The Danger of Classical Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism and the Undermining of Faith

I wanted to discuss the implications of Classical thought on our culture today. What do ancient Greece and Rome have to do with us, here and now, you say? They exist only in the dustbin of history, right?

Wrong.

The philosophical foundations that destroyed Greece and Rome are very much with us today. Though they are well hidden and even assumed as natural by most folks. So let’s look at one stream of classical thought, Neoplatonism.

Like Christianity, Neoplatonism has its own version of Providence. This counterfeit version represents a powerful “spiritualizing” force that has greatly damaged the Christian faith in the early church as well as the church today, specifically weakening faith in God’s providence.

As we flesh out this subject, it’s important to consider Plotinus’s writings. Plotinus came after Plato and did a fairly nice job of taking Plato’s beliefs to their logical end.

When we examine his beliefs, we see that Neoplatonism’s views of reality are based in dualistic terms… spirit and matter. With Plotinus’s framework, the human spirit, or soul, is considered part of the “world soul,” and the self-conscious believer in Neoplatonism aspires to transcend the physical realm to be united or absorbed into “the One,” the world soul.

This perspective, where the immaterial reality is presupposed as the essence of the spiritual and the divine, leads to the belief that true being transcends the meaningless realm of matter of the physical world. This is a form of irrationalism and nothing more.

The Spread of Classical Neoplatonic Thought

Medieval mysticism and modern mysticism are both strongly Neoplatonic, as is the philosophy of Fredrick Hegel. From Hegel’s viewpoint, the idea or spirit is identified as one with humanity itself, and it is now the autonomous human mind that must impose meaning on what it sees as a mindless world. Consequently, providence is reduced to humanity’s rational attempt to govern and shape reality.

Rather than belonging to God, providence becomes a function of humanistic direction, and the welfare state emerges as a substitute. The state’s agencies aim for total oversight, seeking to make “cradle to grave” security a reality… essentially a counterfeit providence.

The word “provide” shares its root with “providence,” so when the modern state promises to “provide,” it is, in fact, promising a form of total care. It should be obvious that most modern governments then see themselves as the sole “provider god” on earth.

Providence in the Westminster Confession Versus the Modern State

The first paragraph of the Westminster Confession of Faith, in its chapter on providence, proclaims that God “upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least by His most wise and holy providence… according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will; to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.”

This is the antithesis of what the modern state attempts to replicate. The state aspires to govern all creatures, actions, and things, “from the greatest even to the least,” by its own “wise and holy providence”— in other words, total governance, a stark contrast to the biblical view.

If the state is going to govern totally, it must then educate our kids in terms of its providence and ultimacy. And so the state from Rome to present-day America seeks to maintain control of education. Anyone who has read John Dewey can see this plainly. Christianity is the one dangerous enemy to the power state in education. This assumption of comprehensive authority assumes the state’s counterfeit version of providence.

The All-Wise State

For most government authorities, the state is all-wise and all-holy. When state-sponsored education’s implications appear chaotic and fruitless, the answer is always the need for more money and more control.

The truth is that humans inherently seek providence; if they do not find it in God, they will look to the state or inward to themselves.

Modern evangelicals have also contributed to the problem by over-spiritualizing scripture, treating the Old Testament as no longer valid. Some go so far as to suggest that Old Testament saints were not very spiritual, perhaps not even saved.

This perspective reduces biblical faith to nothing more than an evolutionary ladder. For such believers, God’s government operates only to save souls, and providence is stripped from everyday life.

A Biblical View of Evil and the Nature of Providence

According to biblical faith, evil is not metaphysical but moral… evil means transgressing God’s law. Providence, then, is not humanistically-centered or state-provided. A classic scriptural example appears in Romans 8. After the declaration that “all things work together for good to them that love God,”

Romans 8:36 affirms that believers can still be “killed all the day long.” This underscores that divine providence is not oriented to human comfort but to God’s purpose.

The Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 18, states, “God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures; ordering them, and all their actions, to his own glory.” The focus is on God’s glory, God’s kingdom, and God’s sovereignty, never on man. All the blessings he gets are by-products.

The Church Sends God’s Providence Into The Void

When church leaders confine providence to the governance of the soul, they create a dangerous void in the temporal world. If God’s providence is restricted solely to matters of personal salvation, the governance of everything else is effectively handed over to the devil or to autonomous human reason.

The entire created order requires God’s providential care. If that care is denied, humanity will always establish its own form of providence.

The Rise of Humanistic Providence and Evolutionary Thought

German Pietism of the seventeenth century, a movement within Lutheranism that emphasized personal devotion and a supposed direct relationship with God, helped withdraw providence from worldly affairs, focusing solely on individual salvation.

This shift in focus paved the way for Hegel, who introduced the concept of a “world spirit” that naturally evolves into a man-centered providence. Darwin extended Hegel’s evolutionary framework to biology, portraying the universe as the outcome of mindless chance. Over time, random variation or chance supposedly “evolves” the world to its current form.

Such a worldview begs the question as to who will direct a universe governed by chance. Again, the state naturally steps forward, and thinkers from Marx and John Stuart Mill to Dewey concluded that humanity must take control of evolution and create a rational providence in society and nature.

Implied by all secular philosophers is the concept that the state must play the role of God. The result is totalitarian governance, synthetic-biology, abortion, attempts at creating and cloning life. Basically, comprehensive control over “all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least.”

A Call to Return to God’s Providence

Providence is a fundamental doctrine. If we do not receive providence from God, we do not remove it from the playing field. Rather, we exchange it for the state’s version of providence. Today, the church largely fails to challenge the humanistic vision of “womb to tomb” security, a concept that promises comprehensive care and protection from birth to death, but at the tremendous cost of replacing God’s providence with the state’s version.

Another crucial point would be that without a robust doctrine of God as the only Creator, Lawgiver, and Governor, believers have no way to resist the all-encompassing, all-powerful state. William Wallace’s famous cry was “Appeal To Heaven.” By that, he meant that there has to be law and justice above and beyond the state. He was appealing to God’s justice over the brute force of the English king.

Virtually every civil government on earth sees itself as the new providential power and, therefore, a substitute for God. William Wallace saw this, Oliver Cromwell saw this, and so did our own country’s Founders.

The Only Christian Response

So what’s the danger of classical thought, specifically Neoplatonism? That danger lies in a godless, unifying concept. To posit that we all belong to some nebulous “oneness” might sound nice to John Lennon fans, but it’s the path to total tyranny. If all is one, with no distinctions… your bank account is also my bank account. Your wife is my wife… on and on.

It’s important to note that the Christian response to tyranny cannot be fought on humanistic grounds. We’re not all absorbed into the secular one. We must return to the Word and Law of God, recognizing that God’s providence rules every realm.

Consequently, both humanity and the state must submit to God’s authoritative Word. There are no providential alternatives here. When we truly honor the One who upholds, directs, and governs all things, we can again see the powerful benefits of freedom and justice.

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