Welcome to another episode of the Luxury Travelers podcast, hosted by Rodney George. Today’s guest is Saliba Danho from Voice of Faith Tours in Israel, who shares his unique insights on Jerusalem’s current state and the biblical history that surrounds it. While tourism in Jerusalem has come to a halt, Saliba offers a glimpse into what visitors can expect when it resumes, approaching the tour from a Christian biblical perspective. As Rodney always says at the end of every episode, “Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.” And today, that message holds even more meaning.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [1:07] Saliba describes his family heritage
• [4:43] Saliba discusses the War of Armageddon and rebuilding the temple
• [8:49] Explanation of the Fifth Gospel and Saliba takes the listener on an audio tour of the Holy Land
• [15:27] Saliba describes what a tour would look like daily and ends with what transpires at the Eastern Gate
• [22:27] Jerusalem from the perspective of the Muslim faith and Rabbi’s that are crafting vessels for the new temple
• [26:55] Saliba is amazed that on Yom Kippur, for the first time, a priest went to the Temple Mount dressed in a linen garment, as described in the Torah, for Aaron when approaching the temple.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• In the past, only a few Jewish people had discussed rebuilding the temple. Most Jewish rabbis were against rebuilding, believing that its destruction was a punishment from God. But today, the topic of rebuilding the Temple is even part of the Israeli educational curriculum.
• The Red Heifers, essential for purification, have finally arrived in Israel, unblemished and ready for sacrifice on the Mount of Olives. These animals entered Israel without undergoing quarantine. They are already two years old, unblemished, and prepared to sacrifice on the Mount of Olives, which could happen at any time. 
• Traveling through Israel has historical and biblical significance. Once peace in the Middle East is achieved, tours will resume. 

RESOURCES:

Luxury Travelers - Podcast

Luxe Travel - Website

Luxe Travel - Facebook

Luxe Travel - Instagram

Voice of Faith Tours - Instagram

Voice of Faith Tours - Website

Voice of Faith Tours - Facebook

GUEST BIOGRAPHY: 

Saliba Danho was born in the Old City of Jerusalem, adjacent to the empty tomb of Jesus. I was raised in Jerusalem and had a bachelor's degree in political science and a diploma in tourism. I am a certified tour guide in Israel. As of 2001, I am a tour operator specializing in Christian travel.

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So buckle up. And prepare for a journey into the lap of luxury. Now your host.

And he comes from a very unique perspective and that is tours in the Holy Land. And whether you've ever [00:01:15] been or whether you haven't been, I want you to watch this entire show because you're going to learn some things because he lives right in the heart of Jerusalem. So Saliba, welcome to the show.

Rodney George: It's, it's a pleasure to have you. Uh, when we met, uh, three weeks ago, I don't know if you remember or not, but I sat down at your, at your table there at the show. And I said, I have, I have to ask you a couple of questions first. And the first [00:01:45] question is, are you Christian?

Saliba Danho: Well, I'm, uh, I'm a proud Christian. My family have been a Christian for the last 2000 years. Uh, my, in the Old Testament and my family is mentioned by the name of Ians.

So, proudly saying [00:02:45] We were the first ones to be called Christians in the first century A. D., all the way back from Antioch. They, nowadays, my church is known as the Church of Antioch or the Assyriac Orthodox Church. So that's my background, born and grew up in Jerusalem in the Old City, [00:03:00] right above the tomb of Jesus, right on the rooftop of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

So as you know, I just kind of joke, say, you know what, in my basement I have the empty tomb of Jesus.

Well, your company is very interesting because I guess at least [00:03:30] for the current time, you're pretty much unemployed in, in Jerusalem, right?

There are some courageous travelers. Who would like to still come and walk on the footsteps of Jesus. But if I would put it this way, the pilgrims of nowadays, all right, [00:04:00] are not the same that those who traveled a thousand years ago, knowing that their chances of going back home alive is 50%. I think today they want to guarantee 100 percent we want to go back home.

And being right there in Jerusalem, I guess you guys could use three and a half years of peace. I don't know.

