The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Your Questions and My Answers (Part 1)

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

What Bible study should I do? I finished the Bible in a Year, what’s next? Jeff, why did you leave the Church for a time? In this episode, Jeff Cavins sits down to answer your questions. The questions range from book recommendations to Scriptural questions to questions about Jeff’s personal life. Jeff answers them all! Snippet from the Show “I didn’t leave the Catholic Church because of doctrine. I left because I was loved out of the Church.” Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is episode 362, your questions, my answers, part one. Welcome to the show. Good to have you here. Lots of good feedback from last week restoring the bruised Reed, thank you so much. It's always good to hear the feedback and to also know that you are interacting online with Apple and Google Play and others and going ahead and liking the show and putting your thoughts in there. I appreciate that very much. Hey, this week, we are going to do something a little bit different over the last, oh man, it's been years now. I guess I have been slowly collecting questions that people will ask, always thinking, well, someday I'm going to have a

show where I can just answer some of these, some of these, you know, big questions that people have. And so as I was thinking about today, I was going over in my computer some of the files from the past and came across the file with some of the questions that you have submitted to me over the years, whether it be email or something you sent in to Ascension Press. So what I thought I would do today is to answer a number of questions. Some of them are theological related to Bible studies. And then there's some personal questions that have come up. And these are, to be honest with you, these are just really kind of a random sampling of some of the questions. I have many more. And perhaps we will do more of this in the future up to you kind of. If you like that, if you like this type of

thing, let me know in the show notes or the comment section, I mean, for the show. And I would appreciate that. So I do hope your week is going well. Again, what this is all about on the Jeff Kaven show is information that really supplements your walk with Jesus as an activated disciple, a modern disciple, and putting the Word of God into practice and answering some questions, you know, about, or addressing questions about regular things in life that people are facing all the way from suffering to making decisions to how to how to have a good family, all those things. Not to say I'm perfect in every area, but I do have a number of years of experience, and that's up in the upper 40 years of experience with Bible and people,

and I was a pastor for 12 years. In fact, one of the questions deals with that here on today's show. If you do want show notes for any of the shows, all you have to do is type my name, Jeff Kavens and send it, text it to the number 33777. That's that's 3377. And we'll put you on the list. And we'll get you the show notes every single week. Okay. So let's go ahead this week. I do, by the way, I do appreciate your questions. And if you do have questions, you can, you can email me at the Jeff Caven Show at ascensionpress.com. The Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. Okay. So now the first part here are questions that kind of deal with scripture. And there's a number of different questions. And I'll address those first. And then we will get into some of the personal questions that people have. And so the first one is, the question is, our church is looking to study the Bible with you. Bible in a year was a big hit. We were very excited as we just finished Bible in a year with you and Father Mike. What would you recommend as a place to begin when it comes to studying the Bible in a year? Bible for ourselves. Should we do a gospel first or some other New Testament book? What would you

recommend? Well, that's a good question. I appreciate you asking that. A lot of you did go through Bible in a year and you've probably gone through catechism in a year or about to complete that. That is a good question because, you know, Bible in a year is not really meant to be a study in itself. It's meant to be really kind of a reflection, a devotion, if you will. It's a quick walk through the entire Bible piece by piece all year long as we guide you through the great adventure. One of the things that I started to realize was how many people were involved in the Bible in a year, but were for some reason, maybe just who knows why, we're not aware that the Bible in a year was actually the great adventure study over an entire year. It was laid out

that way. So the question is, should I start with a gospel or start with another new Testament book, and I know it might sound funny, but I would say neither. I do not suggest that people start off with the gospel or one of the other books like Romans or Hebrews or the book of Revelation. And the reason for that is that when you start off with an individual book, you're certainly going to get something out of it. Don't get me wrong. You're going to get something out of it, but you won't know where you're at in light of the entire canon of scripture. The Bible is divided up into two, you know, Testaments. You've got the Old Testament and the New Testament, 73 books altogether. And all together, there is a story there. There's a story

