S5E44 Letters from Liberty

Standard of Truth

Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat

Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 990 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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 wrote in March 1839, and why those canonized excerpts (power, priesthood, and “the Son of Man hath descended below them all”) hit harder when you know the context (state-sanctioned violence in Missouri, Saints fleeing in winter, affidavits of loss, and a prophet pleading for the widows and fatherless). We vow to return to “Who’s Dead and in Hell?” next week. Kristy’s KorneЯ (Last Minute Lesson Prep): Gerrit provides additional context to the first verse of D&C 121 which turns into the entire episode Standard of Truth Tour dates for the summer of 2027: ⁠ https://standardoftruth.com/tours Our 2026 tours are sold out, but if you would like to join us in the future here is a link to our 2027 tours: ⁠ Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠ If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Standard of Truth podcast. In this podcast, Dr. Garrett Dirk-Mott and Dr. Richard
0:08.2	Leduc explore the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the life
0:14.3	and teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. They examine the original historical sources and provide
0:20.4	context for events of the past.
0:23.1	They approach the history of the church with faith, expertise, and humor.
0:40.7	Hi, welcome to another episode of the Standard of Truth podcast.
0:45.8	I'm your host, Dr. Garrett Dirkmont, and I am joined by my friend, Dr. Richard Wooduke.
0:46.6	Hello, Garrett.
0:47.7	Thanks for having me back.
0:49.0	I'm very excited to get back to finding out who is dead and in hell.
0:54.3	That is part 17 of who's dead and in hell.
0:58.2	We're giving Moroni episodes a run for their money.
1:01.9	There's a lot of people dead and in hell.
1:04.0	I think we didn't realize how many American officials would need to be condemned for being lying politicians when we first undertook this?
1:15.9	Yeah, you have undersecretaries of territories.
1:18.5	I've got like Indian agents.
1:20.8	We've got, we've got, we had a, we had a naval attache.
1:24.4	I mean, we've got, we've got a lot of people that are that are doing lying, lying stuff.
1:29.9	We have like a party chairperson in Iowa that is falling under it. So I mean, there's, I guess when a lot of people are willing to lie and treat you terribly, there end up being a lot of
1:44.9	people that condemnation could fall on.
1:47.1	This is true.
1:47.8	Now, Garrett, we're just going to read one email from the Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown mail.
	...

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