Shows / Standard of Truth
Standard of Truth
The purpose of this podcast is to help Latter-Day Saints better understand their history and increase their faith. The podcast hosted by Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, associate professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU.
Episodes
- Standard of Truth
S6E43 The Lord’s Prayer
We meant to get to Muhammad. Instead, this became the Lord's Prayer episode. Elder Harris writes from Brazil, asking why so many people there recite the Our…
- Standard of Truth
S6E42 An Angel from Heaven Preaching Another Gospel (Galatians 1-8) Part 2
In part two of our Galatians 1:8 series, we return to the claim that an angel bringing “another gospel” proves Mormonism false. Gerrit then the argument back…
- Standard of Truth
S6E41 An Angel from Heaven Preaching Another Gospel (Galatians 1:8) Part 1
A missionary in the Philippines asks why early Saints never made the sign of the cross. A new dad, writing from the delivery room, asks about Joseph Smith’s…
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S6E40 Please Refer to President Christofferson's October 2026 Conference Address
We break down the October 2026 General Conference. The heart of the episode: President Christofferson's address on gambling. Richard debuts a montage of the…
- Standard of Truth
S6E39 Saved By Grace After All You Can Do
Heidi writes mid-labor to ask about D&C 76: does rejecting the gospel in this life really cap you at the terrestrial kingdom? We discuss that we simply don't…
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S6E38 Idiot or Liar - How to Spot a Bad Source Part 1
We crack open an all-missionary mailbag with letters from the Philippines, Cincinnati, and beyond. Then the big question: was Cincinnati really cursed by…
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S6E37 Exceptions Are God's to Make
We celebrate 10 million downloads, the arrival of video recordings of the podcast, and a missionary listener who has built a four-generation podcast family…
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S6E36 Joseph Smith on the Second Coming (Churchy McChurch Church)
The heart of the episode is a Lyceum dive into a March 16, 1841 discourse of Joseph Smith on the Second Coming and the Millennium. Joseph taught that the…
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S6E35 The Great Apostate Hall of Shame - #8 Ezra Booth Part 5 (FINAL)
Richard hadn't showered in days, his water heater's dead, and his family staged an intervention over his baggy clothes. We read emails from listeners and…
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S6E34 The Great Apostate Hall of Shame - #8 Ezra Booth Part 4
In this episode, we continue our deep dive into Ezra Booth's anti-Mormon letters from October 1831, examining how this early apostate mounted his attack…
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S6E33 Did Brigham Revise Joseph's Journal?
We open with incredible news from Sweetwater Rescue: a second Kyulu Stake group reached the Nairobi Kenya Temple and set a record for the most endowments…
- Standard of Truth
S6E32 The Great Apostate Hall of Shame - #8 Ezra Booth Part 3
This episode of the Standard of Truth continues discussing the apostasy of Ezra Booth, a former Methodist minister who joined the early Church after witnessing…
- Standard of Truth
S6E31 The Great Apostate Hall of Shame - #8 Ezra Booth Part 2
In this episode we dive deeper into Ezra Booth, ranked #8 in the "Great Apostate Hall of Shame." Once a prominent Methodist minister leading anti-Masonry…
- Standard of Truth
S6E30 Where There's Smoke: The Bad Logic Behind Anti-Mormon Claims
In this episode, Gerrit pays a heartfelt tribute to Eric Smith, a beloved Joseph Smith Papers colleague and devoted listener who recently passed after a long…
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S6E29 The Great Apostate Hall of Shame - #8 Ezra Booth Part 1
Richard braves self-diagnosed tuberculosis as he and Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat dig into the mailbag: identical twins listening from two different Zions, an ambitious…
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S6E28 Nauvoo Lyceum Part 2 and the Trinity
In this episode, we continue our discussion of the Lyceum (debates/discussions) in Nauvoo. From the most popular chewing tobacco (it is Copenhagen byt the way)…
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S6E27 As Far As It Is Translated Correctly
Was Francis Scott Key a bitter recluse who denounced America and wrote the anthem from a boat offshore? No, no he was not. Elder Gurr writes in with an…
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S6E26 The Great Apostate Hall of Shame - OLI Joseph Wakefield
The podcast begins with the US-Bosnia World Cup match (SEC championships as the definitive metric), then open the Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown mailbag. Jerry…
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S6E25 Nauvoo Lyceum & 1980s Church Movies
We are recording in front of a live studio audience in Nauvoo, Illinois. In this week's episode, we begin with a movie review of the 1980s classic Prodigal Son…
