Decker Ed - The God Makers: A Shocking Expose of What the Mormon Church Really Believes

When the original edition of The God Makers was released in 1984, we prayed that it would be used of the Lord to open the eyes of the world to the truth about Mormonism. We had no idea that its impact would be truly global, and that it, along with the movie The God Makers, would change forever the way the world would look at Mormonism.

At the same time the book became a bestseller, the film was being shown throughout the country to standing-room-only crowds in churches of every Christian denomination. In Ed's home church in Bellevue, Washington, traffic was backed up for blocks in every direction as people worked their way to the parking lots.

In one church in Colorado Springs, more than twice as many people showed up for the film as the large church building could hold. Ed had to teach on the lawn those who couldn't get in, preparing them for what they would see in the film, while the film itself was being shown inside to the first crowd. When the film was over, the crowds switched and Ed provided a question-and-answer time for the first crowd.

From city to city throughout the country, the story was the same. At one time the film was being shown at over a thousand churches per month, and entire cases of The God Makers book were sold at almost every showing.

Controversy and revival exploded everywhere Ed or Dave spoke. Newspaper, TV, and radio coverage converged from every perspective and viewpoint. Ministries such as Saints Alive could not keep up with the calls, counseling, letters, and necessary follow-up for those Mormons and others who trusted in the true Jesus of the Bible.

The Mormon Church was taken by surprise by all this, learning that its carefully constructed masquerade was exposed once and for all to the light of truth, and this time by people who wouldn't back down to pressure, threats, and slander.

As you read through this revised edition, you will see that several critical heresies that were pointed out in the first edition have now been revised by the LDS Church to conform to an appearance of orthodoxy that is so essential in its counterfeit Christianity.

But these changes have had more resemblance to the metamorphic life cycles of the insect world than to the actions of a holy-Prophet-directed "only true Church." Sadly, no matter how many heresies receive a new coat of paint, this caterpillar will never turn into a butterfly any more than the victims of Mormonism will turn into gods and goddesses.

Intent upon researching and producing an unusual feature story, Denver Post staff writer John Farrell, accompanied by Post photographer Jim Richardson, spent 13 weeks during the summer and fall of 1982 traveling throughout "The Church State"' of Utah. Their assignment? To penetrate what has been called "The Zion Curtain"2 erected by the Mormon Church to protect its vast wealth and influence. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so effectively controls one of the 50 American states, where it is "the largest private property owner,"' that "the line between worship and government has become so blurred that some civil rights have evaporated."' In this unusual state, "Jews are called Gentiles" and a "majority of non-Mormons" consider themselves to be "victims of discrimination."5

As anyone knows who has lived very long in Utah, far from encouraging freedom (as one might expect), the all-pervasive presence of the Mormon Church hangs like a heavy cloud of oppression that can't be escaped anywhere. One gradually acquires the uneasy feeling that "Big Brother" is always listening and watching. Farrell and Richardson discovered that in some ways conditions behind the Zion Curtain were uncomfortably similar to those that prevailed behind the Iron Curtain. This was particularly true concerning two of the rights that Americans have traditionally held most dear: freedom of speech and freedom of the press. In Utah these are not exercised without "widespread constraint" imposed upon everyone by the Mormon hierarchy's long arm that reaches everywhere.

These rights are further inhibited by the disturbing fact that "the state's largest evening newspaper and ... leading TV station are owned by the church,"6 which has been described as "America's biggest, richest and strongest home-grown faith."' Giving its official approval to the Church's trampling on human rights, in 1975 the Utah Supreme Court with its Mormon majority handed down a surprising decision, that, as summarized by the Denver Post

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution-which guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion-did not apply in Utah but was only a limitation on the federal government.'

John Farrell's assignment was "not an expose of the Mormon religion," but to give an honest picture of life inside Utah. Just as it was behind Marxism's Iron Curtain, however, so Farrell and Richardson discovered that in this bastion of capitalism and conservatism behind the Zion Curtain it was extremely difficult to find individuals who were willing to speak openly and freely in response to questions about the almost-omnipotent religious power that tolerates no interference in its control of the Church State. They soon learned that "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not take kindly to dissent."9 For a resident of Utah to openly question the irresistible and self-serving influence exerted everywhere in Utah by the Mormon Church-or its activities, morals, or doctrines-could call down the wrath of a totalitarian power upon one's head. The results are sometimes frighteningly similar to those suffered by dissidents within the former Soviet Union or some other Communist country.

Dominating the skyline of downtown Salt Lake City, a huge 28-story office building, tallest in the state, houses the corporate headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here, lawyers, accountants, and computer experts try to keep up with the day-to-day commercial activities involving the vast business interests and real-estate holdings of the multibillion-dollar worldwide financial empire of Mormonism. From his top-floor suite in the Church-owned Hotel Utah, the President of the Mormon Church (its "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator") exercises unchallenged control over the 9.7 million members' through a hierarchy of apostles, assistants, and advisers. Everyone entering the imposing Church headquarters is greeted by these emblazoned words:

How well Mormons know the truth of that slogan! It has been drilled into their consciousness since earliest childhood. And in Utah, the Church State, even non-Mormons feel the pressure to conform to a power that insists upon overriding both conscience and God. The authority which the Mormon hierarchy wields began with Joseph Smith's claim that every Christian on the face of the earth was following abominable creeds and was involved in a total worldwide apostasy that had completely destroyed the Church that Jesus Christ had founded. Smith claimed that he had been ordained to restore truth to the earth, and that as the modern founder of the true Church, he alone was the dispenser of God's revelation and will in this dispensation. That grandiose boast is the foundation of the absolute authority which the Mormon Presidents and Apostles claim as their divine right today. All who reject Joseph Smith's claims and do not submit obediently to his successors are "Gentiles" outside the true Church he founded and are without salvation.