FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE
Titus 1:1-3 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus
Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads
to godliness-- a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which
God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and at his
appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted
to me by the command of God our Savior.
The element of notitia refers to knowledge. Though faith is not identical to knowledge, it is not devoid of knowledge. Saving faith does not occur in an intellectual vacuum. It is not ignorance or superstition masquerading as faith. There is a crucial difference between authentic faith and credulity.
Superstition confuses reality and fantasy, truth and falsehood. Superstition is the hallmark of magic and paganism. People indeed “believe in” superstitious things, but such faith has nothing to do with the saving faith of which Scripture speaks. The intrusive power of superstition is great, attested to repeatedly in the Old Testament. Israel displayed a proclivity for syncretism, an irreligious blending or mixing of elements of pagan religion into the content of divinely revealed truth. Nor is the New Testament unaware of the seductive power of sorcery, magic, and superstition that threatened the early church. No period of church history has escaped the influence of spurious faith and superstitious credulity. The modern era is replete with evidence of New Age and occult ideas embraced by professing Christians.
Notitia has to do with the content of faith, the data or information to be received, understood, and embraced. Faith has a clear and rational object. What we believe has eternal consequences. A popular aphorism…in our day is this: “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.” This “credo” is on a collision course with Christianity. It preaches another gospel of “justification by faith”, which reveals, after a momentary second glance, that it is the very antithesis of the gospel and of sola fide [faith alone]. This reduces justification by faith alone to justification by sincerity alone.
Faith
Alone by R.
C. Sproul, pg.75.
