Breaking Free: A Biblical Approach to Addiction Recovery Through Covenantal Apologetics

What do you turn to for comfort or relief?

In 2023, for 20 million Americans aged 12 and over, the answer was substances. Americans’ love affair with substances has shackled them to an unforgiving, counterfeit god. Drug overdose deaths in the US since 2000 are at 700K and rapidly approaching 1 million. Language, views, and treatments regarding addiction have taken many forms over the years. In 1935 Alcoholics Anonymous formed and referred to substance dependence as an “allergy” and implemented a 12-step group approach for recovery. In 1952, the American Medical Association first defined alcoholism and in 1988 classified alcoholism as a chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing the condition’s prognosis.

Since addiction is complex, there are many theories about what addiction is. Addiction is labeled a disease by many to remove guilt, stigma, shame, and moral blame from those who use substances and to facilitate insurance coverage of any treatment. In order to understand addiction right, addiction needs to be seen in the context of God’s plan and purposes. In this post, I will argue why the covenantal apologetic approach should be applied to the problem of addiction and how the church can use it in praxis.

Assisting someone who struggles with substance dependence can seem like an overwhelming task for anyone, especially the church. Anyone who has personally dealt with addiction or knows someone who has, understands the life-altering damage that it inflicts; personally, relationally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Not only does any message the church interjects have to compete with the medical community which often removes any spiritual aspect of addiction, but since the cultural revolution in the 60’s, the American culture has often promoted or encouraged drug and alcohol use.

In 1967, The Velvet Underground, a wildly successful American rock band headed by Lou Reed released a song entitled, ‘Heroin’. This song is one of many examples of its time that glorifies and deifies drug use, a trend that continues to the present day. The lyrics include:

“I don't know just where I'm goin'
But I'm gonna try for the kingdom, if I can
'Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man
When I put a spike into my vein
And I tell you things aren't quite the same
When I'm rushin' on my run
And I feel just like Jesus' son
When I put a spike into my vein
And I tell you things aren't quite the same
When I'm rushin' on my run…Heroin, be the death of me
Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life”

A head-on collision of worldviews is the only way to truth and freedom. This is not an unachievable task for the church. Our God is unfathomably powerful, and his Word is transformative. God has transformed my life from being hopelessly addicted to hope-filled and healthy. Thankfully we do not need to be self-reliant but empowered by the Spirit and using Reformed theology presented in Scripture as our guide, this blog will demonstrate how we, as the church, can help addicts.

It is imperative that the addict can correctly diagnose his problem. The church has the responsibility to aid the addict in seeing the problem for what it is, in light of biblical truth. The addict’s self-diagnosis may be very different than the biblical diagnosis. “A good doctor will not prescribe medicines according to the diagnosis that his patient has made of himself.” Having dealt with addiction for over a decade, both personally and professionally, I have seen many relapses occur early on in recovery from the improper diagnosis of the problem. “I don’t have a problem; I can control my use.” “My wife is so difficult; alcohol is the only thing that gives me relief.”

But how does addiction fit within a biblical theology? One must have true self-knowledge to clearly see any self-problem. “True self-knowledge depends on God-knowledge (and vice versa).” If one subtracts a biblical framework from the equation of addiction, the solution to addiction becomes unreachable.

Engaging unbelief is a responsibility for every believer, and this includes engaging someone who is struggling with addiction.  Traditionally, engaging unbelief, or ‘Christian apologetics’, has been generally defined as ‘applying biblical truth to unbelief’. However, a more nuanced and consistently biblical method of apologetics revolutionizes the way we approach the unbelief in the addict and the broader culture: enter covenantal apologetics.

As Dr. Scott Oliphint explains, “Covenantal apologetics seeks to take the truth of Scripture as the proper diagnosis of the unbelieving condition and challenge the unbeliever to make sense of the world he has made. Scripture tells us that a world built on the foundation of unbelief does not exist; it is a figment of an unbelieving imagination and thus is basically irrational.”

What follows is the development of a biblical framework of addiction by using Scott Oliphint’s Ten Tenets of Covenantal Apologetics.

1. The faith that we are defending must begin with and necessarily include, the triune God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who, as God, condescends to create and to redeem.

In both a group and one-on-one setting, it is crucial when interacting with someone dealing with addiction that we insist on presenting the true God of Scripture, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If we gather that the person is theistic or uses the word, ‘god’, and assume that their god is the true God, we are likely building on a foundation that already has massive cracks and will eventually fail when constructed upon.

