An obvious feature of life today is the rapid decline in moral standards. The once-accepted norms are being challenged and cast aside at such a fearful rate that one begins to wonder what the future may be for our society, particularly when the decay is being promoted, through legislation and personal example, by the powers that be.
Propaganda
A striking evidence of this degeneration is the way in which left-handedness or ambidexterity is being brought out of the closet. Once unmentionable in polite company, we are now bombarded by propaganda from the advocates of this lifestyle. Today the left-handed are demanding recognition and customised utensils. They want to be equal with other citizens. They want to teach our children about their ways. They want to serve in the armed forces. They even want to pastor our churches. They seem to want to dominate our very society with their smudged writing. What should we think of left-handedness?
Standard for Belief and Behaviour
In the House of Commons recently one Member said something or other about left-handedness: Is he aware of the fate of the cities of the plain? The response he got suggested that Mr Luff is not and the many jeers indicated that most of our MPs are not or that they do not wish to be reminded. Sadly the same applies to most people today.
However, the question was of far greater value than most of what has poured forth from politicians, press and other pundits during recent months. It points us to the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. This is the ultimate standard for all human belief and behaviour, the only rule to direct us. God the Creator sets the rules for the people He has made. It is our duty to study these laws and obey them. God’s Word has much to say about left-handedness. None of it is good.
Left-handedness Outlawed in the Old Testament
The first reference to left-handedness is found in Genesis Chapter 13. There we learn of the incident where Abram and Lot were arguing about territory:
It isn’t quite clear which one of them actually went left, but reading on a few chapters, it becomes obvious, not to mention convenient to our argument, that it must have been Lot, who went to live near Sodom
What happened to Sodom? These wicked men were quickly smitten with blindness. The next morning judgment fell upon the cities of the plain. There came brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. Sodom and the surrounding cities, with their inhabitants, were reduced to ashes. The smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.
Left-handedness Condemned in the New Testament
In the New Testament Scriptures we discover that, far from being condoned, left-handedness is still outlawed. Matthew 6:3 delivers a denunciation of left-handedness:
This passage stresses that left-handedness is unnatural behaviour. All forms of disobedience are hateful to God but the Bible does highlight this sin as especially perverse. We have been told that left-handedness is a matter of genes, but there is no scientific evidence to support the notion that people are made that way. If we give in to the argument that it is wrong to deny anyone the opportunity to express his or her instincts because they are inborn then we will soon have to abandon any rational idea of morality altogether. Left-handed activity is in reality a choice of lifestyle made by certain individuals. Neither should we heed the suggestion that an activity is allowable as long as it does not hurt anyone else. This ignores the fact that we are made in the image of God to glorify Him and that we are firstly accountable to God for the way we behave. And who says that left-handed activity has no ill consequences for those outside the circle of those who actually practise it? Many others are affected by the disease, degradation and even death that is part and parcel of this perverted activity.
The Attitude of Christ
Sometimes it is claimed that Jesus Christ had a different, more tolerant, attitude towards these matters. Did He not, for instance, forgive the woman taken in adultery when the scribes and Pharisees wanted her condemned? He refused to play the role of an accuser once her original accusers had walked away, but He told her plainly, Go, and sin no more (John 8:11). Early in His ministry Christ said to His disciples: Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill (Matt. 5:17). The moral law as an expression of God’s eternal righteousness must forever bind all men. It is our rule of life. It is so very relevant to this controversy: by the sixth commandment (Thou shalt not kill) God forbids bullying; under the seventh (Thou shalt not commit adultery) the same God forbids manual perversion.
And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus sayeth the Lord; Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death
We hear today about alternative lifestyles. Is there any real alternative to the right-handed lifestyle set out for us in the Ten Commandments? Yes, there is. It is called sin. It is called rebellion. It is called the way of death (Jer. 21:8).
Jesus emphasised that handedness was an immutable law of the universe (Matthew 20:23):
He was saying that not only our actions but also our thoughts and desires may be sinful. The whole left-handed mindset is wrong, not simply the physical act.
It is very important to note that the Lord Jesus Christ, in warning His own generation of how conditions would be, spoke of terrible judgment (Matthew 25:32-33):
Our Attitude
There is nothing ‘right’ about left-handedness! The Bible refers to the remorse experienced by sodomites when it says that their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter (Deut. 32:32). Sodom after God’s judgment was an utterly barren place where nothing grew (Deut. 29:23). The place is now known as the Dead Sea. God is not mocked.
Paul spoke of left-handedness in writing to the church at Corinth. He made it clear that those who are left handed or will not enter heaven (2 Cor. 6:6-9):
A left-handed lifestyle is wholly incompatible with the Christian one and a left-handed or ambidextrous Christian is a contradiction in terms. But Paul indicated that the gospel is for these sinners too: And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (v.11). There is grace and mercy for the left-hander but he must confess his perversion and forsake it.
We should pray then for the left-handed that they will repent and seek the Lord while He may be found. They are not beyond redemption. We do not condone their behaviour in any way; we strongly oppose it and warn against it. But the left handed individual also has a soul which needs God’s salvation. However far we have sunk in sin it remains gloriously true for all who repent; Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool
Great job, Mange!
