There is no question that Sir Isaac Newton was one of the greatest minds in history -- holder of the Lucasian Chair of Cambridge and the developer of our knowledge of calculus. He revolutionized our way of thinking and how we see the universe. Newton is often said to be a "scientist" and "rational," two words that mean something slightly different today than in previous centuries or even decades.
But there is also far more to Newton than just the above listed achievements. This is a side that every Christian should really get to know -- or at the very least, be aware of. Newton called himself a natural philosopher. He saw no barrier between religion and what we now call science. Newton believed that truth was one. Nature and scripture were two halves of one whole.
Newton was a Christian
Many people don't realize that Sir Isaac Newton was a prophet and an alchemist. He was a very religious Christian and predicted the return of Yeshua around the year 2060. In fact, Newton wrote far more about the scripture than about science. Newton kept his work in Alchemy and prophecy a secret because his beliefs were considered heretical, thus illegal, at the time.
As biographer Richard Westfall says, "Newton kept this secret because heresy would lead to termination of his appointments at Cambridge University and the Mint."
Even today many see prophecy and alchemy as inconsistent with science; secular-fanatics do anyway. But Newton had no problem melding the two. After all, religion has often been stimulated by scientific developments, and science frequently benefits from religious observations. He once noted that "Mathematics is the language of God."
Newtons Private Religious Papers
So why are we only hearing about this centuries after his death? Well, as mentioned above, Sir Isaac Newton had to keep many of his views under wraps during his life. Newtons papers were kept from the public by the Portsmith family till 1936. They were then sold to the Sotheby's in London, and that made them more available to scholars.
Later the papers were acquired by Jewish scholar Abraham Salom Ezekiel Yahuda. When he died he left them to the state of Israel in 1951. Only recently have they become more widely known.
Newton's Beliefs
Sir Isaac Newton viewed scriptural prophecy much the same way we look at a weather forecast. He once wrote that prophecy is "no matter of indifferency, but a duty of the greatest moment." He believed that God is not bound by time and can see the "end from the beginning." He also believed the book of revelations to be "histories of things to come."
Newton took scripture literally in many ways. In his own words, "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily."
Newton predicted that our era would come to an end in the year 2060. I'm still studying the details of his reasoning myself, but the basis of it is a period of 1260 years mentioned seven times in scriptural prophecy. Newton came to his final date by adding that to the date the papal church gained temporal power.
According to Dr Stephen D Snobelen of Newton's own archives, the year 800 is significant because that's when Charlemagne was crowned emperor of Rome by Pope Leo III at St Peter's in Rome. Newton saw the apostate church as Babylon.
Cautious Prophet
All that said, Sir Isaac Newton was also wary of date setting. He believed that the failures of fallible humans to make predictions on mishandling of divine scriptures would cause scripture to look as though it were inaccurate. The 2060 date was set late in Newton's life. It was also asserted with uncharacteristic vigor.
Of it he said, "This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail." As I said, He took scripture literally in many ways.
Next to other Prophets
I suppose one can't delve into this aspect of Sir Isaac Newton without mentioning the other well known prophet of the time, Nostradamus. Like Nostradamus, Newton's prophecies were dead on in his predictions about the Nazis. Since Nostradamus had more notoriety, he actually freaked the Nazis out.
Also, both were shockingly accurate about Israel being re-founded in the 1950's, as well as the eventual discovery of the Big Bang. Apparently Nostradamus added the Iraq war, 9/11 and many others to his belt.
Personally, I like Newton's method more, because he tempers it with a reasoning process. Nostradamus' method was far more mystical from what I know of it. He seems to have relied far more on astrology and intuition.
Against the Modern Critics
All that said, as I mentioned above, Sir Isaac Newton was also wary of date setting. He believed that the failures of fallible humans to make predictions on mishandling of divine scriptures would cause scripture to look as though it were inaccurate.The fallacy of the secular-fanatics is that pointing out where these people were wrong doesn't explain how they were so frequently right. Nor does it prove that accuracies that defy the statistics were simply lucky guesses. That's where Newton's greatest prophetic legacy comes in.
The Apocalypse
As a skeptic, I personally don't put a lot of stock into end-of-the-world prophecies. As a historian, I have come to view Revelations as being about the fall of the Roman empire. But it can't be denied that both prophets got some shockingly unlikely predictions right -- except by the most unreasonably secular atheists of course.
Every religion seems to have one though. Even atheism predicts how it thinks the earth and the universe will end. But Newton was the rational prophet, and that's what I find most fascinating about him. As many of you know, I use a very similar process to decide which of my own premonitions are reliable and which are not.
I suspect that Newton never got into much detail about his prophecies for the same reason I don't. Because I'm sometimes wrong. It's at the times that the greats like Nostradamus and Cayce were wrong that critics point to and make the claim that they were always wrong.
Then there are moments like with Lieberman's re-election when I just knew he would win, and the data supported my intuition so I took the chance and called the election six months before the votes were even cast -- and at a time when everyone else was saying his career was over.
What Newton Believed would happen
Another valuable and important lesson from Sir Isaac Newton is the tempered way that the way he viewed the apocalypse. The fatalism we've come to think of as the end of the age is in reality a recent invention. It's something all the first and second century church fathers disagreed with us on.
Revelation was not a book of doom and gloom, but a message of hope -- a chronicle that says good will conquer evil, that we will all get our moment to shine, and, most importantly, that we are eternal built for great things. And that was Newton's most important lesson to man kind.
Many have said that Christianity is coming full circle. That we will soon be back to the days when being a Christian means great suffering. I tend to agree with that assessment.
But at the same time you must understand that this is not a reason to fear. Christianity has always flourished under persecution. People think they can destroy Christianity, and there are a lot of Christians who agree with their assessment. But if they are right about that, then that would prove that Christianity is a false religion.
