The Romero's trip to the Holy Land cut short!
We arrived Saturday, Oct 7, 2023, at 5 pm in the evening at Tel Aviv International airport in Israel. 500 years ago, a much smaller Catholic army defeated a much larger Islamic Turkish army on Oct 7, 1571, it’s called the ‘battle of Lepanto.’
As we were descending, many passengers in the plane were saying that there was black smoke ascending somewhere near the airport, they said it looked like a controlled burn. When we deplaned at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tele Aviv, Israel, the tour guides informed us that all planes after ours were rerouted and no other planes were allowed to come to Israel. Our tour guide told me and my wife that Israel had been attacked by Hamas terrorists. Hamas is a well known branch of the Muslim brotherhood which operates in Israel. When we turned on our cell phones we heard of the attacks in the Gaza strip which made international news. That same evening, our Pilgrimage began with traveling to Galilee which is north of Tel Aviv, which put us in a safer part of Israel since the attacks were in the south (Gaza strip & Tel Aviv).
The next morning on Sunday, October 8, 2023, we visited some Holy sites in Nazareth, Caesarea and Stella Maris. This is the day in which we heard the surprise attacks by the terrorist killed over 1,200 innocent Israelis, most of them were civilians 2,700 Israelis injured, they have about 250 Israeli hostages, many of them young women - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYUKj5H8ovk. All flights to the Holy Land were cancelled as a result of the Prime Minister of Israel declaring War on Hamas because these terrorists had not only killed hundreds of innocent Israelis but were torturing civilians as well.
That same evening after returning from our excursion we went to Holy Mass and dinner. After dinner there was an emergency meeting between two Catholic Priests who accompanied us on our pilgrimage, the couple who organized the pilgrimage, the tour guides and the tour company. All though we were in a safer part of Israel, in Galilee, which is northern Israel. It is close to Lebanon which is the home of the ‘Hezbollah terrorist. I brought up in the meeting that it’s only a matter of time before other Muslim terrorists jump into the fight to help their fellow Muslim brothers. Our tour guide gave us two options, you go back to the United States as soon as possible or we can continue the pilgrimage but going to Jerusalem and Bethlehem is not an option. We decided we would head back for safety to the United States as soon as possible, the tour company scheduled our returning flights to the United States on Tuesday, October 10, 2023, but we would be scheduled to fly out of Amman International airport from the country of Jordan. We pilgrims spent the night at the Sheraton in Amman.
On Monday morning October 9, 2023, we took a boat tour on the sea of Galilee, the Mt. of Beatitudes, and several other holy sites, then traveled to Ammon, Jordan. We spent the night at a hotel in Amman, Jordan and left the following morning. On Tuesday, October 10, 2023, we drove to the airport in Ammon, Jordan. We flew to Istanbul, Turkey, then to San Francisco, and finally to Phoenix AZ.
The entire time we were in Israel we could see tanks, attack helicopters and fighter jets flying overhead. A Catholic Priest who was with us and is a retired Major in the National Guard and a retired Air Force fighter pilot told me, these are not practice maneuvers by the Israelis, these are battle formation maneuvers by the Israelis. The Israeli Prime Minister and the cabinet have officially declared war on Hamas.
Israel is a land bridge that connects three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.
Political analysis: Israel is a land and people. Israel is a tiny piece of land thinly stretched out for hundreds of kilometers mostly along the Mediterranean coast, its about the size of New Jersey. Two thirds of the land is desert. At its "waist" it is barely 9 miles wide. It is almost indefensible in a true military sense. In this miniscule area live six million people, one million of whom are Arabs. In the territories adjacent to and integral with Israel proper are more than 3 million other Arabs, now referred to as Palestinians. In the rest of the middle east and the world are 220 million more Arabs.
