Standard of Truth

We crack open an all-missionary mailbag with letters from the Philippines, Cincinnati, and beyond. Then the big question: was Cincinnati really cursed by Joseph Smith? We dig into D&C 61, trace how "well nigh ripened for destruction" shifted across the manuscript versions, and follow Orson F. Whitney's later meetinghouse dedication, settling the folklore with actual sources (plus a spirited defense of five-way chili). 

A tender Yom Kippur reflection on grace we don't deserve gives way to the 1831 Lockport Balance's "Gold Bible" hit piece, where an over/under on "Joe" mentions reveals how casually, and confidently, fa...

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 tree using "phone checks" on exchanges. 

After Nauvoo and before St. George, where did the Saints receive their endowments? Gerrit walks through the Council House, the Endowment House, and Addison Pratt's 1849 endowment atop Ensign Peak, and why exceptions belong to God and His prophets, not to us. A listener shares how the podcast helped a friend through a faith crisis. Gerrit also reads a Shaker elder's 1830 journal account of Oliver Cowdery's visit: an early d...

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 wicked won't all be destroyed at Christ's coming, that non-members will remain through the Millennium, and that Christ will come and go rather than reside on earth continuously. We trace how Brigham Young echoed these ideas in Civil War-era sermons, contrast pre-, post-, and amillennial views, and close on the expansive, near-universal scope of salvation in Latter-day Saint theology.

We also talk about college football, the perils of a...

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 missionaries, including an elder serving in the California Ontario Mission, whose Gen Z slang ("capping," "yapping") had us reaching for a translation guide. Then we got into apostate #8: Ezra Booth. A former Methodist minister and early high priest, Booth apostatized barely a year into the Church and published the first widely reprinted insider attacks on Joseph Smith, fuel for Eber Howe's Mormonism Unveiled. We dug into Sidney Rigdon's public debate challenge, D&C 71, and...

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 against our fledgling church. What fascinates us most is that Booth personally witnessed miracles, including Elsa Johnson's arm being healed, yet later dismissed such spiritual experiences as delusion or deliberate fraud. 

We highlight striking logical contradictions in his arguments: he claims only Joseph saw angels, then attacks witness testimonies about seeing them. His scattershot approach, depicting believers as liars, crazy, or stupid, mirrors modern anti-Mormon rhetoric perfectly. Ironically, Booth himself confirms early church members u...

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 performed in an African temple in a single day.

Gerrit answers a litner’s question on whether or not Brigham Young secretly altered Joseph Smith’s journals to invent polygamy, a claim popular among denialists. Gerrit's dander meter climbs as he unpacks what "revised history" actually meant, why the sources hold up, and the irony of the charge coming from the Bickertonite tradition, which rejects nearly everything Joseph taught after the Book...

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 Joseph Smith heal Elsa Johnson’s arm. 

Gerrit traces Booth’s journey to Missouri in 1831, his disillusionment upon finding the future site of Zion to be a rough frontier town, and his subsequent public renunciation of the faith through nine letters published in the Ohio Star. 

We examine how Booth reframed Mormonism as a deliberate deception rather than sincere belief, and how anti-Mormon arguments shifted from “converts are biblically ignorant” to “conver...

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 campaigns in Ohio, Booth's conversion to Mormonism shocked his community and sparked heated newspaper responses. 

We examine his miraculous experiences witnessing the instant healing of Eliza Johnson and attending the historic June 1831 ordination of high priesthood in Kirtland, where Satan allegedly manifested to disrupt proceedings. Yet despite these profound spiritual experiences, Booth would soon apostatize, becoming one of the Church's most vocal and cruel enemies. The episode explores how even those wh...

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 battle with cancer, complete with the legendary tales of stolen break-room milk and a service missionary's knuckle-deep Oreo heist. 

The mailbag delivers a live-show love story, a a testimony-strengthening note from Kimberly, and a listener's run-in with anti-Mormon radio. That sparks a robust discussion on how critics caricature Latter-day Saint belief without ever reading Doctrine and Covenants 76. Poor Ezra Booth gets bumped yet again.

Gina and Eric’s Cancer Rel...

Richard braves self-diagnosed tuberculosis as he and Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat dig into the mailbag: identical twins listening from two different Zions, an ambitious MTC zone leader, and a great question from Joni. Did a prophet really call Del Parson's red-robe painting the most accurate likeness of Christ? Gerrit explains why that's folklore, and why the anti-Catholic climate of the Second Great Awakening made images of Jesus and even crosses on churches, unthinkable for early American Protestants. 

Then the Great Apostates Hall of Shame lands at #8: Ezra Booth, the Methodist minister converted by a miraculous healing in the H...

