Best Quotes from Fault Lines by Voddie T. Baucham Jr. with Page Numbers

"The fever rose without warning or notice or much in the way of understanding by those outside its reach."

"It would not end until the 1970s and would set into motion changes in the North and South that no one, not even the people doing the leaving, could have imagined at the start of it or dreamed would take nearly a lifetime to play out."

"I remember feeling like I was about to step onto a stage and assume a role in a drama that, up until then, I had only witnessed from a distance and would rather not participate in."

"Though we did not have much, we did have our good name, and whether I liked it or not, I was going to have to uphold that name."

"I had to get on that bus."

"I could also understand, perhaps for the first time, what it meant to be poor and disadvantaged."

"My mother shaped my thinking about who I was and what I was capable of."

"I often say, ‘I am a Californian by birth, but a Texan by the grace of God!’"

"Her diploma said, ‘This is what sacrifice, determination, and redemption looks like.’"

"In my house, that was simply unacceptable."

I am a Christian because the grace of God found me when I wasn’t even looking.

Every conversion is a miraculous event.

The Gospel is not something that merely sits on top of our identity. When we come to Christ, our identity is transformed completely.

What if I can give you the other 10 percent?

The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and on them he has set the world.

I realized that my ancestors—far from being kings and queens—were actually debtors, criminals, or conquered people.

I don’t take this truth as an invitation to simply sit and wait for God to 'do something' for the widow, the orphan, or the poor.

He has made the two into one.

In the end, these were my brothers and sisters in Christ.

God clearly condemns injustice.

Falsehood and lies are reprehensible because they not only harm those to and/or about whom they are told, but they also blaspheme the very character and nature of the God Who is truth.

A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.

You shall do no injustice in court.

When I am evaluating people’s testimonies and pleas, I always want to bear in mind the words of John 7:51: 'Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?'

People are rioting and demanding justice before knowing the facts.

While that may be fine for others, those of us who claim to know Christ are held to a different standard.

We must be careful when we hear and/or draw conclusions.

Reject simplistic, univariate analyses as a basis for sweeping accusations of bias.

It is imperative that we examine the worldview assumptions that underlie this division.

I wanted to know what I believed, why I believed it, and to be able to defend it against legitimate objections.

Identifying the elements of this worldview... is actually fundamental to having a genuine and God-honoring conversation about race at all.

At the epicenter of the coming evangelical catastrophe is a new religion—or, more specifically, a new cult.

This new cult has created a new lexicon that has served as scaffolding to support what has become an entire body of divinity.

Antiracism offers no salvation—only perpetual penance in an effort to battle an incurable disease.

Definitions anchor us in principles.

Definitions of racism are neither new nor unique... but they have made their way into mainstream conscience and vocabulary.

Words carry the assumption of a worldview.

It is important to note that for the antiracist, these definitions no longer suffice.

The goal is equitable outcomes.

Ethnic Gnosticism is the idea that people have special knowledge based solely on their ethnicity.

This is a central tenet of Critical Race Theory.

The voice-of-color thesis... holds that because of their different histories and experiences with oppression, black, American Indian, Asian, and Latino writers and thinkers may be able to communicate to their white counterparts matters that the whites are unlikely to know.

Each oppressed group can learn to identify its distinctive opportunities to turn an oppressive feature of the group’s conditions into a source of critical insight.

The very idea of dividing people up by ethnicity, then declaring some of them wicked oppressors and others the oppressed, is inconsistent with the biblical doctrine of universal guilt.

We are called to 'Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep'.

The knowledge yielded by the standpoint of the proletariat stands on a higher scientific plane objectively.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

May the Lord grant us grace to take such admonitions seriously.

The neglect of Black knowledge by society is no accident but a direct result of racism.

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness." (2 Peter 1:3–4)

"The Bible is not merely the words and speculations of men. Nor is it dependent upon the words or ideas of men for its authority."

"There is not a book in the world that is better suited to address men on the issue of race than the Bible."

"It is the Bible—not sociology, psychology, or political science—that offers sufficient answers not only on race, but on every ethical issue man has faced, or will ever face."