The city of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital has stood at the center of the Jewish peoples national and spiritual life since King David made it the capital of his kingdom some 3000 years ago. Israel is a parliamentary democracy with legislative, executive, and judicial branches much like the USA. There has never NEVER been a time in more than 3,000 years that Jews did not live in this land. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending upon which conqueror was in power, but never has the land been empty of Jews. Jerusalem has never. NEVER been the capital of any other nation but the Jews. Even during the periods of Arab conquest they never NEVER made Jerusalem their capital, nor was it ever of great importance. Arabs pray to this day facing Mecca with their backs to Jerusalem. Jews worldwide in every single synagogue pray facing Jerusalem. Jerusalem is mentioned by name in the Tanach, Jewish biblical writings almost 700 times. IT IS NOT MENTIONED EVEN ONCE IN THE KORAN, THE ARAB/ISLAMIC Holy Book.
Imagine you live in a small country with more than a hundred thousand missiles pointed at it. And imagine the leaders who control those weapons had one stated purpose: to destroy you—to literally wipe your country off the map. What would do you? Strike first and try to destroy all the weapons? Set up an anti-missile defense system? Or would you ignore the problem and hope it goes away? You can now stop imagining, because these are real-life questions that one country in the world has to ask itself every day. That country is Israel. And the Islamic leaders who launch these weapons are from the terrorist organization called Hamas. To the north of Israel (above Galilee) you have another dangerous terrorist organization known as Hezbollah—Arabic for “Party of God.” Moreover, they’re not rogue terrorists. They actually run a country—Lebanon. I agree with Ben Shapiro when he says: "If you are a Jew and you walk into East Jerusalem, your life is in danger. If you're an Arab and you walk into West Jerusalem, there's no problem at all, which signifies exactly why Jerusalem should be under Jewish control and not under Muslim control." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."
Spiritual analysis of Israel and Jews:
Jerusalem is a powder keg of violence. This is why the Psalmist writes “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they prosper who love you!” (122:6). The nation of Israel is America’s only true ally in the Middle East.
You have 3 monotheistic religions that live in this territory, Judaism, Islam and Christianity. This land has been inhabited by the Jews for about 3,000 years, the Muslims got a foothold in this land about a thousand years ago through war, violence and brute force. Catholic Christians hold this land in esteem because God walked in this region for 33 years.
*Deuteronomy 7:6-8 “For you are a people holy to the LORD, your God; the LORD, your God, has chosen you from all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people specially his own. It was not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you; for you are really the smallest of all peoples. It was because the LORD loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your ancestors, that the LORD brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.” This land was promised by God to the Israelites.
Genesis 12:3 God speaks to Abram, the Patriarch, the father of Isaac, the father of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel, he fathered twelve boys who become the foundation and pillars for the country called ‘Israel’. God promises Abram the Patriarch: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee…” The name Israel means ‘struggle with God.’
Because the Jews (also known as Israelites in the Old Testament) rejected Christ, their Messiah, they have brought a curse upon themselves. Our Lord railed against the unbelieving Jews in his day. What we would call today ‘godless secular humanist.’ Our Lord said the following to the unbelieving Jews of his day who rejected him as the Messiah and the Son of God:
*John 1:10-12 (RSV) “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God…”
*Revelation 3:9 (DR) “Behold, I will bring of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and adore before thy feet. And they shall know that I have loved thee.”
*John 8:44 (DR) “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.
*Matthew 27:22, during Jesus’ so-called trial, Pilate asks the crowd, “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” The crowd answers, “Crucify him!” Pilate publicly proclaims Jesus’ innocence, but “they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’” (verse 23). Pilate then famously washes his hands, declaring himself to be “innocent”
(verse 24) and telling the crowd that Jesus’ death “is your responsibility!” It is a responsibility that the mob accepts, shouting the chilling words, “His blood is on us and on our children!” (verse 25). This brought a covenant curse upon themselves and their future generations.
Romans 11:28 (RSV) “As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.”
