This is the Truth Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one floor. Introduce the purse. Lithuania, he weighs 100 and What do you think? The Russian Nightmare.
Nakita! Welcome to another episode, QA with Cole Off, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back, QA with Koloff, Questions and Answers, where you get a personal phone call from the Russian Nightmare, unless you're sitting in studio like my guest with me today. And I have with me none other than the legend himself, Dr. Dwayne Carson.
Welcome back to QA with Koloff. Oh, what a joy to be with you. Thank you for this invitation.
Well, great to have you here, and especially in studio. That's always so much fun. Every interview is fun, but you know, be able to look at somebody face-to-face. Yeah, just engage with them is much more fun. But you're no stranger to both QA with Koloff and It's Time to Man Up.
In fact, I'm going to prompt you to go over to, once that show airs, go over to It's Time to Man Up and hear Dr. Carson's full or more of his story. You're going to be blown away by what this man is. Doing, but today, let's center on you. You're here in the Winston-Salem area where the Truth Radio Network is located.
But you hadn't always been from Winston. We've delved into your early days in Lynchburg and your days in Dallas, Texas, and Liberty University in Lynchburg, eventually Ohio, Columbus, Ohio. In the backyard of the Ohio State Buckeyes. But then the Lord led you down here to Winston to do what? Let's talk for a minute about that.
I uh Pastoring in Columbus, working with older people, where I'd always spent time working with college-age students, I bumped into one of my college students. Uh and wrestling in Dallas. And he said, Dwayne, how's it going? And I was transparent with him because this guy, he had been one of my student leaders, and I just said. I miss working.
with college students. And I saw something in his eye, a little twinkle. Three days later he calls me and said, hey, I don't have a college ministry. But I do have a school ministry. And Salem Baptist Christian School here in Winston-Salem, it's the second oldest Christian school in North Carolina.
Wow. And we need to hit a school in which you pray, would you take five days and pray, don't do anything but pray, would God want you to even seek this? And I love the fact that he wanted me to do that.
So Denita and I, my wife, we prayed for five days, and he called back and says, Okay, what's God telling you? Get an answer. And I said, well, The answer is find out more information. And he said, okay.
So then that started the interview process. And we came down here and interviewed, met some wonderful people and just really felt like God was leading for us to come here. I was ending my treatments for cancer. I had prostate cancer and I was at Ohio State Medical. But now that's ending.
And so I can come here. I still had some of the. Effects, but they were willing to work with me. And instead of having to work 15 hours, they told me work 12 hours. But I came to the school and I found some of the most wonderful, first off, teachers who just wanted to pour God into students, not just learning the academics, but truly learning about who God is.
And that was exciting. And then meeting the parents and them ultimately getting to know these students. And so we went to work on just trying to, how do we build the school up, make it more known? There were been a few struggles where they kind of leveled off. And so by being under Jerry Falwell at Liberty on big dreams, I would say, well, let's grow by 100 and scale the daylights out of everybody.
Well, we start coming up with, all right, how do we get some new buildings? How to get new teachers. And then the enrollment. You know, letting other families know about it. And we saw the school go from mid-300s to around 500 before I left, and it's in great hands right now.
They just had the open house, and I think they got well over 500 students now attending there. But Christian education for me. was college-centered. I really didn't think that much about the the secondary. Uh sometimes it seems like there was competition.
If a church had a had a Christian school, they quit reaching out to the public school.
Well, I was a little leery even coming here. But I realized once I got here We have a desperate need now for Christian schools, even at that secondary level, because. In some, I will not say all, but in some of our public schools, they've literally become anti-Christian. And if you don't want to go with a woke agenda, and that's why I found that people wanted to come to our school, was because their kids were being told you're in trouble for not. going along with stuff.
Right, yeah, if you buck the system and just show roll with the flow, then you've given the scarlet letter, right?
Well, and it's not even just the secondary, I mean, everywhere from elementary up, right? But all that, including, you know, even some of those Ivy League schools that were founded on Christianity, Christian principles. Bible, you know, teaching people to be pastors and all that, right?
So how long were you headmaster there at school? Four years. And that changed because as we were doing the work there, I'd heard this idea from Stu Epperson. Why don't you take your idea about a verse for every date and call it date the word? And so now I'm creating a ministry.
He's got me on the radio. He's got me coming up with a website. I'm meeting with people on what we can do with date the word and I'm getting more out. But I like that vision. And of course, over on the Man Up show, we go into more detail on date the word.
But that said, going back just for a moment, you talk about being around young people.
