Newton Republished
While working for civil defense in Washington, a former congressman showed me through the old building of the Library of Congress. In the rare book section, I decided to look in the card catalogue under Isaac Newton. I heard he wrote about religion but had never seen any published materials. The library had a complete list of Newton’s published work with only one book about religion, that published in 1733. I asked to see it and soon found myself reading Thomas Jefferson’s personal copy!
For 323 pages, the greatest scientist who ever lived wrote about his efforts to understand two books of the Bible. The real message is between the lines. Newton accepted every word in the Bible as absolute truth. He only sought to understand it. We have now reprinted a photographic duplicate of Thomas Jefferson’s copy of this book. Only one book of Newton’s about the Bible was ever published. In 1733, six years after his death, J. Darby and T. Browne published Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John.1 The book is in excellent condition and has Thomas Jefferson’s initials on pages 57 and 137.
With his prodigious knowledge of ancient history and languages and his unequaled mental powers, Isaac Newton is the best qualified individual in this millennium to have written about the prophecies. His study of Daniel began at age 12 and continued throughout his life. He writes of the prophecies with a modesty that indicates he, himself, is in awe of the words he has been given an opportunity to read.
Newton concluded that Revelation would be understood by very few until near the end of history, the time of judgment, and beginning of the everlasting kingdom of the Saints. Newton says these books of prophecy were provided so that, as they are fulfilled, they provide a continuing testimony that the world is governed by the Providence of God.
Newton objected to using the prophecies to predict the future. On page 251, for example, he writes: “The folly of interpreters has been to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God designed to make them prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the Prophecy also into contempt.”
Through 323 pages, he traces history since the writing of the prophecies. He shows that at his time in the early 18th century, part of the prophecies had been fulfilled and part remained to be fulfilled – this is still true in 1991.
Decorated, as are his scientific works, with interesting asides such as comments on the exact date of Easter and the number of years during which Jesus taught, and permeated with a depth of scholarship that no longer exists among modem scholars, this book by Isaac Newton may be the most important work of its kind that has ever been written. The central message of this book for modern readers may not be so much in what it says but in what it is. Newton continually compared his experimental and theoretical understanding of science with his reading of the Bible. He found the content of these two sources of truth to be completely compatible, and regarded every word in the Bible to be as correct as the equations of mathematics and physics.
Therefore, throughout this book, Isaac Newton takes each word of the Prophecies to be exactly correct. He never doubts the content. He only seeks to understand it.
He never strays from his determination not to present predictions of the future based upon the Biblical Prophecies. On pages 113 and 114, he does give an identification of the last horn of the Beast and a numerical evaluation of the length of his reign. He also gives the approximate time of the beginning of this reign, but does not add the numbers or make a prediction. Addition of these numbers, however, places the time of judgment and the beginning of the everlasting kingdom. To Dr. Bentley he had written, “When I wrote my Treatise about our System, I had an Eye upon such Principles as might work with considering Men, for the Belief of a Deity, and nothing can rejoice me more than to find it useful for that Purpose.”
Newton formed the basis for the scientific revolution and the industrial revolution which created our current civilization. This incredible power of his discoveries, however, is minor compared with their role as 17th and 18th century miracles that serve as continuing testimony of the truth of the Bible and of the remarkable creations of the Lord.
The reprint is $19.50 – Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM), Box 1279, Cave Junction, OR 97523.
(1) This is not strictly correct. Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms was published in 1727 (H. McLachlan, Sir Isaac Newton, Theological Manu- scripts; Liverpool Univ. Press, 1950). Two other works were also published, one on chronology of the time of Jesus, another on two notable corruptions of Holy Scripture (1 Timothy 3:16 and 1 John 5:7-8).