in them, their books. So the 73 books. But many people will go their whole life and not know this. And so they will go after one book at a time. And if you do that, if that's the pattern that you're going to follow, then you're going to get some favorite verses and, you know, maybe some encouraging. encouragement here, there, and might even give you a little bit of direction. But that's really not the way we want to read the Bible. We want to, first of all, acknowledge there is a complete story here. God has a plan of sheer goodness for your life. And hidden in the pages of the Bible is that story. Now, a lot of people think that if they start in Genesis, like in January 1st, and then go all the way to the book of Revelation by December, the end of December, that they're going to going to, you know, sit back and say, man, that was a good story. Man, that was really good. Well, it's not going to happen. And the reason is, is because the Bible's not put together as a narrative. The canon isn't, at least. It is divided up into types of literary genre. So you have some historical books together. You've got poetry books together. You've got

wisdom books. You've got prophets, the prophetic books, even some apocalyptic literature. So you've got all these different kinds of literature, and they are grouped that way. Now, you wouldn't go into a library and start on the left-hand side and say, I'm going to read this library from left to right. You wouldn't get a story out of it. And that's what we have in the Bible is we don't have a book, as you would know, regular book. You would know a regular book. What you have is a library, a library of 73 books. Now, this means that you really need someone to show you how to read it so that you get the story out of all 73 books to end in a complete narrative or complete story.

That's what the Great Adventure Bible study is all about. So here's what I would recommend your church does, which is what many, many churches, hundreds of churches around the country have followed this pattern. There are two ways to begin in your parish. The Great Adventure Bible Study, the Bible timeline, is 24-1-hour talks that I give, and we work with a really well-laid-out workbook, and we have questions that we ask for small group discussion. We even have helps at Ascension Press on how to do this at your parish. and so my recommendation is that you start off in the beginning of your study not with John or not with Romans but but you start off with the idea that I want to know the story first so there's two ways of doing that one is as I just mentioned the 24 one hour sessions that take you through

the Bible in chronological order that's the one that really got the revival going that's the one that really changed people's lives. That's the one that really touched Father Mike Schmitz and led to our relationship. And then, of course, eventually Bible in a year, catacism in a year and all that. And so that's what I would begin in your church. Now, if you say to me, I don't know if our church is ready for a 24, you know, 24 weeks study to go through the whole Bible. That's fine because we did put together a smaller study called Unlocking the Mystery of the Bible, which is the same basic idea, but I do it in eight half-hour sessions. So some parishes will, they'll offer that sort of as like a leader, you know,

find out how many people are interested in learning salvation history, how to study the Bible, how to navigate through it. Now, what does the church think about this? If you want to start there, that's totally okay. And that also has, you know, small group discussion and it has eight half-hour lessons. Now, most of the studies now are offered digitally on Ascension. And so your parish can sign up and you can run these at different times, even in homes. And your church can have several studies going on at the same time.

So those are the two choices. One is unlocking the mystery of the Bible, which will give you that introduction to the entire Bible. And that's where I really recommend people go. And then what usually happens is after the unlocking the mystery of the Bible is that people go into the Bible timeline, the 24-week study. And wow, did they go deep into that? And that's where we really start to see some amazing change in people's lives. And they, for the first time in their life, they understand the whole story. Well, Bible in a year actually took the three-month study of the Bible timeline study that I have, and we stretched it out for the whole year so that you get the whole story.

whole Bible in a chronological fashion. So that's where I would begin. Nothing wrong with Matthew, nothing wrong with John or Romans, you know, have that. But if you are looking to understand the whole story and you want to really understand Matthew or John or Romans in their proper context, spend a little bit of time. Get a foundation. That's what I would recommend. I've been saying that for, boy, 40 years. 35 years now. I've been saying that. And I developed the Bible timeline when I was about 26 years old, 25 years old. And so that was quite a while ago. And this is what I've been doing since.

I have not changed a bit. It is my life. It's my joy. And honestly, that's what I think God put me on earth for. Honestly, is to help people read the Bible. That's it. I don't know how to change the oil in my car. I am not very good at most things in life.

