Sir Isaac Newton’s biblical views
When you mention the name of Sir Isaac Newton, almost everybody instantly think of a great scientist who changed the world forever. This was not all. Sir Isaac Newton spent a lot of his time on studying the bible and trying to interpret what is said between the lines. He wrote over one million words about his biblical views, although he never published anything by himself. Six years after his death, two men published one of his works, “Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John”. I guess he never published anything due to the time he lived. During this time it was all about science and publishing something about religion could easily destroy ones reputation. If this would happen, all of Newton’s works could have been hidden for the society to see and we would not have been as far as we are today. Before he died he left all his notebooks where he had written about religion in a chest. This chest was hidden into the 1930’s, when it was to be sold on an auction to the economist John Maynard Keynes.
I think it is very interesting that one of mankind’s greatest scientists (many people say he is the greatest) was so interested in studying something religious and put so much effort into it. In my opinion, it really shows that you don’t have to choose between science and religion; you can mix it if you want to. As an example, Newton studied the Book of Revelation and came up with a Judgement Day, using mathematical equations mixed with other ways. According to his numbers, the Judgement Day will occur in 2060. This prophecy is not like the Mayan’s calendar, which says that the world will end in 2012. This is a year when a new age will begin. In year 2060 there will be great wars, plagues and natural disasters, to cleans out the people of our age and create a new start for the Earth.
I actually like to look at it that way. According to this theory, there won’t be an exploding sun, there won’t be an asteroid hitting the Earth, there will be another “Noah’s Ark”, another new start for human kind and its nature. I would feel sorry for the new generation if all we have accomplished is destroyed, all our architecture, roads and technology just flushed away. But maybe, that’s just God’s plan, maybe he never wanted us to create a whole new world. There are lots and lots of angles in ways you can see it. Personally it gives me hope when someone says the world will not end, especially when Sir Isaac Newton himself says it, after studying the Bible.
What do you think will happen to our beloved Earth? Do you believe it will be destroyed by a sun storm, or do you have thoughts as Newton?
/ Sebastian Carlshamre
Very nice post Sebastian!
I don't believe that we are able to count out when the Earth is going to explode or everything on it will die. I think that this can happen, like the sun stops shining or an asteroid destroy the whole world, but we can't know when.
I do not believe in 2012. I think someone counted out a long time ago, that the Earth was going to collapse in May 2006. I did not noticed anything strange then... So people can have wrong when talking about the fall of Earth.
Thank you, Hanna!
I agree with you, it should not be possible to do any calculations on it. But it is interesting how Newton managed to come up with a date by studying the bible. Therefore, I think this is the most likely date for it to occur out of all theories.
very interesting article!
I also don't think that you can calculate when there's going to be a sort of apocalypse in any way. You can always calculate e.g. when vulcanos are most likely to erupt, or when the climate change will probably have made Eearth inhabitable, but I don't in any way believe when you set a certain date that this is going to happen then. You can always guess that something will happen around a certain time, but when it comes to religions or similar things that say that this will happen on this exakt time, I personally believe it to be pure bulls**t.
That being said, I had no idea that Newton looked into this, and I think that this is a very interesting thing to know about Newton!
