Watchman on the Wall

Southwest Radio Ministries: Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. Today on the program, Josh Davis will deliver the latest headlines from the end times. Love the Bible prophecy DVDs from Southwest Radio Ministries? Well, now you can enjoy many of your favorites instantly with our brand new digital downloads.

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Each month, headlines describe the spiritual erosion happening within the church. Moral collapse of spiritual leaders, denial of orthodox doctrine by popular influencers, and the approval of sinful behaviors by entire denominations emphasize the continual march toward apostasy. There is one common denominator in these acts of atrocity and apostasy: the fear of God has evaporated from their lives. Josh Davis shares headlines that reveal how this is happening, then points to scripture to help watchman on the wall recapture a healthy fear of God. That's happening now on today's headlines from the end times.

Josh Davis: Greetings, fellow watchman on the wall, and welcome to another headlines from the end times. With each passing month, headlines describe the spiritual erosion happening within the church. I say church in a very broad sense, anyone who names the name Christian or church, that's what I'm referring to. Whether you're talking about the moral collapse of spiritual leaders, the denial of orthodox doctrines by some popular influencers who just name the name of Christ, and whether you're talking about the approval of sinful behaviors by entire denominations, all of these emphasize the continual march toward apostasy and the state of the church here in the Western world.

Although these headlines contain different people in different places in different contexts and they're committing various levels of atrocity and apostasy, there's one common denominator in all of this. It is an absence of the fear of God. The fear of God has evaporated from their lives. Proverbs chapter 9, verse 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. One commentator suggested that the theme for the entire book of Proverbs is this fear of God, this fear of the Lord that we need to learn how to develop through applying wisdom to our lives.

When we're talking about the headlines and headlines from the end times and this growing apostasy that we see happening, whether that's within what is so-called liberal or progressive Christianity or even in conservative Christian circles, which I dare say most of our listeners would find themselves in, we see these headlines reveal there is no fear of God. I want to just take a second and share with you that part of what I'm sharing is based on what I've written for the August 2026 Prophetic Observer newsletter. I'll say more about that after I share what's on my heart with you today about these headlines that we're seeing.

It's almost like wave after wave after wave crashing violently against a rocky coastline. We get wave after brutal wave of weekly headlines and they reveal the fear of God is absent from many who name the name of Jesus Christ. Just consider a few recent examples. I could go on and on and on about stories and headlines, and some of these things I've shared with you before, like the Presbyterian Church USA, how they met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the end of June this year. This theologically liberal denomination has untethered itself from the authority of God's word many years ago.

Back in 2011, they officially began ordaining openly LGBTQ clergy. That's been 15 years ago. Well, in Milwaukee this year, there was a proposal introduced to seek requiring ordained PCUSA clergy to be monogamous. I shared that story with you previously here on headlines from the end times, but I wanted to remind you of that particular story because it ties to another story I'm going to share with you here in just a moment. Again, this proposal was wanting to require PCUSA clergy to be monogamous. They had to have one spouse. As I said, 15 years ago they already said clergy can have same-sex marriages.

This proposal to limit clergy to one spouse or one partner was deemed out of order. My question is, is it out of order for a denomination to follow scripture's clear mandates? I mean, look at 1st Timothy chapter 3, verse 2 where it says the elders must be the husband of one wife. Titus 1:6 says almost the exact same words. Clear biblical instruction. The PCUSA thinks we can decide what is right and what is wrong. We can say that it's out of order to follow the scripture. What does that reveal? They have zero fear of God.

I told you that I was going to tie this to another story and I'm sure by now you are familiar with James Talarico. He's currently pursuing a Master of Divinity degree. That's the gold standard for pastors and ministry leaders, that Master of Divinity degree. He's studying at the PCUSA Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary located in Austin, Texas. James Talarico has garnered national attention while running for a seat in the US Senate as a Democratic candidate. He's become something of a poster child for liberal, progressive Christianity in the Democratic Party.

Talarico is setting some Texas fundraising records, including raking in over $30 million in the second quarter alone during his political campaign for US Senate. He has received donations from nearly 1 million people who are standing behind him, standing with him. This would-be pastor-politician is winning over a lot of followers, and he's using this liberal, woke, progressive, scripture-twisting nonsense to do so. Talarico's horrendous handling of scripture threatens to destroy many souls for eternity. This is why this is so important that we understand the direction that this world is heading in and the apostasy that's entering into the church.

