There are numerous contradictions in The God Makers. The authors extoll Christian martyrs who have died for their cause (173:13), yet they ignore the numerous Latter-day Saints who were victims of mobs or lost their lives in the pioneer trek from Illinois to Utah.
Throughout the book the accusation is made several times that the LDS religion is “classical occultism” (259:last) which is interpreted by the authors as satanic and evil, because fragments of “paganistic” beliefs are similar to some doctrines of Mormonism. Elsewhere, however, the book speaks of the ideals of early Christianity as being “based upon the high moral standards of the pagan mysteries” (137:21). It seems inconsistent to belittle Mormonism because of a few so-called pagan similarities and to state paganism had a positive influence on Christianity.
The authors call anyone deluded who thinks the LDS Church is a democracy (230:19). However, later the authors quote one of the Latter-day Saints’ favorite and most familiar reference books, Bruce R. McConkie’s Mormon Doctrine, as saying “The Church is not a democracy” (236:8). This is an example of straining to create a problem where none exists. Latter-day Saints do not believe their Church is a democracy.
The creation of another issue is the authors’ constantly recurring claim that Latter-day Saints have an endless task ahead of them to reach godhood and it will take a “few trillion years” to gain access to the Heavenly Father’s presence (184:36). There is inconsistency on the part of the authors—who themselves do not believe in the necessity of works in this life or the life to come—telling Latter-day Saints that there are more works yet to come that they don’t know of. This tactic obviously is intended to cause Mormons to give up on their religion. The authors, as does anyone, have a right not to believe in the LDS Church, but one has to question their passion in wanting to undermine a religion that encourages its adherents to greater morality and which is having much success in doing so.
Although on the surface the charge that Mormons think they are gods (28:25, 261:5-17) and the statement elsewhere, that Latter-day Saints think they can become gods (34:9) may seem minor, it is as different as an embryo and a mature person.
The authors claim that LDS people from Brigham Young to the Osmonds do not testify of Christ (46:6; 40:29), yet in their own book they quote a statement by the famous singing family where they do express their appreciation for their “relationship to God, our Heavenly Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ” (25:21). In the case of Brigham Young the authors simply omitted his testimony of Christ, quoting only that part of the speech where the LDS leader also praised Joseph Smith (41:20-36).
One of the book’s most repeated claims is that only faith in Christ and not works (as LDS doctrine teaches) are needed to be Christian (54:31). Yet the authors say the Book of Mormon “is a blatant fraud” because it asks its readers to pray in faith to determine its truthfulness. The authors in this case want “objective verification” (93:3-5). To insist on empirical evidence for the Book of Mormon (for which, incidentally, there is much) and yet maintain that faith in Christ is all that’s needed seems like an inconsistent standard.