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S6E23 King Follett Sermon Part 3
In this episode, we answer a litter's questions who wrote while in "DEEP" labor asking about the lesser-known Pratt brothers and an audio submission from…
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S6E22 King Follett Sermon Part 1
This episode was recorded 4 1/2 years ago, but was never released. In this episode, Gerrit provides context around the setting of Joseph Smith’s King Follett…
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S6E21 Declaration of Independence Part 2 (rerelease of premium CTRI)
This is a rereleased episode from season 1 of Condemned to Repeat It. In this episode, we work through the grievances section of the Declaration of…
- Standard of Truth
S6E20 Declaration of Independence Part 1 (rerelease of premium CTRI)
This is a rereleased episode from season 1 of Condemned to Repeat It. In this episode, we set the stage for the Declaration of Independence by exploring the…
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S6E19 King Follett Sermon Part 2
In this episode, we finally depart into the King Follett Sermon. Most podcast would start with a part one but here soon the truth podcast we would like to…
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S6B3 How Visiting LDS Historical Sites Can Strengthen Our Faith - Dr. Mark Ogletree
Mark sits down with renowned church historian Gerrit Dirkmaat to discuss powerful experiences they have had visiting church history sites, and that others have…
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S6E18 The United Order and Tyler Too
In this episode, we tackle the question of why early Utah Saints embraced cooperative economics like the United Order. Gerrit digs into a 1866–67 Inspector…
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S6E17 Jingle Bells and the United Order
Richard returns to share a temple-trip story from Kenya where a skeptical food vendor's view of the Church changed after witnessing the love at the temple. The…
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S6E16 Gathering in Missouri to Move Irrigation Pipe
In this episode, Gerrit is joined by his brother Dallin as guest host while Richard is away following the passing of his father. After announcing the NCAA…
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S6E16 In Preparation of the First Vision (premium JSR)
Any LDS podcast can do a review of general conference two weeks after the broadcast but here in the truth podcast we want to do our review of general…
- Standard of Truth
S6E15 The Book of Enoch Part 5 (City of Zion)
What an incredible General Conference that was. Okay, we recorded this well before you're hearing it, so we have absolutely no idea what happened at General…
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S6E14 The Book of Enoch Part 4 (Joseph Smith's Teachings)
In this episode of the Standard of Truth podcastwe discuss the Latter-day Saint teachings that parents who lose infant children will have the opportunity to…
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S6E13 The CES Letter and Polygamy
In this mailbag episode, we cover the origins and shortcomings of the CES Letter, correct false claims about the timeline of Joseph Smith's practice of plural…
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S6E12 The Book of Enoch Part 3 (TERTULLIAN!!!!)
In this episode Richard debuts a "Fun with Numbers" segment with a rapid-fire March Madness breakdown (12-seeds win 35.6% of first-round matchups and hit in…
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S6B2 Standard of Truth Dead and in Hell March Madness Bracket Buster Challenge
In this bonus episode, we prepare emotionally for the NCAA tournament that kicks off on Thursday. We go through some of the hilarious team names and provide…
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S6E11 The Day Bernie Came Inside
In this episode, we discuss a bizarre culinary textbook that credits the founding of the Church to “Joseph Young,” and a missionary's question about whether…
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S6E10 Live! With Chocolate-Flavored Candy and Zero Tertullian
In this special live studio recording of the Standard of Truth Podcast, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat and Dr. Richard LeDuc are joined by an in-person audience for a…
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S6E9 Prepare, Don’t Predict the Second Coming
In this episode we discuss a litners email where he asks about “the day and the hour” quote attributed to Joseph Smith and how some YouTube voices use it to…
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S6E8 The Book of Enoch Part 2 (Giants in the Land)
In this episode, we begin with a discussion prompted by a question about The Chosen; if the show depicts Joseph comforting Jesus in Gethsemane, is that a…
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S6E7 The Book of Enoch Part 1
It may be too early to say but based on the number of emails we have received from litners giving birth it appears that members of the Church are following the…
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S6E6 Gadianton Robbers Part 4 (Heavenly Travel)