In spite of all the clear evidence that was presented to them, the Jews would not believe. The “arm of the Lord” had been revealed to them in great power, yet they closed their eyes to the truth. They had heard the message (“report”) and seen the miracles and yet would not believe. When a person starts to resist the light, something begins to change within him, and he comes to the place where he cannot believe. There is a “spiritual blindness” that God permits to come over the eyes of people who do not take the truth seriously and the consequences is eternal damnation. The quotation of Isaiah 6:9-10 about the unbelieving Jews blindness reads as follows: “* And he replied: Go and say to this people:
Listen carefully, but do not understand! Look intently, but do not perceive! Make the heart of this people sluggish, dull their ears and close their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and their heart understand, and they turn and be healed.” Isaiah’s quote indicting the unbelieving Jews is found in a number of places in the New Testament. See Matt. 13:14-15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; Acts 28:25-27; Rom. 11:8.) It is a serious thing to treat God’s truth lightly, for a person could well miss his opportunity to be saved. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near” (Isa. 55:6).
Until the Jews accept Christ as the messiah and King, their will never be peace in Israel, they have put themselves under a curse (Matt 23:1-39; Mark 11:12-25; Matthew 24:1-2).
Can you be saved by the old covenant(s)? No, here is why. The book of Hebrews 8:6-13 says: “Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second one. 8 But he finds fault with them and says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they did not stand by my covenant and I ignored them, says the Lord.10 But this is the covenant I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11And they shall not teach, each one his fellow citizen and kinsman, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me, from least to greatest.12 For I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more.”13 When he speaks of a “new” covenant, he declares the first one obsolete. And what has become obsolete and has grown old is close to disappearing.”
*[Heb 8:7–13] Since the first covenant was deficient in accomplishing what it signified, it had to give way to a new covenant (Heb 8:7), as Jeremiah (Jer 31:31–34) had prophesied (Heb 8:8–12). Even in the time of Jeremiah, the first covenant was antiquated (Heb 8:13). In Heb 7:22–24, the superiority of the new covenant was seen in the permanence of its priesthood; here the superiority is based on better promises, made explicit in the citation of Jeremiah 31:31–34 (LXX: 38), namely, in the immediacy of the people’s knowledge of God (Heb 8:11) and in the forgiveness of sin (Heb 8:12).
*The Good (Old Covenant) has become the enemy of the best (New Covenant). This phrase describes the thesis of the letter to the Hebrews. The law was given so that grace we would seek, grace was given so that the law we can keep.
2 Corinthians 3:4-11 (NAB) “Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather, our qualification comes from God, who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life. Contrast with the Old Covenant:
7 Now if the ministry of death,* carved in letters on stone, was so glorious that the Israelites could not look intently at the face of Moses because of its glory that was going to fade, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit be glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, the ministry of righteousness will abound much more in glory. Indeed, what was endowed with glory has come to have no glory in this respect because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was going to fade was glorious, how much more will what endures be glorious.”
The Jews big problem is they claim God does not have a Son. Look at what the Old Testament says about that claim:
Proverbs 30:4 “Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son's name?
Surely you know!”
So long as the Jews continue to reject JESUS as their MESSIAH & the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:5), their will NEVER be peace in the Holy Land.
Spiritual analysis of Muslim relations & War with non-Muslims or Jihad:
Islamic attitudes toward non-Muslims are determined by many factors of which two are most necessary to consider. The first is Jihad or Holy War. The second is the concept of Dar al Harb and Dar al Islam. The expression Dar al Harb means House of War and refers to any territory or people who are not living in submission to Islam. Dar al Islam means House of submission and refers to any territory or people living in submission to the message of Muhammad. The concept of Jihad has been given several interpretations some say Holy War for others it refers to spiritual struggle. Ayatollah Khomeini a great Muslim leader of our times said: "The Jihad means the conquest of non-Muslim territory. The domination of Koranic Law from one end of the earth to the other is …the final goal …of this war of conquest." [Jihad, Fregosi, Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, 1998, p.20].Islam is an Arabic word which means ‘submission to the will of Allah (Inside Islam, p.23).’ Muslim is a related word that can be roughly translated as “one who submits” to Allah and his will. A Muslim, then, is someone who believes in Islam.
