We as Christians in the United States of America now stand in obvious, ominous days. An unknown, dark future lies ahead of us as a country. We are far from the shore of morality and righteousness. The billows and engulfing waves of the high seas of humanity are filling up the boat that was launched some 224 years ago when our country became a nation. We have often read the prophesy of Luke 21:25,26, "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." We have arrived at such an hour.

The terms "Fundamentalist" and "Fundamentalism" have fallen on hard times in our contemporary. If one would look for the commencement of its definition change, perhaps it began when Neo-Evangelicalism, in the late 1940s, made its break from the Fundamentalist camp and became its own identity. Many who left Fundamentalism, and joined the "Neo" ranks, left with a bitter taste for their former, spiritual mother. During the 1950s and 1960s, there arose from the writings of such capitulators religious disinformation that placed the Fundamentalist in the definitive camp of negativism, bigotry, and anti-socialism the somewhat "lunatic fringe" group of the evangelical persuasion. The quantity of this floating debris of disinformation produced a great confusion as to the true Fundamentalist legacy and purpose of existence. This confusion today dominates not only the world's perspective of Fundamentalism but also, sad to say, a good number of men within the camp of Fundamentalism itself. …

The study of “the watch” in the Holy Scriptures is a special study, beginning with the most peculiar of all, “Mizpah” (Genesis 31:49). The term has been inscribed on professional greeting cards as a lovely expression between close friends. However, this is a misunderstanding of the context entirely. Jacob had fled his father-in-law, Laban, because of the differences between them, and Laban fled after him. It was anything but a pleasant meeting of friends. So, Mizpah was, in reality, a heap of stones setting up a boundary between strained relationships and acquaintances so that they would never again flee and/or chase each other because of their differences. In other words, this was a separation between friends who had been obligated to each other prior to this occasion, and this heap of stones marked a boundary that neither would impose upon the other again. This was a “watch” of separation.

In the December issue of Straightway we presented an article on "Christmas Separations." We follow up that thought with "Christmas Extinctions." The tragedies of all our Christmases back in history were a result of the frailties of the calendar, erroneous inclusions by the pagans and Romanism, as well as the commercial abuse in the greed of man.