Relapse is considered a normal part of recovery with 40-60% of addicts relapsing while still in recovery.  With such a high level of relapse, it is likely, over time, that those in the recovery community have had some or much exposure to a twelve-step program or group. Nearly all twelve step groups and programs, including Alcoholics Anonymous, present or rely upon some notion of god. One third of AA’s twelve steps use the word “God” directly while half reference god by using words and phrases like, ‘God’, ‘Power’, ‘Him’. AA’s third step states, “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”

A person in AA can understand ‘god’ in an unlimited number of ways. One person may have the group as their ‘god’, another may see the universe as their ‘god’, some see god as energy in the universe, while yet another may see their God as the One revealed in the Bible. By starting with God, we allow the addict to view God and themselves within the reality of God’s covenantal relationship with them. By showing the addict, through Scripture, who God is we sow the seeds of hope within the addict. Instead of self-reliance, the addict is presented with a God who is reliable, powerful, loving, and forgiving.

2. God's covenantal revelation is authoritative by virtue of what it is, and any covenantal, Christian apologetic will necessarily stand on and utilize that authority in order to defend Christianity.

When interacting with an addict, we must never assume common intellectual, moral, or conversational ground. Continuing the building metaphor, we must carefully focus on the foundational aspects of covenantal apologetics to build a sturdy theological structure. God’s revelation starts a relationship between God and man, and it involves responsibilities. Because of these two factors, we call God’s revelation, ‘covenantal’.

Isaiah 28:15 says, “Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter.’” The deceptiveness of addiction lulls those entrapped to trust in the chemical instead of God. The chemicals trick the mind with a powerful feeling of relief with diminishing returns over time. Eventually, the refuge of chemical use becomes a scourge, and truth is obfuscated by lies.

Often the addict is unaware of his worship of chemicals and will do anything to keep this false god. The deceptiveness of this chemical god persuades the addict that everything is OK until the addict is confronted with the spoiled fruit of worshipping such a god, which usually takes the form of tragic life circumstances. Over time, this false god causes the user to become, “darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more.” This can be observed empirically in that drug abuse often results in comorbidity. Nearly 50% of persons who have substance abuse disorder also experience mental illness.

We must point the addict to the authority of Scripture, an authority not imposed from any outside force or person but that is inextricably tied to its author, God Himself. In order to have a common intellectual, moral and conversational framework, it is crucial that we point to God’s authoritative, covenantal revelation in order to defend Christianity. Without pointing the addict to God’s Word as authoritative, we likely build from a point of contact that is already faulty. As Christians, our theism comes from the Bible, which is authoritative on everything of which it speaks (and it speaks of everything).

3. It is the truth of God's revelation, together with the work of the Holy Spirit, that brings about a covenantal change from one who is in Adam to one who is in Christ.

This is an extremely life and hope giving tenant for the addict. The Holy Spirit uses the truth of God’s Word to change hearts and minds. Since we are communicating and defending Christian theism, and not some general theism. If we are to have any hope of lasting change of heart and mind, we must always be communicating within a Scriptural framework. It is the Holy Spirit who gives man a new heart to accept the evidence that nature and Scripture afford. The addict becomes empowered by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit to shed the broken lenses of addiction through which he sees the world and places all things in true perspective. 

As God’s creature, man is to live in accordance with God’s law, which is written on his heart and to which the conscience bears witness.  When man fell, it was a bid to do without God in every respect. Man pursued his own standards of truth, goodness, and beauty outside of God, either within himself or around him in the universe. Man had made for himself a false ideal of knowledge, which was the ideal of absolute comprehension of knowledge. Instead of admitting rebellion, Adam and Eve’s blame shifted to their creatureliness (limitation/weakness) and not sin (rebellion). Man’s search for knowledge post-fall was bound to fail if he sought knowledge apart from God and His revelation.

Empiricists insist we can be neutral in our evaluation of the facts and emphasize a posteriori knowledge (inductive logic and sense experience) for gaining knowledge. Brute facts (facts that don’t need an interpretive framework to be understood) don’t exist because our worldview is the grid through which we see reality and there can’t be any blank-slate worldview. If one begins with a non-Christian worldview, one is suppressing the truth and can’t come to any truth deductively and therefore can’t really know anything ‘truly’. Given man’s relationship to God, knowledge is ultimately an ethical question at its root.

Seeing the world through the lenses of Scripture, empowered by the Holy Spirit is to see the world as it is. This is radically different and can have vast implications for the way in which the addict lives. Defending the faith through Scripture and embracing a head-on collision of worldview with the addict, can free the addict to base his transformation on truth through God’s renewing power instead of building upon a secular, self-sufficient worldview. An example of this in Scripture comes from 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 which says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.”