So I'm just seeing where, because you were campus pastor at Liberty University for 2025 years, working with all kinds of students there. Then you go up and pastor a church where, like you said, an older crowd, more seasoned crowd, and then just felt that itch to get back with the younger crowd. And now with date the word, think about the days. Think back if maybe if you're married, those dating days, you know, prior to your marriage, or if you're single, maybe you're even right now just dating somebody. And the whole dating idea is to get to know somebody, right?
And then God gives you this vision along with, prompted by Stu Epperson, founder, our beloved founder. founder of Truth Radio Network. Gave you the or challenge, maybe, but or the idea of taking the word and challenging people to date the word. In other words, get to know the word, right? And so from that came, we do a one-minute spot on Truth Network stations where we give the verse for the day and then the verse for the date, and then we give a little Commentary on it.
It's one minute, so you may be hearing it on the Truth Network. That comes from me, date the word, and then I start doing devotions and got people to start signing up. And you're one of my subscribers. I am. I love it.
Now, I'm a baby boomer, so I get the email for the Gen Zs or the. Younger crowd out there, you can get an app, right? Get the app. There's data. Go to their app store.
Go to the app store, download it, and write the very first thing you want to see. The first tile is verse for today. But they need to put date the word. Yeah, date the word. W-O-R-D.
For some reason, when people see it, they'll say world. And I go, no, we don't want you dating the world. We're trying to get the word in so you can get the world out. Yeah, we want to get the world out of you, get the word in you, right?
So, and it's pretty outstanding. And it's not just, I mean, it is a scripture for each of the days. Like today was August 1st. 13th, I'll just date our show, but bought on August 13th. You had Proverbs 8:13.
And a little devotional that came with that.
Now, on the app, there's a whole, like on my email, there's like a little devotional that comes with that. But on the app, there's a whole lot more they have access to, correct? On the app, you can also go to another tile where you can see any. date and the verses that go with that date.
So you might first off, I always tell people, check out when your birthday is and see what your birthday verses are. And then have that as one of your tools. To how do I get God's word into someone else's life?
Well, when's their birthday? And they tell you their birthday and you share it with them. Pastors, they always want to send a birthday card to one of their members.
Okay, well, put a birthday verse that matches the date. It's going to get their attention. And the whole idea behind it, hopefully, is it makes it more memorable. I know my birthday verse 1223 is 1 Samuel 12, 23. And Samuel said, God forbid that I should cease to pray for you.
Mm. and to teach you the right way.
So that verse for their birthday can become very personal to them, maybe even become a life scripture, right, for them. Absolutely. And I had no idea when I looked at my birthday verse, 1 Samuel 12, 23, that's what I did at Liberty. I'm praying for students, directing them to learn how to pray, but also discipling them. I go, this is my life verse.
That's amazing. And people can find out more. Of course, you have a website, www.date the word.com, right? Yes. And they go and they can sign up there or just get more information right there.
Sign up on the app as well. Yeah. If you want that email, or again, the app, you just click it on, and there it is every day. But the email. For me, And I'm going to take Stu Upperson on this one.
He says, What I love about it is, I know I will have that devotion when I wake up. It's in my inbox. Yep. And I can say amen to that because I look forward to it. Part of what I do, I do 20 minutes of cardio every day.
So it's actually one of my devotionals while I'm riding the stationary bike. I'm dating the word while I'm riding the stationary bike, Doc. Spiritual exercise, physical exercise. And mental, and mental exercise as well. All the components.
But, well, what a great vision. God bless you, man, for that vision. I want to encourage you to go check it out, date the word.com. And I really want to challenge you to either download the app or sign up for the email. And let's help him.
Do you have a target like you want a million or any kind of goals you got there? At least a million. A million people. And worldwide, thank you. Worldwide.
And you got a book coming out later this year. It's going to be called The Date the Word Daily Devotional.
Okay.
So for 365 days, you'll open it up, and every day what you said with the email, there it is. And it'll have a place where you can write some thoughts. I learned on my date with God. Come on. Come on.
Things I've learned on my date with God.
So the thing with the book that we like is that it does, it gives you that ability to take notes and underline things. And write down your thoughts. Because when I'm dating. If I'm doing due diligence when I was single, really a date is supposed to be disclosing things. Right now, what am I learning about the person?
What am I learning that I like? And what are the things I'm learning that I love? Right. And maybe what am I learning that I don't like?
Well, as I'm dating God's Word, He's going to be pointing out things to us. And He's going to be saying, Hey, I really love how you are becoming generous. That's good. You're also seeing, you know, your language. It's not where it should be.
Or you're selfish. Yes. Lots of different things.
So dating should, as we date, getting to know the word, it should be highlighting for us things that need to change. improve areas of our life that need improvement. You're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here, and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?
Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Koloff Fans, and like it. And follow today. Mm-hmm. If you are a business owner and would like to advertise your company or product on the Man Up Show and/or QA with Koloff.
Contact me directly, Nakita Koloff at Koloff.net. The Man Up Show is honored to have Dr. Johnny Gayton as one of our longest-running supportive sponsors. Dr. Gayton is regarded as one of the world's leading elite eye surgeons.
He is motivated by his faith in doing all things heartily as unto the Lord. His desire to do his best has contributed to success in his eye care practice, performing over 70,000 eye surgeries. In addition, he's a world-renowned speaker, writer, and author. Go to iAssociates.com for more information.
Well, we are in this QA with Kolov, so I do want to give you the opportunity to ask me a question or two.
So let's roll in that direction. What do you got for me?
Well, you know, I. Am a little bit younger than you, not too much, but I remember watching you in the ring and just kind of wondered, you know, who was the toughest opponent? You just, okay, I see I'm going to be wrestling them this Friday night. Oh, I'm not looking forward to this one.
So, not necessarily tough in the way, like physically, because obviously I was in the ring with. Guys like the Road Warriors. I mean, Animal, 300 pounds, 23-inch arms. I mean, legit, legit 23-inch arms, you know, strong as an ox, bench 500 pounds, right? Road Warrior Hawk, you know, not as beefed up, but every bit as strong and a little bit taller than Animal, right?
So there's that kind of strength, right? And knowing it's going to be a physical match against a little guy. You couldn't go in the ring, wrestle those guys, and it not be physical. You knew it was going to be physical. There was a guy by the name of the Barbarian.
I remember him. Who is an islander.
So he's from the island of Tonga, actually. And, oh my gosh, you want to just talk about raw strength? Then you got the barbarian. I mean, just raw, raw, raw strength. But then you had another guy, legit, about 450 pounds named Vader or Van Vader, or just for short, Van Vader.
Vader. Who was actually my last official match in November of 92? Who didn't know his own strength? And I actually got injured in that match. We're fighting out on the floor.
I'm down on the floor doing what we call selling. And he takes it, he charges me and clotheslines me in the back of my head. And my left arm goes, goes, it pinched the nerve, and my left arm goes numb. For about three or four minutes, and with no use of it. The feeling would eventually come back, and I would finish the match, and the whole thing, your male ego kicks in, I went about to throw him the towel.
So you fought him with one arm for a few minutes, and then eventually we finished the match. All that said, it wasn't career ending, but he had a history of being reckless. We use the word reckless. And that night would prove that point, that he was a bit reckless and not knowing his own strength.
Now, to his credit, I will finish by saying this. Years later, I was doing an autograph signing at a WrestleMania in Miami. And he was specifically sought me out. Came to me.
Now it'd been years at this point. But he said, hey, I just uh I've never. said this to you, but I I do want to ask for your forgiveness. And want you to know it was that night was not intentional. I was not intentionally trying to hurt you.
But I do want to ask for your forgiveness.
Now, he didn't have to do that. But it was very no, I thought, very noble of him, and just a real show of character. You know, to seek me out and to ask for my forgiveness, which I did. You know, I like Leon was his real name. I said, Leon, I didn't take it personal.
Things happen in the business, guys get hurt. And although I do appreciate you asking for forgiveness. Certainly, totally forgive you, but thank you. Thank you for. You know, for offering that, you know.
So, yeah, kind of a cool ending to the story, right?
So, yeah, so, um, At the time of this taping, we are remembering Hulk Hogan. Yeah. And you've probably been asked a hundred times already, maybe a thousand, but Many Kind of both way memories from the wrestling world, but also this personal world that, um, where he turned his life over to the Lord. He did, right at right towards the very end. Essentially.
You know, I'm reminded of all not necessarily the thief on the cross, although. You know, the thief on the cross didn't have much time left. Right. And he knew that. In Hogan's case, I'm more reminded of the parable of the vineyard owner who hires the people at 9 o'clock, and then again, like noon and 3 and like 5 in the afternoon or something.
Then he pays the people at 5 first, right? And then so the people at 9 a.m. think they're going to get some gigantic payday.
Well, we know from the story, you know, they were not necessarily happy with their pay, but he said, Hey, I gave you, I mean, I gave you what we agreed upon, right?
So why are you upset that I gave this person at five? Really, and the point of that story, that illustration for me is, you know, Hogan, in the latter couple of years, the latter, very latter part of his life, he's kind of like that worker hired at five o'clock, right? And so one might think, well, man, he didn't serve God all them years, but yeah, at the end, he made a genuine decision to receive Christ. And and was on fire. How I know he was on fire is my buddy Lex Luger.
