What do you think?
The Morning Comes and Also the Night
Book by Macdonald, Byron J.
Paperback
Published January 1, 2001
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May 27, 2013
My assessment of the book and author Byron MacDonald is this: it is an anti-Catholic and anti-American diatribe, and not only is MacDonald a Catholic-bashing bigot, he is also one of the false prophets that Jesus warns us about.
Oh sure, MacDonald can skillfully and glibly quote Scripture and verse to prop up his claims. So? Slave owners also used Scripture to justify the continued propagation of that inhuman practice, and Jehovah's Witnesses use Scriptural passage about not eating the blood of an animal as supposed proof that blood transfusions are a violation of God's law. That doesn't make them any more legitimate either.
Let's start with his Chapter 9, "The Day of the USA", particularly page 73. The passages he claims implicate the United States as the economic Babylon could just as easily implicate France or Great Britain.
- "I sit as queen." (from Revelation 18:7) We've never had a king or queen in this country (with the possible exception of King Daley of Chicago), indeed our independence was predicated on rebelling against royalty. Britain and France were ruled by royalty for most of their history, and indeed Britain maintains a royal family to this day (granted, they're mere figureheads now).
- "It is a place that has made the merchants of the world rich . . . It is a place all the shipping companies of the world traded with . . . It is a place whose merchants were known as the great men of the world . . . " Okay, Britain and France may not have the economic might that the U.S. does today, but they had vast colonial empires long before the U.S. became a world power-remember the saying "The sun never sets on the British Empire?" And the UK and France maintain a highly paternalistic relationship with their former colonies to this day, particularly in Africa. And they're both still members of the G7. I daresay that former American colonies like the Philippines are more prosperous than the former British, French and Dutch colonies.
- "It is a described as a city known by three colors, red (scarlet), white (linen) and blue (purple) . . . " Um, hello, the French tri-color and the Union Jack, anyone? And if MacDonald wants to equate blue with purple, purple is the color of royalty, and again, Britain maintains a royal family to this day.
- "It is a city known for its entertainment industry . . . " Okay, Hollywood is definitely more powerful in this regard, but the U.K. hasn't been a historical slouch in this arena either. The early American rock and rollers were denounced by misguided critics as doing "the Devil's music," but actually guys like Elvis, Pat Boone and Buddy Holly were solid patriots and Christians. Contrast that with the decadence of the British Invasion groups, from the druggie-decadence of the Rolling Stones to the Eastern paganism, communism-coddling, and Christianity-bashing of those "Lads from Liverpool," the Buttholes, er, Beatles. (This includes John Lennon's post-Fab Four drivel like "Imagine there's no Heaven . . . and no religion too.")
Moving on to page 75:
- "Babylon and Rome were *always* pagan cities . . . "(my emphasis) Excuse me, Rome was always a pagan city? Does Pastor MacDonald not want to be confused with the facts? The key moment in the establishment of Christianity as the predominant religion of the Roman empire, happened in AD 312 when emperor Constantine on the eve before battle against the rival emperor Maxentius had a vision of the sign of Christ (the so called chi-rho symbol) in a dream. And Constantine was to have the symbol inscribed on his helmet and ordered all his soldiers (or at least those of his bodyguard) to point it on their shields. It was after the crushing victory he inflicted on his opponent against overwhelming odds that Constantine declared he owed his victory to the god of the Christians. Soon thereafter, apart from building great monuments to Christianity, Constantine now also became openly hostile toward the pagans. Even pagan sacrifice itself was forbidden. Pagan temples (except those of the previous official Roman state cult) had their treasures confiscated. These treasures were largely given to the Christian churches instead.. Some cults which were deemed sexually immoral by Christian standards were forbidden and their temples were razed. Gruesomely brutal laws were introduced to enforce Christian sexual morality. Constantine was evidently not an emperor who had decided to gradually educate the people of his empire to this new religion. Far more the empire was shocked into a new religious order.