"The assertion that 'unless you had science, the Bible would not make sense' flies in the face of the teaching of the Bible as well as the historic understanding of that teaching in reference to the sufficiency of the Bible."

"We believe that those Holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to believe, unto salvation, is sufficiently taught therein."

"The idea that we need a new canon to be able to decipher what the Bible says, or more specifically, what it means regarding race, is quite troubling."

"The Bible carries the authority of God Himself."

"If someone like David Platt can go off the rails and start reading things into Scripture during a sermon, what do we think is going to happen when we create a new canon?"

People don’t live on fault lines because they like the destruction earthquakes bring.

The fault lies in believing that such a vision can be attained by affiliating with… the ideology that lies at the root of the social justice movement.

We are right to pursue justice, peace, and unity… that is not the fault line.

Documents like the Dallas Statement are never meant to be a final word. The Bible is the final word.

Unity could never be achieved without clarity.

Most of our friends didn’t write a single word one way or the other.

This catastrophe is unavoidable... the question is not if but when the catastrophe will strike.

The fault lines that are shifting today have been there for a long time.

We must understand what the fault lines are. We must also know where they lie.

Much of what we are seeing today is disagreement between well-meaning brothers and sisters… holding fast to the center—to the Gospel.

‘Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.’ (Ephesians 4:14–16)

‘When you are distant; or when you are thinking only of yourself, it’s no surprise when we see that behavior in our schools or on our streets.’

‘It’s up to us to tell our sons those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in my house we give glory to achievement, self-respect, and hard work.’

‘Are black fathers necessary? You bet they are. Damn straight we are.’

‘The number one predictor of economic mobility for poor kids in America is the share of two-parent families in their neighborhood.’

‘It’s great if you have a job; it’s even better if you have a college degree.’

‘We need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child—it’s the courage to raise one.’

‘Black Americans want police to spend the same amount of or more time in their area as before protests broke out in 2020.’

‘The way we live in our families matters!’

‘The question of ‘life’ is the question of the twentieth century.’

‘What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child—it’s the courage to raise one.’

Don't underestimate the catastrophic potential of aftershocks.

The idea that evangelicals can adopt the analysis of contemporary critical theory with respect to race and sex, but not with respect to sexuality, gender identity, or religion is naïve—at best.

Human beings cannot give or create life by themselves; it is really a gift from God.

Believing this transformed my life and that of my family to the tune of adopting seven newborns in nine years as an expression of our pro-life commitment.

I agree wholeheartedly that being pro-life should go beyond just being anti-abortion. However, it must start there.

If I were going to be a single-issue voter, that single issue would be the murder of the unborn.

Fighting social injustice, by caring for migrants and the poor, is just as holy a pursuit for Catholics as opposing abortion.

We are not narrow-minded fundamentalists being led around by the nose for the sake of a single issue.

Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

The moral abomination of abortion has coarsened and soiled America to an untold degree.

Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people.

Critical Social Justice will not have the last word. God’s Church will neither fall nor fail.

The truth is not only to be believed; it is to be deployed.

We have an opportunity to say to a world seeking the false, inadequate, burdensome law of antiracism, 'We have something better; something more.'

We must love the truth more than we love our friends, our reputations, or our platforms.

Ironically, antiracism is also powerless against racism. It is Christ, and Christ alone, 'who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.'

Our weapons are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

Even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.

We must confront the lie and hold to the truth.

Because antiracism is law-based, its ultimate end is changing and establishing laws, then enforcing those laws authoritatively.

"Son, welcome home!"

"By God’s providence, I was born a free man and a citizen of the greatest Republic in the history of mankind."

"It is forgiveness that will heal our wounds."

"The most powerful weapon in our arsenal is not calling for reparations: it is forgiveness."

"I realized in 2006 that I had been blessed in order to be a blessing."

"America has blessed me beyond measure. If anything, I owe America."

"Rise to the challenge; the Church—your church—is under attack."

"Men tell us that our preaching should be positive and not negative, that we can preach the truth without attacking error."

"If Christ took care of that on the cross, how much more did He take care of any man-made divisions we face today?"

"A great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb."