Review of The Widening of God’s Mercy by Christopher B. Hays and Richard B. Hays
Written by Preston Sprinkle at the Center for Faith, Sexuality and Gender
Dr. Richard Hays is one of the most prestigious New Testament scholars of the last four decades. His highly celebrated book The Moral Vision of the New Testament, published in 1996, includes a chapter on homosexuality. In that chapter, Hays argued that the best reading of the Bible prohibits same-sex sexual relationships both for early Christians and for the church today.
Hays’ forthcoming book The Widening of God’s Mercy, which releases on September 10, shows how he has changed his mind.[1] He now believes the New Testament “fully includes” LGBTQ people, by which he means that same-sex marriage is blessed by God and therefore should be blessed by the church.
Hays has cowritten The Widening of God’s Mercy with his son, Old Testament scholar Dr. Christopher Hays, who teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary. After a dual-authored Introduction, Christopher writes the Old Testament section (chs. 1-7), and Richard covers the New (chs. 8-16).[2] They come together to write the final chapter, which summarizes their main argument and applies it to the “full inclusion of believers with differing sexual orientations” today (p. 214).[3] Richard concludes the book with a brief epilogue where he explains his change of mind and how his current position relates to his previous work.
The central argument of the book is that God often changes his mind in Scripture. He changes his mind about various laws and customs (chs. 3-4, 14), whether to carry out judgment on disobedience (chs. 2, 6), and—most importantly—which kind of people are accepted in the covenant community (chs. 7, 11).
For instance, God used to reject eunuchs and uncircumcised foreigners from being full participants in the community (e.g. Deut 23:1), but now they are fully accepted (Isa. 56:4-5; cf. Acts 8, 15). Christopher writes, “Scripture reflects that God’s grace and mercy towards the whole world was always broader than one might expect. It also says that God may change his mind and his approaches to the world to broaden it further” (p. 108). In the same way that God now accepts foreigners and eunuchs, Christopher argues, God also fully accepts LGBTQ people.
Eunuchs are particularly important to Christopher’s argument because, as “castrated men,” they “were a sexual minority” (p. 98). He writes, “If conservatives today find scriptural warrant for excluding sexual minorities, how much more did religious leaders in Isaiah’s time have warrant to exclude eunuchs?” (p. 100)
To summarize the authors’ main argument, they write:
The many biblical stories of God’s widening mercy invite us to re-envision how God means us to think and act today with regard to human sexuality. The biblical narratives throughout the Old Testament and the New trace a trajectory of mercy that leads us to welcome sexual minorities no longer as “strangers and aliens” but as “fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19). (p. 206).
In this review, I’ll look first at some of the things I appreciate about the book (“The Pros”), then at my most significant disagreements (“The Cons”). I’ll include a lengthy addendum where I discuss several other noteworthy aspects of the book.
Continue reading at the Center for Faith, Sexuality and Gender.
It always blows my mind how often supposed Bible Teachers and Scholars claim that from the Old Testament to the New, God changes his mind. Which of course, is not true. God never changes his mind. Numbers 23:19 The Book of Galatians goes over this very thoroughly. Paul makes the point that the law lays down the basic moral baseline of what God expects of all people. A baseline in which no one can meet or fulfill. Gal.3:11 Jesus fulfills the law for us, by us “being crucified in Christ” and therefore “it is no longer (us) who live (as Christians) but it is Christ (who now) lives in us (and through us). Gal.2:20 Grace, or God’s unearned favor, is provided to us through the Spirit given gift of faith, or the ability to believe. Eph.2:8-9 The Law is eternal and never changes. Matt.5:18, 1 Peter 1:24-25, Ps.118:89 The eternal, unchanging law is our schoolmaster that brings us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Gal.3:24
In other words, the Law is eternal, never changing. It always brings judgment upon us. It is written to show our helplessness in our condemnation of sin. It is written to lead us to faith, by revealing to us our utter need for the Messiah’s sacrifice for us to free us from the condemnation of the Law. It is by our faith in Jesus all the requirements of the Law are fulfilled for us through him.
So, beware of anyone who justifies their sin by saying “God changes his mind.” It is never true. After all, Jesus came to fulfill the Law. Matt.5:17-20, not to abolish it! His own words. He says, Matt.5:19 “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
I thought the efforts of Synod 22-24 was to end sex discussion and move on to more important. Looks like more obsession about homosexuality. Got to keep the flame alive.