- "It is not hard to imagine the horror in heaven of a nation established by those who sought to worship God in spirit and truth, now a dwelling place for demons and all the false religions and philosophies of the world." MacDonald is certainly correct about the growing hostility toward Christianity in this country of ours-he knows it, you know it, I know it. But as bad as it is here, it's exponentially worse in Western Europe, where secularism and loose morals reign supreme.
Page 85:
- "Do those in China who work to manufacture clothes for export to the USA, some prison laborers, benefit, or only the merchants and kings?" Yes, Butthole Byron, the workers DO benefit. American companies DO NOT use slave labor, that abhorrent practice is utilized by the abhorrent state-run corporations, i.e. the ones owned by the despotic communist Beijing government. I can tell you from having done an extensive 38-page research paper on U.S.-China trade relations while I interned the Heritage Foundation that Chinese workers face far better working conditions at U.S.-owned companies within their country than they do from their own country's state-owned entities, both now and especially contrasted with working condition prior to our economic rapprochement with China.
Page 99:
- "The one foundation is the commercial Babylon, the USA, that seduces the world with the lie that *the secret to everything is a good economy*." (my emphasis added) Hogwash! If we are really so corrupt as a nation where everything is determined by simple economics, then why did we spend billions upon billions of our tax dollars fighting both a quasi-Islamic secular socialist dictatorship (what's left of Saddam's Ba'ath Party) and Islamo-fascism (Zarqawi and other al-Qaeda goons) in Iraq? Is it the oil, as those of the left crow? If it was all about the oil dollars and nothing else (and therefore simple economics as MacDonald alleges), then, as Bill O'Reilly points out, we could have simply continued to do buy oil from Saddam in the first place. What about France's honey oil deals with Saddam, and all those other European scoundrels (not to mention Kofi Annan's son) who were in economic cahoots with Saddam and therefore unwilling to help depose him? These European secularists thus stood in opposition to the United States, the so-called "economic Babylon!"
Page 113:
- "Yet he is really the voice of the dragon, Satan himself. It is also a head of the church located in Rome. It is hard to come to any other conclusion than that this is the Pope, leader of the Roman Catholic Church." This is such a tired old argument, pure, unadulterated slander. Whether MacDonald or any his other fellow Catholic-haters accept it or not, the Catholic Church is THE original Christian Church. While Martin Luther didn't come along until the 16th century and MacDonald's fly-by-night Rolling Hills Covenant Church presumably didn't come along until the 20th century, the Holy Catholic Church has 2,000 years of history and precedence to back her up, going back to when our Lord Jesus Christ decreed, "You are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.". Or is MacDonald trying to claim that there was no real Christianity between Jesus' earthly ministry and the Reformation? BY WHICH AUTHORITY WAS MACDONALD'S CHURCH FOUNDED???
And did he toast and celebrate the death of Pope John Paul II? I certainly wouldn't put it past him.
- "A church, interestingly enough, that has established its identity with Rome, not Jerusalem the city of God." Um, excuse me, but looking up Rolling Hills Covenannt Church on the Internet, it ain't in Jerusalem, but rather in Palos Verdes Estates, California . . . (good heavens, it can't be) the United States, er, "economic Babylon!" The horror, the horror! While P.V. Estates is certainly a physically beautiful area, I don't think anyone ever claimed it to be the Holy Land.
Page 120:
- "It will be amazing to the world that the Roman Empire has reappeared." Okay, I'm still waiting for this to happen. Granted, there was the so-called Holy Roman Empire back in the Middle Ages, but as the famous saying goes, it was "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire." Now, if this Roman Empire is literally going to reappear as Byron MacDonald claims, will it actually be in the city of Rome proper, or will it be within the Vatican, which is actually its own independent sovereign nation? If it is the former, the Italians sure as hell need to get their act together and get their giant Satanic conspiracy organized, because in the post-WWII era they've been so unstable and disorganized that they've changed their governments nearly as often as their underwear. If it's the latter, the so-called "Satanic" Pope better start increasing his military budget, in light of the quote by that infamous atheist, communist butcher Josef Stalin, "How many divisions does the Pope have?"