Talarico has claimed that God is non-binary. He's claimed that Jesus was a radical feminist. He's claimed that the Bible is silent on abortion. I know those are headline-grabbing statements and clickbait that you see online, but something else he said that we can't let fly under the radar. He said that all religions are circling the same truth. How could anyone who makes those kinds of statements have a high respect for Almighty God, have a high respect for what Jesus has done for us? By saying that all religions are circling the same truth, he's casting away Jesus' clear words in John 14:6 where Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

You see how his words are twisting and it's going more than twisting scripture, he's really trampling on Jesus' death and resurrection. If all roads lead to heaven, if we're all circling the same truth, if there's more than one way to be right with God or the Being or whomever or whatever is out there—again, modern progressivism, postmodernistic thought patterns that say you have your truth, I have my truth—if that's true, why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Why did Jesus rise from the dead? Why is the Christian faith built around the historical fact of a risen Savior?

If there are multiple ways and if we can be good enough to get to heaven on our own merit, why do we need the gospel? Why do we need Jesus at all? If good works are good enough, we don't need Jesus. We don't need the gospel. But that's the opposite of the biblical message. The biblical message, the true gospel, is that we can't earn heaven on our own, that our good works are not good enough. I'm going to read you some scripture that bears all this out momentarily, but I'm just trying to emphasize this clear point before we move on today. We need to understand this important attack on the gospel message.

That's the heart of apostasy that we see rising in our world today. Talarico is casting away Jesus' clear words in scripture. He's trampling on his death and resurrection, and in so doing, he reveals he has zero fear of God. Again, that's the whole message I'm sharing with you today is that there is a great absence, a great dearth of the fear of God in our world. We can move on to someone else, the popular progressive influencer Jen Hatmaker. She's best known for some best-selling Christian books, and I should say so-called Christian books.

Hatmaker publicly announced over a year ago that she's done with going to church. She's dropped out of church altogether and says that's been a good thing for her. More apostasy on display. She recently announced that she's laying down her belief in hell. She said laying down my belief in hell didn't cost me my faith, it rescued it. The refrain that I keep repeating is ringing out again: zero fear of God. We can sit here and point fingers at the liberal, progressive people who claim to be Christians and even at these entire denominations that are heading headfirst into great apostasy.

But as equally devastating are the shocking and shameful moral failures of trusted spiritual leaders. We know that conservative Christian circles have seen plenty of well-known preachers and pastors do some of the most revolting, most disgusting things imaginable over the last couple of years. This hypocrisy, this deception, has harmed thousands of souls. It's destroyed many churches from things like financial scandals to spiritual leaders committing theft and cheating on their spouses, marital infidelity, child abuse, sexting minors, things like fraud, pornography use.

All these horrible evils have been committed by those entrusted with proclaiming the word of God. At the root of all these evils lies the same common theme that plagues the progressive Christians: zero fear of God. The further you slide away from fearing God, the more acceptable sin becomes. But as the book of Proverbs teaches, that's the pathway for fools to walk in. Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." That begs a question: all this talk about the fear of God, the fear of the Lord, this phrase that's used in scripture numerous times.

One commentator believes that it's a central message to the book of Proverbs, if not the whole theme of that particular book of scripture. But what is the fear of God? What does it look like to live in the fear of God? If I can propose a biblically based definition to you for what is the fear of God, it's simply this: it's our reverent response to recognizing who God is. Fearing God begins with recognizing who he is. How do we do that? Well, God chose to reveal himself to us through the Bible's 66 books. He's given us this divine Holy Spirit-inspired revelation.

The Christian's ultimate aim in studying the Bible should be to know God better. I'm afraid that even among our conservative Christian circles, a lot of us open our Bibles and we're trying to read through the Bible, perhaps, or we're trying to read a certain passage and you get frustrated because you think this doesn't help my life today, this doesn't say anything to me today, this isn't helping me. You slam the Bible shut and you go on about your busy day thinking I didn't see myself in God's word. If you're looking for yourself in God's word first and foremost, you're looking in the wrong place.

We don't first look into scripture to see how a passage helps our lives. You first come to scripture to understand what the text teaches you about who God is. When you begin to see who God is in a clearer way from looking into his word, then you can begin to see yourself properly. Again, the fear of God is a reverent response to recognizing who God is. As we recognize this matchless superlative and the perfect holiness of Almighty God that we discover on the pages of sacred scripture, we respond with this reverent awe before our Creator, before our Savior.

When we gaze upon God's nature and character in the pages of scripture, it awakens a realization within us of just how fallen, how weak, how unworthy we are. As we gaze upon God in his beautiful word, we stand humbly before the exalted Lord. We stand silent before the living word. We stand as impure before divine perfection. We stand as unwise before the all-knowing God. When Isaiah glimpsed Almighty God in his holy splendor, he cried out in Isaiah chapter 6, verse 5, "Woe is me! I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

A fallen human being cannot gaze upon the glory of God without recognizing just how depraved he really is when he compares himself to sinless perfection, to God's almighty perfect standard. This is exactly what I'm talking about today. That's precisely what many Christians have lost. Instead of walking in the fear of the Lord, they're fixing their gaze on this world. They used to feel convicted over certain sins, and now their senses have dulled to those things. Some who claim to be followers of Jesus move beyond deadened spiritual sensitivity to just full-blown acceptance and celebration of sin in an open apostate kind of manner.

