F. David Farnell (born 1958) is an American

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

scholar, Christian minister, and is the new pastor of theological training at Redeemer Bible Church in Phoenix, Arizona. He was formerly professor of

studies at

The Master's Seminary The Master's Seminary (TMS) is the graduate seminary division of The Master's University and Seminary and is located on the campus of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. It is accredited by the WASC Senior College and Universit ...

. He promotes a conservative approach to New Testament studies. Farnell's works include the book ''The Jesus Crisis: The Inroads of historical Criticism into Evangelical Scholarship'' and ''The Jesus Quest: The Danger from Within''. His writings on

biblical inerrancy Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible, in its original form, is entirely free from error. The belief in biblical inerrancy is of particular significance within parts of evangelicalism Evangelicalism (), also called evangelic ...

have been endorsed by

John F. MacArthur John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. (born June 19, 1939) is an American pastor and author who hosts the national Christian radio and television program ''Grace to You''. He has been the pastor of Grace Community Church, a non-denominational church in ...

Albert Mohler Richard Albert Mohler Jr. (born October 19, 1959) is an American evangelical theologian, the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and host of the podcast ''The Briefing'', where he gives a daily ...

, and

Paige Patterson L. Paige Patterson (born October 19, 1942) is a Baptist former administrator from the United States. He served as president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, from 1992 to 2003, as president of the Souther ...

. He is also the pastor of Grace Bible Church in

Oxnard, California Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California, United States. On California's Central Coast (California), Central Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the List of largest California cities by populati ...

. He is a contributor and editor for the blog ''Defending Inerrancy'', as well as ''"Historical" Jesus Search Report'', where he writes on his views of the inerrancy and infallibility of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. He is also the host of ''The Danger Zone'' on World View Weekend Radio Network. During the 2014 National Apologetics Conference, Farnell addressed the current state in New Testament scholarship. In his lecture, ''The Battle for the Bible: Responding to the New Attacks on Scripture'', he criticized the New Testament scholars

Robert H. Gundry Robert Horton Gundry (born 1932) is an American scholar and retired professor of New Testament studies and Koine Greek. Life Gundry was born in 1932 to Norman C. and Lolita (née Hinshaw) Gundry. He is the older brother of Stanley N. Gundr ...

, Michael Bird,

Craig Blomberg Craig L. Blomberg (born August 3, 1955) is an American New Testament scholar. He is currently the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the New Testament at Denver Seminary in Colorado where he has been since 1986. He currently serves as the p ...

, as well as the apologist

William Lane Craig William Lane Craig (; born August 23, 1949) is an American Analytic philosophy, analytic philosopher, Christian apologetics, Christian apologist, author, and theologian. He is a professor of philosophy at Houston Christian University and at the T ...

. He has criticized

Michael Licona Michael R. "Mike" Licona (born 1961) is an American New Testament scholar, author, and Christian apologist. He is Professor of New Testament Studies at Houston Christian University, Extraordinary Associate Professor of Theology at North-West Uni ...

for identifying the canonical gospels with the classical genre of Greco-Roman biography, instead of following

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

and

Clement Clement or Clément may refer to: People * Clement (name), a given name and surname * Saint Clement (disambiguation)#People Places * Clément, French Guiana, a town * Clement, Missouri, U.S. * Clement Township, Michigan, U.S. * Clement's P ...

in recognizing them as modeled after or fulfilling ancient Hebrew oracles and as eschewing Greek philosophy and historiography. Licona has criticized Farnell for this view and for other conservative views. Farnell supports the

historical-grammatical method The historical-grammatical method is a modern Christian biblical hermeneutics, hermeneutical method that strives to discover the biblical authors' original intended meaning in the text. According to the historical-grammatical method, if based on ...

in New Testament studies, and specializes in the impact of historical-critical philosophical ideologies in

Biblical Criticism Modern Biblical criticism (as opposed to pre-Modern criticism) is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible without appealing to the supernatural. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical c ...

and interpretation of the

. He opposes what he regards as a liberal approach to the study of the

, and promotes the Protestant doctrine of

Education

Farnell attended

San Diego Christian College San Diego Christian College (SDCC) is a Private university, private evangelical university in Santee, California. Founded in 1970, SDCC offers traditional, non-traditional, and graduate programs. History In January 1970, Tim F. LaHaye, pastor o ...

(formerly Christian Heritage College), where he received a BA in

Biblical studies Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

. He graduated with an M.Div. from

Talbot School of Theology Talbot School of Theology is an evangelical Christian theological seminary located near Los Angeles. Talbot is one of the nine schools of Biola University, located in La Mirada, California. Talbot is nondenominational and known for its conservati ...

in 1981. That same year he was awarded the Systematic Theology Award and the Biola University/President's Rotary-Club Award for Academic Achievement. He studied a Th.M. with an emphasis in New Testament under the New Testament scholar Robert Thomas. In 1984 he graduated from the Th.M. program. He received a Ph.D. from

Dallas Theological Seminary Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) is an evangelical theological seminary in Dallas, Texas. It is known for popularizing the theological system of dispensationalism. DTS has campuses in Dallas, Houston, and Washington, D.C., as well as extension ...

, where he studied under New Testament scholar

Darrell Bock Darrell L. Bock (born December 8, 1953) is an American evangelical New Testament scholar. He is executive director of Cultural Engagement aThe Hendricks Centerand Senior Research Professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary ( ...

, and alongside the Greek scholar Daniel B. Wallace.

Career

While completing his master's degree, Farnell served as a teaching assistant in

and Bible exposition at

. After his Ph.D. studies he was offered the chair of the Department of Pastoral Theology and Biblical Studies at Southeastern Bible College. Later he became the academic dean of the same institution from 1994 - 1997. In 1997 he came to

as associate professor of New Testament. During this time he worked with Robert Thomas to develop the New Testament Department of The Master's Seminary. He was named professor of New Testament in 2007. Since 2008, Farnell is also

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

at Veritas Evangelical Seminary. In March 2017, Farnell was invited as keynote speaker to the Chafer Theological Seminary Pastor's Conference (Dean Bible Conference). During his appearance, he spoke on "Critical Issues in Inerrancy" by means of four ground breaking sessions: ''Current Challenges to Orthodox Inerrancy: Dancing on the Edge'' (part 1, part 2, part 3), and ''Evangelical Critical Scholarship and the Canonical Gospels: What Hath Spinoza Wrought?'' Other keynote speakers included H. Wayne House and Andy Woods. In June 2021, Farnell left The Master’s Seminary to form a new pastoral training center in Phoenix, Arizona, under the auspices of Redeemer Bible Church (Redeemeraz.org)

Works

Thesis

Books

* *

As editor

* *

Articles and chapters

* * * * * * * *

References

External links

Defending InerrancyThe Danger Zone
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farnell, F. David 1958 births Living people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century evangelicals 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century evangelicals American Evangelical writers American male non-fiction writers American religious writers Dallas Theological Seminary alumni Evangelical pastors New Testament scholars San Diego Christian College alumni Talbot School of Theology alumni