Page 152
- "One estimate recently is that 25 percent (25%) of people currently living in Africa will die from AIDS by the year 2010 . . . Yet the Bible says in Revelation 6:8, of the consequences of the horseman of death riding, ` . . . And the power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.'" Okay, by that rationale, wasn't the Black Death of medieval Europe, which wiped out ¼ of the population surely definitive proof of the End Times? Only God knows the day and time when He is ready to bring His Final Judgment, not for any mere mortal man to determine . . . not even Megalomaniac MacDonald.
And finally, on the penultimate page of the book, page 222
- "Let me give you a simple prayer that if you understand and pray believing what you say, then you can know God has saved you . . . Prayed that? Believed that? Then you are saved." Oh, is it really that simple??? For all of MacDonald's derision of the legitimacy of the Pope's authority to interpret the Word of God, where does MacDonald suddenly get off acting as though he's God's official spokesperson. He might as well label himself the new Messiah, "Lord Byron," if you will. Again, BY WHICH AUTHORITY does Lord Byron derive his apparent omnipotence?
Lord Byron is a prime example of a false prophet. He is no better than the so-called Bible-fearing Christians of the Ku Klux Klan, who, it should be noted, are anti-Catholic as well as anti-black and anti-Semitic.
Maybe Lord Byron, Madman Megalomaniac MacDonald will one day wake up from his delusions of grandeur and see the folly of his teachings, and if so, may God have mercy on his soul. Barring that if I may quote the little-used third verse of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, "I have read the fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel As ye deal with My comtempters, so with you My grace shall deal Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel Since God is marching on." If Senior Pastor MacDonald continues down his present path, may the Hero, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, born of Woman, Blessed Mother Mary, crush the serpent Byron MacDonald and the rest of the brood of vipers.
En Nomine Patris, et Filli, et Spiritu Sancti, Amen,,
Christian D. Orr, faithful Catholic Christian and American Patriot
P.S.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
Amen.
Oh sure, MacDonald can skillfully and glibly quote Scripture and verse to prop up his claims. So? Slave owners also used Scripture to justify the continued propagation of that inhuman practice, and Jehovah's Witnesses use Scriptural passage about not eating the blood of an animal as supposed proof that blood transfusions are a violation of God's law. That doesn't make them any more legitimate either.
Let's start with his Chapter 9, "The Day of the USA", particularly page 73. The passages he claims implicate the United States as the economic Babylon could just as easily implicate France or Great Britain.
- "I sit as queen." (from Revelation 18:7) We've never had a king or queen in this country (with the possible exception of King Daley of Chicago), indeed our independence was predicated on rebelling against royalty. Britain and France were ruled by royalty for most of their history, and indeed Britain maintains a royal family to this day (granted, they're mere figureheads now).
- "It is a place that has made the merchants of the world rich . . . It is a place all the shipping companies of the world traded with . . . It is a place whose merchants were known as the great men of the world . . . " Okay, Britain and France may not have the economic might that the U.S. does today, but they had vast colonial empires long before the U.S. became a world power-remember the saying "The sun never sets on the British Empire?" And the UK and France maintain a highly paternalistic relationship with their former colonies to this day, particularly in Africa. And they're both still members of the G7. I daresay that former American colonies like the Philippines are more prosperous than the former British, French and Dutch colonies.
- "It is a described as a city known by three colors, red (scarlet), white (linen) and blue (purple) . . . " Um, hello, the French tri-color and the Union Jack, anyone? And if MacDonald wants to equate blue with purple, purple is the color of royalty, and again, Britain maintains a royal family to this day.
- "It is a city known for its entertainment industry . . . " Okay, Hollywood is definitely more powerful in this regard, but the U.K. hasn't been a historical slouch in this arena either. The early American rock and rollers were denounced by misguided critics as doing "the Devil's music," but actually guys like Elvis, Pat Boone and Buddy Holly were solid patriots and Christians. Contrast that with the decadence of the British Invasion groups, from the druggie-decadence of the Rolling Stones to the Eastern paganism, communism-coddling, and Christianity-bashing of those "Lads from Liverpool," the Buttholes, er, Beatles. (This includes John Lennon's post-Fab Four drivel like "Imagine there's no Heaven . . . and no religion too.")
