Leonard R. Brand - Seventh-day Adventist Church

Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has recognized Brand as a thought leader in matters of science and origins since the early 1970s. He has served on the SDA church's science council from 1976 to 2003. He oversaw the development of the church's earth sciences program at Loma Linda University. He has taught science methodology in regional church conference and has explained creationist concepts to students in public colleges.

In the area of doctrinal apologetics, Brand has published a book in response to the major critics of church founder Ellen G. White.

In 1978, church leaders approved Loma Linda University's Department of Biology masters program in earth history. As head of the department, Brand explained the rationale for the program,

Our objectives for the degree are two-fold. We want to train secondary teachers to teach earth history and to foster study in the earth sciences in the context of the various ideas of origins." He said that Adventists had neglected the fields of paleontology and geology even though they related significantly to the church's understanding of origins. According to Brand, it was important for the Adventist church to have teachers on all levels who could understand the conflict in these areas.

In 2005, Don S. McMahon, an Australian medical specialist, and Leonard Brand co-authored the book, The prophet and her critics. It was published by the Pacific Press Publishing Association. The core issue treated in their book is Ellen White's writings on health. In the first four chapters, Brand reports on the earlier research of Ron Numbers on health (1976), Jon Butler on prophetic fulfilment (1979) and Walter Rea on literary relationships (1982). He proposes that these earlier research studies should be examined for their use of logic, interpretation of data, and whether they had good research designs.

Numbers reports,

Brand collaborated with McMahon in bringing McMahon's finding to the attention of American Adventists... the latter book (Brand and McMahon's) devotes a chapter to exposing the perceived weaknesses of Prophetess of Health, especially its failure to entertain "the hypothesis of divine inspiration" (p. 44)

He severely criticises both of McMahon's books:

Despite their pretense to scientific rigor, McMahon's books are riddled with pseudoscientific claims, historical errors, and misleading comparisons.