the sense that there is right  wrong. There's a sense comes that we become God, and so that's how  we've. Begin with understanding how we draw. Tend to go away from this  and we think we have to be our ourselves. We have to be the one who is 

God for ourselves. When it never works, we come back to the arguments  and the evidence and the exists of the existence of God, to say, Yes, God,  you do exist. You are real. You are the only one who can save us and so  on. So how this is how we know God. We know God through our  experience. How so the evidence through, again, earth, sky, and also our  hearts, the human experience in terms of how we reason, we are and how we then are a likeness of him. God says, Let us make mankind in our  image. We are a likeness already of him. So why do we try to be like God  as probably because, as I have it here on the on the slide, it's our sinking  thinking. We think that if we can solve it ourselves, if we can think it  through on our own. Ah, the good Westerner, those here in the United  States, Canada and and and so on. And also other parts of the world that's become westernized, as well as Europe, of course, where we think I can  take care. I'm the rugged individual. I'm able to do this as I explained in the first video, Romans 7:18 the good that I want I don't do the bad that I don't  want to do. I do the evil that I hate. I do as we find ourselves always in  trouble when we come to that question of why we try to be God, and  therefore to become and to be our own god that runs in trouble. Well, the  doctrine of mankind. So first, we know who God is. And again, if you get  into brooding that you'll be able to look more into more depth, as far as his  formation, Scripture and Scripture and faith in the Lord the Holy Spirit.  How, you know, he was able to be able to give a good foundation for us.  And the book was done. It was released in 1994 and I was at Trinity  School, one that was released. It was, it was, it was like the next big hot  thing, like the next big movie, that book came out, and all the seminary  students, it was on order, not only there, but also nationwide. And so  you're gonna have a great read with Grudem on the doctrine of God. So  now I understand God, who he is in brief. And this is also where I need  you to go back to your study Bible students based about what you've gone through with Dr Feddes. And of course, other teachers here talking about  who God is, and apply this now into the human experience, sort of where  we find ourselves, as we're now exploring addiction. Part two is mankind,  the teaching of mankind. We are made in God's image. We stated this,  and we're not made in our own that's an important point to make. Because if we say, well, I made in Mark's image, I, Mark and made in Mark's image, that would be incorrect. It's an important point because when we go to  Scripture, say, well, first of all, we read God says, Let us make mankind's  image. Secondly, I am me. God has made me. First of all, Dr Mark Vander  Meer, there's no other person who is I am me, me. God, scientists taught  us each thumbprint is unique, and there's no other person myself. There  no other person like you. Scientists know the person like your dad,  although you are not of your mom and dad myself, there's no other person

God designed reproduction. Know the person like your and your dad. We  need to know the fact that we are not made our own but therefore we  cannot be our own god reproduction, because we need to go back to and  acknowledge that Christ, Jesus, not John, one word, is the creator, be our  own God. And we go to Genesis, 1:26-27 that talks about, of course,  where God says Jesus. A big mankind or image, and also someone you  are in fearfully and wonderfully made. You weren't even just 1:26-27 it  talks about before you ever value. Remember, in our first video, we talked  about your addiction cycle and emotional pain, and how it brings us into  that whole gravitating to substance abuse or to false behaviors or  dependency behaviors, whatever drug of choice we've got brings us into  that whole that's where gravitating to some we are denying the fact  behavior because of self esteem issues and all the shame issues, guilt  issues that we are we are that saying we are not fiercely and wonderfully.  But the thing is, we are dynamic. We are indescribable. God is He put  eternity in us. Which is indescribable is dynamic. We are a likeness of  God. Fourthly, we are then man. Mankind is made to glorify God. Isaiah  43:7 talks about this in I Corinthians 10:31, talks about this, where we are  made to glorify Him. We're not made to glorify ourselves. We're not made  to glorify others. We're made to encourage others, cheer each other on.  We're ready to to bless others, amen, but we're made to glorify the  Creator, and therefore, to have a relationship that's personal with a  creator. He's a personal God, and therefore, and we are personable. We  are personal because we are made in His likeness. And then, of course,  the fall happened. As we read Genesis 3, the fall happened, and we and  we need to come back to understanding that God did make us like him,  but you don't make us him. We are a reflection, just like a painting. If  you're to look at a painting, let's say we had a painting right here, and it  was a Van Gogh or van hawk. You Dutch, Dutch folks, that that painting of  that Van Gogh, Van Hawk has of that person or that that scene, whichever  painting you were to choose, it's a likeness of that environment or likeness of that human being. Mankind is made special. So we know that we've  fallen from grace. We know we've fallen from that relationship with God,  and then we know that Jesus Christ did come and save us. Let's back up  the bus again and look at sin. What is sin? It is a condition. I argue. It  doesn't begin with actions. It begins with, I go back to the origin, yes, the  original sin having to do with a condition or a state. And that state, of  course, has to do with and Grudem argues too, that there's nothing wrong  with you as a person. God still this is still good, the stuff that God made  you is still good, the person you are in your mind and who you are in terms of your temperament as well as personality, as well as how your gifts and  also abilities and skills, that is still good. It is good, says the Lord Genesis 

