It should not be disturbing that terms such as “Logos” find their roots in Greek philosophy, e.g. that Plato was the first to personify the term “logos.”
Nor should it be disturbing when the archeologists report of like commandments found in pagan cultures predating the Torah and the Ten Commandments.
Nor should it be troubling when the physical evidence of an event seems to contradict the spiritual account in Scripture.
Neither should a Christian be disturbed to discover that holy manuscripts have been mishandled from time-to-time or that their leaders have made mistakes along the way.
We believe that Jesus Christ is God enfleshed, born of a virgin, died on a cross for our sins, resurrected and sits at the right hand of God the Father in heaven and will come again. We believe that while He was enfleshed, He walked on water, raised the dead, healed the sick and so on. We believe everything that was made was made by Him and for Him.
We believe all of this – why should we be disturbed by anything or any one?
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. – Psalms 23:4
My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father's hand. – John 10:29
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39
For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. – 2 Tim 1:12
[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. – Hebrews 13:5
It should not be disturbing that terms such as “Logos” find their roots in Greek philosophy....
Indeed, dearest sister in Christ! We must remember that the Logos was "in the world" from the beginning of Creation, long before the Incarnation of Jesus Christ; because the Logos is God's Creative Word that made all the worlds, heaven and earth -- the Son of God by whom and for whom were all things made that were made.
What fascinates me is that the great Greeks (the classical philosophers) seem to have sniffed this all out, again long before the Incarnation (~500 B.C.). Somehow, some of these Greeks were able to sense or intuit the Logos as the necessary creative organizational principle of the Cosmos. [There was heavy reliance on mathematics, mainly geometry and numbers theory, to help spec out the problem.]
Anyhoot, such folk recognized that such a Logos would have to be divine in nature, in its essence. Plato also saw the connections between God - man - world - society as essential to any proper understanding of the constitution of human personal order and the good order of society (the polis).
The problem was, I gather, that there was no way that any sensible Greek would assume that the divine Logos was willed by Zeus or any other Olympian god. These "gods" simply conducted themselves as human beings writ large: though born, they are immortal. They never perish; but they don't rule forever either. The Olympians under Zeus struggled against the primaeval gods, Chronos and the gang, and prevailed in the end.
The original gods were sent packing into a shadowy, thoroughly unappealing immortality. They never really go away; but they are now impotent: Zeus is in charge (or was at the time of Homer and Hesoid and even Plato and Aristotle). Indeed, Chronos was Zeus' own father. Beyond that, the Olympians conducted themselves in the worst possible manner, with vanity, pride, fickleness, anger, greed, envy, cupidity, conceit, impurity, lust for power (and the constant sacrifices of men), outright lying. Plus they had the nasty habit of using men as pawns in the games they played amongst themselves, on blissful Mount Olympus.... Usually such games required copious expenditures of human blood.
Needless to say, this was an embarrassing situation, and Plato was definitely aware of it. He found a provisional answer to the problem of the provenance of the Logos: Plato simply designated it Epikeina, the god "Beyond" the Cosmos. He conceived of this Beyond primarily as Nous, as infinitely vast mind who "likely" had something to do with the shape and nature of the created living Cosmos and all its created beings.
But any idea of a personal god had to wait for our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, the personification of the Logos. It took a divine revelation to do it.... It is doubtful Plato had any foreknowledge of the Incarnation at the time he lived....
It was Heraclitus, "Plato's long shadow," who gave us some of the earliest writings on the Logos. Unfortunately, only fragments survive. Here's a sampling [fragment number in brackets]:
But though the Logos is common, the many live as if they had a wisdom of their own. [2]All glory be to God! Truly He works everything together for the good, and has done so ever since the Beginning.Those who speak with the mind must strengthen themselves with that which is common to all, as the polis does with the law and more strongly so. For all human laws nourish themselves from the one divine — which prevails as it will, and suffices for all things and more than suffices. [114]
Although this Logos is eternally valid, yet men are unable to understand it — not only before hearing it, but even after they have heard it for the first time. That is to say, although all things come to pass in accordance with this Logos, men seem to be quite without any experience of it — at least if they are judged in the light of such words and deeds as I am here setting forth. My own method is to distinguish each thing according to its nature, and to specify how it behaves; other men, on the contrary, are as forgetful and heedless in their waking moments of what is going on around and within them as they are during sleep. [1]
Those who are awake have a world one and common, but those who are asleep each turn aside into their own private worlds. [89]
It is not meet to act and speak like men asleep. [73]
All praise and glory be to our Lord God, Rock of ages!