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
S4E48 Additional Witnesses of the Gold Plates Part 1
In this episode, Gerrit shares stories about additional witnesses of the Gold Plates. We discuss Mary Whitmer and Josiah Stoal’s witness of the Gold Plates and…
- Standard of Truth
S4E47 Where is Zion?
In this episode, we discuss a litner’s email about the location of Zion and Gerrit shares a lesser-known quotes from Joseph Smith from one of his last sermons…
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S4E46 Questions About Eternal Sealings
In this episode, Gerrit’s dander is way up as we focus on a question from a litner about celestial marriage. A wonderful sister who was baptized later in life…
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S4E45 Sidney Rigdon’s Apostasy Part 3
In this episode, we begin with a discussion of academic procrastination and how desperate Richard’s dissertation committee is to read about implied referrals…
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S4E44 Sidney Rigdon’s Apostasy Part 2
In this episode, we begin with a discussion of the impact of Sidney Rigdon’s tarring and feathering injuries on his mental health. We then move to Sydney…
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S4E43 Sidney Rigdon’s Apostasy Part 1
In this episode, Gerrit discusses the claim that President Joseph Fielding Smith destroyed pages of Joseph Smith’s history so that the saints wouldn’t be upset…
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S4E42 Following the Prophet Joseph Smith After his Death
In this episode, we read a couple of missionary emails and talk about why the Church is mocked. We discuss our experience at the premier of the movie 6 Days in…
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S4E41 Six Days in August
In this episode, we begin with a celebration of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin temple. We play everyone’s favorite game “Fun with General Conference”. We discuss the…
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S4B7 Standard of Truth Tour, the People Cry Out
In this bonus episode, we play a recording that we did on the 2024 standard to tour in Palmyra. We hear the comments of tour participants and the things that…
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S4E40 The Essential Answers to the Most Important Questions Part 2
In this episode, we continue a deeper theological discussion of the problem of evil and what happens to the billions upon billions of people who never hear the…
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S4E39 The Essential Answers to the Most Important Questions Part 1
In this episode, we discuss the theological impact of the restored gospel on Christianity. Most if not all of us have family or friends that have had a crisis…
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S4E38 Super Special Secret Source on Polygamy?
In this episode, Gerrit discusses a book that was randomly sent to a litner, Joseph Smith Revealed: A Faithful Telling: Exploring an Alternate Polygamy…
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S4E37 Secret Ways to Prepare for the Second Coming
We continue our discussion on President George Albert Smith’s apocalyptic vision and Gerrit shares other quotes and warnings from modern prophets on how to…
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S4E36 George Albert Smith’s Apocalyptic Vision
The Standard of Truth Podcast is nothing if not hip to the kids and current social media trends. Recently a recollection of an apocalyptic vision attributed to…
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S4E35 Changes to the Aaronic Priesthood
The episode begins with a TREMENDOUS amount of gratitude for those who donated to Sweetwater Rescue’s fundraiser to help Latter-day Saints in Rio Gallegos get…
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S4E34 Sweetwater Rescue
Gerrit is asked for his favorite story from Church history, leading to a discussion of the rescue of the Willie and Martin handcart companies at the Sweetwater…
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S4E33 Theory for the Origin of the Book of Mormon
Attacking the Book of Mormon is a staple of anti-Mormon commentary, however, the fact that it exists creates a problem. There are many theories about the…
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S4E32 Questions About Joseph Smith
We start the episode by providing an answer to a litner’s email, if they could choose the date for their child to be born, what date from Church history would…
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S4E31 Joseph Smith Removed as Prophet Part 2
In this episode, Gerrit’s dander and blood pressure both continue to remain way up as he continues to refute the assertion that Joseph was in any way a fallen…
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S4E30 Lectures on Faith and Joseph Smith Removed as Prophet Part 1
We begin with a discussion about the author of Lectures on Faith and why was it removed from the Doctrine and Covenants. Then the episode takes a sharp turn as…
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S4E29 Having Faith Isn’t a Cop Out
In this episode, we respond to a litner’s email who has had many friends and family leave the Church. Gerrit describes all of the problems with the standard…
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S4E28 Joseph's Experiences Attending Other Churches
In this episode, we answer some missionary emails relating to the First Vision, Joseph’s early persecution, and Joseph’s experiences attending other churches…
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S4E27 Of Adultery and Baptism
We start the podcast with a discussion of General Authorities conference talks that focus on adultery. For the prize of a $50 Olive Garden gift card, we play…
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S4E26 Can Adulterers Go to the Celestial Kingdom?
