Watchman on the Wall

Southwest Radio Ministries: Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. Today, Josh Davis will share the latest headlines from the end times.

Josh Davis: Each year, we produce a calendar to raise funds for our prison ministry. This special ministry provides Bibles, prayer, and encouragement to prisoners across the country. This year, our calendar theme is "Beyond the Veil," created by Marginal Mysteries host Micah Van Huss. The "Beyond the Veil 2026" calendar includes stunning imagery, a guide for reading through the Bible in a year, the major Jewish holidays, and right now, a special "get one, give two" offer.

That means each calendar that you order provides two free calendars for incarcerated individuals through our Onesimus Prison Ministry. This calendar, with its one-of-a-kind images, is perfect for daily encouragement, Bible study inspiration, or as a meaningful gift. Order your "Beyond the Veil" calendar today when you call 1-800-652-1144. That is 1-800-652-1144. You can also order online at swrc.com. We do have discounts available for folks that order multiple calendars, so order today! 1-800-652-1144.

A state representative in Ohio recently proposed legislation to outlaw artificial intelligence marriages. This might seem silly at first glance, but there are many legal implications behind this proposed law. Can AI own property? Can AI systems be used as a power of attorney? A new horizon for humanity approaches. Plus, a university recently placed a trigger warning on the Bible. But why? Josh Davis provides the details and biblical analysis on today's "Headlines from the End Times."

Greetings, fellow Watchman on the Wall, and welcome to another "Headlines from the End Times." On today's episode, I want to share with you a story coming out of Ohio, how one lawmaker has proposed a comprehensive ban on, get this, marrying artificial intelligence systems. That is right. I will bring you all the details about that story and another story where a university has placed a trigger warning on—guess which book it is—it is the Holy Bible.

That is right. This particular university has placed a trigger warning on the Bible. Why, and what are the details behind that? Well, we have the information for you on today's "Headlines from the End Times." Thank you so much for tuning in. Glad that we can spend this time together, dear fellow Watchman on the Wall. Let us start with Ohio. Greetings to our friends there in that wonderful state.

Well, you have a lawmaker who is taking aim at artificial intelligence in a way that few have expected. This is state representative Claggett, and he has introduced House Bill 469 that would make it illegal for AI systems to be treated like people. The proposal would officially label them as non-sentient entities, cutting off any path toward legal personhood, according to a Fox News report.

Now, non-sentient just simply means that they are not living beings. Sometimes we talk about AI thinking. Well, it is not really thinking; it is performing a lot of calculations through the software programs, but it is not necessarily thinking in the sense that a human would think. In other words, these AI systems are not living beings. That is really what the legislation is aimed at. And yes, it also includes a ban on marrying AI systems.

Claggett, a Republican from Licking County and chair of the House Technology and Innovation Committee, said the measure is meant to keep humans firmly in control of machines. Doesn't this sound like some kind of dystopian novel that we are reading? That we have got to create a law so that the machines don't take over the planet. It sounds like something that you would see in a movie or read in some kind of novel, but it is actually legitimate news coming with this new frontier that we are on the verge of exploring.

He says that as AI systems begin to act more like humans, the law has to draw a clear line between a person and a program. I believe that he is right, and I believe that we need to take these necessary steps and have these important conversations. I am glad there are states in the US who are starting to have these kinds of conversations. Now, it seems like the marriage ban is just a silly kind of waste of time.

But when you think about the legality of what marriage can do and what a spouse can do for the other when you are talking about things like bank accounts, etc., that we will get into, then you really begin to think how AI could be a part of these kinds of things. Now, what is this marriage ban all about? Under this proposed legislation, AI systems would not be able to own property. They would not be able to manage a bank account. They would not be able to serve as a company executive.

Can you imagine your boss being an AI chatbot? And that you have to report to the AI chatbot and it is this collection of bots that are making decisions for the company based off the mountains of data that they can crunch. According to this proposed law, the AI systems would not have the same legal rights and responsibilities as people. So, the bill also makes any marriage between a human and an AI or between two AI systems legally impossible.

Representative Claggett believes the concern is not about robot weddings happening anytime soon. No, that is not why he is proposing this legislation. Instead, he wants to prevent AI from taking on the legal powers of a spouse, like holding the power of attorney, making financial decisions, or can you imagine an AI bot making medical decisions for someone else? It is time to pull the plug; he told me he wanted to die. I am trying to add a little bit of humor into this, but this is a serious story.

The bill also specifies that if an AI causes harm, it is the human owners or developers who would be held responsible. That means a person can't blame their chatbot or automated system for mistakes or damage. Responsibility stays with the humans who built, trained, or used the AI system. Why is Ohio taking action on AI personhood? The timing of the bill is not just random. AI is spreading fast across nearly every industry.