I would have said, ah, you know what, no, this is all symbolic. Okay, but nowadays, the way that things are unwrapping right before our eyes, and seeing how fast things are [00:05:15] developing. Okay, it's just amazing. I mean, if you would have came 20 years ago, there used to be, let's say, around 20 to maybe 100 people or say the Jewish people who would be going up to the Temple Mount and talk about rebuilding the Temple.

But nowadays, not only that, uh, the issue of the rebuilding of the temple is in the Israeli educational curriculum. Alright, but you're talking about tens of thousands of people who are ascending up [00:06:00] all the way to the Temple Mount every year, and, uh, minding, of course, that they cannot go all the way up to where the Holies of the Holies would have stood.

And they're already two years old, and they're without any blemish or without any white hairs. Nothing. Pure red heifers waiting to be sacrificed on the Mount of Olives, which could take place at any time. Things are [00:06:45] unwrapping really quick before our eyes.

Rodney George: And, and you talked about two messiahs. It's really not two messiahs.

Saliba Danho: Absolutely. So we're actually looking forward for the second coming of Jesus. They're looking for the first coming of the messiah. But when you come all the way to what we believe, all right, the Messiah who would be appearing even for [00:07:15] the Jewish people and the salvation of the Jewish people would be actually the same Messiah, Jesus Christ.

I mean, so these numbers are [00:07:45] not even symbolic. For many years, people thought that these numbers are symbolic. But when you do the math, it is 16 million people to this day. That is the whole Jewish people.

Saliba Danho: Yeah, because it is 144, 000, but when you multiply them, okay, back you get all the way to the 16 million.

Rodney George: Okay, so you, you specialize in doing really, uh, a deep dive into the Holy Lands in [00:08:30] particular with an emphasis on the footsteps of Jesus. Why don't you tell our viewers a little bit about that?

Saliba Danho: You know, the early fathers of the church talking about the second up to the fourth century AD, for example, Eusebius, who's considered to be the historian of the church, he called the [00:09:00] Holy Land the fifth gospel.

Okay, they actually complete one another. But to understand that, all right, you need to indulge and dive into the fifth Gospel. [00:09:30] And the fifth gospel is basically the land itself. I mean, just try to think about it that you're walking on the seashores of the Fifth Galilee. And over there, you can just see farmers, even up to today, they go on cultivating their land, they can pick up the [00:09:45] seeds, and they go on casting up the seeds on the ground.

Or if you come, let's say to a, usually, you know, most of the visitors who comes to homeland Israel, they would be landing nearby Tel Aviv, all right. That's what we call today, Ben [00:10:15] Gurion Airport. And not long time ago, they used to call it Lod Airport, which is the ancient city of Lydda. All right. And that's what we hear in the Book of Acts about Peter or at Healing the Panhellenic.

And that's where Peter makes it later on to Joppa, and that's where he would bring back Tabitha back to life. So, Tabitha Kumi, Tabitha Kumi in Arabic, which means Tabitha, young girl, get up, Then he goes all the way on the [00:11:00] rooftop of the house of fireman, the tenor, and that's where he has a vision and big basket, you know, full of different types of, uh, animals, reptiles, uh, okay.

Right. To be rebuilt in the modern times, all right, in the state of Israel, to be the nucleus. And in a way, despite the fact that officially Jerusalem is the capital, but Tel Aviv in effect is considered to be the economical capital, it's like New York in [00:12:00] the USA, right? And so you're looking from ancient Joppa, you're looking at modern Tel Aviv, and that is just the beginning of your journey.

Together with that of Alexandria and Athens. And [00:12:30] just over there you start hearing about Augustus Caesar. You start hearing about Peter, you know, baptizing the first Gentile. You talk about Paul giving the first defense of the church. So if you're coming as a Christian to the Holy Land, right, [00:12:45] Joppa and Caesarea will show you the place from where Christianity was sent all the way to the Gentiles.