We start with an email we received from a Catholic in Quebec and a new litner from France that we met on our recent Church history tour. In this episode we…
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S4B6 180 Years Since the Martyrdom
It has been 180 since the prophet Joseph Smith was murdered in Carthage Jail. In this bonus episode, Gerrit discusses the martyrdom and shares his feelings…
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S4E25 Sword of Laban
As Gerrit and Richard return from several weeks of Church history tours there is much to discuss. Because of this, we wanted to provide a full Rex’s Elders…
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S4E24 Top Villains of the Restoration
This episode was recorded in front of a live studio audience on the banks of the Mississippi River in Keokuk, Iowa. In this episode, we answer questions from…
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S4E23 Anti Mormon Legislation
From the shadow of the Hill Cumorah, we bring you questions and answer recordings in front of a live Standard of Truth Tour audience. Below are the questions…
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S4E22 Formation of the New Testament (formerly premium content from JSR)
In this episode, we discuss whether or not God created the Dodge Dart. Marcion also had a question about whether or not the God of the Old Testament was the…
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S4E21 The Arian Controversy: Did God the Father Create Jesus? (formerly premium content from JSR)
As it is the season when many missionaries receive their callings, we want to help provide additional resources for mission prep. In this episode, we replay a…
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S4E20 Gerrit Goes Hard in the Paint on Hurlbut and Solomon Spaulding Part 2
If you love the anti-Mormon book Mormonism Unvailed boy, do we have an episode for you. In this episode, Gerrit reads from Mormonism Unvailed where definitive…
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S4E19 Gerrit Goes Hard in the Paint on Hurlbut and Solomon Spaulding Part 1
In a premium episode several weeks ago Gerrit may or may have gone on a rant about Doctor Philastus Hurlbut and Solomon Spaulding and we wanted to play a…
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S4E18 Lesser Known Heroes from Church History - Eliza Dana Gibbs Part 2
We continue our discussion of Eliza Gibbs and the trials she suffered in Nauvoo, Iowa, and Utah. Despite her difficulty, she remained faithful. Gerrit shares a…
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S4E17 Lesser Known Heroes from Church History - Eliza Dana Gibbs Part 1
We begin this episode, like most episodes, with a discussion of the faith crisis of a 19th-century 20-year-old woman with consumption (tuberculosis). She has a…
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S4E16 The Angel Raphael and Other Ninja Turtles
In this episode, Gerrit discusses D&C 128 and the identity of the Angel Raphael. We start with what we know from modern revelation and then bring in the…
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S4B5 Thoughts on Following the Prophet After Conference
Gerrit shares some of his thoughts about the responses to several talks during General Conference. He compares the responses of General Conference to the…
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S4E15 The Angel Gabriel and a Good Old-Fashioned Feet Dusting
In this episode, Richard starts by thanking all the kind listeners who donated money to help 118 people in Peru travel to the Arequipa Temple. We discuss a…
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S4B4 Explaining Poor Audio and Conference Report
On Thursday we released an episode that sounded like it was recorded in Gerrit’s bathroom in a cave. We fixed the audio and explained how you can access it. We…
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S4E14 Statements from the Three Witnesses (primarily Martin Harris)
We had a corrupted audio file that made the episode sound terrible. We have fixed the audio quality, however, the terrible content remains. We apologize for…
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S4E13 Live Studio Audience Part 2 (Politics and Polygamy)
In this episode, we really wanted everyone in attendance to feel comfortable, so we discussed politics and polygamy. We learned the history of political…
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S4E12 Live Studio Audience Part 1 (Phebe Draper Palmer Brown Mail Bag)
Like every sitcom in the 1980s, this episode was recorded in front of a live studio audience. We cannot even begin to thank all the amazing people who attended…
