Author of 'Widening of God's Mercy' Finds Out Just How Exclusive Jesus Really Is

Richard B. Hays, a New Testament scholar, was a heavyweight who began his career with what seemed like a solid foundation in conservative biblical theology. His earlier works ostensibly reflected, at least on the surface, a commitment to biblical accuracy. But somewhere along the way, Hays exchanged the truth of God for a lie—a lie dressed in the alluring garb of cultural acceptance.

Hays completely abandoned the biblical sexual ethics that he once held to, and began to seek the applause of men while chasing cultural trends in sexuality. He lent his name and influence to affirm homosexuality and other deviant sexual behaviors, not as sins to be repented of, but as identities to be celebrated.

And now, just months after the release of his latest work, The Widening of God’s Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story, Richard B. Hays has stepped into eternity to face the God whose Word he spent his final years undermining. Hays died on January 3, 2025, at the age of 76.

His book, a glossy attempt to reframe Scripture as inclusive of what God has explicitly condemned, was heralded by the progressive evangelical crowd as bold and groundbreaking. But in reality, it was a tired regurgitation of the same old rebellion packaged in a new wrapper.

It sought to “widen” the path that Jesus Himself said was narrow, wresting the truth of God's holiness into a mockery of grace. In life, Hays argued for a God made in man’s image—one who winks at sin and embraces sexual anarchy. In death, he met the true and living God, the one revealed in Scripture as a consuming fire.

Just imagine a man who spent the remaining years of his life arguing against God's clear commands suddenly standing before Him. The God who thundered from Mount Sinai, whose holiness caused Isaiah to cry, “Woe is me!”—this is the God Hays faced.

And what did he bring to that encounter?