David Harold Chilton (1951–1997) was an American pastor, Reconstructionist, speaker and author of several books on economics, eschatology and Christian Worldview from Placerville, California.

Growing up in California in the 1970s youth movement and hippie culture, he experienced a conversion to Christianity while listening to a missionary speak at his father's church.

The young Chilton consequently became deeply involved in the nascent Jesus People movement and started a singing group with his sister Jayn and some friends called The Children of Light.

In 1981, after several years of pastoring in Anaheim, Chilton wrote his first book, Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt-Manipulators: A Biblical Response to Ronald J. Sider over the course of a month with a pencil and paper at a coffeehouse.

Not long after the completion of the book, he moved to Placerville, CA to pastor a church for a year, during which he wrote a newsletter for Christian teachers and homeschoolers called The Biblical Educator.

Chilton accepted a job offer from prominent Reconstructionist (and Rushdoony son-in-law) Gary North as a research assistant at The Institute for Christian Economics in Tyler, Texas.