# WAITING FOR THE PRODIGAL

While searching lds.org to see if it would permit me to send the link to the statistical reports put out by the church for this year and the year 1979 to my pastor, my eye caught the title of a speech given this last conference of the LDS church. I already wrote a 2 page very in depth one about Being Genuine but for some reason this one caught my eye. As I read it something came to my mind that I must write something about this one speech. It was given by Elder Brent H. Nielson. Don’t worry, I don’t think that I am going to write about anybody else’s speech. I was planning today on writing about other things but something kept me from doing this. Somebody led me to this speech. He mentions the examples in the Bible about the lost sheep and the lost piece of silver and the prodigal son. All great examples told by our Lord Jesus Christ. Then he relates these examples to what happened to his sister a few years ago and how the family reacted to her temporarily leaving the church. The reason why I mentioned the word temporarily is because eventually she came back and what happened to her is in the past. I wonder if he would have done this same speech if the end result would have not been the same. I wonder what would have happened if his sister would have not come back to this church and maybe would now be attending another Bible believing church or maybe even be a pastor in another church. It just seems that during general conference only faith promoting speeches should be given. Only the ones that have a happy ending to them. As usual as he is reading his speech he mentions all of the callings that he and his brothers had in the church which would mean that one was faithful to the church. Then it goes on to say that after his sister returned to the church the good works that she did. She received her temple recommend, she served as an ordinance worker in the temple and what class she is currently teaching. I think that somebody is missing the point here. A church does not save you, whether you are a member of a church or not doesn’t mean that you have lost your way towards returning to your Father in Heaven. It just seems that this church wants to make it a simple process. Be a member of the only true church of Jesus Christ on the face of this earth, be in good standing, obey the leaders, have a temple recommend, do what you are supposed to be doing and you are guaranteed a place in heaven. This is not true, it can’t be true because if that was the case with so few members in this church compared to the world population something is not right here. If she would have remained inactive in this church but active in the gospel of Jesus Christ in another church she would have still been saved. You are not saved by the good works that you do when you are a member of this church. You are saved by the grace of God and then the good works that come from that will determine what kind of faith you have. It was a good story to be told during this general conference but not a true reflection of what Jesus meant when He gave these examples because He never mentioned being a church member in any of these parables. It seems that one can twist anything in the Bible to accommodate one’s beliefs.