Start with God is Holy: An invitation

by Dr. Peter A. Kerr

This site exists because how we see God shapes everything else.

For many Christians, faith has quietly become about managing fear, minimizing guilt, or securing outcomes. Even when intentions are sincere, theology can drift toward anxiety rather than worship, toward control rather than trust. Over time, God is treated less as Someone to behold and more as a problem to solve.

This project exists to re-center the Christian imagination on who God is—before asking what God does for us.

It draws from Scripture, the Christian tradition, and careful reflection to explore holiness not as restriction, but as fullness; obedience not as transaction, but as response; freedom not as threat, but as the field of love. It insists responsibility and hope belong together, that truth does not need coercion, and that God’s character is the deepest source of confidence.

Some readers will find language here that feels clarifying. Others may find it challenging. The aim is not to provoke or persuade by force, but to invite clear seeing. Theology, at its best, is not a system to master but a vision that reorders life.

What follows is not a statement about us.
It is a statement about God.

Starting with the Holiness of God

God Is Holy. Everything begins here.

If the image of God remains intact in humans, and it is the capacity to be holy, then the question becomes not what is wrong with humanity, but who is this eternally holy God? Holiness is not a rule, a threat, or a spiritual perimeter meant to keep people out. Holiness is the fullness of God’s life. God is holy because God is complete, radiant, and perfectly alive in Himself. Before there was sin to confront or obedience to require, there was holiness overflowing as beautiful goodness, shining truth, and unifying love.

Christian theology loses its way whenever it forgets this.

When holiness is treated primarily as restriction, God is quietly reframed through fear. When doctrine begins with human need rather than divine reality, faith becomes a system of management rather than a vision of God. Scripture does not invite us to start with ourselves and work upward. It reveals God and invites us to be transformed by what we see.

God does not become holy in response to sin.
God does not adjust holiness to accommodate weakness.
God does not withhold holiness until obedience earns it.

Holiness precedes everything because holiness is who God is.

From this center, the world makes sense. Creation flows from abundance, not necessity. Redemption flows from love, not emergency. Judgment flows from truth, not irritation. Grace is not a mechanism; it is God’s own life offered for participation.

Human beings were created to reflect this life, and the image of God was never broken from external forces. Scripture insists all people sin, but it does not teach humanity was damaged at its core. The Bible never calls Christians “sinners saved by grace”: it everywhere insists we are Saints (“holy ones”) saved from our sin.

Responsibility requires capacity. Love requires freedom. Judgment requires moral intelligibility. To affirm an intact image is not to deny sin’s seriousness; it is to honor God’s workmanship and to take human responsibility seriously.

Holiness precedes obedience because obedience is response, not precondition. God’s being is not negotiated by human performance. When holiness is made conditional, worship quietly becomes transaction and fear replaces love. True obedience arises from seeing what is good and aligning with it.

Love never coerces. Force may secure outcomes, but it cannot secure love. A coerced good is not a good at all. God persuades, invites, warns, waits, and grieves—but He does not violate the freedom that makes communion possible. Divine authority does not dominate; it illuminates. Truth governs by shining. God wants you to be really you—abundantly and in synch with Him by choosing to reflect His holy-love.

Because God is love, God’s action always honors freedom. Freedom is not a liability God tolerates; it is the very space in which love becomes real. Transformation does not come through control, but through participation. Alignment, not automation, is the goal.

Much modern doctrine has quietly shifted from worshipful vision to guilt management. Sin becomes a defect to explain failure. Grace becomes a mechanism to reduce anxiety. Holiness becomes restriction to contain fear. Authority becomes control to guarantee outcomes. God is subtly reshaped to fit human insecurity rather than humanity being reshaped by the truth of God.

This vision calls for a return—not to nostalgia, but to orientation. Theology must begin with God seen in His own light. When it does, people are given permission to be responsible without being crushed and hopeful without being naïve. Excuses fall away, but despair does not take their place. Obedience becomes alignment rather than compliance. Freedom becomes meaningful rather than dangerous.

This is not about lowering the bar. It is about seeing clearly. God is better than we have feared. Human beings are more capable than we have been told. When God is seen as holy love rather than managed power or fearful glory, worship replaces anxiety and transformation becomes possible.

Everything begins here.