It's True Isn't It?

I started blogging last December. I have thoroughly enjoyed jotting down my various opinions on different subjects and I have also enjoyed reading the musings of others. I frequently find myself reading LDS based blogs. I have been enlightened by much of what I have read. There is one subject/point that still confuses me; it would be the postings where people adopt an “I like the LDS church but…” attitude.

Don’t get me wrong; there are several issues that I don’t understand. There are doctrines I don’t fully understand and there are also historical issues that some day I hope to understand the why of.

In the final analysis all that should really matter is: Is it true? If it is, then the rest of the peripheral issues will take care of themselves. I’m certainly glad that when Nephi was commanded to smite Laban, that he didn’t balk. He expressed minor concern about it, but then did what seemed very contrary to what he had been taught his entire life. Likewise, when Abraham was commanded to kill his son, I’m grateful that he didn’t ask for an alternative option…”Um, Lord would it be ok if I offered up my nephew, Lot’s, wife instead? I never really liked her much anyway.”

In Isaiah 55:8 it states, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” It appears as though I don’t need to know exactly what the Lord is thinking; I just need to make sure that I’m on the same side with Him.

I am reminded of a April 2007 General Conference talk by Neil L. Andersen, “It’s True, Isn’t It? Then What Else Matters? It reads in part:

“I take as my subject today something President Hinckley said in general conference in April of 1973.

I had just returned home from my mission. So much seemed ahead of me. Would I be able to consistently make the right choices throughout my life?

Then-Elder Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of meeting a young naval officer from Asia. The officer had not been a Christian, but during training in the United States, he had learned about the Church and was baptized. He was now preparing to return to his native land.

President Hinckley asked the officer: “Your people are not Christians. What will happen when you return home a Christian, and, more particularly, a Mormon Christian?”

The officer’s face clouded, and he replied: “My family will be disappointed. … As for my future and my career, all opportunity may be foreclosed against me.”

President Hinckley asked, “Are you willing to pay so great a price for the gospel?”

With his dark eyes moistened by tears, he answered with a question: “It’s true, isn’t it?”

President Hinckley responded, “Yes, it is true.”

To which the officer replied, “Then what else matters?”

Through the years, I have reflected on these words: “It’s true, isn’t it? Then what else matters?” These questions have helped me put difficult issues in proper perspective.

The cause in which we are laboring is true. We respect the beliefs of our friends and neighbors. We are all sons and daughters of God. We can learn much from other men and women of faith and goodness, as President Faust taught us so well.

Yet we know that Jesus is the Christ. He is resurrected. In our day, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the priesthood of God has been restored. We have the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Book of Mormon is what we claim it to be. The promises of the temple are certain. The Lord Himself has declared the unique and singular mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be “a light to the world” and “a messenger … to prepare the way before [Him]” even as “the gospel roll[s] forth unto the ends of the earth.”

It’s true, isn’t it? Then what else matters?”


I have listened to the words of the prophets, both those in prior dispensations and those living today. I have read the scriptures, the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I know for myself that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God on earth today. Yes, I still have questions, and I look forward to the day that I will get answers to them. In the meantime, I choose to remain faithful to the religion I believe.