"The heathenism of Plato’s day is a type of all heathenism.
One of the cardinal points of Plato’s philosophy was the theory of the immortality of the soul...
We quote the following concerning his teaching: —
“There is no doctrine on which Plato more frequently or more
strenuously insists than this, —that soul is not only superior to body, but prior to it in point of time, and that not only as it exists in the being of God, but in every order of existence. The soul of the world existed first, and then it was closed within material body. The souls, which animate the sun, moon, and stars, existed before the bodies, which they inhabited. The pre-existence of human souls is one of the arguments on which he relies to prove its immortality.”—Prof. W. S. Tyler, of Amherst College, in Schaff-Herzog Cyclopedia.
The heathen philosophy, therefore, was simply a deification of the human. The mind of man was made the “lord of itself and all the world beside,” a part of God, and consequently answerable only to itself.
Q: Now what was the result of this self-exaltation?
A: The apostle Paul gives the answer. Speaking of the heathen, he says that they were without excuse, —
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves; who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever” (Rom. 1:21-25)
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
One of the cardinal points of Plato’s philosophy was the theory of the immortality of the soul...
We quote the following concerning his teaching: —
“There is no doctrine on which Plato more frequently or more
The heathen philosophy, therefore, was simply a deification of the human. The mind of man was made the “lord of itself and all the world beside,” a part of God, and consequently answerable only to itself.
Q: Now what was the result of this self-exaltation?
A: The apostle Paul gives the answer. Speaking of the heathen, he says that they were without excuse, —
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves; who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever” (Rom. 1:21-25)
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
Pride,
which caused the fall of Satan,
was at the bottom of their degradation."
E.J.Waggoner