I have told you about that. Pastor Larry Spargimino and I had a special report on AI on a recent "Headlines from the End Times" episode talking all about these kinds of things and this industrial revolution that we are on the verge of. As I have shared with you before, there are major leading corporation CEOs and presidents who are saying we are going to see the biggest thing since the internet. And one said we're going to see the biggest thing since electricity.

This is how revolutionary they see these kinds of AI systems becoming for work, for our daily lives, for the way that the world moves and the way that the world works. That is the kind of revolution that we are on the verge of, and so now states are recognizing that and they're beginning to have these conversations before we enter into this new frontier. Ohio has even started requiring schools to create rules for AI use in the classroom.

And there are major data centers that are being built to power AI infrastructure in the state of Ohio, and so they are trying to come up with some legislation regarding those things. These AI data centers will take massive, massive amounts of power and water. And so we have to stop and ask, where is this energy coming from? It is weird. It is ironic because you have people screaming for all these climate change kinds of things, and at the same time, they're building these massive AI plants that need a ton of energy to continue operations and to continue to crunch the data.

By the way, I have got a special on next Friday's "Headlines from the End Times" all about climate change, so we'll get into that next time, Lord willing. Going back to this story, at the same time, AI is becoming more personal. There was a survey by a Florida-based marketing firm that found 22% of users said they had formed an emotional connection with an AI chatbot. 3% of people who were surveyed considered their chatbot a romantic partner.

Can you imagine that? Another 16% said they wondered whether the AI they were talking to was sentient. It felt like having such a real conversation that I have got to be talking to another human being. That is how real this seemed to them. 3% of these chatbot users say that they had an emotional connection—excuse me, a romantic connection—with their chatbot. That kind of emotional attachment raises a whole lot of red flags, and these lawmakers are taking action.

If people start believing AI has feelings, that AI has its own individual intentions, it blurs the boundaries between the human and the machine, between human experience and digital simulation. And that is all that it is, frankly, at the end of the day. It is a digital simulation of a real relationship. Many of the people in the world want a relationship on their terms. This is the danger of AI relationships.

Again, this is opening another huge can of worms because the relationship is such a selfish relationship for the user. They are the ones in charge. They get to decide how the relationship works. It is not two people learning and growing together. It is a selfish individual who wants their needs met. I am sorry, I know I am being rough on people about these things, but we have to come face to face with reality. You don't have a legitimate relationship. It is a digital simulation that is self-centered and self-serving.

We need to keep that in mind. These are not real relationships. But let us get back to the bigger picture here. We need to keep humans in control. Representative Claggett said the bill is about protecting human agency. He believes that AI is going to grow smarter and more capable, and as it does, it must never replace human decision-making. Claggett has gone on to say, "We see AI as having tremendous potential as a tool, but also tremendous potential to cause harm."

He goes on to explain some of those things and says that we need to get ahead of this to establish some guardrails, some legal framework, before these developments outpace regulation and bad actors start to exploit the legal loopholes. They want the human beings to be held accountable for any kind of misconduct when it comes to the status of AI, no matter how sophisticated these machines may become for the state of Ohio.

This is spreading to other states, as I will mention momentarily. The proposed law would also reinforce that AI cannot make choices that affect human lives without oversight. Now, if this law is passed, it would ensure that no machine can act independently in matters of marriage, property, or corporate leadership. Some of the supporters of this bill see it as a safeguard for society, saying that technology should never gain the same legal footing as people.

Now, there are some critics to this bill who say this proposal might be a solution to a problem that doesn't even exist yet. And they warn that overly broad restrictions could slow down AI research and innovation in Ohio. But the skeptics do admit that this conversation is necessary because AI is changing so rapidly. It is evolving faster than most laws can keep up with, and questions like rights and ownership and accountability are becoming harder to ignore.

So what are some of these other states doing about these kinds of things? The state of Utah is doing some similar kinds of things, having these conversations. So is the state of Missouri. In fact, they have a House Bill 1462 called the AI Non-Sentience and Responsibility Act that would formally declare AI systems as non-sentient and prevent them from acquiring legal status, marriage rights, corporate roles, or property ownership. Very similar to what the state of Ohio is doing. Idaho is also doing something similar as well.

In the end, this debate is not limited to one state, the report continues. It raises an important question about how society should balance the power of innovation with the need to protect human control. Friends, we see the prophetic connection here with this story, and we understand how that someone like the Antichrist could use AI systems to assert his authority, to assert his control, to bring in a one-world government, a one-world economy especially, and it could be incorporated into a one-world system of worship.