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S4E11 Witnesses of the Book of Mormon Part 5 (we finally get to it)
We finally get back to the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Sure, we first spend a little time talking about the Book of Abraham and the characters copied from…
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S4B3 Dedication of the Kirtland Temple
In this bonus episode, we replay sections of a previous episode from season 3 where we discuss the origin of the Hosanna Shout and the dedication of the…
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S4E10 The Church Acquires the Kirtland Temple and Nauvoo Properties
In this episode, we discuss the historic purchase of the Kirtland Temple and other Nauvoo properties. Gerrit provides additional insight into the properties…
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S4B2 Update on Live Event
In this bonus episode, we discuss additional details of our live event on Saturday, March 16th at 6:00 PM in Orem. Space is limited so if you would like to…
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S4E9 Questioning Scriptures and Frustration with Politics
In this episode, we begin the podcast by talking about the pseudepigraphal nature of some of the books of the New Testament and the problem with the process…
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S4E8 Oliver Cowdery Attempts to Translate
In this episode, we take a slight departure from the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon to answer a litner’s question about Oliver’s attempt to translate the Book…
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S4E7 Witnesses of the Book of Mormon Part 4
Richard feels so confident coming off his first ever successful football pick (Kansas City over San Francisco) that he predicts the Collingwood Magpies to…
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S4E6 Witnesses of the Book of Mormon Part 3
In this episode, we continue our discussion about the witnesses of the Gold Plates, but we start with Richard’s picks for the Super Bowl which he claims to be…
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S4E5 Witnesses of the Book of Mormon Part 2
In this episode, we continue our discussion about the witnesses of the Gold Plates. We discuss the setting where Joseph first learns that he will be allowed to…
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S4E4 Witnesses of the Book of Mormon Part 1
In a surprise usurpation of power, Richard presents a top five list of facts surrounding modern day polygamy before Gerrit can shut his microphone off. We…
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S4B1 Exciting News
We are excited to annouce a recording of the Standard of Truth Podcast in front of a live studio audience. We would love for you to come. We are working on…
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S4E3 Title Page of the Book of Mormon
In this episode we discuss some of the implications of Calvinism at the time of the Restoration juxtaposed against the religious world today and discussed the…
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S4E2 Obscure Anti Argument
In this episode, we discuss an obscure anti-Mormon argument that confronted a missionary in the field. The story is about Arnold Potter a former member of the…
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S4E1 Preface to the Book of Mormon
To usher in a new season and the study of the Book of Mormon we have a discussion of the original Preface to the Book of Mormon and the central aspect of the…
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S3E52 Moroni Addendum
In this episode we fulfill our promise from weeks ago and discuss a couple more questions listeners have asked about Moroni, such as his relationship with the…
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S3B5 Merry Christmas
We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas...our present to you...which is like getting coal in your stocking, is a bonus episode in which we read a letter from an…
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S3E51 Christmas Extravaganza
If you ever wondered how rabbit pies and Puritanism affected the history of Christmas in America and Europe, then this is the podcast for you. We examine…
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S3E50 Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith
We started off with a plan to provide some addendums to our Moroni episodes, but a listener's touching email kind of derailed us into a discussion about faith…
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S3E49 Walking on Water Part 2
We continue our discussion about antagonistic claims against Joseph Smith that were eventually repeated in the 20th century in a pseudo-academic source. If you…