Brenton Malnofski: Discussion Questions

1. I believe yes, someone can be a sincere Christian and also believe in evolution. I would hope so, considering I’m pretty sure I do. I don’t know to what extent. But I don’t think theories on evolution necessarily contradict the biblical creation narrative. God is the creator of all things, and created mankind in his image. I think there’s definitely ways to link scientific findings into what we already know from the book of Genesis. There is a danger of taking things too far, however. For example, the belief that God had no hand in how his creation might have evolved. To me, that gets a bit too far away from the creation narrative and leans into deistic territory. I’m always curious to learn more about how the two can be linked together, and what evidence there is for it. But I’ve grown content with not being able to know certain things about the origins of the universe.

2. Question #7
There is something extra special about incarnation as a mode of divine revelation. Incarnation, literally meaning “of the flesh”, was humanity’s way of finally seeing God as a man. While there had been many instances of God speaking to and interacting with man, Jesus coming to Earth is what made everything much more tangible. In doing so, he fulfilled several prophecies from the Old Testament, and further challenged humanity’s view of God. Had Jesus not come, who knows if mankind would have gotten the same type of divine revelation? They would have had the promise of a savior, but likely would have still been looking for whoever was going to fulfill that promise. Jesus allowed them to see God as even more personal and interactive. It’s often said that He changed everything, and that definitely holds true. His incarnation is extra special because of that. Without it, humanity’s hope and faith would be in a far different place.

Brenton Malnofski wrote:1. I believe yes, someone can be a sincere Christian and also believe in evolution. I would hope so, considering I’m pretty sure I do. I don’t know to what extent. But I don’t think theories on evolution necessarily contradict the biblical creation narrative. God is the creator of all things, and created mankind in his image. I think there’s definitely ways to link scientific findings into what we already know from the book of Genesis. There is a danger of taking things too far, however. For example, the belief that God had no hand in how his creation might have evolved. To me, that gets a bit too far away from the creation narrative and leans into deistic territory. I’m always curious to learn more about how the two can be linked together, and what evidence there is for it. But I’ve grown content with not being able to know certain things about the origins of the universe.

2. Question #7
There is something extra special about incarnation as a mode of divine revelation. Incarnation, literally meaning “of the flesh”, was humanity’s way of finally seeing God as a man. While there had been many instances of God speaking to and interacting with man, Jesus coming to Earth is what made everything much more tangible. In doing so, he fulfilled several prophecies from the Old Testament, and further challenged humanity’s view of God. Had Jesus not come, who knows if mankind would have gotten the same type of divine revelation? They would have had the promise of a savior, but likely would have still been looking for whoever was going to fulfill that promise. Jesus allowed them to see God as even more personal and interactive. It’s often said that He changed everything, and that definitely holds true. His incarnation is extra special because of that. Without it, humanity’s hope and faith would be in a far different place.

Hey Brenton! I think your answer to Christianity and evolution is right on. The truth is that evolution is not one theory, there are so many working parts like micro-evolutions and macro-evolutions, and there are also many schools of thought on it and how it works. I would say that I also believe in some form of evolution, because it makes sense. There is a view that many Christians believe "structural evolution", which holds that evolution is not completely random, that is is elegant, that there are elements of design, and if the evolutionary clock was rewound, things would come out looking pretty similar again. This is far more sympathetic to Christianity than the neo-darwinistic views we are most used to hearing. But truly, I agree with you that it ultimately, we should not think too deeply about the details of linking of genesis and scientific history. We should focus on Jesus first of all, and know that science is the study of creation, and there will always be new ideas about how we got here, but in the end, God holds it all together. I think that's really mature of you to be content with not knowing everything, because that's reality. The more you learn, the more you learn you don't know and won't know because we aren't God.