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) to manners and the Trinity, we  just about cover everything

#SmallWonder

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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 investigator's list of questions, and we tackle the big ones. Who holds the authority to decide which parts of the Bible are "translated correctly"? Who decided the canon, and why did Protestants pull the Apocrypha after 1,400 years? On grace versus works, why "saved by grace alone" quietly assumes a premise a billion Catholics reject, and why Calvinists and Arminians don't even worship the same Jesus.

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 from North Dakota earns a heartfelt thank-you and an unnecessary swipe at the Bismarck capitol building, plus a Roosevelt-in-the-Badlands tangent and BYU's windowless MARB building. Elder Ballard (the Nauvoo Mississippi River mission one) requests a new segment: ranking the top apostates.

Enter the debut of the "The Great Apostate Hall of Shame." First up, outside-looking-in: Joseph Wakefield, a powerhouse early missionary who baptized George A. Smith, then apostatized, joined Kirtland's anti-Mormon c...

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 and Cipher in the Snow, and then make the obvious transition to Nauvoo Lyceum. Gerrit regales the audience with several topics discussed in this adult education program, and we cover the Chestnut Hill College Lacrosse Team's dominance from 2021 to 2024

If you are interested in joining us in 2027 in Palmyra and Kirtland, August 1st through August 7th, click on the link below and reserve your spot:
h...

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 Filer, Idaho about the legend that Joseph of Arimathea brought the teenage Jesus to Cornwall. Gerrit traces the idea to William of Malmesbury's 12th-century history of Glastonbury and its tangle of Arthurian folklore.

We close with part three of our King Follett sermon series, where Gerrit warns against apologists who lean on the Thomas Bullock account's apparent mistranscription to claim Joseph taught God was God from all eternity, arguing that y...

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 Sermon.

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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 Independence, unpacking how Jefferson methodically built his case against King George III. Gerrit shows how each charge, dissolving colonial legislatures, making judges beholden to the Crown, quartering standing armies, employing Hessian mercenaries, cutting off colonial trade, and asserting the power "to legislate in all cases whatsoever" directly echoes earlier acts of Parliament and the king, with Jefferson cleverly turning the Crown's own language back against it. 

The episode closes with a thoughtful r...

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 deep English political and intellectual history Jefferson drew upon when he sat down to write it. Far from being a spontaneous act of rebellion, the Declaration was the latest entry in a long English tradition of publicly justifying political action, with clear roots in the 1689 Declaration of Right that deposed King James II and the Virginia Declaration of Rights drafted just weeks earlier in June 1776. 

Gerrit walks through the political c...

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 start with a Part 2 and then play a part one three weeks from now it was recorded 4 1/2 years ago. Gerrit discusses some of the problems that Christians see with the implications of this sermon and Gerrit reads from one of the accounts.

We also read an email where a litner shared their feelings about helping people get to the temple. If you would like to follow what Sweetwater...

Mark sits down with renowned church historian Gerrit Dirkmaat to discuss powerful experiences they have had visiting church history sites, and that others have had in the groups they have lead through these places. Mark and Gerrit explain why visiting these sites can have such a deep effect on our faith, testimonies, and sense of belonging to the church.

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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 General's report submitted to Congress by Generals Ruesling and Hazen. The document characterizes Latter-day Saints as "open and avowed foes" of the United States, recommends banning Mormons from government contracts, and bizarrely treats the fact that Mormon contractors underbid Gentile competitors as evidence of disloyalty rather than fiscal responsibility.

They close with the Articles of Agreement from the St. George United Order, a digression on the gold standard, and a ranking of...

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 hosts then read listener emails. The episode ends with 16-year-old Abigail's question about Jingle Bells being a Thanksgiving song and so Gerrit obviously shares a quote from Frederick Douglass as he takes down Jingle Bells with its roots in 19th-century blackface minstrel shows. We read the United Order question but leave the answer for next week.

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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 bracket winner and working through the mailbag, including a listener-made "Dendometer" chart ranking Gerrit's biggest pet peeves, the brothers tackle a question about whether Latter-day Saints will one day gather to Missouri to build the New Jerusalem, tracing the doctrine from early revelations through Brigham Young's teachings to the modern church's global gathering. The episode closes with tender reflections on losing a father and the hope of the Resurrection.

Sign...

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 conference three or possibly four weeks after the original broadcast

Because of this, we are dropping a previously aired premium episode from Joseph Smith, and the Restoration about his preparation for the First Vision

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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 Conference, but we're confident the talks were great. After opening the Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown mailbag and a heartfelt tribute to the legendary Bishop Howard Wilde of Nampa, Idaho, we tackle a litener's question on Catholic apostolic authority. Gerrit references a 1842 Times and Seasons article that explains why every reformation fell short of a true restoration. 

We conclude our discussion on Enoch with Joseph Smith's teachings on translation versus resurrection, Hyrum S...

