Hello, today I came to talk to a friend about the topic of salvation, for the people who lived before Christ. My friend mentioned that in the past many people who lived in accordance or engagement to the Logos could be a Christian. He supports this by using example from the apologist, Justin Martyr, who wrote that the Logos was the means through which God revealed Himself to humanity; it was God’s reason or mind of God. Martyr wrote that many pre-Christian philosophers, like Socrates and Plato, had unknowingly touched upon this truth and were in a sense Christians because they had engaged with the Logos. Is the Logos from the Greco-Roman philosophy the same as the Logos in John 1:1-4? So, were Socrates and Plato Christians? I don’t think I have the capacity to research about this without getting overwhelmed 
Hi @jeannie,
What a great question, thank you for raising it!
I found the quote from Justin Martyr here:
Here’s a key section:
We have been taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have declared above that He is the Word of whom every race of men were partakers; and those who lived reasonably are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like them; and among the barbarians, Abraham, and Ananias, and Azarias, and Misael, and Elias, and many others whose actions and names we now decline to recount, because we know it would be tedious. So that even they who lived before Christ, and lived without reason, were wicked and hostile to Christ, and slew those who lived reasonably.
It’s possible to read this as a confirmation from Justin that Socrates was a Christian.
But in context, I think we need to read it less literally and with more sensitivity.
It seems to me that his argument is that the great philosophers of his culture, even though they lived before Christ, affirmed there was a Logos, a Word, a supreme being.
By bringing this point to his audience’s attention, he is attempting to build a bridge between what they already believe and the argument he is making for belief in Jesus.
Instead of saying, “You have it completely wrong,” he is saying, “Your greatest philosophers are already halfway there. They taught about a Logos, let me show you who the Logos is… Jesus.”
He’s suggesting that the light of Greek philosophy pointed to the source of the light, Jesus.
So, in his terminology, these philosophers were “Christians” in the sense that they believed the universe was animated by divine reason, but not in the sense that they believed in Jesus, who is the personification of the Logos.
The takeaway? What do you see as the points of connection in our culture with the message of Jesus?
For instance, many passionately believe that “love is love” to justify all kinds of lifestyles. We can condemn this approach as wrong—or we can build a bridge and say, “Yes, love IS love! I think the most amazing love that has ever been revealed is found in the Triune God of love…”