And he compares them to an olive [00:13:15] tree. The Jewish people will be the wild olive tree, while the Gentiles will be the cultivated one. And obviously, in many cases, the wild one will give you better fruits, alright, than the one which is cultivated. And you're there at Mount Carmel. [00:13:30] Overlooking the Valley of Armageddon, I mean, you're seeing Nazareth from a distance.

during the Old Testament and, uh, later on also along the New Testament era. I mean, it is God's playground. I mean, just imagine, you're standing [00:14:00] overlooking God's playground, one of the most important ancient highways of the ancient world, and at that spot, that's where you can see the past, that's where you look into the present, and that's where you can see the future, right before your [00:14:15] eyes.

Rodney George: So what's a typical day on, on one of your tours in Compass? [00:15:00] I know when I was there seven or eight years ago, our, our, our guide was a Christian journalist that lives in Jerusalem, and he took us up to the Mount of Olives, because from there you can look into the Holy City, and he pointed out all the places he was going to be [00:15:15] taking us that day.

How do you, how do you lead your groups, or how do your group leaders take their groups, uh, and, and start their, their journey in particular through Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land.

So till check into, till check in at the hotel around 3 p. m. That gives you some time. So interesting [00:15:45] that many of the tour guides, all right, uh, would choose, even though it's not part of the trip then, but they still have some time, okay, to do something before they get the people to the hotel. And obviously the people, you know, they're jet lag, they're tired.

When we hear about David fighting a lion, that would have been the area where David would have actually been encountering the lions. So then he goes from there to the coastal line, along the valley of Armageddon. You spend a couple of days in Galilee. Visiting the sites around [00:16:30] the Sea of Galilee, you might want to go up to the Golden Heights.

I mean, we're talking about a country which was innovated by almost every ancient civilization throughout history, all the way from ancient [00:17:00] Egypt, all the way up to the British in the 20th century. So there was not one single superpower that have not left their fingerprints over the land. So whatever you're looking for, from Egyptian temples all the way to Greek Roman cities, if [00:17:15] you would like to, uh, Look at it from a religious point of view, whether you're a Jew or a Christian, or even for Muslims who consider the Holy Land to be the third holiest grounds as well.

So that means if you decide to drive it, you can actually drive it all in one day, cross it from one point to another, from the north all the way to the south. So, and then from there, when you're in Jericho, like around 750 feet below sea level, not to mention in [00:18:00] the nearby dead city, All right, and remember one thing, the Dead Sea, when you come to it, it's not only floating on the Dead Sea, which is famous for its minerals, and today we call it the Sea of Life, because it is the reviving sea when you come to look at it from a medical point of view, [00:18:15] or from beauty point of view.

He chosen a Muslim by the name of Muhammad. All right, who would be the one looking for his goats, throwing a rock, all right, and leading up to the greatest discovery, biblical discovery of the 20th century, when we have found copies of all the books of the Old Testament [00:19:00] right at Qumran. At the very same time, at the very same time, when Israel would be reborn again.

But that is literally the spot where Abraham Okay. [00:19:45] Brought his son, Isaac, to the Temple Mount. That's where the first and the second temple were, uh, stood. Okay. That's where actually, if you look at Jesus ministry, you're on the Mount of Olives. And it's basically between the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount, where most of Jesus [00:20:00] ministry was focused at.

And from there you can, I mean, you look wherever you look over the city, you can see the, where it started at. You can see where David, uh, built his [00:20:30] city. You can see the place, the city, which was taken over by Solomon. You can see the city, which was rule by the 20 Kings of Judea. You can see the spot where Solomon put his temple, the expansion up to Mount Zion.

So, the whole Old City, 242 acres. One sixth of it is the Temple Mount. It's just lying there before your eyes, reminding that you're looking. You're standing, you're standing up in the [00:21:15] forest, right below you have the Kidron Valley, the Valley of the Judgment, as it is called by Joel the prophet, and the Eastern Gate.

