The Great Blondin and belief (notitia and assensus) vs faith (fiducia)
Wintery's Friend
07/20/2017 AT 2:34 PM
Interesting, the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20) exists as a mid- to late- 2nd millennium covenant form as per: baslibrary.org
(Kenneth Kitchen’s work on covenant forms)
In any case, the prologue is interesting. Although we like to jump right into the You shall not’s and You shall’s, the mid- to late- second millennium covenants contained the title (who is speaking?) and prologue (what’s the context?) — applied to Exodus 20:
Exodus 20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying,
Exodus 20:2a [Title] I am the Lord your God,
Exodus 20:2b, c [Prologue] who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
In any case — the 10 commandments are grounded in a historical and evidence-based fact: God brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Well, arguably, the people became Israel at Sinai, so “the extended clans of the family of Jacob, and the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt.”) In other words, when the Israelites remembered they were enslaved at one point and then remembered that they were delivered, those historical facts are the underpinning of their faith and God’s commandments.
Most of Exodus is a polemic against the Egyptian pantheon (e.g., the 10 plagues target the ‘powers of the Egyptian pantheon’, demonstrating who is the Real God, even the name of the LORD [YHWH] is a polemic against all other gods). The slaves and other residents of Egypt who experienced these fantastical signs would have solid evidence and assertions about who is the true God.
I of course love the notitia/assensus/fiducia synonyms of faith. And this is one story that illustrates this that I’ve also used before on your blog:
Preachers often use the illustration of Charles Blondin — “The Great Blondin.” Blondin was an amazing performer and tightrope artist and became famous for crossing the Niagara Gorge. He did so many times, sometimes blindfolded, trundling a wheelbarrow — with and without a large load. In any case, the story goes that Blondin had just crossed the Niagara — and he was very capable of working a crowd into a frenzy as to heighten their anticipation and excitement.
“Do you believe I can cross the Niagara on the a tightrope?” he hollered.
“Yes we believe it!” returned the crowd.
“Do you believe I can cross with a wheelbarrow?” Blondin pressed.
“Of course you can, you’re the great Blondin!” the crowd would cheer.
“Okay — who wants to ride in the barrow as I cross?” Blondin would ask — and the crowd would go silent.
And that’s where the rubber meets the road regarding faith. If people so believed that Blondin could cross with a wheelbarrow and keep it (and its contents) safe, would they entrust Blondin with their lives?
And only one man dared to go — and that was Blondin’s manager.
You might know that Blondin could cross the Niagara Gorge (notitia).
You might even be positively inclined towards having Blondin cross and having him succeed with anyone else. You may even be persuaded that, based on previous crossings, Blondin will be successful this next time!
But will you put your trust — individually — if it counted? (fiducia)
Maybe a counter-example might be helpful.
James 2:19 has this interesting quotation,
“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”
Obviously the demons *know about* (or have notitia regarding) God.
They would not want to have assensus (the assent that the content of the faith is true) or fiducia about what God claims.
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