We see the stage being set for the biblical end-times scenario as we are opening up what I would consider to be Pandora's box. Now, friends, don't forget that "Headlines from the End Times" is a weekly feature of every single Prophecy in the News television episode and every single issue of the Prophecy in the News magazine. If you would like to subscribe to the Prophecy in the News magazine, you can do so by giving us a call at 1-800-652-1144. That is 1-800-652-1144, or visit prophecyinthenews.tv. Again, that is prophecyinthenews.tv.

Don't forget you can catch every single episode of Watchman on the Wall, every single weekly episode of Prophecy in the News TV, on the free SWRC mobile app. Just go to the App Store on your mobile device and type in these four letters. That is all you have to do: SWRC. And once you download the mobile app, check back every single day for brand-new content from SWRC. The weekly Prophecy in the News television show episodes are uploaded there every single Sunday.

And then Monday through Friday, you have Watchman on the Wall episodes, brand-new right there. Lots of other content coming for the SWRC mobile app. Download it today, dear friends. If you are a new listener, we say welcome! You are a friend of SWRC. Give us a call and ask for your free welcome packet. Give us a call. Our number is 1-800-652-1144. You'll start receiving our monthly Prophetic Observer newsletter along with some other crucial information from our ministry.

And don't forget our featured resources of this week. Our 2026 calendar is available now. It's called "Beyond the Veil," designed by our Marginal Mysteries director Micah Van Huss. This calendar is available right now. For every calendar you purchase, you enable us to send two calendars free of charge to inmates across America. We have received thousands of requests for calendars from inmates, and we are waiting to send those out.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support in this gospel outreach. I call it a gospel outreach because on the very first page of the calendar, when you open it up, there's a clear, concise presentation of the gospel. You know, we have had inmates write this ministry and say, "I opened that up. I read those verses. And the Lord spoke to my heart, and I received Jesus Christ." That is what it is all about, dear friends. That is why we do our annual calendar, to get out the gospel, to get out discipleship materials.

Thank you so much for helping us with this. By the way, I am currently leading an Israel tour. And I have been teasing this in previous weeks and previous episodes, but the information's here. It is live, it is available. We are going to do it again next year. That is right. November 8th through the 18th, 2026, we have an Israel tour coming up. I look forward to returning to Israel, and I want you to join me on this wonderful trip.

You can find out more information on the events page at swrc.com. Registration is now open for this trip. We look forward to doing it, November 8th through the 18th, 2026, and we want you to join us on this Israel tour. It is a trip of a lifetime, an amazing, an amazing opportunity. We would love for you to join us. Now, let us get to this other story that I mentioned at the very beginning, and it comes out of the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

They are facing backlash after the school has warned students that studying events in Scripture, including the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, can be triggering, and so the study of them should be avoided by some students. The university has placed a trigger warning on the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—claiming, without any kind of explanation behind their claim, that the events leading up to the death of Christ depict graphic bodily injury and sexual violence.

That is what they say: sexual violence. What? The same label was also placed on the Book of Genesis for the account of Cain and Abel. The Daily Mail, which received details of this advisory under the Freedom of Information Act, called the guidance to students bizarre and highlighted the voices speaking out against the university's action. This according to a Harbingers Daily report. We appreciate our friends over there at that wonderful ministry as well.

Christians and historians last night said the warnings were misguided, absurd, and incompatible with discussions about morality, The Daily Mail stated, noting that experts were, quote, "at a complete loss to explain the inclusion of sexual violence in the warnings," end quote. Andrea Williams—she is the chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre there in the UK—pointedly called out the university for its gross mischaracterization of Scripture and steps to discourage the study of God's Word.

She said, quote, "Applying trigger warnings to salvation narratives that have shaped our civilization is not only misguided but absurd." She went on to say, singling out the Bible in this way is discriminatory and deeply ill-informed. To suggest that the crucifixion story involves sexual violence is not just inaccurate, it is a profound misreading of the text. The account of Jesus' death is not a tale of trauma; it is the ultimate expression of love, sacrifice, and redemption central to the Christian faith, end quote.

The university has defended its actions, calling the warning a standard academic tool and insisting it is simply preparing students who might find such graphic details difficult. Though many academic institutions have God-honoring roots, we understand that the universities have come under intense scrutiny for vigorously pushing students toward an anti-biblical worldview. And that is something that I have told you about right here on Watchman on the Wall and "Headlines from the End Times."

We had a recent story about Harvard University and the kinds of things that they are doing right now. From what great spiritual heights they have fallen. And we see these universities, many of them in our Ivy League here in the United States of America, were originally founded to teach and to train pastors, to raise up a next generation of faithful ministers of God's Word. And today...