Rodney George: Yeah, it's, it's, it's amazing. I remember as we were walking through Jerusalem and we were there for three days, the first day we had a Christian guide and we came up on [00:21:45] this, uh, I don't, I don't remember how big it was, but I want to say eight feet tall menorah that was in a.

in the New Temple, [00:22:15] but no one knows where that is. And when I tried to tell him where that was, we got into a huge argument, because I told him it's going to be where the Dome of the Rock is, and he had a really hard time swallowing that.

Actually, there's even, I don't know if you have been up to the Temple Mount, but when you go up to the Temple Mount, you can still visit the esplanade of the temple over there. And right before the Golden Dome, toward the east, there's a smaller dome, which is known as the [00:23:00] Dome of the Chain. And they say that this was actually the treasury, or rather the Islamic periods, or it was a small model, okay, crafted before the building of the Golden Dome.

That's where it stood 2000 years ago. It used to be one out of 10 2000 years ago. So the only difference is 2000 years ago, it used to be pure gold. Nowadays, it's actually silver plated gold. But if [00:23:45] you ever go to Rome and you see Titus Arch over there, and on Titus Arch, it shows you actually the slaves, you know, the Jews slaves taken over, Jews taken to slavery, carrying up the holy menorah with an octagonal base.

And it's basically a copy of a, the way it is described up in the Torah. I mean, when you look all the way at the oil holders, the pedals which are, uh, presenting over their almond uh, pedals. And, you know, like the Prophet Jeremiah compares the [00:24:30] light of the Lord to almond blossoms. So the petals which goes around the oil holders, that's actually obviously symbolize the almond blossoms.

Saliba Danho: I mean, you know, next door to, not far away actually from where the Menorah is, we do have the Temple Institute. You know, like a couple of days ago, we had Yom Kippur and [00:25:00] you've been to the Wailing Wall and you've been to the men's side of the Wailing Wall, right?

And then that day, he actually asked General Rabin at that time to knock down, he said, knock down the Golden Dome, we're just at it right now, and let's rebuild the temple. All right. And then, of [00:25:45] course, Rabin and Moshe Dayan said, no, no, no, no, no, this cannot be done. Okay. This cannot be done. But every year, right on the eve of Yom Kippur, they actually get into that small room.

It's just, I don't think they know [00:26:15] the purpose.

Rodney George: Right.

Rodney George: Okay, we've got a couple more minutes here. And before we got started, you and I got in this conversation about something that happened very recently on the steps. of Mount Moriah, on the steps of the, of the, uh, Dome of the Rock, [00:26:45] uh, where the, where the, uh, the rabbi actually went up those steps. Can you tell us, just read a little bit?

Well, actually,

And, uh, led, of course, by the Ministry of, uh, [00:27:15] National, uh, uh, Security, as they call it today. Used to be the Minister of Interior, but now they changed the name. So for the first time ever, you actually have seen Jews praying. publicly on the Temple Mount by the Easter Gate. [00:27:30] Still, my thing, they're not going up to the platform where the Holy of Holies stood because they're not considered to be pure yet.

Rodney George: Folks, if you're watching this, and you're still watching this, you have to understand that, uh, at least from where I sit, And I've read the Old and New Testament, uh, multiple [00:28:30] times all the way through. And Saliba is living that scripture, has lived that scripture in his family for generations. And what's happening right now in the city of Jerusalem, in the country of Israel, you have to, [00:28:45] uh, You have to want to know more.

Saliba Danho: willing.

So they're palatable for people, but folks, I know you're going to want to know more. After you watch this, so drop us a note, give us a call, and we'll keep you posted on, uh, when and if the all clear is [00:29:30] given so that we can return back and you can experience what, uh, what I've experienced myself and what Saliba lives on a daily basis.

Godspeed.

Rodney George: Excellent.

Saliba Danho: Thank you, Rodney.

Rodney George: So, uh, folks, as I always say, enjoy yourself.

Voiceover: Thanks for joining us on the luxury travelers podcast. For more information, head on [00:30:45] over to luxury travelers, podcast. com to connect with our team or leave us a message until next time safe travels and savor the [00:31:00] extraordinary.