Isaac Newton: Prediction of the end of the world
One of the greatest mathematicians in the world, Isaac Newton, predicted the end of the world would occur after the year 2000. He made this calculation in the 1670's--nearly 350 years ago! Some researchers have concluded that he accepted the time frame of the year 2011 to 2060 as being the time in which Yeshua (Jesus) would return. Please note that the usual calculation of 2060-(7x7)= 2011 also fits in this time interval. Below are some questions and answers concerning this prediction. The reader is invited to Google "Newton: end of the world prediction" for further research (please note some researchers use the year 2013 as the beginning of Newton's time frame). To God alone be all the Glory!
How important was biblical prophecy for Newton?
Extremely important. For Newton, biblical prophecy forecast the divinely-ordained events of the future. He believed the interpretation of biblical prophecy was "no matter of indifferency but a duty of the greatest moment". Prophecy allowed Newton to see history in advance. It also identified an evil, apostate system (Babylon) that pure Christians must flee to avoid destruction and the wrath of God.
How does biblical prophecy work for Newton?
Newton believed both in God and that the Bible was a revelation from God. He also believed that God was not bound by time as are humans, allowing Him to see the "end from the beginning". Thus, to use Newton's own words, he was convinced that "the holy Prophecies" of the Scripture are nothing else than "histories of things to come". At the same time, biblical prophecy is written in highly symbolic language that requires skilled interpretation. Newton rose to this challenge as he attempted to discover the future of the world in the words of the prophets.
Why did Newton only rarely add up the prophetic numbers?
Because he was wary of prophetic date-setting. Newton was worried that the failure of fallible human predictions based on divine prophecy would bring the Bible into disrepute. Ironically, in one of the two times Newton wrote down the 2060 date, he railed against date-setters. Newton may have been aghast if he had known his prediction would be broadcast around the world in the twenty-first century. His calculations about the time interval from 2011 to 2060 were private musings made on a scrap of paper not meant for the public. Ironically, the media coverage of the 2011 date has made Newton look like a date-setter.
The logic of Newton's apocalyptic calculations
Newton, like many historicist prophetic commentators of his age, believed that the prophetic time periods 1260, 1290, 1335 and 2300 days actually represent 1260, 1290, 1335 and 2300 years using the "day-for-a-year principle".
For Newton these time periods (especially the 1260 years) represent the time span of the apostasy of the Church (for Newton this means the Trinitarian Church, chiefly the Catholics). Thus, he looked in history for the likely date when the apostasy formally began (one sign of this for him was the date when the papal church obtained temporal power). From there it was a simple matter of adding the time period to the beginning date. However, things are rarely so simple with Newton. As already mentioned, Newton looked askance at "date-setting", and for this reason he rarely wrote out the end date for a time period once he had settled on a beginning date. The year 2011 is also significant because in addition to the rarity of end dates in Newton's writings, the calculation giving the 2011-2060 time frame comes from fairly late in his life and is asserted with uncharacteristic vigour.
Finding the commencement date was of great importance to Newton, since once he added the prophetic time periods to this date, he was able to determine when the great apocalyptic events of the end of the world were going to occur.
Although Newton believed there would be wars and cataclysms around the time of the end, for him this period was also the storm before the calm. Newton's prophetic faith therefore has a positive element.
The prophetic time periods
The time period 1260 days appears in Daniel 7:25 (as "a time and times and the dividing of time" [=a year, two years and a half year]), Daniel 12:7 (as "a time, times, and an half" [=a year, two years and a half year]), Revelation 11:3 (1260 days), Revelation 12:6 (1260 days) and Revelation 13:5 (42 months)
The time period 1290 days appears in Daniel 12:11.
The time period 1335 days appears in Daniel 12:12.
The time period 2300 days occurs in Daniel 8:14.
How did Newton arrive at the time frame 2011 to 2060?
This did not involve the use of anything as complicated as calculus, which he invented, but rather simple arithmetic that could be performed by a child. Beginning in the 1670s and continuing to the end of his life in 1727, Newton considered several commencement dates for the formal institution of the apostate, imperial Church. Earlier commencement dates include 607 and 609 A.D. As Newton grew older, he pushed the time of the end further and further into the future. Newton twice gives 800 A.D. for the beginning of "the Pope's supremacy". The year 800 is a significant one in history, as it is the year Charlemagne was crowned emperor of Rome in the west by Pope Leo III at St. Peter's in Rome. Since Newton believed that the 1260 years corresponded to the duration of the corruption of the Church, he added 1260 to 800 A.D. and arrived at the date 2060 for the "fall of Babylon" or cessation of the apostate Church. It seems that Newton believed the fall could perhaps begin somewhat before the end of the 1260-year period and continue for a short time afterward. Whatever the precise chronology, Newton believed that sometime shortly after the fall of the corrupt (Trinitarian, Catholic) Church, Christ would return . On page 144 of his Observations (1733), Newton cited Daniel 7:26-27 as evidence of this:
But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
So then the time times & half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years & an half, recconing twelve months to a yeare & 30 days to a month as was done in the Calendar of the primitive year. And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived [sic] kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060. It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fancifull men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, & by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail. Christ comes as a thief in the night, & it is not for us to know the times & seasons wch God hath put into his own breast.
Comments: This excerpt demonstrates that Newton was not only reluctant to set dates, but that he was convinced the end would not come in his lifetime. He took seriously biblical passages that assert that no-one except God knows the time of the end. Nevertheless, this excerpt shows that even Newton was fascinated with the prophetic conundrum of the date for the return of Christ and the beginning of the Millennium. Finally, although Newton's statement was meant to demonstrate that the time of the end was several centuries away from his perspective, history has now caught up with his predictions, which helps explain the current interest in his apocalyptic calculations.
Prop. 1. The 2300 prophetick days did not commence before the rise of the little horn of the He Goat.
2 Those day [sic] did not commence a[f]ter the destruction of Jerusalem & ye Temple by the Romans A.[D.] 70.
3 The time times & half a time did not commence before the year 800 in wch the Popes supremacy commenced
4 They did not commence after the re[ig]ne of Gregory the 7th. 1084
5 The 1290 days did not commence b[e]fore the year 842.
6 They did not commence after the reigne of Pope Greg. 7th. 1084
7 The diffence [sic] between the 1290 & 1335 days are a parts of the seven weeks.
Therefore the 2300 years do not end before ye year 2132 nor after 2370.
The time times & half time do n[o]t end before 2060 nor after [2344]
The 1290 days do not begin [this should read: end] before 2090 [Newton might mean: 2132] nor after 1374 [sic; Newton probably means 2374]
Why are his theological and prophetic beliefs important to our understanding of Newton?
Newton was not a "scientist" in the modem sense of that term. Instead, he was a "natural philosopher". Practised from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, natural philosophy included not only the study of nature, but also the study of God's hand at work in nature. Newton was committed to a notion of natural philosophy that saw the discovery of God and His attributes as its chief end. For this reason, any serious study of Newton's natural philosophy must include an understanding of his theological views. For example, Newton's famous concepts of absolute space and time were fundamentally based on his notion of God's omnipresence and eternal duration. It is also clear from his private manuscripts that Newton believed the ideal natural philosopher would also be a priest of nature. For Newton, there was no impermeable barrier between religion and what we now call science. Throughout his long life, Newton laboured to discover God's truth - whether in Nature or Scripture. Although he recognized disciplinary distinctions, Newton believed that truth was one. Thus, Newton's study of Nature and Scripture were in a certain sense two halves of a whole: the discovery of the mind of God.
P.S. For more information about the year 2011=end of the world copy http://www.writeonnewjersey.com/2010/11/judgment-day-less-than-one-half-year-away/ and paste this into your address bar.
Posted by Elijah at 10:04 AM
Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz
6 comments:
John Stockwell said...
As with any prediction the proof of
the pudding is in the eating.
The real question is: If the world
doesn't end, will the people who
are pushing this sort of prediction
chuck the whole concept or will
they go back to the drawing board and
come up with a new date for the end?
November 23, 2010 3:56 PM
Elijah said...
Dear John:
I will respond on several levels:
1) Because Bible students have carefully found the Bible's calendar, we are confident that the year 2011 is the end. Please note that Newton had the right idea but he did not have a calendar and thus could not know the exact year in which Jesus would return.
2) For the sake of argument, let's suppose it did not happen. Then nothing would change: Many people would find that there is a lot of money to be made in setting these sort of dates. Thus, this will continue. IMHO, this is what has happened in the past: Groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses found that there could increase their membership and thus contributions by making end-time predicitions. Of course, in my case, I have spent a lot of money--I have not made a single dime from these warnings (and neither would I accept any money).
3) Although I am sure that the year 2011 is the end of the world, I am also sure that Camping would be finished at Family Radio if it failed to happen. Because about 75% of the employees at Family Radio are *not* true believers, they would turn the 40 stations (or so) into a "traditional" religious broadcast.
In any case, I would encourage you to pray for mercy and wait upon God in these last days. To God alone be all the Glory!
November 27, 2010 10:18 AM
John Stockwell said...
Dear Elijah,
I see no reason to accept the notions of Biblical prophecy, because there is not a single example of this sort of thing working.
I predict that world will go on as it has before after the critical days of 21 May and 21 October.
We can only hope that Camping will be finished. As you say there is quite an industry built up around apocalyptic predictions. Though I doubt it. That
kind of cat lands on its feet.
What concerns me is that people will actually believe in this stuff and will act accordingly, by engaging in self destructive behavior. Such behavior could be simply stopping normal activities, spending all of their money at the expense of their family members, or violence.
Such an apocalyptic mania is a kind of drug. Fortunately we do have a definite end date, but in this case, when the end date comes and goes, there is sufficient slop in this strategy of date setting that people cab gin up new dates, possibly forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment