“I wasn’t always a Christian,” John Roy admits. “The Lord had to bring me to rock bottom first.”

John, the CEO of Dawson Knives, keeps faith at the center of everything he does, especially his knife- and sword-making business. “We don’t just make knives,” he tells me. “We make tools you can trust. We make tools that last. But more than that, we make them for the glory of God.”

‘The sword is not for us. It’s God’s truth.’

Growing up, John dismissed God as hokey, a childish dream. “I think we all know college does a great job of making atheists. I was all about science, doing what I wanted. For me, church felt pointless.”

He believed only in the tangible, things he could touch, things he could see.

“I left school — thought I could do my own thing. But when you end up homeless, living out of your car, you realize the things we think bring happiness often leave you empty. When you’re walking a path that isn’t right, you lose everything.”

So John decided to give God a chance. “What do I have to lose? Let’s see if He shows up.”

Shortly after that, he met his wife. They married two years later.

His first job was selling women’s shoes at Dillard’s. “I never wanted to know that much about women’s shoes,” he says, smiling. “But it was like the prodigal son coming back. I got into the family knife-making business and started over.”

American samurai

His mother, a legal immigrant from Guadalajara, often told a young John, “Love this country. There’s no place like it on earth. There’s nowhere else to go. This is it. This is the only place of hope.”

During our conversation on Friday, December 13, just weeks before Christmas, John was in high spirits, energized by the holiday rush as he fulfilled orders. “And I’m pretty happy Trump won the election,” he added with a smile. “That’s a little gift we get to unwrap this year.”

I reply that the election results have calmed everyone down.

“Exactly,” he replied, “I’ve noticed it with our customers and people I talk to in my circles. Everyone feels more relaxed. The biggest thing is hope — knowing that things can get better and that there’s still a path for this nation to be great again, like Trump always says.”

The Dawson brand has long embodied the principles of making America great, even before MAGA became a national slogan.

Founded in 1973 by John’s uncle, Barry Dawson, a Navy veteran returning from Vietnam, Dawson Knives had humble beginnings in a Texas storage unit. With limited resources, Barry constructed his first grinder using wheels from a shopping cart.

Today, Dawson Knives operates near Prescott, Arizona, focused on small-batch production. The company blends traditional hand-grinding techniques with modern machining. Each knife undergoes meticulous crafting, heat treatment, and quality inspection.

“We don’t make factory knives,” John says. “Even the knives coming off the CNC machines get hand-finished. We’re picky about quality.” John sent me two knives, the Contractor and the Smuggler, and they are stunning masterpieces of steel; the finest knives I own.

Dawson Knives

While many companies have outsourced production overseas, Dawson Knives is fully American. John is passionate about this revitalization. In an email from October, he emphasized the significance of local supply chains and robust communities to counteract a market saturated with “Made in China” labels.

“Every blade, every handle — it’s all American-made,” John affirmed. “We source all our materials here. We believe in keeping our dollars in America.”

The sword of the Spirit

Each Dawson knife or sword comes in a box inscribed with Matthew 10:34, where Jesus warns his disciples, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Peter draws a literal sword and strikes an enemy soldier, Jesus’ response is decisive: “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). Then He heals His Roman captor’s wound, embodying the higher command to “overcome evil with good.”

This moment underscores the paradox of the knife and the sword.

“The sword is not for us. It’s God’s truth,” John tells me. “His word, cutting through darkness, bringing light. And in the end, it’s beautiful.”

Christ revists the duality of the sword later, in Revelation, when he demands “Repent! Or else I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”

At Dawson Knives, this biblical symbolism is coded into the company’s craftsmanship. John interprets Matthew 10:34 as foundational to this mission, stating, “A sword can set captives free — it cuts chains. But it can also wound those who refuse to change. The truth divides.”

We’re going on an elk hunt

John and his brother were thrilled to win the hunting permit lottery, granting them a rare opportunity to hunt elk in the wilderness near Happy Jack, Arizona. The bull elk is one of the most limited tags available to hunters in the state. “We had been trying for a few years now to get drawn,” John wrote in an email, “so it was a real miracle to get drawn together at last.”

Also with them were John’s sons and his brother-in-law Dennis Cook, a knife designer at Dawson.