But this caught me at a young age. And I've made it my life. And I've never regretted it. It has given me joy. And just to hear you and the excitement that you have about reading the Bible, even your questions, as today here, that's payday for me. And I really, really thank you for it. So those are the two things. If you want more information on that, I'll tell you what, in the show notes, we'll put the number for Ascension Press.

You can give them a call. If you need some help with your parish and starting one of these studies, well, they have people standing by. So you can go ahead and give them a call. second question can you give me some help in understanding the difference between the catechism in the Bible not an unusual question actually in fact when I speak around the country at conferences I will get this question and people will come up and say I heard you guys just came out with a brand new catechism what now what's the difference between that in the Bible it's a good question well first of all the Bible is a book all unto itself there's nothing like it in the entire world the Bible as I just

mentioned two Testaments, 73 books, is the only library slash book in the world that is inspired by God. And that means, well, there's a word for inspiration called Theo Nustos, and that is God breathed. It's the only book that is God breathed or another way of putting it is that God is the author. He's the author of the Bible. Therefore, there is no errors. It's inerrant. So the Bible is different than any other great. book in the world in that the author is God. Now, in the Bible, which is inspired, the Holy Spirit is the author, God reveals himself in words and deeds. And so the way to really come to know God and to know the mystery of the Trinity and to know the pascal mystery, the Passover and Jesus and the

Eucharist, and to understand our relationship with Jesus and what's expected of us and what Jesus will do in our lives, we find this out by reading the Bible. So we get the basic story and the revelation in sacred scripture. Now, the catechism is different. The catechism is not inspired by God. It certainly is inspiring, but it's not inspired by God, meaning that God is the author. The Bible, God is the author, and there's human authors as well, but the catechism is a book that divides up all that we believe in the faith, all of the major beliefs in the Catholic Church are divided up among four pillars. And in those four pillars, we get, we really get an idea of how to live out our faith. What are the truths that we should know about various areas

of life? For example, I'll give you an example. In scripture, Paul said to the Ephesians, he said, husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church. All right. That's what the Bible says. That is the truth. That's the direction that God is giving us. Love your wife as Christ loved the church. Wow.

Okay. Now the question comes up, how do I do that? That's where the catechism comes in. The catechism really teaches us how to live out the truths that have been revealed to us. And it really, it really highlights these truths that are so important in our lives. And even the organization of the catechism reveals something. And I'll try to make this short because we don't want to, you know, spend so much time on just this. But I'll say this.

Here's the four pillars. Number one is the creed. Number one. Number two, the second pillar is the sacraments in liturgy. Number three, that's number two. number three is the life in Christ, the moral law. And number four is prayer. So what are those?

Well, if you put them together, you really have a complete, complete life. Number one, the creed, what's that? Well, that is the story of salvation history. That is the story. And so the first pillar of the creed really goes into the story of salvation using scripture. So the story comes first. Scripture comes first. Then second is sacraments and liturgy.

And what's that? That's how you get into this amazing story. And then number three, life in Christ, what's that? That's your personal script. And that is to live the life of Christ within the story. So as Paul said in Galatians 2.20, he says, I've been crucified. He says, I've been crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me

and delivered himself up for me. That's Galatians 2.20. You see, we are dead. The old man is dead. We are alive in Christ. We have a new life. We live the life of Christ. The second one is the liturgy in the sacraments.

That's how you get into it. The third one is life in Christ. That's your script. That's what you live in this story. And then the fourth is prayer, which is vital all throughout. all throughout this. It's our communication with God. So there are two of the most important, they're the two most important books that we have, at least I do. Bible always number one, it's the inspired word of God. Catechism comes alongside, and it gives us the teachings that

Christ has revealed to the church, and it's a great way to learn how to put these things into practice. How do you love your wife as Christ loved the church? Okay. That's a good question. by the way, very good question. One more before the break. I've heard you say that the Bible is God's will for us. So if the Bible is God's will for all of us, how do I know what is the will of God for me personally? That's a good question.