1, still stands God that did everything that he made and called it good,  complete, perfect, however, it fell from being in tune with God who is the  sustainer of the rightness And the perfection of the completeness of that  good. So because of that fall from that connection, we then tend to act and act out. We tend to have an attitude, and also our moral nature shifted  more towards how we think, to the stinking thinking of being being our own God. Therefore we are lawless. We think we ever if we have our go by our  own law and the book of Judges, of course, address this, as you may  recall with the Israelites, where it says, right there that Israelites did what  was right, what in their own eyes, gets you in trouble every time and in  recovery ministry, as we have our recovery nights with community  recovery that I lead, we will say, yep, we thought we could do it ourselves.  We thought we could do it our and our eyes. What's right in our eyes, as  we share in groups, is also in our worship service. About Christ and  recovery, looking at the Bible and the 12 steps together. It works together  well. Jesus, of course, became our substitute. He became our substitute.  We know that Justice had to be done. Genesis 3:15, we talked about that  with the doctrine of mankind in Genesis t3, God said, I'm going to make it  right, therefore bringing justice to the situation, paying the price that you  and I don't have to pay, and that justice for breaking the law, because our  ultimate purpose, again, is to glorify God and to fulfill the plan he has as  His people here on Earth, before Christ comes back, and that salvation is  not just a one time event. Of course, salvation is progressive. Yes, we are  saved by faith, not by works, that any man, woman, child, should boast, I  did it. Uh huh. No, God did it. God is on initiated salvation. He initiated the  redemption. He initiated to you and to me, that opportunity to come, come  back to him as our daddy, Abba Father cares. And then it's kind of like this  when it comes to progressive redemption and sanctification, where we  become, become more like Christ. Now, because Christ was that perfect  likeness of God, the Father, being fully God, fully man, and fulfill all that  scripture prophesied and of course, also won the war for our souls. Now  that as we reach up to God, and he reaches down to us with his hands  what we were to say, and he reaches down and he claps our hands, we  are saved by faith, amen. So again, that's why we there's worship, and  also the New Testament church. They worship by raising hands as well in  worship. And for those you've not hand raisers, that's the truth. But  anyway, so they're, they're reaching up, as I said, we're reaching up to  God, and God grabs our hands, and we're handing and like God is going,  Okay, now I'm gonna bring you back to me, you know, kinda like that kid  who who fell on his on his bottom, and he needs to, and he can't, for some reason, get up, and he needs help, or an adult need help to get up, and  we grab hold of their hands, and we slowly pick up that person. And it's 

progressive. It's gradual, it's gradual. And finally, that person's on his or  her feet in the same manner. Romans 12:2 says, Be transformed by the  renewing of your mind. It's continual right to the day we pass and be with  Jesus. Sanctification is a lifelong process and becoming like Christ, but  then we, as we connect us with addiction, and this gives us more context  around what addiction is about and how to break the cycle, beginning with  God Himself. It's the likeness of Christ that we deny when we fall into that  pattern of too much alcohol or too much sex or too much whatever, trying  to fix our pain, progressive redemption says no, God can fix that, that  issue one day at a time, one step at a time, but we refuse, if we stay in  Our addictive patterns, let me deny this beautiful thing, and then God say,  okay, when you're ready, when you're ready, I will help you through. But if  you're if you want to do it in your own, you go you go ahead, you try. And  as we know here, it never works. And we have to remind ourselves daily,  don't we, that it never works on our own, because we also deny the  enjoyment of abundant life, which is glorifying God. We deny that, for  example, we say, well, why am I? Why am I having such a bad day? And  we put our hands on her head. The truth is, you chose to have a bad day.  Let's say, as the book states in its title, happiness is a choice. Misery is  also a choice. Which do you want? And it says, If God is that love and  logic teacher flows, you know, love and logic saying, I'm going to give you  a choice, I'm going to give you that opportunity. Here are your options,  either me or to yourself. But you can. You need my help. Depend on me,  but we go back to our stinking thinking, we go back to our addictive  patterns, and we try to hit the insanity button, trying to get a different result every time. Salvation, God, mankind, Christ and salvation, the theology of  addiction. It's about trying to be our own god, which never works. And it's  also the point of turning to the one true God, the God of the Bible, because he is the only one true God who saves you, as well as restores you and  restores the addict, which we all have, something we all have sin and  where God restores you to the true likeness, through Christ