Where does this spiritual desensitization begin? It starts when you untether yourself from the authority of God's word. That's what begins to build those calluses on your heart. Once you make that decision, you consider the word to be just some spiritual suggestions. The Bible is just a bunch of moral stories and I can pick and choose what I want to believe and I can reject what I want to reject. Instead of upholding what God calls good as good and what God calls evil as evil, these people would invent their own moral code. That's why for some people they say marriage is whatever the person wants it to be.

We don't have to do what God has said and decreed in his word. It's just a book of moral suggestions for people who lived thousands of years ago, it doesn't apply to us today. Some people even try to soften the blows of the Holy Spirit bringing conviction in their heart by just rebranding their sin, renaming their sin. It's not stealing, I'm just fudging some numbers. I'm not cheating, I'm just taking advantage of a loophole. Oh, it's not really adultery, I just fell in love with somebody else. Zero fear of God. Zero fear of God.

Isaiah understood something radically different as he stood in God's holy presence. He recognized that unclean, sinful, fallen people surrounded him. He recognized that his lips and his life looked so unclean compared to a holy God. This is a stark contrast to our generation headed towards the great apostasy that's prophesied in the New Testament scriptures. These penetrating words peel back the cover on those who have zero fear for the Lord. My prayer is that the Lord would help us to recapture a reverent response for who he is. My prayer is that we would walk in the fear of God every waking moment.

My prayer is that God would grant us a revival of the fear of the Lord in our generation. We need to walk in fear of him and stand in awe of who he is and have one great fear in our life and that is not following the Lord. When you look at biblical heroes like Daniel, he was someone who said the fear of the Lord is propelling every aspect of my life. Even though they promised to kill me in the den of lions, even though they promised to do this to me and that to me and all the different trials that he faced throughout his life, he said, "No, I fear the Lord. I'm standing in awe of him, and I want to please and honor him. I do not want to displease or dishonor my Lord. I don't care if that puts me crossways with the king or with other rulers or other influencers in my generation. I want to follow the Lord."

Would we dare to have that same commitment in our day? If you're going to stand as a watchman on the wall, you must stand in the fear of God. We must recapture this if we're going to be faithful watchmen on the wall. Being a watchman on the wall is not about just having a lot of headlines and having the right spin on right headlines. It's about knowing God. It's about walking in his truth so that you can see the direction this world is heading. That's why we need to learn how to discern the signs of the times.

If we don't know the word of God properly, then how can we know the signs of the times properly? Discerning the signs of the times begins with a deep knowledge of who God is and his prophetic plan for the ages and what he has put down in his word, what he has recorded for us in the pages of scripture. That's what propels us to be watchmen on the wall, that's what directs our discerning the signs of the times. I thank you for joining me today because this is an important discussion. This isn't something that's going away, this is something that's going to remain.

We need to open our eyes and ears to what we're seeing around us. We need to be equipped with what the word of God rightly says because that's under attack. Whether you're talking about people bashing Israel, whether you're talking about people bashing the pre-trib rapture, all these things are gaining steam, are gaining momentum, and the world is moving quicker and quicker and quicker towards God's prophetic fulfillment. Some of what I'm talking to you today is showing how even within the church or the so-called church, people are moving toward apostasy.

What I've shared with you today is from my heart, but it's based on what I've written for the August 2026 Prophetic Observer newsletter. We would love to send this newsletter to you every single month for free in your mailbox. Give us a call and request our welcome packet and that'll get you signed up for our Prophetic Observer newsletter in your mailbox for free every single month as a ministry here of SWRC. Give us a call today: 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144 and just request your free welcome packet.

Don't forget to check out our website swrc.com. So many great resources, ministry resources available for you right there. Don't forget next week we're going on a special mission trip together. We're not getting on a bus, we're not getting on a plane, we're not even walking out of our front doors to be involved with this special mission project. If you would like to give, you can do so right now at swrc.com to the Africa Needs Jesus campaign. Join me next week on Thursday and Friday, August 20th and 21st for two dedicated days to explaining how we can take advantage of this moment to get out God's truth in that is so urgently needed in today's world.

Please don't forget that we are coming to the Cornerstone Church September 18th and 19th. That's in Northfield, Minnesota. It's totally free, but we need to know that you're coming. Give us a call today and say I'll be there September 18th and 19th in Northfield, Minnesota with you. 1-800-652-1144 is the phone number or visit the website swrc.com. Also mark your calendars for October 22nd through the 24th, Prophecy in the News Live in Bristol, Virginia. Three full days. We'll have much more to say about that as the time draws nearer. Registration is open for that event as well at swrc.com. Until next time, please keep in mind that God is still on the throne and prayer changes things.

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