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In Defense of The God Makers and Ed Decker
After reading several posts in this forum that were quite slanderous and libelous regarding my integrity and honesty, I thought I would take a few moments and perhaps enlighten some to what is real and what is not regarding the God Makers and Ed Decker.
I remember back when I was a Mormon, Dr. Walter Martin was the one we hated the most. We had many stories about his evil life and destructive behavior. His Book, Kingdom of the cults was full of half truths and downright lies, misrepresentations of our doctrines and he twisted scripture to support his vicious attacks on the one true church.
Little did I know that I would one day take his place for this dubious honor..
After I became a Christian, I still held Dr. Martin in the lowest esteem possible. (See: http://www.saintsalive.com/resourcelibrary/mormonism/out-of-mormonism-eds-personal-testimony)
Then one Sunday morning, a teacher in the Adult Sunday School at the little neighborhood church we attended asked me to teach his class for a few weeks while he was away. Being the ever-ready LDS trained worker bee, I immediately agreed. He handed me the book they were studying, The Kingdom Of the Cults, by Dr. Walter Martin. He said, “Oh, by the way, next Sunday we are doing the chapter on Mormonism.”
I went home and read the chapter. My ears were burning and I was muttering under my breath at his lies, misrepresentations and downright evil. I pulled out my old flannel board and did a wonderful teaching on the marvelously restored gospel that next Sunday and the entire class just sat there, smiling through it all, knowing they were listening to a recently saved Mormon who had a lot to learn. No arguing, just a lot of sighs.
On the way out that morning, I shoved the book into the pastor’s gut and told him that it was a book full of lies. He smiled and said that he thought it was accurate, but if I could just point out one or two lies, he would have it pulled, not only at his church, but by the entire denomination.
I went home with a zeal to blow this Dr. Martin character out of the water. I pulled every sentence apart in that chapter, searched out the original of every reference he made, even spending a week or so in Salt Lake City to be sure I missed nothing.
I came back home with my zeal fizzled out and the truth on the table. His book was fully accurate. My former church was the one in biblical error, not Dr. Martin. I had to apologize to the Pastor, the teacher and the class. Oh, and to my wife, who bore with me through this mess.
A few months later, Dr. Martin came to Seattle to speak at a church. The pastor was warned by the Mormons of what an evil liar this man was and a few Mormons shouted things at him at the meeting, but he just smiled and poured out enough information and biblical proof that I would expect the entire local Mormon leadership and missionaries who were sitting in the front row to repent.
But, they left as angry and nasty as they could. I went forward and talked to this man. When I told him my little story as I related above, he smiled broadly and hugged me. Now I loved the man I loved to hate and my life changed.
Dr. Martin became my friend and mentor and over the following years, we traveled to many places together both here and abroad. He went to teach. I went to be with him and then, oh yes, to teach.
He encouraged me to write the God Makers and he warned me time and again that all sorts of evil would be spoken of me, but that I must keep my eye on the calling, to reach the lost for Christ… and I have done just that for 33 years now.
Now let me talk in defense of the God Makers and my ministry. This is a single post and I feel it appropriate that it will sit on Dr. Martin’s website.
The God Makers was, is and shall continue to be a one of a kind book and movie. So many hundreds of thousands of copies are out there, in book form, 16mm film, VHS, BETA copies and now untold DVDs in many languages, spread out throughout the world. It has been shown around the world on TV. You can even get a copy of the book now for your Kindle at Amazon.com.
The book has been revised and updated so that even the latest changes in the unchangeable LDS gospel are included. Few books have maintained as active a presence in the market for almost 30 years as has the God Makers.
The animation portion of the film has been viewed by over ten million people across the globe, if the counters on the many internet video clip sites are accurate. We stopped counting over a year ago.
The film, itself, was filmed mostly in Utah at a Capstone Conference and the work was under the review of several dozen leaders of the active ministries to the Mormons. The film is a true look at the underbelly of the beast called Mormonism.
Now, let me give you a little history about the book. When Dave Hunt and I wrote the book, its release followed several years of intense research, not only by us, but by a team of researchers at Harvest House Publishers. I think we counted over 1400 separate references in the book. Ever fact had to line up with legal proof.
