The apostasy of Richard Hays

For months now, controversy has swirled around a book by Richard and Christopher Hays, The Widening of God’s Mercy. When the book was released, the big news was that Richard Hays, one of the biggest names in New Testament studies, had repudiated his former view on the moral status of homosexuality. The shift is stark. His landmark 1996 book on ethics, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, recognized homosexuality as sinful. But this new work does not. The Widening of God’s Mercy argues that even though the Bible treats homosexuality as sinful, God has changed His mind on the matter. As far as the Bible is concerned, that was then, and this is now. He basically argues that God used to oppose homosexuality, but now He doesn’t.

The change was so stark and the perspective so unorthodox that I allowed myself to hope that perhaps Richard Hays wasn’t really in his right mind when he wrote the book. Trying to imagine any way to exonerate him, I indulged the possibility privately that perhaps the aging Hays was non compos mentis and had been manipulated by other interests to express an “affirming” position. It sounds awful, but such a scenario was preferable in my mind to the alternative—that Hays really had turned away from the faith once for all given to the saints (Jude 3).

A recent interview with Pete Wehner in The New York Times reveals that there was no theological elder abuse in Hays’ recent reversal. Hays is perfectly lucid in the interview and owns every bit of what he wrote in The Widening of God’s Mercy. Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of the dialogue is when Hays reflects on his legacy and his reason for writing the book. Hays reveals that the pancreatic cancer that he had previously beaten has returned and metastasized into his lungs. Because of that, he says, “I was mindful of my own legacy as a scholar and teacher. I didn’t want what I had written in 1996 to be my last word on the subject. And I don’t think that changing my mind is a bad thing.”

I say this is “heartbreaking” not merely because of the cancer, which I’m praying for him to beat again. It’s heartbreaking mainly because Hays is thinking about the finish line of his life, and he does not want to pass into eternity without demolishing his previously orthodox views on sexuality. He wants his “legacy” to include affirmation of homosexual relationships and gay marriage. He wants to finish his life commending what he otherwise acknowledges the Bible to forbid. Hays now believes that the apostolic teaching on homosexuality is simply “not adequate to what we would understand today.” He says, “[I]t took me 25 years to come to the position I have now. So I certainly don’t propose this lightly.”

This last part is all-important because of what the Bible says about perseverance. Over and over, Scripture teaches that when it comes to following Christ, it’s not so much how you start but how you finish. In the parable of the sower, Jesus warns about people who initially show evidence of saving faith but who do not persevere. Affliction, persecution, the worries of the world, or the deceitfulness of riches choke out the Word and make it unfruitful. Thus, they “fall away” from the faith (Matthew 13:21). In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus warns, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (9:62). Likewise, in John’s Apocalypse, Jesus cautions that only those who “overcome” will inherit eternal life (Revelation 2:7). Again, it’s not so much how one starts but how one finishes that reveals what is most important about their Christian commitment.

Hays is not finishing well. He really has changed his mind, and there is no getting away from the sad reality that he has in fact affirmed what the Bible abominates (Leviticus 18:22). There is no other way to describe this except as apostasy, which is a repudiation of essential Christian teaching either by word or by deed. There can be no question that the Bible’s message about sexual immorality and God’s unchangeableness are essentials of the faith (1 Corinthians 6:9–11; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17).

Let this be a warning to every Christian. Let not many of you become teachers because they incur a stricter judgment and will give an account for their teaching (James 3:1). Our nation is awash in false teaching, and it will take all of your grace-given effort not to be manipulated by false teachers who contend that it is OK to affirm what the Bible condemns. What matters most about your faith is both the start and the finish, and affirming sexual immorality is no way to finish.