DTS was founded as Evangelical Theological College in 1924 by Rollin T. Chafer and his brother, Lewis Sperry Chafer, who taught the first class of thirteen students, and William Henry Griffith Thomas,[2] who was to have been the school's first theology professor but died before the first classes began.[3] Their vision was a school where expositoryBible preaching was taught simply, and under Chafers' leadership, DTS pioneered one of the first four-year degrees in theology, the Master of Theology (Th.M.). The present location of the school was purchased in 1926 and Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) program was started in 1927.[4] Chafer remained president until his death in 1952.
The seminary had a considerable influence in the fundamentalist movement by training students who established various Bible Colleges and independent fundamentalist churches in the southern United States.[5]
DTS has continually published a quarterly entitled Bibliotheca Sacra initially edited by Rollin T. Chafer, since 1934. In 1983, a complete collection of "Bib Sac" articles was published as a book commemorating fifty years
of the journal.[6]
John F. Walvoord took over as president in 1952 after Chafer's death in 1952. In 1974, DTS added a two-year Master of Arts (MA) program in biblical studies, and in 1982, a two-year program in Christian Education was begun. In addition to these, a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) program was opened in 1980. Walvoord retired as DTS president in 1986.[7]
From 1986 to 1994, Donald K. Campbell served as president of DTS. During his tenure, DTS opened a three-year MA program in Biblical Counseling and a two-year MA program in Biblical exegesis and linguistics.[7]
Chuck Swindoll served as president of the seminary from 1994 to 2001. Mark Bailey followed, serving as president from 2001 to 2020.[7] Under Bailey's tenure, the seminary added a two-year MA program in media and communication, a two-year MA in Christian leadership, a Spanish D.Min. program, and a multi-lingual online education program. He was succeeded by Mark Yarbrough in 2020.
As of Spring 2014, DTS had over 15,000 alumni serving in various ministerial capacities in 97 countries worldwide.[8]
DTS is known as a center of modern dispensational teaching[11][12][13][14][15] due to Dr. Chafer's development of a systematic theology which approaches the Bible with a "premillennial, dispensational interpretation of the Scriptures."[2]Systematic Theology, his eight-volume work describing this approach, was first published in 1948 and is still a required textbook for some courses at DTS.[2]
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In a 2009 study conducted by LifeWay Research, Protestant pastors named preachers who had most influenced them. Three DTS alumni were among the top ten: Chuck Swindoll ('63), founder of radio broadcast Insight for Living; David Jeremiah ('67), founder of Turning Point Radio and Television Ministries; and Andy Stanley ('85), founder of North Point Ministries.[16][17] Other notable people associated with the seminary include: