Although we haven't done a full review of the Life Recovery Bible, we can offer a few of our thoughts.

First, the title itself is a problem: "Life Recovery Bible." There is no such concept as recovery in the Bible. You are either a sinner or a saint; under God's wrath or under God's grace. Recovery describes a lifelong, daily struggle to overcome our fleshly addictions and shortcomings. But as Christians, we can proclaim like Paul, "That is what some of you WERE. But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6:11) As Christians, we are already recovered and redeemed by the one step of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our identity is in the completed work of Christ, not in our ongoing works of recovery. God sanctifies and matures us over time, but that is a result of an ongoing relationship with the Lord, not the result of a 12-step recovery program.

One website offering this Bible states:

This, and the rest of this description of the Life Recovery Bible, sounds like the typical Christian psychology approach of taking the purity of God's Word, and adding the polluted, man-made, worldly wisdom of psychology throughout. Put another way, it is interpreting the Bible through the lens of psychology's 12-step recovery programs, mental disorders, and personality profiles. The result is a tweaked, twisted version of what God meant to say--a version that brings the supernatural down to the natural.

We shouldn't have to interpret God's Word through the lens of psychology--God's Word is its own best interpretation. Not only is this unnecessary, but it is also dangerous. Why would we try to combine 12-step programs (first created by AA founder and occultist Bill Wilson, who regularly received messages from demonic spirits), mental disorders (the psychology industry's way of describing sinful, fleshly behavior), and personality profiles (originally conceived by occultist Carl Jung, who admitted his teachings came from a demon called Philemon who possessed him), with the Bible? Why would we take such anti-Christian teachings and Christianize them? What do darkness and light have in common? "Come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and I will receive you." (2 Cor. 6:17)

You can learn more about the unbiblical and antibiblical nature of 12-step programs, mental disorders and personality profiles in our book and tapes.

Due to its highly psychological bent, we would discourage anyone from reading the Life Recovery Bible, because it will spoil the pure milk of the Word. We would be better off reading Bibles with notes written by respected Bible teachers and commentators, not recovery experts.