Moving on to page 75:
- "Babylon and Rome were *always* pagan cities . . . "(my emphasis) Excuse me, Rome was always a pagan city? Does Pastor MacDonald not want to be confused with the facts? The key moment in the establishment of Christianity as the predominant religion of the Roman empire, happened in AD 312 when emperor Constantine on the eve before battle against the rival emperor Maxentius had a vision of the sign of Christ (the so called chi-rho symbol) in a dream. And Constantine was to have the symbol inscribed on his helmet and ordered all his soldiers (or at least those of his bodyguard) to point it on their shields. It was after the crushing victory he inflicted on his opponent against overwhelming odds that Constantine declared he owed his victory to the god of the Christians. Soon thereafter, apart from building great monuments to Christianity, Constantine now also became openly hostile toward the pagans. Even pagan sacrifice itself was forbidden. Pagan temples (except those of the previous official Roman state cult) had their treasures confiscated. These treasures were largely given to the Christian churches instead.. Some cults which were deemed sexually immoral by Christian standards were forbidden and their temples were razed. Gruesomely brutal laws were introduced to enforce Christian sexual morality. Constantine was evidently not an emperor who had decided to gradually educate the people of his empire to this new religion. Far more the empire was shocked into a new religious order.
- "It is not hard to imagine the horror in heaven of a nation established by those who sought to worship God in spirit and truth, now a dwelling place for demons and all the false religions and philosophies of the world." MacDonald is certainly correct about the growing hostility toward Christianity in this country of ours-he knows it, you know it, I know it. But as bad as it is here, it's exponentially worse in Western Europe, where secularism and loose morals reign supreme.
Page 85:
- "Do those in China who work to manufacture clothes for export to the USA, some prison laborers, benefit, or only the merchants and kings?" Yes, Butthole Byron, the workers DO benefit. American companies DO NOT use slave labor, that abhorrent practice is utilized by the abhorrent state-run corporations, i.e. the ones owned by the despotic communist Beijing government. I can tell you from having done an extensive 38-page research paper on U.S.-China trade relations while I interned the Heritage Foundation that Chinese workers face far better working conditions at U.S.-owned companies within their country than they do from their own country's state-owned entities, both now and especially contrasted with working condition prior to our economic rapprochement with China.
Page 99:
- "The one foundation is the commercial Babylon, the USA, that seduces the world with the lie that *the secret to everything is a good economy*." (my emphasis added) Hogwash! If we are really so corrupt as a nation where everything is determined by simple economics, then why did we spend billions upon billions of our tax dollars fighting both a quasi-Islamic secular socialist dictatorship (what's left of Saddam's Ba'ath Party) and Islamo-fascism (Zarqawi and other al-Qaeda goons) in Iraq? Is it the oil, as those of the left crow? If it was all about the oil dollars and nothing else (and therefore simple economics as MacDonald alleges), then, as Bill O'Reilly points out, we could have simply continued to do buy oil from Saddam in the first place. What about France's honey oil deals with Saddam, and all those other European scoundrels (not to mention Kofi Annan's son) who were in economic cahoots with Saddam and therefore unwilling to help depose him? These European secularists thus stood in opposition to the United States, the so-called "economic Babylon!"
Page 113:
- "Yet he is really the voice of the dragon, Satan himself. It is also a head of the church located in Rome. It is hard to come to any other conclusion than that this is the Pope, leader of the Roman Catholic Church." This is such a tired old argument, pure, unadulterated slander. Whether MacDonald or any his other fellow Catholic-haters accept it or not, the Catholic Church is THE original Christian Church. While Martin Luther didn't come along until the 16th century and MacDonald's fly-by-night Rolling Hills Covenant Church presumably didn't come along until the 20th century, the Holy Catholic Church has 2,000 years of history and precedence to back her up, going back to when our Lord Jesus Christ decreed, "You are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.". Or is MacDonald trying to claim that there was no real Christianity between Jesus' earthly ministry and the Reformation? BY WHICH AUTHORITY WAS MACDONALD'S CHURCH FOUNDED???
