ArcaMax

Q: If someone does not obey God’s commandments, like Adam and Eve didn’t, God cast them out. If I, or anyone, does things that God doesn’t like, will he cast me out, too?

I have had struggles in my life for a while now, financial and health, and I pray to God for help, but I think God won’t or doesn’t want to help me ...Read more

Q: I enjoy reading your column every week. I have been reading it since long before Tommy left. You were both so down to earth and understanding of different faith traditions. Thank you. I think I have a God Winks candidate.

Many years ago I was dreaming that the phone rang and my beloved uncle (and godfather) was on the line and ...Read more

The highest level of God winks is the appearance of the beloved dead person in some kind of visible form. It is an apparition and most of the reports I receive say that the apparition is translucent, not thick like a real person but definitely visible. These visitations from the other side when accompanied by verbal communications are the ...Read more

Q: The Catholic Church has many miracles that no other religion has, miracles like healings, apparitions, stigmata, incorruptibles, bi-locations, floating, reading minds, along with many Eucharistic miracles. What other faith had received so many blessings by God as an indication of what to believe? Is there anything else he must do to win you ...Read more

I am the perfect person to evaluate God Winks because I am enough of a believer in contact with the dead to acknowledge that some God Winks are real. I am also skeptical enough to know that everything we think is a wink is just not a wink. Here is my wink scale:

Level 1 God Wink: No violation of natural law or verbal communication. These are ...Read more

Thanks, dear readers, for sending me signs that you have received from loved ones who have died. I try not to include signs that are either clearly contrived or not really signs at all but just ordinary coincidences. The point of including these “God Winks” is to support those of you who believe, as I do, and as our faiths do, that death is ...Read more

Q: Dear Rabbi Gellman, thank you for your amazing and sorely needed ministry.

I would like you to share your thoughts on the habit of our current culture to “read a book by its cover”. Of course, the age-old saying is "Never judge a book by its cover”, but everywhere I turn these days, I feel people are paying too much attention to the ...Read more

Q: I have been reading your God Squad column for many years. Before that, I remember listening to you and Father Tom Hartman on the radio for many years. I have enjoyed both venues.

Your columns are frequently very moving and thought provoking. Your birthday message to Father Tom was both! I cannot begin to come up with a non-spooky explanation...Read more

Q: Twenty-seven years ago my secretary introduced me to a woman at a line dancing bar and I immediately fell in love. I realized immediately that if I wanted to win this woman’s hand, I would have to learn to line dance. I didn’t even know country music.

For weeks I practiced line dancing with this woman in my condo using only one dance and...Read more

I believe this Independence Day that the way to bring America together now is to remember what brought America together then.

What is not widely known is that the preamble to the Declaration of Independence we think Jefferson wrote is not in fact the preamble he actually wrote. This is what we think he wrote:

“We hold ...Read more

Last week I used the holiday of Eid a-Adha to atone for shortcomings in my column caused by the fact that I am not Muslim. This week I want to continue my atonement tour to remind you dear readers that I am also not Black.

Last week on Wednesday, June 19, African-Americans celebrated Juneteenth. All of America should have been ...Read more

Since the 7th century, millions of Muslims have made a pilgrimage to Mecca to celebrate a sacrifice made by a Jewish guy 2,500 years ago.

This celebration and this pilgrimage, which happened this week, and brought almost 2 million pilgrims to Mecca, is the greatest interfaith story in the history of the world. It is called Eid al-Adha and it ...Read more

Q: Our two daughters are in their 50’s. We tried to encourage them to visit their grandparents’ graves, but they have never gone. They are very spiritual and are convinced that you can speak to them without going to a cemetery.

As we get older, we worry that they will not come to visit our graves either. Do you believe we should encourage ...Read more

Q: Some people say reincarnation is biblical and happens today, what is

your take on reincarnation? – (From S)

A: Thank you, dear S, for bringing up one of the great and enduring mysteries of the human condition. Despite the fact that death is inevitable, we humans cling to the belief that death is just a bump along the way of our soul’s ...Read more

The belief that death is not the end of us and that our souls live on in Heaven or Hell, or some purgatory in between, is a huge leap of faith, but it is not the last leap.

The next leap is believing that the dead not only live on beyond the grave, but they can also contact us from Heaven. (...Read more

Q: My husband passed away Aug. 14, 2023, the day of our 52nd anniversary. It is now almost one year. Therapy helps me talk (mostly) cry and my “good friends” check on me constantly. Many acquaintances keep me busy and I do have clubs I belong to. My sons and their families (grandkids are the best medicine) keep me in the ...Read more

Sometimes readers get exactly what I was trying to say.

I want to say that I absolutely love your answer to R of Pennsylvania, who was stuck with the Bible verse of John 14:1-6. I believe God loves all His children, even when sad or angry about our behavior. That love is endless, and it is not limited to one group over another. But I have ...Read more