Responding to Questions

by Dr. Peter A. Kerr

Every theological proposal invites questions. That is not a weakness but a sign of seriousness. Lumen is not intended to silence debate or settle every tension in Scripture. It is offered as a way of seeing—an invitation to read the Bible with fresh attentiveness to God’s holiness, love, freedom, and patience as they are revealed most clearly in Christ.

Criticism, when offered in good faith, helps clarify what a vision is and what it is not. This article does not seek to rebut every objection exhaustively. It seeks instead to name the most common concerns honestly, acknowledge where the vision bears weight, and explain why Lumen believes it remains biblically faithful, pastorally responsible, and spiritually fruitful.

A posture before addressing objections

Lumen begins with a conviction that shapes how criticism itself should be received: God is not threatened by questions, and neither should theology be. Scripture itself contains protest, lament, argument, and wrestling. Abraham questions God’s justice. Moses challenges God’s announced intentions. The psalmists argue, plead, and sometimes accuse. Jesus Himself cries out in anguish.

To engage criticism kindly is therefore not strategic courtesy; it is fidelity to the biblical spirit. Lumen does not claim immunity from correction. It claims only that God’s character, as revealed in Jesus, must remain the controlling center of all theological judgment.

What critics most often hear—and sometimes misunderstand

Many critiques of Lumen arise from an understandable concern: that emphasizing love, freedom, and participation may soften Scripture’s witness to divine authority, judgment, and sovereignty.

Critics sometimes worry Lumen presents a God who waits too long, intervenes too little, or relies too heavily on human cooperation. Others fear that judgment is being reinterpreted into something merely internal or symbolic, or that God’s decisive acts in history are being explained away rather than honored.

These concerns deserve to be taken seriously. Lumen does not dismiss them. Instead, it asks a prior question: what does Scripture mean when it speaks of divine power, action, and sovereignty?

Where Lumen openly acknowledges vulnerability

Lumen does not pretend to resolve every biblical tension. In fact, it understands where it is most exposed to challenge. Lumen is most vulnerable at the point where Scripture depicts God acting decisively in history apart from explicit human invitation. The proposal therefore rests on the claim that such texts must be read within Scripture’s broader covenantal and Christological portrayal of divine sovereignty as faithful love rather than exhaustive causal control.

This is not a concession made reluctantly. It is a clarity offered honestly. The disagreement is not over whether God acts decisively. Scripture clearly affirms that He does. The disagreement concerns how those decisive actions should be interpreted in light of the whole biblical witness, especially the life and teaching of Christ.

How Lumen reads decisive divine action

Lumen does not deny that God judges, intervenes, restrains evil, or brings history to moral disclosure. What it questions is the assumption that decisive action must entail psychological coercion, causal micromanagement, or the overriding of creaturely will.

Throughout Scripture, divine action frequently takes the form of exposure, restraint, limitation, withdrawal of protection, or acceleration of consequences already freely chosen. Hardening, for example, is consistently portrayed as judicial rather than manipulative: God giving persons over to the trajectory they have persistently embraced, often in order to limit further harm and protect the vulnerable.

Seen this way, divine decisiveness is not diminished. It is morally clarified. God does not act less; He acts differently than many modern readers assume power must act.

Why Christ remains the decisive hermeneutic

Lumen insists that no portrait of divine sovereignty can contradict what is revealed in Jesus Christ. Christ does not coerce belief, override resistance, or force repentance. He even refuses to use His power to overwhelm or to prove His identity. Instead, he invites, warns, weeps, waits, and ultimately bears the cost of human refusal rather than nullifying it.

This does not make Christ an exception to God’s character. It makes Him its clearest expression. If God’s definitive self-revelation is cruciform rather than coercive, then sovereignty must be understood in ways compatible with patience, suffering love, and restraint. Lumen proposes Scripture’s harder texts must be read through that lens rather than placed over it.

Why this matters pastorally and spiritually

For many believers, questions about sovereignty are not abstract. They arise in suffering, unanswered prayer, injustice, and loss. A theology that portrays God as exhaustively controlling all outcomes can unintentionally burden the afflicted with impossible moral weight or portray love as indistinguishable from domination.

Lumen preserves three truths simultaneously: God is good, God is active, and human freedom is real. When these are held together, prayer becomes meaningful rather than performative, responsibility becomes dignifying rather than crushing, and hope becomes resilient rather than forced.

An open-handed invitation

Lumen does not ask its readers to agree at every point. It asks them to look again—at Scripture, at Christ, and at their own experience of prayer and love—with patience and honesty. If Lumen is wrong, it should be corrected by Scripture. If it is right, it may help some believers recover trust in God’s goodness, courage in prayer, and confidence that love, not control, lies at the heart of reality.

Critics are not enemies to be overcome. They are conversation partners in the shared task of seeking truth before God. Lumen remains open to that conversation, trusting that light does not fear examination, and that holy-love is never diminished by being questioned.

The invitation remains simple: come and see whether this way of reading Scripture helps you love God more deeply, trust Him more freely, and reflect His light more faithfully in a world that desperately needs it.