So the future is not such a scary thing if you really think about it, and trust in God to get you through the days and years to come.
But there is also far more to Newton than just the above listed achievements. This is a side that every Christian should really get to know -- or at the very least, be aware of. Newton called himself a natural philosopher. He saw no barrier between religion and what we now call science. Newton believed that truth was one. Nature and scripture were two halves of one whole.
Newton was a Christian
Many people don't realize that Sir Isaac Newton was a prophet and an alchemist. He was a very religious Christian and predicted the return of Yeshua around the year 2060. In fact, Newton wrote far more about the scripture than about science. Newton kept his work in Alchemy and prophecy a secret because his beliefs were considered heretical, thus illegal, at the time.
As biographer Richard Westfall says, "Newton kept this secret because heresy would lead to termination of his appointments at Cambridge University and the Mint."
Even today many see prophecy and alchemy as inconsistent with science; secular-fanatics do anyway. But Newton had no problem melding the two. After all, religion has often been stimulated by scientific developments, and science frequently benefits from religious observations. He once noted that "Mathematics is the language of God."
Newtons Private Religious Papers
So why are we only hearing about this centuries after his death? Well, as mentioned above, Sir Isaac Newton had to keep many of his views under wraps during his life. Newtons papers were kept from the public by the Portsmith family till 1936. They were then sold to the Sotheby's in London, and that made them more available to scholars.
Later the papers were acquired by Jewish scholar Abraham Salom Ezekiel Yahuda. When he died he left them to the state of Israel in 1951. Only recently have they become more widely known.
Newton's Beliefs
Sir Isaac Newton viewed scriptural prophecy much the same way we look at a weather forecast. He once wrote that prophecy is "no matter of indifferency, but a duty of the greatest moment." He believed that God is not bound by time and can see the "end from the beginning." He also believed the book of revelations to be "histories of things to come."
Newton took scripture literally in many ways. In his own words, "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily."
Newton predicted that our era would come to an end in the year 2060. I'm still studying the details of his reasoning myself, but the basis of it is a period of 1260 years mentioned seven times in scriptural prophecy. Newton came to his final date by adding that to the date the papal church gained temporal power.
According to Dr Stephen D Snobelen of Newton's own archives, the year 800 is significant because that's when Charlemagne was crowned emperor of Rome by Pope Leo III at St Peter's in Rome. Newton saw the apostate church as Babylon.
Cautious Prophet
All that said, Sir Isaac Newton was also wary of date setting. He believed that the failures of fallible humans to make predictions on mishandling of divine scriptures would cause scripture to look as though it were inaccurate. The 2060 date was set late in Newton's life. It was also asserted with uncharacteristic vigor.
Of it he said, "This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail." As I said, He took scripture literally in many ways.
Next to other Prophets
I suppose one can't delve into this aspect of Sir Isaac Newton without mentioning the other well known prophet of the time, Nostradamus. Like Nostradamus, Newton's prophecies were dead on in his predictions about the Nazis. Since Nostradamus had more notoriety, he actually freaked the Nazis out.
Also, both were shockingly accurate about Israel being re-founded in the 1950's, as well as the eventual discovery of the Big Bang. Apparently Nostradamus added the Iraq war, 9/11 and many others to his belt.
Personally, I like Newton's method more, because he tempers it with a reasoning process. Nostradamus' method was far more mystical from what I know of it. He seems to have relied far more on astrology and intuition.
Against the Modern Critics
All that said, as I mentioned above, Sir Isaac Newton was also wary of date setting. He believed that the failures of fallible humans to make predictions on mishandling of divine scriptures would cause scripture to look as though it were inaccurate.The fallacy of the secular-fanatics is that pointing out where these people were wrong doesn't explain how they were so frequently right. Nor does it prove that accuracies that defy the statistics were simply lucky guesses. That's where Newton's greatest prophetic legacy comes in.
The Apocalypse
As a skeptic, I personally don't put a lot of stock into end-of-the-world prophecies. As a historian, I have come to view Revelations as being about the fall of the Roman empire. But it can't be denied that both prophets got some shockingly unlikely predictions right -- except by the most unreasonably secular atheists of course.
Every religion seems to have one though. Even atheism predicts how it thinks the earth and the universe will end. But Newton was the rational prophet, and that's what I find most fascinating about him. As many of you know, I use a very similar process to decide which of my own premonitions are reliable and which are not.
I suspect that Newton never got into much detail about his prophecies for the same reason I don't. Because I'm sometimes wrong. It's at the times that the greats like Nostradamus and Cayce were wrong that critics point to and make the claim that they were always wrong.
Then there are moments like with Lieberman's re-election when I just knew he would win, and the data supported my intuition so I took the chance and called the election six months before the votes were even cast -- and at a time when everyone else was saying his career was over.
What Newton Believed would happen
Another valuable and important lesson from Sir Isaac Newton is the tempered way that the way he viewed the apocalypse. The fatalism we've come to think of as the end of the age is in reality a recent invention. It's something all the first and second century church fathers disagreed with us on.
Revelation was not a book of doom and gloom, but a message of hope -- a chronicle that says good will conquer evil, that we will all get our moment to shine, and, most importantly, that we are eternal built for great things. And that was Newton's most important lesson to man kind.
Many have said that Christianity is coming full circle. That we will soon be back to the days when being a Christian means great suffering. I tend to agree with that assessment.
But at the same time you must understand that this is not a reason to fear. Christianity has always flourished under persecution. People think they can destroy Christianity, and there are a lot of Christians who agree with their assessment. But if they are right about that, then that would prove that Christianity is a false religion.
So the future is not such a scary thing if you really think about it, and trust in God to get you through the days and years to come.
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