Once it was complete, it was then reviewed by a law firm, looking for any and every line of type that may lead to a legal challenge, based on a myriad list of laws that pertain to publishing works critical of people and organizations.
Once it had passed all these pre-publication processes and was signed off by those in charge of each review step, it was finally printed and released. It immediately rose to the level of best-seller in the Christian market and stayed on that list for the better part of the first few years.
When the film, The God Makers, came out it was being shown across the country at more than a thousand venues a month, packed wall to wall with people intent on seeing the hidden doctrines of the LDS Church.
In those venues many Mormons also came and during the question and answer part of the program that followed every showing, many of the same charges that followed Dr. Martin were brought against the film and against me, personally. Oddly, the integrity of Dave Hunt was rarely impugned. I was always the traitor to the faith, the son of perdition.
In those times when I was cursed at, spit on, punched, shot at, tires slashed and lied about, accused of vile and evil things, I often thought of the words of the great evangelist, Billy Sunday, when he talked those who cursed his bold stand against sin.
“I’ve stood for more sneers and scoffs and insults and had my life threatened from one end of the land to the other by this God-forsaken gang of thugs and cutthroats because I have come out uncompromisingly against them..”
Another time he said,
“ I’m against sin. I’ll kick it as long as I’ve got a foot, and I’ll fight it as long as I’ve got a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I’ve got a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. And when I’m old and fist-less and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to glory and it goes homer to perdition.” Billy Sunday
Now let me get a bit specific. To those who say that the God Makers is full of lies, half truths, misrepresentations of LDS theology, I challenge you to actually give an a real, documented example. This broad brush of babbling accusation is the work of fools.
Even when the National Conference of Christians and Jews [NCCJ] came out and called it religious pornography [we agreed: it was our disclosure of actual LDS doctrine to which they were referring.] they had much to say, but not a single line of substance.
We contacted them and discovered there were no actual born-again Christians or orthodox Jews on the study, but there were several Mormons. One Buddhist was thrown in, for good measure.
They had never contacted us, asked us for a single piece of documentation and when we finally tracked down a few of the ‘panel’ members, they had not even seen the film. We challenged them to meet with us and give us their best “false statement or half-truth’ and they came up silent and empty.
Again, I give you the same challenge here. Stop the prattle and speak substance. I grow weary of such foolishness. You can’t speak “The God Makers” into being a lie. You have to prove it.
In 30 years, I have defended the God Makers publicly and privately, on radio, TV, in the written word and by the spoken word. I am still here and so is the God Makers, still going strong, still reaching across that Mormon barrier of cult thinking and discovering people who find the truth and the real Jesus Christ. The real soul freeing gospel He brought us. The real salvation He gave us on the cross.
As for my personal life, I was never divorced for “adultery” or any other sin. I divorced my first wife, at the recommendation of the Bishop and after meetings with the Stake President. A Mormon Attorney filed the papers. I was still an active Mormon following that divorce and held a temple recommend.
It was some few years later that I accidently became a born again Christian and two years after that when I asked for my name to be removed from the church records.. I forced my own ex-communication and have the evidence to prove it.. Read my actual letter of excommunication at:
http://www.saintsalive.com/resourcelibrary/mormonism/ed-decker-excommunicated-for-what
Both my ex-wife and I remarried, she twice more and I am still married to my ‘only’ wife for almost 42 years. All my children from that first marriage are close to us, some living right in the Puget Sound area. During that time, we have been in a faith ministry for over 30 years, having used much of our own assets to fund the work.
To those who say I am getting rich at this, I have to laugh, My wife has worked almost the entire time we have been in ministry to put food on the table and get the kids through college.
All Royalties, all Honorarium, all book sale profits and all donations go directly to the Ministry and not to me.
To debate every accuser, to argue every contrived accusation, to face down every Mormon who has spit out curses and vile language at me over the years would take me away from the work that matters, the reaching out with love to share the gift of Christ to those lost in spiritual darkness.
The scriptures warn: Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Prov 26:4
Tens of thousands have found that joy in Jesus. Just one of those who found the Lord in The God Makers, or our website or an en email exchange with me is worth ten thousand curses and I will not detour from my calling to argue with a fool.
Dr. Martin would expect no less from me.
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