And I thought about that a little bit. And I think what you're asking there is you're saying, well, if the Bible is God's will for us, then it seems like every life would look exactly the same. But what about me personally? How do I know what I'm supposed to do? you know marry this person work here work there so it's a good question what i would say on that is that first of all uh we have i guess what you would say is the objective will of god and the

objective will of god is the will of god for everybody uh it's for everybody it's not for just some people but it's for everybody and that is the the moral life and a life of virtue love one another forgive and be a person of prayer, person of dignity, and, you know, a person who is striving for holiness to become a disciple of the Lord. All of the things that are common to all of us, we all should be doing those things. Now, when it comes to, when it comes to the personal aspect of it, I would say that the personal aspect of it, or knowing what God is calling you to personally, always springs from a foundation of walking in his will as we know it, as we all know it. If you walk in the objective

will of God, which is his will for all humanity, then you stand a better chance of the Lord leading you into something more personalized, like who are you going to marry, or where you're going to work, or what you're going to give toward in your offerings, those types of of things, or how you should respond to someone in your family, which might be different than somebody else, you know, in their family and how they're going to respond. You know, one of the questions that used to come up an awful lot, and I could act like, I guess, now that it's here. And that is, people will say, well, how do I find my husband? How do I find my wife? You know, where do I look for them? And I always tell people that,

The best place to find a spouse is doing the will of God in your everyday life. Be busy with the will of God. That's the best place. You don't need to go to a bar. You don't need to go to, you know, those kind of hangouts to find that Mr. Wright or Mrs. Right. But to be busy with the will of God. Now, there is a certain level of divine providence that we have to look at here.

Divine Providence is realizing that when you are. busy doing the will of God. God can providentially bring people into your life and opportunities in your life. You don't need to turn to the things of this world like the occult and Ouija boards and tarot cards and tea leaves and everything else to try to capture the future. In fact, we're called not to do that. That's a sin against justice, against God, who is the one that we look to. Instead, we look to God for divine providence. We trust ourselves to God because we are busy doing his will. So that's what I would say is that the best place to know what he's called you personally to do is first to walk in his will and then

to begin to see how he is leading and guiding you. And it's always good to get some counsel on this if you have friends or a pastor. And it has to agree with the teachings of the church. It has to agree with the teachings of scripture and I think you're in pretty good shape at that point. Okay, one more before we take the break. This is a good one. Can you recommend any books to help me understand the Old Testament better? I struggle with the Old Testament. Yes, I can, by the way.

I've got three of them lined up for you here. Number one is the book that Dr. Tim Gray and I wrote, Ascension put it out. In fact, the first two books, Ascension put out. This one is called Walking with God. And walking with God is, I think, the best presentation of the entire Bible as a story for anybody that just wants to sit down, read a book, get the story of salvation history. We'll put all this in the show notes for you. It's called Walking with God.

I just finished the audio to that. That's going to be coming out. Essentially, we'll let you know about that. But as I was doing the audio, I was thinking myself, man, this is good. This is really a good presentation. I was excited about it and I was encouraged. That's number one, walking with God. Number two is a Catholic guide to the Old Testament.

Now, this is pretty new. And Ascension put that out. I work with a team on this. And we went through the entire Old Testament, you know, with the great adventure in mind, looking at the periods, looking at the books, and went into all of it so that it'll help you understand the structure and the basic topics in the Old Testament. Number three is a really good book by my good friend John Bergsma and Brant Petrie. And it is called an introduction to the Bible, the Old Testament.

Ignatius Press puts that one out. It's a hunker of a book, but man, it's good. Those two, those three books are the books that I would recommend for any life. library if you really want to get into the Old Testament. So let's take a break. We're going to take a break when we come back. I do have some personal questions. I'm going to go through quickly with you. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. I'm my name's Father Mike Schmitz. I want to let you know about an exciting announcement that could revolutionize the way you listen to the Bible in the year and the catechism in the air. Ascension has released a new Bible and catechism app called the

