preparation. But it was not wholly negative, it was partly positive also. Justin Martyr spoke of a Lo>gov spermatiko>v among the heathen. Clement of Alexandria called Plato a Mwsh~v ajttiki>zwn ? a Greek-speaking Moses. Notice the priestly attitude of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Pindar and Sophocles. The Bible recognizes Job, Balaam, Melchizedek, as instances of priesthood, or divine communication, outside the bounds of the chosen people. Heathen religions either were not religions or God had a part in them. Confucius, Buddha, Zoroaster were at least reformers raised up in God?s providence. <480403>Galatians 4:3 classes Judaism with the ?rudiments of the world,? and <450520>Romans 5:20 tells us that ?the law came in beside,? as a force cooperating with other human factors, primitive revelation, sin, etc.?
The positive preparation in heathenism receives greater attention when we conceive of Christ as the immanent God, revealing himself in conscience and in history. This was the real meaning of Justin Martyr, Apol. 1:46; 2:10, 13 ? ?The whole race of men partook of the Logos and those who lived according to reason lo>gou , were Christians even though they were accounted atheists. Such among the Greeks were Socrates and Heracleitus and those who resembled them. Even to Socrates Christ was known in part and the teachings of Plato are not alien to those of Christ, though not in all respects similar. For all the writers of antiquity were able to have a dim vision of realities by means of the indwelling seed of the implanted Word lo>gou .? Justin Martyr claimed inspiration for Socrates. Tertullian spoke of Socrates as ?p«ne noster? ? ?almost one of us.?
Paul speaks of the Cretans as having ?a prophet of their own? ( <560112>Titus 1:12) ? probably Epimenides (596 B. C.) whom Plato calls a qwi~ov ajnh>r ? ?a man of God,? and whom Cicero couples with Bacis and the Erythr^an Sibyl. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 1:19; 6:5 ? ?The same God who furnished both the covenants was the giver of the Greek philosophy to the Greeks, by which the Almighty is glorified among the Greeks?; Augustine: ?Plato made me know the true God; Jesus Christ showed me the way to him.?
Bruce, Apologetics, 207 ? ?God gave to the Gentiles at least the starlight of religious knowledge. The Jews were elected for the sake of the Gentiles. There was some light even for pagans, though heathenism on the whole was a failure. But its very failure was a preparation for receiving the true religion.? Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, 133, 238 ? ?Neo-Platonism, that splendid vision of incomparable and irrecoverable cloud-land in which the sun of Greek philosophy set...On its ethical side Christianity had large elements in common with reformed Stoicism; on its theological side it
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