And did he toast and celebrate the death of Pope John Paul II? I certainly wouldn't put it past him.
- "A church, interestingly enough, that has established its identity with Rome, not Jerusalem the city of God." Um, excuse me, but looking up Rolling Hills Covenannt Church on the Internet, it ain't in Jerusalem, but rather in Palos Verdes Estates, California . . . (good heavens, it can't be) the United States, er, "economic Babylon!" The horror, the horror! While P.V. Estates is certainly a physically beautiful area, I don't think anyone ever claimed it to be the Holy Land.
Page 120:
- "It will be amazing to the world that the Roman Empire has reappeared." Okay, I'm still waiting for this to happen. Granted, there was the so-called Holy Roman Empire back in the Middle Ages, but as the famous saying goes, it was "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire." Now, if this Roman Empire is literally going to reappear as Byron MacDonald claims, will it actually be in the city of Rome proper, or will it be within the Vatican, which is actually its own independent sovereign nation? If it is the former, the Italians sure as hell need to get their act together and get their giant Satanic conspiracy organized, because in the post-WWII era they've been so unstable and disorganized that they've changed their governments nearly as often as their underwear. If it's the latter, the so-called "Satanic" Pope better start increasing his military budget, in light of the quote by that infamous atheist, communist butcher Josef Stalin, "How many divisions does the Pope have?"
Page 152
- "One estimate recently is that 25 percent (25%) of people currently living in Africa will die from AIDS by the year 2010 . . . Yet the Bible says in Revelation 6:8, of the consequences of the horseman of death riding, ` . . . And the power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.'" Okay, by that rationale, wasn't the Black Death of medieval Europe, which wiped out ¼ of the population surely definitive proof of the End Times? Only God knows the day and time when He is ready to bring His Final Judgment, not for any mere mortal man to determine . . . not even Megalomaniac MacDonald.
And finally, on the penultimate page of the book, page 222
- "Let me give you a simple prayer that if you understand and pray believing what you say, then you can know God has saved you . . . Prayed that? Believed that? Then you are saved." Oh, is it really that simple??? For all of MacDonald's derision of the legitimacy of the Pope's authority to interpret the Word of God, where does MacDonald suddenly get off acting as though he's God's official spokesperson. He might as well label himself the new Messiah, "Lord Byron," if you will. Again, BY WHICH AUTHORITY does Lord Byron derive his apparent omnipotence?
Lord Byron is a prime example of a false prophet. He is no better than the so-called Bible-fearing Christians of the Ku Klux Klan, who, it should be noted, are anti-Catholic as well as anti-black and anti-Semitic.
Maybe Lord Byron, Madman Megalomaniac MacDonald will one day wake up from his delusions of grandeur and see the folly of his teachings, and if so, may God have mercy on his soul. Barring that if I may quote the little-used third verse of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, "I have read the fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel As ye deal with My comtempters, so with you My grace shall deal Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel Since God is marching on." If Senior Pastor MacDonald continues down his present path, may the Hero, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, born of Woman, Blessed Mother Mary, crush the serpent Byron MacDonald and the rest of the brood of vipers.
En Nomine Patris, et Filli, et Spiritu Sancti, Amen,,
Christian D. Orr, faithful Catholic Christian and American Patriot
P.S.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
Amen.
August 16, 2013
While there may have been a few things I disagreed with (I'm still figuring out exactly what they are) the essence of the book was correct. Sometimes the absolute certainty with which he spoke of some things made me wonder--but then again, I haven't studied the Bible extensively enough to say that he can't be certain. The overall effect on the reader was good--focusing him on the end of things to put everything in perspective and bring about some change. It may not have been written in the most engaging manner, but the subject held me, and I finished it in one sitting.
June 3, 2024
Thoroughly engrossing. Hard to put down. Reading it to my wife. We press on.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews