Samuel Rutherford Quotes

I think I'll be going to Heaven, because I had good intentions. But my actions are another thing.

One of the great benefits of organised religion is that you can be forgiven your sins, which must be a wonderful thing. I mean, I carry my sins around with me, there's nobody there to forgive them.

I often remembered also that I had been told, that we shall have as many devils biting us, if we go to hell, as we have unconfessed sins on our consciences.

On the day, therefore, when I went to the church to be confirmed, with a number of others, I suffered extremely from the reproaches of my conscience.

I was brought up a Catholic, so I take no pleasure in guilt.

No one was ever scolded out of their sins.

The different religions have never overlooked the part played by the sense of guilt in civilization

I do not seek redemption from the consequences of my sin. I seek to be redeemed from sin itself. Until I have attained that end, I shall be content to be restless.

Conviction is not repentance; conviction leads to repentance. But you can be convicted without repentance.

We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. I have heard others, and I have heard myself, recounting cruelties and falsehoods committed in boyhood as if they were no concern of the present speaker's, and even with laughter. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin. The guilt is washed out not by time but by repentance and the blood of Christ: if we have repented these early sins we should remember the price of our forgiveness and be humble.

The knowledge of sin is the beginning of salvation.

One way you can get really close to God is to sin as hard as you can.

By repenting, one acknowledges them as sins-therefore not to be repeated.

Be ashamed when you sin, don't be ashamed when you repent [To repent means to have a change of heart and mind. It is not simply a feeling of sorrow ,but a psycho/spiritual growth away from evil/death and a turning to God/life]. Sin is the wound, repentance is the medicine. Sin is followed by shame; repentance is followed by boldness [ Boldness means to beg God for undeserved mercy]. Satan has overturned this order and given boldness to sin and shame to repentance.

I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.

Heaven finds an ear when sinners find a tongue.

I think God's wrath and purgatory are the only things keeping me on the straight and narrow. I like the idea of purgatory. It's like a cosmic do-over.

You've got to walk and talk with God to go to heaven... I have the devil in me! If I didn't have, I'd be Christian!

I know what sin is.

Human nature is the same now as when Adam hid from the presence of God; the consciousness of wrong makes us unwilling to meet those whom we have offended.

Now, I don't want to get off on a rant here, but guilt is simply God's way of letting you know that you're having too good a time.

I put Catholic guilt to work pretty good for a rich rock star.

If you do not accuse each other, God will not accuse you. If you have no accuser you will enter heaven. What many people call sin is not sin; I do many things to break down superstition, and I will break it down.

I'd stand in line for Confession with old people and little kids, and as the line moved up, I knew when I got into the box that I would lie! Again!

To us sin has not become any less of a mystery or a pain.