Author Archives: StriderMTB

About StriderMTB

Hi, I'm Matt. "Strider" from Lord of the Rings is my favorite literary character of all time and for various reasons I write under the pseudonym "StriderMTB. As my blog suggests I seek to live out both the excitement and tension of a Christian walk with Christ in the 3rd world context of Asia. I started my blog as an unmarried man who was blessed to oversee an orphanage of amazing children in South-East Asia. As of 2022, I am a happily married man to an amazing missionary wife serving together on the mission field. I hate lima beans and love to pour milk over my ice-cream. I try to stay active in both reading and writing and this blog is a smattering of my many thoughts. I see the Kingdom of God as Jesus preached it and lived to be the only hope for a broken world and an apathetic church.

Response: What would you do if your son came out as gay?

Posted on May 16, 2015 by StriderMTB

The titled question above is an excellent question. It cuts right through all the rhetoric and gets very personal. It is also why many professing Christians squirm uncomfortably and do a piss-poor job of articulating a response worthy of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Church and Culture | Tagged Christian homosexual debate, Christian response to gay agenda, gay children, gay son, parents of gay children, right wing Christianity, what to do if son gay | 4 Comments

John Calvin: Heresy Hunter with an Axe to Grind

Posted on April 27, 2015 by StriderMTB

“Does a fountain send forth at the same place both sweet and bitter water?” James 3:11 Did you know that John Calvin staunchly believed that executing unrepentant heretics was justified? Did you know that despite his reading of the New … Continue reading →

Posted in Critiquing Calvinism | Tagged heretics, John Calvin, John Calvin Genava, John Calvin tyrant, shocking beliefs of John Calvin | 37 Comments

Calvinism: The “Gumby” Theology

Posted on January 31, 2015 by StriderMTB

Gumby—a green clay humanoid character that can twist and turn to get out of every predicament. A great toy it makes; a great theologian it does not. There is no greater theological imperative today then to restore Christianity to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Critiquing Calvinism | 29 Comments

The Folly of Doing Theology in an Echo Chamber: A Thorough Examination of Piper’s “Two-Wills of God” View

Posted on December 9, 2014 by StriderMTB

The Folly of Doing Theology in an Echo Chamber: A Thorough Examination of Piper’s “Two Wills of God” View By Strider MTB *Permission is freely granted to share this article in its entirety or in portions. My friends call me … Continue reading →

Posted in Critiquing Calvinism | Tagged Arminian free-will defended, Biblical sovereignty, Calvinism, Calvinism and evil, Calvinism and sovereignty, Calvinism Inconsistency, Calvinism theodicy, calvinism vs. arminianism, Critiquing John Piper, Dark side of Calvinism, debate on Calvinism, Debating Arminian theology vs. Calvinism, debunking Calvinism, Does God have two wills?, God’s will of command and will of decree, John Piper, John Piper God has two wills, Rebutting John Piper’s two wills of God, Responding to John Piper’s God’s two wills, Why John Piper is wrong | 50 Comments

Stop Grave Robbing Your Old Nature

Posted on November 18, 2014 by StriderMTB

*This post was originally titled: “The Anger of God has been Exhausted.” I’m not completely comfortable with the idea that the Father poured out His anger on His Son so that now the Father can forgive and love us (as … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The Dream: Tombstones and Bowls

Posted on September 30, 2014 by StriderMTB

Last week I wrote a blog entry about the nature of dreams and how I believe dreaming is an evidence of an immaterial soul that temporarily disengages from our body and allows us to be both the author and audience … Continue reading →

Posted in Church and Culture, Devotion Life | Tagged dream, dreams from God, dreams from God 2014, prophetic dreams 2014, the nature of dreams | 2 Comments

The Stuff of Dreams

Posted on September 21, 2014 by StriderMTB

Dreams: an activity we spend one-third of our lives doing, yet we know so little about them. I have very vivid dreams and unlike others I can remember a great deal of content about my dreams— as long as I make … Continue reading →

Posted in Apologetics and Athiesm, Thought of the day | Tagged Dreams, dreams evidence of soul and spirit, evidence of soul and spirit, how can we surprise ourselves dreaming, humans tripartite beings, Near Death Experiences, Out of Body Experiences, the nature of dreams | Leave a comment

Transgenderism: The Politically Correct Mental Disorder

Posted on September 3, 2014 by StriderMTB

The following article (here) on transgenderism is a must read. As a witness to the increasing transgenerism societal trend in Asia with even dear people I know, it is good to read professional, lucid voices on this issue. The article … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged transexual mental disorder, transgender and psychology, transgenderism, transgenderism mental disorder, what is transgenderism | 2 Comments

Jesus Only– An Arrogant Claim?

Posted on August 5, 2014 by StriderMTB

It is usually not too long into a discussion about the merits of Christianity with a skeptic that he or she trumps out their favorite rebuttal: “So you believe Jesus is the only way people can be saved, huh? That … Continue reading →

Posted in Apologetics and Athiesm, Thought of the day | Tagged answering Christian exclusivity, atheism, Christian exclusivity, humanism, Jesus the only way arrogant, new age, unitarianism, Why Jesus only | 2 Comments

God’s Exploitation of the Devil’s “Thorns”

Posted on July 21, 2014 by StriderMTB

God’s sovereignty should never be seen as unilaterally determining or decreeing the evil actions or intentions of free agents (human or demonic) before the foundation of the world. Rather God’s sovereignty is best understood as exploiting the evil actions and … Continue reading →

Posted in Critiquing Calvinism, Devotion Life | 4 Comments