By the third century C.E., the philosophical and religious doctrines of thinkers who endeavored to develop and synthesize the ideas of Plato took their definitive form, known collectively today as Neoplatonism. This school of thought was bound to have a profound influence on apostate Christianity.

Plotinus (205-270 C.E.), a precursor of such thinkers, developed a system that was based chiefly on Plato’s theory of ideas. Plotinus introduced the concept of a soul separate from the body. Professor E. W. Hopkins said of Plotinus: “His theology . . . had no little influence upon the leaders of Christian opinion.”

“Hellenized Christianity” and “Christian Philosophy”

Starting in the second century C.E., “Christian” thinkers made a determined effort to reach the pagan intellectuals. Despite the apostle Paul’s clear warning against “the empty speeches that violate what is holy” and “the contradictions of the falsely called ‘knowledge,’” such teachers integrated in their teachings philosophical elements from the surrounding Hellenistic culture. (1 Timothy 6:20) The example of Philo seemed to suggest that it might be possible to reconcile the Bible with Platonic ideas.​—Compare 2 Peter 1:16.

The real victim, of course, was Biblical truth. “Christian” teachers tried to show that Christianity was in harmony with Greco-Roman humanism. Clement of Alexandria and Origen (second and third centuries C.E.) made Neoplatonism the foundation of what came to be “Christian philosophy.” Ambrose (339-397 C.E.), bishop of Milan, had “absorbed the most up-to-date Greek learning, Christian and pagan alike​—notably the works . . . of the pagan Neoplatonist Plotinus.” He tried to provide educated Latins with a classical version of Christianity. Augustine followed suit.

A century later, Dionysius the Areopagite (also styled pseudo-Dionysius), probably a Syrian monk, tried to unite Neoplatonic philosophy with “Christian” theology. According to one encyclopedia, his “writings established a definite Neoplatonic trend in a large segment of medieval Christian doctrine and spirituality . . . that has determined facets of its religious and devotional character to the present time.” What a flagrant flouting of the apostle Paul’s warning against “the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men”!​—Colossians 2:8.

Corrupting Pollutants

It has been noted that “the Christian Platonists gave primacy to revelation and regarded Platonic philosophy as the best available instrument for understanding and defending the teachings of Scripture and church tradition.”

Plato himself had been convinced that there exists an immortal soul. Significantly, one of the most prominent false teachings that crept into “Christian” theology is that of the immortality of the soul. Accepting this teaching can in no way be justified on the grounds that doing so made Christianity more appealing to the masses. When preaching in Athens, the very heart of Greek culture, the apostle Paul did not teach the Platonic doctrine of the soul. Rather, he preached the Christian doctrine of the resurrection, even though many of his Greek listeners found it hard to accept what he said.​—Acts 17:22-32.

Contrary to Greek philosophy, the Scriptures clearly show that the soul is not what a person has but what he is. (Genesis 2:7) At death, the soul ceases to exist. (Ezekiel 18:4) Ecclesiastes 9:5 tells us: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten.” The doctrine of the immortality of the soul is not taught in the Bible.

Another deceptive teaching had to do with the position of the prehuman Jesus, the notion that he was equal to his Father. Explains the book The Church of the First Three Centuries: “The doctrine of the Trinity . . . had its origin in a source entirely foreign from that of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures.” What was that source? The doctrine “grew up, and was ingrafted on Christianity, through the hands of the Platonizing Fathers.”

Indeed, as time went by and the Church Fathers became increasingly influenced by Neoplatonism, the Trinitarians gained ground. Third-century Neoplatonic philosophy seemingly enabled them to reconcile the irreconcilable​—to make a threefold God appear like one God. By philosophical reasoning they claimed that three persons could be one God while retaining their individuality!

The truth of the Bible, however, clearly shows that Jehovah alone is Almighty God, Jesus Christ is His lesser created Son, and the holy spirit is His active force. (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5; Acts 2:4; Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14) The Trinity doctrine dishonors the only true God and confuses people, turning them away from a God they cannot comprehend.

One more victim of the Neoplatonic influence on Christian thinking was the Scripture-based millennial hope. (Revelation 20:4-6) Origen was noted for his condemnation of millennialists. Why was he so opposed to this well-founded Biblical doctrine of Christ’s rule of one thousand years? The Catholic Encyclopedia answers: “In view of the Neo-Platonism on which his doctrines were founded . . . , [Origen] could not side with the millenarians.”