The discussion at Stanford's Encyclopedia of Philosophy is not Spiritual.
All facts are God's facts. There is no dichotomy between physical facts and spiritual facts. This is dualism. Now surely secular philosophy interprets facts incorrectly but that doesn't change that all facts are God's facts.
One cannot hold Plato's feet to the fire on Spiritual matters.
Of course we must since he is responsible for rejecting what God revealed through nature, his conscience, and God's providential ordering of history. Everyone's feet are held to the fire!
That doesn't mean his contributions were worthless or not according to God's will.
I agree.
Plato did not have God's gift of Spiritual discernment which all Christians receive.
He had the Law within his heart which is enough to convict him.
God gave Plato the gift of wisdom.
Define Wisdom.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.
Prov 1.
But Plato's thoughts do not substitute for the words of God. The words of God are spirit and life, the words of men are neither spirit nor life:
God made man a rational/moral being with the ability to interpret nature, his conscience, and God's providential ordering of history so that man is left without excuse about his knowledge of God. His special revelation of himself in Christ as inscripturated does require the assurance of the Spirit of Christ, yes. The problem with Plato's thoughts is that he failed to interpret the facts as having their entire basis in the one self-sufficient God who determines all facts.
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: - Isaiah 46:10
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: - John 10:27
But blessed [are] your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. - Matthew 13:16
you: Of course we must since he is responsible for rejecting what God revealed through nature, his conscience, and God's providential ordering of history. Everyone's feet are held to the fire!
There is no way a natural man like Plato can receive Spiritual Truth. Even the Hebrews who had witnessed Gods many miracles and received the Law in a display of power could not receive Spiritual Truth because they did not have the gift of ears to hear.
Jeepers, even Nebuchadnezzar was given the gift to praise God. That he was a heathen did not ipso facto falsify what he said here:
I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me.
How great [are] his signs! and how mighty [are] his wonders! his kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion [is] from generation to generation. Daniel 4:1-3
Likewise, men like Plato or Aristotle or Socrates or Heraclitus or Euclid - who never knew Jesus Christ have passed along to us their insights which are useful even to this very day.
Again: context, context, context.
Plato is not God and is not to be worshipped. He is not a saint, a religious leader or a theologian. He did not, indeed he could not, speak with Spiritual insight. He did not have the gift of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
But his insights into universals are relevant to this day. Every time a mathematician uses a variable in a formula, he attests to the universality of the formula. Truly, the only closed cosmology (Tegmarks Level IV) is closed precisely because it is radical Platonism.
Lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and [their] thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Romans 2:14-16
But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6
To God be the glory!