The cultural norm and a common view of addicts, especially those who have not yet admitted they have a problem and are still blame-shifting and justifying, is embodied in the popular phrase, “My body, my choice.” Addicts in denial often think that since they are the ‘owner’ of their body, they can and should do as they please and no one has the right to tell them what to do with themselves. God’s Word clashes with this untrue view of self. We do not belong to ourselves. This notion directly contradicts modern and postmodern conceptions that we institute our own identities and elevate autonomous freedom. In confronting this popular view of self with the truth of Scripture, we can free the addict to see himself as he is and defend the truth of Christianity. The addict’s view of self becomes more precious as he sees the great cost that God paid for him and see his body in the freeing light of what it was created for, to glorify God.

4. Man (male and female) as the image of God is in covenant with the triune God for eternity.

Our relationship with God transcends our time here on earth. This is an important point for the addicts to understand. Many secular treatments for substance abuse solely focus on improving circumstances and place bandages on an ailment that is not merely skin deep but also deals with the heart.  Communicating to the addict and arguing that our allegiance to God will not only be instrumental in overcoming addiction but also has eternal ramifications allows the addict to put his addiction in true perspective.

We are all image-bearers of God. Since God is our creator, and He made us in his image, we are all responsible to God for everything we do and think. We are all, therefore, in covenant with God for all eternity.  Every person, though made in the image of God, is covenantally in Adam, and since the fall has been against God and a slave to sin, including addiction. We must refer the addict to natural revelation and the ‘written expression of God’s covenantal relationship with man’, Scripture. Natural revelation and special revelation are, “…meaningless without one another and mutually fruitful when taken together.” Natural revelation was necessary pre-fall because man was made a covenant personality while Scripture became necessary because of the covenant disobedience of Adam in paradise. The Point of contact for every person, including the addict, should be pursued within the natural man. Cornelius Van Til writes, “Deep down in his mind every man knows that he is the creature of God and responsible to God. Every man, at bottom, knows that he is a covenant breaker. But every man acts and talks as though this were not so.” It is paramount to play the sweet melody of the Gospel to the addict. The heart will prove the vibrations to be true, though he may have never heard it before.

5. All people know the true God, and that knowledge entails covenantal obligations.

Romans 1:18-20 confirms that all people know God. Paul is clear that he does not mean that all people can know something about God, or have the potential to know God, or that they have an inkling that somewhere out there something is greater than themselves, but that they truly know God. Every person, every addict, actually knows the One True God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God makes Himself truly known to all people. This true knowledge of God that He has given each person is so complete that every person will be left without excuse on the day of judgment if they decline to respond appropriately. This true knowledge of God is not something that can be attained if studied hard enough, or achieved by living a ‘good’ life, or gained fortuitously by happening to live where one can hear about this God.  God gives each person this knowledge as Paul clearly says, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.”

This is an encouragement to anyone interacting with a Christian addict or a non-Christian addict. We are to remind, encourage, and persuade them of what they already know to be true. They may have deeply suppressed and rejected the truth of who God is for decades or their entire life, but we have the advantage of Truth on our sides. Jeffery Arthurs reminds us of this by writing, “The Scriptures themselves are the invitation to remember: Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; remember the Exodus; make a pile of stones; remember the Sabbath. Come again to the table, break the bread, drink the cup. Remember.”

6. Those who are and remain in Adam suppress the truth that they know.

Those who are in Christ see that truth for what it is. Romans 1:20 tells us, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” God gives us all sufficient and true knowledge of Himself. This true knowledge is not an ambiguous feeling, periodic experience, or vague inkling of something greater, but a true knowledge of the True God.

Dr. Oliphint gives us an extremely helpful summary of Cornelius Van Til’s position regarding how to engage an unbeliever apologetically. We are to; “1. Move to the unbeliever’s position to show that it cannot consistently be lived or thought, and 2. ask the unbeliever to move to the Christian position to show how it alone can answer questions posed in the unbeliever’s position. This approach appeals to that knowledge of the true God in the natural man which he suppresses by means of his assumption of ultimacy. This method also shows the unbeliever that they can never employ their own methods consistently. The natural man will accept the truth of the argument if God pleases by His Spirit to take the scales from his eyes and the mask from his face.”

This method is especially helpful for engaging an addict because if you are engaging an addict regarding their addiction, they certainly have already experienced the fact that their position cannot be consistently lived or thought. They are experiencing the effects of their addiction by virtue of being in a place where they are addressing it.

7. There is an absolute, covenantal antithesis between Christian theism and any other, opposing position. Thus, Christianity is true and anything opposing it is false.

When defending the Christian faith to an addict in hopes that the truth of the Gospel will transform his life like it has countless others, the apologist has a distinct advantage. As Christians, we are not merely saying that we follow Christ, though we do. We are claiming that God’s Word proclaims truth and describes the world and reality the way that it exists. It is far easier to defend the fact that 1+1=2 than to defend 1+1=6 because the former agrees with truth and reality and the latter does not.

