Continually Sharpening

A theological blog by Dr. Janelle Zeeb

Avoid Comparing Your Ministry or Gifts With Others

As we begin the new year, we often take time to reflect on what we've done the past year, and what we hope to do in the upcoming year.

I end up thinking not just about my career or studies, but also about how I've been doing in using all …

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Why Jesus Must Be Fully Divine

It's nearly Christmas, and so the Incarnation is likely a topic you'll hear mentioned in sermons and Christmas carols. Songs about God being born as Jesus of Nazareth in Bethlehem are something that we hear all around us in the background as we're Christmas shopping or preparing dinners and attending …

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Reasons to Pursue Sanctification

Recently, I was discussing with a friend about how the Free Grace movement makes a clear distinction between eternal salvation (or justification) and discipleship (or sanctification).1

In this view, our eternal salvation is based only on our faith in Christ as our savior, whereas discipleship involves following Christ's example …

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Theological Insights on Why We Eat

The upcoming Christmas season is a good time for an article about eating, for many of us will be enjoying especially good food with family and friends at dinners or parties over the next month or so.

However, the specific question I will address was inspired by a friend who …

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Purgatory for Protestants?

I've come across something strange in several books I've read. Certain Protestant authors are actually considering the idea of purgatory as legitimate, and even advocating for it to be included as a part of Protestant eschatology.

It's because, they say, some Christians die who are not yet holy enough for …

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God Commands What He Is: Love

One sentence spoken by Jesus had always perplexed me: "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:14).

I always thought to myself, "What sort of person would demand that their friends obey them in order to be considered their friends? Who would say they …

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Why Did God Create the Universe?

For my PhD dissertation, I am studying the American pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards, who lived in the 1700s.

To me, one of his most interesting writings is titled "Concerning The End for Which God Created the World," sometimes shortened to "End of Creation". It was one of the last …

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What Does it Mean to Be Made in God's Image?

For one assignment in a Christology course I took as part of my PhD, I wrote a review of Oliver D. Crisp's book The Word Enfleshed: Exploring the Person and Work of Christ (2016).

While this book is quite philosophical and not meant for beginners in theology, there were a …

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Is Eternal Life Opt-In or Opt-Out?

One of my highly recommended books is Does God Love Everyone? The Heart of What is Wrong with Calvinism by Jerry L. Walls.

Walls has a very good introduction to the debate between Calvinists and Arminians, and good insight into what he thinks the debate is ultimately about.

I do …

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Being Open to Changing Our Minds

I've called my blog Continually Sharpening, based on Proverbs 27:17, NIV: "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."

I hope that as I study and teach, I will have my theological views continually sharpened and refined, so that they become more and more Biblical and in alignment …

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