Dr Paul Allen

A few weeks ago Tim Challies set out on a series of articles to examine some of Christianity’s most notable false teachers and to examine the false doctrine each of them represents. Along the way we have visited such figures as  Joseph Smith  (Mormonism),  Ellen G. White  (Adventism),  Norman Vincent Peale  (Positive Thinking) and  Benny Hinn  (Faith Healing). Today we turn to a man who helped lead the Emerging Church and who was once named by  TIME  as one of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. Brian  McLaren Brian McLaren (born in 1956) studied humanities at the University of Maryland and graduated with graduate and post-graduate degrees in English. Beginning in 1978, he taught college-level English, before founding Cedar Ridge Community Church in 1986. He served this church as its founding pastor until 2006, when he handed off the role so he could focus on writing and public speaking. In 1986 Zonde...

One of these is unlike the others: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, niceness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. According to Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia , all but one of these is what he refers to as the fruit of the Spirit , which is to say, visible evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. If you are a Christian, your life will necessarily be marked by this kind of character. But which one is foreign to the list?  Niceness . Humans seem to be naturally drawn to niceness. Niceness is comfortable. To be nice is to be pleasant in manner, to be agreeable, to adhere to social conventions. We like to be around people who are nice at least in large part because we are comforted by their pleasant words or deeds and by their adherence to whatever social custom dictates. It is an attractive quality, but it can also be a deceptive one. It is, after all, an external trait, and one that has no necessary correlation with ...