Ascension app. No, here's what you get. In this app, you get the entire text of the Great Adventure Bible. incredible. You also get the entire text of the catechism of the Catholic Church, as long with the Catechism in your podcast, the Bible into your podcast, and transcripts for each episode. If you're like, I'm tired of listening to that guy. I just want to read it. There's complete transcripts from each and every episode. One thing that makes this app incredibly unique is that it includes special features that make connections between the Bible and the catechism so crystal clear through color-coded references and all these links. The hyperlinks are amazing. I tried it out. I'm like, oh my gosh, it kind of has changed the way I read through the catechism,

kind of changed the way I read through the Bible. These features will help you navigate the Bible and catechism even more seamlessly so you can get more out of your experience. Also, the app provides almost 1,000 answers to Bible questions. The people who listen to the Bible in the year, they wrote in with their questions. Almost 1,000 answers. And those answers come in the form of audio clips, video clips, as well as resources excerpted from some of Ascension's published works. if you want to download this app for free super simple just go to the app store in search for ascension app i am telling you if learning about the bible and the catechism is important to you then this app will change your life welcome back welcome back we're uh we have a special show this

week your questions my answers and uh talking about scripture on the first half of this show by the way before we look at a few of the personal questions i wanted to also share with you this. The Catholic commentary on sacred scripture is amazing. Dr. Mary Healy and Dr. Peter Williamson are editors of that really fine Catholics, grace scholars. And I just, I was looking over some of the questions that we're not getting to, and that was one of them about a commentary. What do you recommend? Wow, I recommend that. Catholic commentary on sacred scripture. It's amazing. You can buy that at all kinds of places. You can get that at Amazon, Amazon, and a lot of different places. But, yeah, get that. If you really want a full commentary, I use it all the time. I think it's

incredible, and their insights are just beautiful and very, very practical. Personal questions. All right. I heard that you left the Catholic Church and then returned. What was it that made you leave the Catholic Church, and what was it that led you to your return? Well, that one would take a show or two to answer. But I'll answer it briefly. I didn't leave the Catholic Church. By the way, I came back to the Catholic Church. I left, what was it? It was in the early 80s that I left the Catholic Church. And then I came back in about 1995. I came back. And I was 12 years. I was a pastor. And I came back. If I left, first of all, I left not because of doctrine. I didn't even know enough about doctrine, to be honest with you. I didn't know anything.

about doctrine much. But I left because I was loved out of the church. I'd been through Bible college and I was loved out. I went to an assembly of God church and they invited me over to their house for dinner. When I came to the church, they involved me. They invited me to the Wednesday Bible study. They invited me to prayer meetings. The fellowship was incredible. I just slid right out of the Catholic Church. And I had a bit of an attitude. I did about the Catholic Church. I was angry with some aspects of it and my parents and and I know when and it just didn't seem like a place where people were happy and nobody seemed to be into Bible study or leading people to Christ and so part of it was my attitude but I ended up and by the way my book my life on the rock ascension put that

out that goes into the story the whole story of why I left why I came back if you really want to get into the nitty gritty on that but I came back basically for four three things started me off. I got into the early church fathers, and there were four common denominators that the early church fathers taught that we didn't in our non-denominational church. Number one was the Eucharist. And now, I was really deep into the Old Testament. And I understood about the Passover meal. And I understood that you had to eat the Passover lamb in the Old Testament. But I didn't have an answer for that in the New Testament because all I could think of, and after reading the Bible, is there was some kind of symbol. But that wasn't what the early church fathers taught. They taught

that the Eucharist was the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. And that's what the early church taught across the board for hundreds and hundreds of years. So that was number one, the teaching of the Eucharist. Number two was the blessed mother, the queen mother, the Gevera, the one who is the intercessor and advocate in the Old Testament. Well, the New Testament believers believe that Mary was the Queen Mother, the Mother of the King. And I didn't have anything like that. Now, the third was the papacy. And I understood all about the Prime Minister, the Albaite in the Old Testament, the one who's over the household.