They left right after Thanksgiving, an especially hectic period for John, but he couldn’t pass up the limited elk hunting season.

They had six days to bag an elk.

Their anticipation grew as they embarked on the hunt, but each day ended without success. On the final day, with no elk in sight, John prayed, “Lord, if it’s Your will, send me a bull elk.” They continued their pursuit around Potato Lake, fatigue setting in as evening approached.

Suddenly, John spotted a massive bull elk to his right, standing still and staring directly at him. But when the moment arrived, John hesitated. Within five seconds, the elk vanished.

Reflecting on the experience, John admits, “I wasn’t ready to receive the blessing. God answered my prayer, but I froze. I missed my shot.”

That evening, as the sun fell behind the Arizona pines, John prayed again: “Lord, if it’s Your will, give us one more chance.” His brother hiked ahead, planted, and dropped prone, lining up for another shot.

“Bang. Perfect,” John tells me. “If he’d waited just three more minutes, we wouldn’t have had a chance. But this time, he was ready.”

For John, the hunt was a lesson in faith and preparedness. “When the blessing comes, you have to be ready to receive it. Don’t hesitate.”

He compares it to fatherhood and God’s guidance. “As a parent, sometimes you have to let your kids figure things out. It’s hard not to step in and fix it, but they have to learn.”

He adds: “God does the same with us. He gives us opportunities, and if we’re not ready, we miss them. But if we ask Him, He’s faithful — He’ll give us another chance. And next time, we’ll be ready.”

Christ at the center

Dawson Knives is a family business in every sense. Barry Dawson still comes into the shop to mentor. John’s sons, ages 13 to 17, help after school. John’s wife handles marketing, his sister-in-law runs social media, and everyone pitches in where they’re needed.

“We’re a family,” John said. “And to keep it together, Christ has to be at the center. Without Him, selfishness creeps in. With Him, there’s forgiveness and understanding.”

Just as we’re about to end the interview, John glows with a kind of urgency: “Kevin, I’ve got to tell you, this has been amazing. I’ve had such a wonderful time. You guys are incredible, and I’ve always loved TheBlaze.”

He tells me that he has a special connection to Blaze News: his dad. He was a Democrat who turned Republican, and Glenn Beck played a huge part in that. He listened to Glenn a lot.

In 2020, he told John, “Son, get a membership. You need to do this. Don’t just take my word for things — be informed. You never know, I might not always be here.”

So John started listening.

A month later, his dad got COVID. By August, he passed.

John pauses. “I’ll always be grateful for that advice. It was one of the last things he told me, and it’s part of his legacy to me.”

Then, it’s as if he’s replaying his father’s life: “It’s funny — when I was younger, I thought my dad was an idiot. As I got older, I realized he was a really smart man. And I respect him so much now for the path he put me on. God took something painful and turned it into a blessing.”

“Life is so beautiful and intricate,” I reply, “and to deny that God’s hand is guiding all of this would be irresponsible.”

He nods, his voice steady. “God is like the conductor of this beautiful symphony of life. Nothing is lost that isn’t gained. My dad’s passing brought me here. It brought me to this conversation. That’s God’s work. You never know where He’s leading, but you learn to trust the music.”

Throughout history, Christians have adopted novel technologies to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ: codices (a precursor to the book), art and music, the printing press, newspapers, the radio, TV and film, and the internet.

Now, that list includes Joe Rogan’s podcast, one of the biggest megaphones today that reaches tens of millions of listeners each month across its platforms.

Joe Rogan’s podcast became an inadvertent evangelistic platform for the best news the world has ever known.

On Tuesday, Rogan released an interview with Wesley Huff, a Canadian biblical scholar. Rogan invited Huff onto the podcast after Huff inadvertently exposed Billy Carson — a self-avowed “expert in ancient civilizations” and “spirituality,” according to a blurb on his website — in a recent debate. Huff, using the winsomeness and grace of a mature Christ follower, proved in the debate that Carson lacks basic knowledge about the Bible and its theology, topics that Carson appeared to have positioned himself as having advanced knowledge of.

For more than three hours, Huff and Rogan discussed ancient Near Eastern history, biblical languages and translation, textual criticism of the Bible, the canon of the Bible, the accuracy and preservation of the Bible, specific biblical stories, and Christian theology.

