Gary DeMar
American writer and lecturer
title: "Gary DeMar" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["dominion-theology", "american-evangelists", "living-people", "christian-reconstructionism", "american-anti-same-sex-marriage-activists", "western-michigan-university-alumni", "people-from-marietta,-georgia", "reformed-theological-seminary-alumni", "presbyterian-church-in-america-members", "1958-births"] description: "American writer and lecturer" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_DeMar" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American writer and lecturer ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| image | Gary DeMar.jpg |
| birth_date | 1950 |
| birth_place | Pennsylvania, US |
| education | {{indented plainlist |
| occupation | author, speaker, radio presenter |
| title | {{indented plainlist |
| * President American Vision{{efn | name |
| * Senior Fellow American Vision{{efn | name |
| spouse | Carol |
| children | 2 |
| website | |
| :: |
| image = Gary DeMar.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | other_names = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1950 | birth_place = Pennsylvania, US | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = | citizenship = | education = {{indented plainlist|
- Western Michigan University (1973)
- Reformed Theological Seminary Master of Divinity (1979)
- Whitefield Theological Seminary Doctor of Philosophy (2007) | occupation = author, speaker, radio presenter | employer = | known_for = | title = {{indented plainlist|
- President American Vision
- Senior Fellow American Vision | spouse = Carol | partner = | children = 2 | website =
Gary DeMar is an American writer and lecturer. A former student of Greg Bahnsen, and protégé of Gary North, he has written several books on Christian reconstructionism, apologetics, and eschatology, as well as books targeting the homeschool movement.
DeMar is currently the president of The American Vision, a biblical worldview ministry. He hosts "The Gary DeMar Podcast."
DeMar is a graduate of Western Michigan University (B.S., 1973) and Reformed Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1979).
Family life and education
DeMar graduated from Western Michigan University in 1973. In 1979, he earned a Master of Divinity degree from Reformed Theological Seminary, where he had been a student of Greg Bahnsen. He earned a Ph.D. in Christian Intellectual History from Whitefield Theological Seminary in 2007.{{cite web |url = http://www.americanvision.org/about/staff-profiles/ |title = Staff Profiles |publisher = American Vision |website = americanvision.org |access-date = March 31, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090405110448/http://www.americanvision.org/about/staff-profiles/ |archive-date = April 5, 2009}}
Career
In the early years of the Christian reconstruction movement, DeMar collaborated with Gary North on several books.{{Cite journal |last=Worthen |first=Molly |author-link=Molly Worthen |date=2008 |title=The Chalcedon Problem: Rousas John Rushdoony and the Origins of Christian Reconstructionism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20618492 |journal=Church History |volume=77 |issue=2 |pages=433 |doi=10.1017/S0009640708000590 |jstor=20618492 |s2cid=153625926|url-access=subscription |title=Meet Gary DeMar |url=https://americanvision.org/about/staff-profiles/ |access-date=October 22, 2021 |website=americanvision.org |publisher = American Vision
DeMar began working at American Vision in 1981 as a research analyst. In 1986 he became the president of the organization. DeMar stepped aside as president of American Vision in 2015, while continuing in the role of Senior Fellow. He returned to the role of president in March 2019 when Joel McDurmon resigned.
DeMar is the host of "The Gary DeMar Podcast," which began in 2006 as a radio program and continued as a podcast.
Views
Government
John W. Whitehead notes DeMar's book Ruler of the Nations "presents a clear and well-substantiated description of the three types of government established by God — the family, the church, and the civil government — each given its own specific and limited jurisdiction".{{cite book | first=Gary | last=DeMar | title=Ruler of the Nations | publisher=Dominion Press | location=Ft. Worth, Texas | year=1987 | isbn=0-930462-19-X | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDC9AAAACAAJ
::quote All government requires a reference point. If God is to be pleased by men, the Bible must become the foundation of all their governments, including civil government. This means that Biblical law must be made the foundation of all righteous judgment in every government: personal (self government), ecclesiastical, familial, and civil. ::
DeMar states in an article on the American Vision web site, "Darwinism has secularized everything in America, including our understanding of the Constitution".
Eschatology
DeMar is a proponent of preterism, interpreting the Olivet Discourse as specific to the generation to whom Jesus was speaking in Matthew 24.
Criticism
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes DeMar as "an outspoken anti-gay activist who regularly hosts and speaks at Christian-right events," and American Vision as an extremist group and an organization advocating "a complete theocracy governed by Old Testament law."{{Cite web |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/gary-demar |title=Gary DeMar |access-date=2016-09-11 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center
Selected works
Notes
References
References
- "About Us - The American Vision".
- "The Gary DeMar Podcast".
- McVicar, Michael J.. (2015). "Christian Reconstruction: R.J. Rushdoony and American Religious Conservatism". [[University of North Carolina Press]].
- "Change of Leadership at American Vision - The American Vision".
- DeMar, Gary. (November 3, 2005). "The Constitution is No More". American Vision.
- Hanegraaff, Hank. (2007). "The Apocalypse Code : Find Out What the Bible Really Says About the End Times... and Why It Matters Today". [[Thomas Nelson (publisher).
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::