I knew all of that, but I never put them together that the Pope was the one who had the keys until I started studying more, and all of a sudden I realized a lot of people knew that. And then finally, it was the concept of the Word of God being Scripture and Tradition, the Word of God being Scripture and Tradition, that that's not something Catholics made up. That's something that the Jews have believed for years and eons, was that Moses received the written Torah on Mount Sinai, but he also received the Oral Torah, and together that's the Word of God. second question i know you do podcasts and bible studies as well as teach what do you do to relax good question well i do a few things um i love to play the guitar i am not good but i love to play it

and i like to listen to it and uh really enjoy music especially the guitar and so i have um i have a few electric guitars and i have a couple of acoustic guitars one that my mother had back in the in the 60s. It's a 60s epiphone Cortez. And I have a Martin guitar. I have a strat. I have a teli. I have a PRS guitar. Two of those. Yeah, I enjoy it. So they come and go, but I enjoy that a lot. I also like to take long walks. And I like to walk with my wife, Emily. It's very relaxing to me. And I'm a bit of a daydreamer. And so sometimes I just like to sit out on the bag porch and think. I love to think. And a very relaxing thing for me is taking all that I have learned in the computer and I put it into a program called Obsidian, where I look at all that I've ever learned and I start connecting ideas. I find that

incredibly relaxing. I know it's weird, geeky, but I like it. Let's see, the third personal question, can you have your wife? Yes, this is a good one. Can you have your wife, Emily, on your show to talk about archaeology. Yes. Okay, that's a good question. She's finishing her doctorate now and she's been working on Telal Hamam over in Jordan, which is the believed to be the site of Sodom. You know, we have Sodom and Gomorra. She has worked on quite a few sites in Israel and she's written several books, the book on Kateri Tekewitha, that Father Pakua, he did the forward to that. Lili of the Mohawks, the name of that one. She's written several books. So yeah, I will. I'll do that. I'll have her on. I actually get people asking about that quite a bit. And the final question, do you miss anything

about your Protestant days? I know that you were a pastor, and I just wondered if you missed anything. I am a convert, and there are some things that I miss. Good. Well, that's a good question. I would say this real quickly. Yeah, there are. There are some things that I miss. Not to the the point where I would say that this was a bad decision. Not at all. It doesn't even compare. But there are some things about the way we live that I do miss. One is having a lot of friends around me that all we want to talk about is the Word of God. I miss that. I miss having people in my life. Not that I don't have friends. Don't get me wrong. I have lots of really good friends. But when I was a pastor, every day we got together, I had like three staff members of the

church, we ate together, we played together, we studied together. Our fellowship was all about the Word of God and about Jesus. And I miss that aspect of that when you get together with friends, you talk about the Word of God. That's something I do kind of miss. I do miss. I do miss. parts of being a pastor in that I miss marrying people, burying people. I miss the hospital call at two in the morning. I miss the police call at one in the morning. Always being there when people were at their worst. For some reason, I rose to that, and I enjoyed that. I enjoyed being with people and loving them at the difficult times of their life. I never lost that. I still have a pastor's heart and I'll never lose that. And so as a Catholic, I'm probably a little bit of a strange

one in that I'm the one that calls people to see if I can stop by the hospital, not because I think I'm a pastor, but because I think I've always had a pastor's heart. And I miss that. I miss being there for, you know, those types of situations. But as far as the rest, no, I know I'm in a good place and I love being Catholic and I'm so enriched by the faith and the and the tradition. I wouldn't give this up for anything, nothing. And I really, really like that. That's a good question. I appreciate it. In fact, I appreciate all of, let's see, we had four or four or four, eight questions. And I got much more. If you want to hear more, just let me know the show, you know, write me, the Jeff Kaven show at ascensionpress.com. Love to hear from you. It's nice once in a while

just to kind of chill and answer the questions and share a little bit of myself with you and to hear what you're interested in as well. By the way, thank you for sharing the show with other people and going online and liking the show, making some comments, always helps with the algorithm. And I will look forward to being with you next week. Why do we pray together before we departe?

Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus, we love you. We thank you so much, Lord, for the opportunity to walk with you. We thank you for all you have given us, the scriptures, the catechism. We're so enriched. We are just wealthy people in the faith. I thank you for my brothers and sisters who have submitted questions. And I thank you, Lord, for their inquisitiveness and their curiosity about growing in the faith and knowing one another better. And I pray that you would encourage them this week and be with them and reveal yourself to them in just beautiful ways. I thank you for this.

name of Jesus, we pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. I love you, my friend. I look forward to talking to you next week.