Many addicts facing adverse life circumstances or even health issues caused by their addiction have not accepted that they have a problem with substances. There are infinite ways an addict can justify their addiction or shift the blame to an external source. God’s Word has much to say about idols, worship, love, and addiction. When we point to Scripture when addressing addiction, we are pointing the addict to the way things really and truly are in the world and within themselves. Any view or justification the addict points to that does not coincide with Scripture is inherently false and can be gently corrected by pointing to the truth of Scripture.

The addict is left with two options; submit to Christ and His world to see the world and himself as they are or oppose Christ and live in a false illusory world of their own creation. Any view that is in opposition the Christianity cannot make sense of the real world and is intrinsically self-destructive. The self-destruction that comes with addiction is a result of believing or acting on something that clashes with Scripture.

Having the benefit of seeing reality as it is through the lens of Scripture brings the apologist great comfort and confidence because he need not be threatened or fear any oppositional view he encounters. Dr. Oliphint says, “Any view that opposes Christianity cannot be consistently thought or consistently lived.”  Just as a fish was created by God to live within the confines of water and if it leaves that limitation, it begins to die, so too we were created to live within the confines of God’s life-giving Word, if we decide to leave these parameters, death creeps into our lives.

8. Suppression of the truth, like the depravity of sin, is total but not absolute. Thus, every unbelieving position will necessarily have within it, ideas, concepts, notions, and the like that it has taken and wrenched from their true, Christian context.

This crucial tenet helps us to understand the significance of not merely guiding the addict to sobriety, but the eternal importance of leading him to Christ which leads to freedom from addiction. The biblical doctrine of sin and total depravity asserts that all of man is affected by sin (total depravity), but also that man is not as depraved as he could be (absolute depravity). Likewise, when a person suppresses the truth in unrighteousness, that suppression is total, but it is not absolute. Everything that person knows, thinks, or does is affected by the suppression of the truth but they cannot eliminate completely the knowledge of God that is always theirs and always being supplied by God.

For those who are in Adam, there will be aspects of the truth that come to light in them but not in their proper context. For example, they might know that one plus one equals two but may hold that fact outside of God creating and sustaining activity. Using this example, he may know the isolated truth of the equation and solution, but he does not know the truth as it really is. To properly interpret all facts and truth, we must first understand that they are God’s facts and truth as He is the all-knowing Creator God. Any addict who remains in Adam may become clean at some point and remain sober for a long period of time, but that sobriety, in the end, will only condemn him further. Having an eternal perspective regarding recovery and sobriety allows the addict to not only be free from addiction and many other sins that ensnare but to live within the truth of reality as it actually exists and to glorify God in his sobriety.

9. The true, covenantal knowledge of God in man, together with God's universal mercy, allows for persuasion in apologetics.

It may seem overwhelming to think about persuading an addict that Christianity will free them from addiction or even that Christianity is true, considering they may be living in an illusory world of their own creation. However, since everyone already knows the true God, when we speak biblical truth to them it bonds to the knowledge that God has imprinted within them and is continually giving them. Also, God’s universal mercy restricts their sin in many ways so that the evil that might otherwise encumber our conversation is also muted.

Instead of adapting our Gospel message to fit within a flawed framework to gain common ground, which leads to a false Gospel message due to its faulty foundation. We are better suited to reframe a belief that the addict may hold in a way that is consistent with biblical Christianity. For example, if the addict has been in treatment before, he may be familiar with or even practice the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. If we take those 12 steps and use them to explain that Step 2, “came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity” is actually the God of the Bible or use Step 11, “sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out” to point them to Scripture, we begin to reframe something they may already hold true and put it within the context of Truth itself.

10. Every fact and experience is what it is by virtue of the covenantal, all-controlling plan and purpose of God.

Every addict who is not a Christ follower, and who remains in Adam, is still comprehensively entrenched in the world that Christ created and controls. They themselves, everyone they have ever met, and everything they have ever seen or experienced all belong to God and are meant to be to glorify God. The world itself, including all the facts of the world, displays God’s glory. To take any fact out of context and use it for anything but God’s glory is to pervert the fact itself and not understand it within its God-given creation and context. As Dr. Oliphint helpfully gives an example of this, “It is not enough to say that lions instinctively seek their prey because they are such good hunters; the real story includes the fact that, “the young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.” (Ps. 104:21) It is God who provides for the animals, not instinct.”

While our culture continues to deify substance use, Christians must never bend the knee to anyone but God. We, as the church, have the opportunity and responsibility to face the current crisis of addiction responsibly, apologetically, and biblically. Jesus has set me free from addiction and He is the only One who provides thorough and permanent freedom. Christianity is true, so anything opposing it is false. This means that whatever opposition to Christianity we face. It is by definition an opposition that is false.

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