God Squad: Readers ask about heaven and the afterlife

Christianity is not just love and only love. Christianity is a religion that saves believers from sin. Love may be enough — dear God, I wish you were right — but there is much more that is needed for salvation than just love. To quote the prophet Micah 6:8, "We need to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God." Whatever those commandments mean, they surely mean more than just being a loving person. I am not insulted by John 14:6, but I cannot find myself in it. Still, I do wish you were John and that you could go back and edit that difficult verse.

This teaching was adopted by the early Christians, and later by the Muslim faith, and called Heaven. However, it all began with Judaism. Many rabbis do not speak about this luminous teaching of Judaism and this greatly troubles me.

The reason for this prohibition is that their powers, even if they are real, draw us away from God's words and seduce us into following the words of humans. These mediums also can have a financial motivation to create their predictions. I have also seen that such psychics can block a mourner's grief work by convincing them that death is not a real final barrier between the living and the dead. Father Tom Hartman, my pal, did not agree with me. He was much more open to what he believed to be the healing powers of psychics. I came to believe that such dialogues with the dead ought to be a surprise not an appointment, and that they should happen without any professional assistance. However, I am definitely going to check this out again with Tommy when we meet up in Heaven.

As to your question: There is no doubt that God can and will forgive a brief, mistaken dalliance into the spirit world. The Christian Testament affirms this in a true Bible answer, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men." (Matthew 12:31) Sitting in while someone you pay rings up grandma Mary may be a sin, but it is not an unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit. So don't worry, but try to keep your conversations limited to people who have an area code.