Thank you for your reply, dear the_conscience!
All facts are God's facts.
Indeed, a thing is true because God says it.
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. – Psalms 33:6 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
But on this point, I must disagree:
There is no dichotomy between physical facts and spiritual facts. This is dualism.
It is not dualism that man as the observer is unable to discern the difference between physical and spiritual matters. Indeed, if the Spirit of God does not indwell the man, he cannot discern the things of God, they are foolishness to him:
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. – I Corinthians 2:13-14
The deafness of the natural man is not dualism. The people Jesus is addressing below were physically hearing Him (pressure waves, sound) – but they could not spiritually hear Him:
Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word. – John 8:43
Conversely, those who have the gift of “ears to hear” are able to hear Him:
And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. – John 6:65 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
The natural man cannot comprehend God's thoughts:
For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8-9 You continued:
me: One cannot hold Plato's feet to the fire on Spiritual matters. 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!
Of a Truth, God holds everyone’s feet to the fire. But man did not receive the baptism of the Spirit until Pentecost. Plato had long since left this mortal realm. There is no way a natural man like Plato can receive Spiritual Truth. Even the Hebrews who had witnessed God’s 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.”
And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. – Deuteronomy 29:2-4
Plato didn’t witness any of those signs. All he had to work with was wisdom – the wisdom of men, not the wisdom of God. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. - I Corinthians 1:24
But man cannot know God through his own wisdom:
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. - I Corinthians 1:21
Again, I aver that God gave Plato the gift of wisdom - not the wisdom of God, Jesus Christ – Who we receive – but the wisdom of men. Every good gift is of God. Even Plato's very life was a gift of God - as is yours and mine. And we Christians can appreciate Plato's efforts within the context of the revelation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Jeepers, even Nebuchadnezzar was given the gift to praise God. That he was a heathen did not ipso facto falsify what he said here:
Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. 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
And again, Paul pointed to the wisdom of the Greek poets (certainly not Christian) here:
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. – Acts 17:28
And again, Caiaphas – certainly no Christian – was not wrong when he said this:
And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. – John 18:13-14
And again, Gamaliel – certainly no Christian – was not wrong when he said this:
And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. – Acts 5:38-39
A broken clock is right twice a day. Blind squirrels find acorns. Atheist scientists make useful discoveries. 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 (Tegmark’s Level IV) is closed precisely because it is radical Platonism.
Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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.
Plato, more than any Greek philosopher known to me, was focused on the “beyond” of the physical. I would not say that Plato is without hope, nor would I speculate what God’s judgment will be.
For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. – Romans 9:15 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
What happens to Plato is entirely up to God. To God be the glory!