photo: USGS; colorization by Sanna Dullaway

Readers Respond to Answers, April–June, 2015

Featured in Answers Magazine

Mag for Kids?

This last issue, April–June 2015, has two articles on homosexuality and transgender issues. Seriously? You think that’s okay for a child to read?

Jane B., Cotati, California

Editor’s Response: Answers strives to be a family magazine, but it is not a children’s magazine. Our purpose is to equip discerning Christians of all ages to live biblically in the culture God has placed us in. We cannot do that if we ignore the defining sin issues in our society.

Most American children will encounter the world’s immorality long before their teens, no matter how diligently parents try to shield them from it. We must equip them sensitively, and in age-appropriate ways, with the biblical defense against society’s pressure to celebrate sin.

We hope Answers will be an effective tool for equipping wise parents, and through them their children, to stand firm for Christ in an ungodly world.

Courageous Editors

Kudos for taking on such a sensitive topic as transgenderism! What courage! You guys did a great job of discussing this, and I was so happy to have my teenaged daughters get the insightful, biblical perspective that you gave. Keep addressing the tough topics, please!

Katherine S., Via Email

Perspective: Skin or Sin

Your use of the words black and white in the “Skin or Sin?” article was disappointing. AiG more than anyone has taught me that we are all one race, that none of us are black- or white-skinned, and that skin color differences are insignificant in relationship to the total of our genetic differences. Pastor Fredrick Boyd has it correct—strike it from our vocabulary! And encourage others to do the same.

Keith S., Woodbine, Georgia

Animals Survived in the Flood?

The article about Mt. St. Helens stated, “Many types of plants and small creatures could have survived the Flood on floating vegetation, establishing vegetation ‘islands’ around the globe (like the olive that the dove found).” I can understand the statement concerning vegetation, but have a problem in including small creatures. Genesis 7:21-23 seems to clearly state that every living breathing creature except those in the Ark with Noah was destroyed.

Darlene H., Crawfordsville, Indiana

Editor’s Response: You are absolutely correct that, outside of the Ark, every land-dwelling creature “in whose nostrils is the breath of life” perished (Genesis 7:22). The specific meaning is debated, however, regarding many creatures that don’t breathe like mammals and reptiles. The article refers to any of the “small creatures,” such as insects or other invertebrates, that Noah may not have been required to bring aboard. The article wasn’t trying to be dogmatic.

Dating Lava

Recently I was describing to students in my class how rocks formed by a volcano were dated as thousands or millions of years old even when the volcano erupted within the last several decades. Someone asked, “Well, doesn’t the dating method really just tell how old the lava was that formed the rock and not the actual age of the rock?” Can you comment?

Jeff B., Raleigh, North Carolina

Author’s Response: At the lava stage the radioactive elements are in a state of flux and motion, not being locked into any mineral structure. They are still capable of being entirely lost from the final rock by being flushed out of the lava by the fluids (water, steam, and gases). The radioactive parent elements get locked into minerals only as the lava crystallizes to form the minerals in the final volcanic rock.

So it’s only when the rock forms that the radioactive clock starts ticking. Thus, any subsequent “reading” of the radioactive clock will supposedly read the time since the rock formed (that’s when the parent radioactive elements got locked into the rock and started to tick).

Hezekiah Reformers

How does a layman encourage his pastor to stand firm on the authority of Scripture, especially with regards to the real history in Genesis?

Thomas M., Email

Editor’s Response: Please see helpful pointers in “What If My Pastor Avoids Genesis?” by Terry Mortenson, Answers, January–March 2014 (available online).

Graciousness Is Always Good

How can we be bold in our faith and in what we believe without hurting family and friends who strongly disagree with our viewpoint?

David D., Google Hangout

Editor’s Response: The rule that guides our interaction with all people is love for God and others. This is summarized well in 1 Peter 3:15, where we are told to “sanctify the Lord God” in our hearts, as we share our position “with meekness and fear.”