This episode centers on Brigham Young’s insistence that death does not transform us into something fundamentally different, but removes limitations that…
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S6E5 Gadianton Robbers Part 3 (Brigham Young Sermon)
We begin the episode with a response to a litner’s email about signs of the times of the Savior’s Second Coming. Gerrit shares a sermon from Brigham Young that…
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S6E4 Gadianton Robbers Part 2 (the Spirit World)
We begin this week's episode by asking if Gerrit is the reincarnated Apostle Matthias? (He’s not saying he is, but he is also not not saying it.) Where did the…
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S6E3 Gadianton Robbers Part 1
After debating the college football national championship (with Richard very much not gambling… while also explaining the VIG in suspicious detail), Gerrit…
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S6E2 President Holland and Avoiding Deception
We begin the episode with a loving tribute to President Holland and move on to a discussion of a fraudulent email that was sent out to many members of the…
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S6B1 D&C 24 Part 2
In this episode, we wrap up D&C 24, but not before detouring through the agricultural merits of buckwheat and the theological weight of consecration. Gerrit…
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S6E1 Book of Moses and D&C 24
In this episode, we discuss the explosive nature of the Book of Moses and a mob tearing down baptismal dams and dragging a woman away from baptism using power…
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S5E53 Merry Christmas and Dead and in Hell Part 10, the Finale
Merry Christmas! In this episode our gift to the greatest litners in all of podcastdom is to bring a conclusion to a 10 part series on who is dead and in hell…
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S5E52 Dead and in Hell Part 9 (and the Bee Gees)
It’s the end of the year, the Spotify “Wrapped” flexing is in full swing, and Richard LeDuc is fresh off hosting a Hanukkah party that looked suspiciously like…
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S5E51 Dead and in Hell Part 8 (and Official Declaration 1)
In this episode, Gerrit discusses the back and forth between Joseph Smith III and Joseph F. Smith (remember the F) on the topic of polygamy. The episode closes…
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S5E50 Dead and NOT in Hell, Alvin Smith
In this episode, we discuss D&C Section 137 and the lessons found in D&C 137:5-7, specifically the faith shown by Joseph Smith regarding the eternal status of…
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S5B15 Kristy’s KorneЯ - D&C 135 Part 3
In part three we talk about some of the differing accounts surrounding just how and when Joseph Smith died at Carthage, including the less-well known William…
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S5B14 Kristy’s KorneЯ - D&C 135 Part 2
In part two of our special podcast commemorating the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith we continue to discuss the events that led to the martyrdom. We read…
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S5B13 Kristy’s KorneЯ - D&C 135 Part 1
We honor the anniversary of the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and the attempted murders of John Taylor and Willard Richards in Carthage Jail. In Part 1 we…
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S5E49 Dead and in Hell Part 7
Happy Thanksgiving! In this episode, we discuss how do we actually know Heavenly Father has a physical body and what Joseph Smith taught regarding every…
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S5E48 Dead and in Hell Part 6
In this episode, we answer a missionary email about a father who left the Church and won’t leave it alone. We also continue our discussion of the early Utah…
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S5E47 Dead and in Hell Part 5
In this episode, we discuss the results of the Sweetwater Rescue fundraiser at Hug Hess and thank all of our wonderful litners. Continuing with “Who’s Dead and…
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S5E46 Dead and in Hell Part 4
In this episode, we discuss the Sweetwater Rescue fundraiser at Hug Hess, and review D&C 124 and 126 for Kristy’s KorneЯ. From there, we tackle a thoughtful…
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S5E45 Changes to the Section Headings and Polygamy
In this episode, we begin with a promotion of an upcoming fundraiser for Sweetwater Rescue’s Nairobi Kenya Temple Trip. Gerrit provides additional information…
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S5E44 Letters from Liberty
In this episode, we pause the “Who’s Dead and in Hell?” series to discuss the letters behind Doctrine & Covenants 121–123. Gerrit walks through what Joseph…
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S5E43 Dead and in Hell Part 3
In this episode, we get back into who is dead and in hell with a discussion of President Zachary Taylor’s secret “mega-state” plan to skip territorial status…