Islam scholars reject ‘reason.’ Islams Intellectual Suicide is a Threat to Us All. This Occurred around the 10th century when Islamic Scholars said that 'Reason is not compatible with Islamic Faith.' Islam says everything you need can be found in the Koran Alone. Islam rejects the interchange between ‘faith and reason.’ This is why the Islamic culture is violent, oppressive and backwards.
In his 2006 Regensburg address, Pope Benedict cited the 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus regarding the preaching of violence in a religion, stating:
“Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached…Religion without reason leads to fanaticism” (per Pope Benedict XVI - Regensburg Address 2006). But Science without faith also leads to disaster - the genocidal regimes in Germany, the Soviet Union, China and Cambodia are prime examples [Catalyst July/Aug 2010 p.6].
Have many violent verses are found in the N.T. ordering the persecution & killing of non Christians? How many violent verses are found in the Koran ordering the persecution & killing of non Muslims?
There are 0 violent verses in the N.T.
This expert says there are 109 violent verses in the Koran.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/023-violence.htm
This other expert says there are 164 violent verses in the Koran
http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Themes/jihad_passages.html
Here is a bible verse that accurately describes those who practice the Islamic faith to the letter. Its in John 16:1-3 ““I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour* is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me.”
When Mohammed was just starting out in Mecca - he spoke peacefully because he was outnumbered and he was militarily weak, he still did not possess a strong army, once he became a Warlord in Medina and now possessed a strong vicious army he preached violence. Robert Spencer says the “majority of the verses on Islamic relationships with other religions are found in chapter 1-5, 8, 9 of the Koran” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvTneiqT3kA).
Absolutely, the Islamic Religion is a ‘Trojan Horse.’ Islam is much more than a religion. In its fullest form, it is a complete, total, 100% system of life. Islam has religious, legal, political, economic, social, and military components. In my estimation, the religious component is a deception and pretense for all of the other components.
All terrorist groups are part of the same poisonous tree. Their global mission much like the Nazis is to bring about the perfect race, Islam’s mission is to bring about the perfect religion, both the Nazis and Islamic Terrorist use the same method, genocide of those they consider unworthy to live.
Today were seeing the rash of terrorist activity and it’s not come from the Amish, the Quakers, the Mormons or home schooling Catholics. It’s coming from the practitioners of Islam. While I’m not saying that ALL Muslims are terrorist, but I am saying that mostly all the terrorism is coming from Muslims, who pray ‘Allah Akbar’ as they slaughter a non-muslim infidel and they quote a verse from the Koran to justify their actions.
The battle over the Holy Land is between two brothers. Ishmael was the bastard son of Abraham and a slave, Isaac was the natural son from his wife Sarah. Muslims claim Ishmael as their forefather and the Jews claim Isaac as their forefather, Both Jews and Muslims claim to be the spiritual heirs of Abraham and the promises God made to him which includes the Holy Land. While these two religions fight for that real estate we call ‘Jerusalem’ which the Jews believe is the belly button of the world, they believe that is where the garden of Eden was, we Catholic Christians hope and wait to enter the ‘New Jerusalem’ which is other worldly. Heaven is really indescribable. There are no words that can sufficiently describe the beauty and majesty of heaven. It is too awesome for words (2 Cor 12:4; Romans 8:18; 1 Cor 2:9 “eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him…”). Not even Shakespeare on his best day could describe heaven to us.
War is big business. The globalist oligarchs look at us like meat sacks & earth eaters. War makes the rich richer, it makes the poor poorer, it depopulates the deplorables (us) and it keeps certain businesses like Lockheed, Boeing, Northrup and Raytheon in business building weapon systems for endless wars. This industrial War Complex then gives sizeable donations to the New World Order oligarchs as they try to build a utopia on earth. The only monotheistic religion that can bring peace to the world is Catholic Christianity under the social reign of Christ the King. Without accepting Jesus Christ “the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:5)” as our King there will be no peace in the middle east. NO JESUS, NO PEACE! The same thing applies to America, our rejection of JESUS CHRIST will bring our demise. “Come Lord Jesus come” (Revelation 22:20).