You know, he's got his mug behind me on the banner here in the studio, right? It was an invite only to the funeral, and Lux got an invite, and he went. And he heard Hogan's pastor share how Hogan was there. every single Sunday. brought people with him every brought guests with him every week.
I guess people come to his beach shop. And he divided church. And they say yes. I mean, who's going to tell Hulk Hogan no, right? I get to go to church with Hulk Hogan.
Yeah, absolutely. And then the pastor said, and I was discipling and mentoring, Terry was his real name, and said, I was discipling and mentoring Terry that last year of his life. Like every week. Like we meet together every week and we talk about scripture. We talk about the word.
In a sense, good doctor, they were dating the word that last year. And he was memorizing scripture and really getting to know the word and really getting to know Jesus.
So I say all that to say. You know, for perhaps maybe the skeptic out there is like, oh, I don't know. Hogan was really, you know, gave his life to Jesus or really saved or whatever. But based on what Lex shared with me, it was 100% genuine.
Now, I didn't know Hogan. I never wrestled him in the ring. He was always in the competing organization when I was there. He came into WCW after I had retired. But I knew him.
I mean, you know, we knew had a mutual respect and knew each other, who each other was. And so I just knew him on a very. On that level.
So it wasn't some deep, long-time friendship that I had with Hogan. But I'll conclude to say all that by saying. There's no question he was an icon in wrestling. There was no question he had worldwide notoriety. had a huge platform.
And so for him in the last you know how year or two or however long that was, not not much it kind of reminds me of Road Warrior Hawk. Road Warrior Hawk, I was there the night he gave his life to Christ in Phoenix, Arizona. I had him on the road with me a number of times as I mentored and discipled him. and he passed a year and a half. Later, after giving his life to Christ.
And so, kind of similar with Hogan. But, you know, he made an impact certainly in the wrestling world and the entertainment world. And hopefully, his story of surrendering his life to Christ now will carry on and make an impact for people happening right now. Yeah, for people who maybe aren't wrestling fans. I'm bringing him up now.
We wouldn't have brought him up if he hadn't gotten saved. And now we're letting other people know: hey, you still have time.
Well, they do, but on that note, let me conclude this answer to this question by saying you have time, but every time now, whether it's Hogan or Ozzy Osborne or whoever else passes away, there's no promise of tomorrow.
So you may think you have time, but I want to encourage you: if you don't know Jesus, like if you hadn't surrendered, by know, I mean surrendered your heart to him, like opened up your heart and gave your life to him, like Hogan did, like I did, 17 October 1993, like Dr. Carson did many years ago. Today's the day of your salvation. And don't waste another moment because you don't know. You know, people did not anticipate the death of Hulk Hogan.
That's right.
Well, you never know when it's your time, when it's your day.
So make that decision. Be prepared to meet the Lord. Yep, make that decision. I worked for doctor Jerry Falwell, and he got saved at eighteen. But interestingly, he said many times I sure wished I would have gotten saved earlier.
because I wasted so many years. And I'm thinking, look what you've done. But he even thought, boy, if I could have gotten saved earlier.
So the best time to get saved is. Five years ago, but right now is the time. Don't put it off another man. Yeah, now's the next best time.
Now's the next best time.
So, whether it's five years, 10 years, 15 years ago, now's the time.
Now's the day.
So, Dr. Carson, thank you for being on QA with Koloff and coming to the studio with me today. What a joy to be with you, to hear your testimony, and how you're being used of the Lord to call men to be men of God. I love it.
To man up. It's time to man up. Go over to the man up show, listen to his full story, and don't forget www.date the word.com. Go check out the website, download the app. You'll be glad you did.
Until next time, go out today and just have a Godfield and live a God-blessed day. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God. and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to colof.net and donate.
Could it? Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the Man Up Show now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to MorningstarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings, or better yet.
Download the Truth Network app. Yeah. If you are enjoying Q ⁇ A with Kolov, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Are you looking for the perfect gift for your pastor?
Well, look no further. Bless him with a trip to the Holy Land with yours truly, Nakita Kolov, the Russian Nightmare. I'll be hosting this once-in-a-lifetime trip, December 27, 2023 to January 5th, 2024. Your pastor will never be the same. Go to koloff.net to get registered today.
Nikita Koloff here. If you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here pay here, that's worse than taking the Russian sickle. Winston-Salem motor cars will put you behind the wheel of a car you can rely on while helping rebuild, repair, or establish your credit score. Conveniently located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem, be sure to check them out today at WSMCTheNumberone.com because you are number one. This is the Truth Network.
Yeah.