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 raise them during the Millennium. We also finally get to Joseph Smith's revelations in the Book of Moses relating to Enoch and how they far surpass the apocryphal Book of Enoch and reveal Enoch as an active ministering angel to both Paul and Jude. 

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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 marriage, and firmly address the notion that polygamy wasn't divinely commanded. 

Along the way, they share global polygamy statistics, reflect on lesser-known figures of faith who endured extraordinary trials, and offer thoughtful advice to a listener wrestling with a complicated pioneer ancestor.

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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 85% of all tournaments, and that 11-seeds have won 51.8% of their games against 6-seeds since 2011)

We read a heartfelt PDPB mailbag question from a couple writing in from the delivery room about LDS doctrine on IVF and embryos, with Gerrit walking through the Church handbook's guidance, the history of when Latter-day Saints have believed the spirit enters the body (including Brigham Young's view), and why the Church simply hasn't revealed a definitive answer. 

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 you with absolute stone cold locks for the upcoming NCAA March madness tournament.  

Please join us in our Standard of Truth Dead and in Hell March Madness Bracket Buster Challenge:

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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 someone should pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true.

Gerrit also shares an unforgettable Walgreens VHS story that ends with a strong testimony.

Please join us in our Standard of Truth Dead and in Hell March Madness Bracket Buster Challenge:

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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 lively mailbag episode. The hosts tackle a question submitted mid-labor, fielding a request for obscure Angel Moroni stories guaranteed to keep the asker out of church leadership. 

Gerrit shares an account from Edward Stevenson describing a roadside encounter with Moroni during the translation period, as well as a powerful testimony from Wilford Woodruff about three angelic messengers dressed in temple clothing who rescued him and George A. Smith from evil s...

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 fuel end times certainty. Gerrit breaks down why this kind of content deserves real skepticism: source quality matters, corroboration matters, and the Joseph Smith Papers exist for a reason. He explains how cherry picked, poorly sourced, or context free quotes can create anxiety, drive clicks, and worst of all, set people up for spiritual whiplash when predictions fail. 

We had a couple of spots open up on our St...

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 theological shift in broader Christianity toward the LDS idea that angels can be resurrected beings who once lived on earth? 

From there, the conversation pivots into Part 2 with a deeper dive into the apocryphal Book of Enoch: why it mattered to early Christians, how Jude appears to quote it, and how Enoch’s dramatic narrative tries to explain the origin of evil through fallen angels, forbidden knowledge, and giants the siz...

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 urging of President Oaks by increasing the size of their families.

We answered a handful of litner emails and then Gerrit began a discussion of the Book of Enoch. Given the subject matter we also celebrate the sesquicentennial residuum of George D. Watt’s declining toe fat and a footrace he won in Preston England on July 30th, 1837.

We had a couple of...

This episode centers on Brigham Young’s insistence that death does not transform us into something fundamentally different, but removes limitations that currently slow us down. Drawing directly from a funeral sermon, the discussion highlights how embodied beings, including Christ, move, visit, and perceive real places with speed and purpose rather than existing as abstract spirits. 

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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 Wilford Woodruff said was one of the greatest sermons he had ever heard.

Crinkling Leaves Update: schedule a live virtual tour⁠https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/locations/historic-sites-virtual-tours?lang=eng⁠

We would love to invite you to join us on Saturday, February 28th, at 6:30 for fun, faith, and frivolity as we make predictions for the 2026 Super Bowl that occurred three weeks earli...

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 thief on the cross go when he died? If Jesus went to “paradise,” why does Peter say He preached to “spirits in prison”? We read from theologian R.C. Sproul (because nothing says “good time” like Calvinism) and then pivot to Joseph Smith’s sermon teachings that reframe paradise, prison, and the afterlife in a way that resolves contradictions without doing interpretive backflips.

We would love to in...

After debating the college football national championship (with Richard very much not gambling… while also explaining the VIG in suspicious detail), Gerrit drops a sneak peek announcement: they might do another live event, likely in Davis County, with the goal of raising funds to help get more people to the temple in Kenya on the next Sweetwater Rescue trip.

What are the strongest, most legitimate arguments against faith, the Church, or God in general and how do you faithfully deal with them? Gerrit argues that the most serious challenge isn’t a niche historical complaint or a shal...

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 Church representing itself as an email coming from the Church while making a series of false claims. We also discuss a litner's email about Joseph Smith’s successor and a tremendous scientific experiment on YooHoo performed by a litter in Fairbanks, Alaska.   Link to the YooHoo Scientific Experiment: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-Tg5QE6bRRpsRC_yg7rG82uXzC__dk2m?usp=sharing  

Standard of Truth Tour dates for...

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 reflects on President Holland’s haunting admonition “If you knew what I know, you would run.” and connects it to Oliver Cowdery’s call to speak as with the voice of a trumpet.   

Standard of Truth Tour dates for the summer of 2027: ⁠ https://standardoftruth.com/tours

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