The magic of the conversation was clear to listeners.

Rogan, who is not a Christian, approached Huff with humility and openness. Huff, meanwhile, spoke with clarity, humility, and technical precision that made complicated topics accessible to Rogan and his audience.

But the most impactful moment came at the end.

After Rogan acknowledged that Christianity “does work” and “is true,” Huff seized the moment to articulate the power of the gospel.

Using Jordan Peterson as an example — saying that Peterson “misses the forest for the trees” — Huff explained why Jesus Christ cannot simply be the “archetype” of a righteous moral man.

“[Peterson] seems to think that the concept of Jesus as an example is more important than the actual flesh-and-blood, first-century itinerant Jewish preacher who was crucified and rose from the dead physically, which is the claim of the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament,” Huff said.

“I actually think Jesus condemns moralism, and ultimately, what I see Peterson doing is looking at Jesus as a moral example,” he explained. “If Jesus is nothing but a moral example, then you can save yourself, and you don’t actually need a savior. I think Jesus actually would have critiqued that because Jesus was very much against moralism.”

Thankfully, Rogan leaned into the conversation and asked Huff to elaborate.

The Gospel stories, Huff explained, show Jesus critiquing the “hypocritical religiosity” of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and other contemporary Jews because Jesus believed they were missing the entire point of God’s law while trying to do everything “right,” citing ancient Jewish interpretations of Sabbath regulations. Next, Huff demonstrated how Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a critique of such religiosity in which Jesus is not “critiquing the Mosaic Law, but he’s actually getting back to its intention.”

Huff goes on:

What he’s getting to is: What’s the intention? What’s the meaning of the law that God gives to you? Because the law is like a mirror — it shows you how dirty you are. But his critique is like: You guys are trying to clean yourselves with the mirror. That’s stupid. If anything, it’s going to make you more messy. Get in the shower! The law is not what clears you — it reveals that you’re dirty.

In that sense, if Jesus is just a moral example, it actually misses what I think Jesus actually said about what his purpose was: You can’t do enough to live up to the standard God holds you to. And so if you keep striving, you’re actually going to wear yourself out and be exhausted.

The clear implication of Huff’s explanation is that Jesus cleans you: He is the shower.

You cannot clean yourself. You cannot save yourself. You need a savior, and Jesus is the savior of all humanity. Follow him and he will make you right with God. He will give you relationship with the creator God — Abba, the Father — and he will give you eternal life.

Amazingly, Rogan not only understood this, but he immediately identified “atheists” as the worn-out strivers who attempt to clean themselves through their own power as if they are their own god.

Whether Rogan will accept the good news and answer the question that Jesus posed to his followers — “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13-16; Mark 8:27-29; Luke 9:18-20) — remains to be seen.

But the tides are turning. The vibes are shifting. Aslan is on the move.

Christians everywhere should rejoice that one of the world’s largest platforms was used to share the gospel. In other words, Joe Rogan’s podcast became an inadvertent evangelistic platform for the best news the world has ever known.

May the fruit be good and the harvest bountiful.

The hullabaloo surrounding “birthright citizenship” is certain to escalate as the Trump administration begins preparing to carry out mass deportations.

Mark Levin says that the notion of birthright citizenship — the idea that if you’re born in the United States, you’re a citizen — is a sham and always has been.

Many people believe that birthright citizenship is in our Constitution, but they are wrong. Democrats and the media claim it comes from the 14th Amendment specifically, but they’re lying.

“It’s not in the Constitution. … It’s not in any of the legislative history for the 14th Amendment. … It’s not in the 1866 Civil Rights Act,” Levin explains.

The 14th Amendment “was intended to ensure that black people were emancipated in every respect and citizens of the United States. It had nothing to do with immigration, legal or illegal,” he adds.

Further, Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution states that “Congress shall have power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization.”

“Congress has never passed a federal statute that confers birthright citizenship,” Levin explains. “So it’s not in the Constitution, it’s not in federal law, it’s not in the legislative history, and yet it is being used.”

Why?

Because Democrats see birthright citizenship as a means to an end.

“Birthright citizenship is the argument, is the position, is the policy the Democrat Party holds onto because they want monopoly power for all time, and they don’t care if it’s foreigners or not,” says Levin.

To learn more, watch the clip above.

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