David J. Randall was born in Edinburgh in 1945 and attended Leith Academy Primary School and George Heriot’s Secondary. He graduated in arts and divinity at Edinburgh University and then studied for a Th.M. at Princeton Theological Seminary. After assistantships in Edinburgh, he served as minister of Macduff Parish Church in Aberdeenshire from 1971 to 2010, where he preached through the whole Bible. He has served the wider church in various capacities, including a term as convener of the Church of Scotland’s Apologetics Committee (now ‘Why Believe?’) and was formerly chairman of Solas – Centre for Public Christianity based in Dundee.
He is now a minister of the Free Church of Scotland and still preaches regularly. The reason for his (and others’) departure from the Church of Scotland is drawn out in his A Sad Departure, published by the Trust in 2015. Other publications include a book for teenagers, Messages from Grandad, and a Christmas devotional, Come And Behold Him (Christmas Through Different Eyes). He contributed a regular newspaper column, ‘It Makes You Think’ for the Banffshire Journal for 26 years, and more recently has edited Why I Am not an Atheist: Facing the Inadequacies of Unbelief, published in 2013, and Why We (Still) Believe in 2017.
David is married to Nan and they have two sons who are pastors, another son who died suddenly at the age of 41, one daughter, and six grandchilden. They live in Forfar, Scotland, and are members of Broughty Ferry Presbyterian Church.