Thursday I finished Justin Martyr's Hortatory Address to the Greeks. In the last sections, he said the same thing about Plato and the other pagan writers. The only thing different was that he comments on Socrates as he dies. Socrates confesses that he knows nothing. He is an agnostic. He denies the pantheon of Greek gods, but he knows there is something more out there. His neighbors don't like this so they execute him by having him drink poison.
"But now it is time to go away, I indeed to die, but you to live. And which of us goes to the better state, is hidden to all but God." These words of Socrates prepared the Greeks to later reject the gods, but opened their hearts to accept the Jewish prophets about the one God and his Son, Jesus Christ, his Word to all the nations. I do hope that my Greek friends found salvation through God's grace. They at least had his revelation. Only when I get to heaven will I know for sure.
Justin Martyr also wrote a short piece called On the Sole Government of God. This includes more poetry from the Greek writers who unwittingly acknowledge that there is only one God and he is not Zeus.
One can only recall Paul's words in Romans 1, that all creation knows who God is. Only through Christ's revelation can they know him in a way that saves.
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