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Without Excuse

           The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

But it is possible to have an attitude to the external conditions of life only when there is a point of reference outside them. The religions give, or claim to give, such a standpoint, thereby enabling the individual to exercise his judgment and his power of decision. (Jung, C.G., The Undiscovered Self, NY Mentor Books, 1958 pp 29-30.)[1]

We should start with some definitions that won’t fit with the standards. As much as I like definitions, I think these help clarify some muddled post-modern thinking. First, one’s god is whatever one treats as the authority and force behind all that is. It is what causes our universe to function. That is what God is, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Lord Most High, our Father, etc. But at the individual level, it’s also true. Our god may not be God. It might be some idol and we may not even know it. But that’s what a god is. It does not have to be a person, place, or thing. It can be an idea or group of ideas.

Next, religion informs how we should relate to the universe, its other inhabitants, and its god, regardless of who or what that god is. The vast majority of people, if asked what informs them about what’s right or wrong, will point to some “self-evident” external something. Some will claim that they, themselves, should be the judge, but they tend not to be so willing to let other people be their own judges. In his consideration and for the purposes of his essay, if the god who decrees the principles of our religion isn’t supernatural (and generally Christian) it is the State, also known as the World. Whatever it is, he says, it must be external to the person to be observable by the person. He goes on to suggest that when the State is our god, one of the primary principles is “You shall have no other gods before me.” This is part of the reason the State tends to claim that “separation of church and state” refers only to the church not being permitted to have any influence on the state, while the state may have unlimited influence on the church.

Dr. Jung said that the only way that the state can function is by treating everyone as a statistic or “clump of statistics”, which denies the individual any individuality or dignity. He notes that the church can do the same thing when the church moves away from what Scripture teaches and begins to act like the state, but the point must be made that the church is not, then, acting according to Scripture but modeling itself after the state. When it is, as Israel did, seeking a king.

In short, Dr. Jung, who was not a Christian and believed himself to be a scientist, agreed with what today’s verse teaches. Man is aware of God, and is without excuse when he rejects God in favor of some other god.


[1] I do not pretend to agree with all of what Dr. Jung claimed, even within this book. It presents, however, some interesting food for thought. 

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