The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2
VI. Isaac Newton Employs Scientific Approach to Prophecy
SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727), mathematician, philosopher, and outstanding genius of his age in the realm of scientific research, was born in Lincolnshire, and grew up in a religious atmosphere. Attending grammar school at Grantham, he was conspicuous for his mechanical ingenuity with windmills, water clocks, and sundials. In 1665 and 1668 respectively, he received a B.A. and an M.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge. His early interests centered in mathematics. PFF2 658.1
In 1665 Newton discovered differential calculus, and after the alleged episode of the falling apple in 1666, began to speculate on the laws of universal gravitation—that the attraction which one particle has for every other is proportional to its respective mass plus the square of the distance. He thereby explained how the planets are kept in their courses. Newton then began to study the nature of light and the colors of the prismatic spectrum, and in 1668 experimented with small reflecting telescopes. Einstein pays extraordinary tribute to him thus: PFF2 658.2
“The two-hundredth anniversary of the death of Newton falls at this time. One’s thoughts cannot but turn to this shining spirit, who pointed out, as none before or after him did, the path o£ Western thought and re search and practical construction. He was not only an inventor of genius in respect of particular guiding methods; he also showed a unique mastery of the empirical material known in his time, and he was marvellously inventive in special mathematical and physical demonstrations. For all these reasons he deserves our deep veneration. He is, however, a yet more significant figure than his own mastery makes him, since he was placed by fate at a turning-point in the world’s intellectual development. 50 PFF2 658.3
Newton began to lecture at Cambridge in 1669 and wrote several vital scientific books, the greatest being his Principia (1685-1687). He became a member of the Royal Society in 1671, and represented Cambridge in the Convention Parliament of 1689-1690, when his interest in prophecy began. In 1692-1693 he was studying the formation of sun and planets, maintaining that they could not be produced by natural causes alone, but only by an intelligent Agent and divine Power. In 1694 he was working on the lunar theory, and in 1696 was appointed warden of the mint, being advanced to master of the mint in 1699, at a salary of £1500 annually. In 1703 he became president of the Royal Society, which position he held by annual re-election till his death. In 1705 he was knighted by Queen Anne. His sepulcher is in Westminster Abbey. He never married. PFF2 658.4
Newton’s skillful enunciation of celestial law and motion, his accuracy of statement, and his clearness of demonstration has never been surpassed. His aim was to find a simple rule by which the motion of the heavenly bodies of our planetary system could be calculated. 51 The breadth of his mind led him to take the expansive views of things natural and divine. He studied nature as a whole, history as a whole, chronology as a whole- and in connection with these, prophecy as a whole, in both Daniel and the Apocalypse. And in tracing prophecy through history and chronology, Newton utilized in the latter his unrivaled astronomical skill. 52 His Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733), which was not published until six years after his death, was the outcome of forty-two years of study. (Facsimile of title page, with portrait, on page 664.) From 1690 onward he had correspondence with the philosopher John Locke (d. 1704), over questions relating to the interpretation of prophecy. 53 PFF2 659.1
1. NEWTONIAN METHOD REVEALED IN MANUSCRIPT
In writing on prophecy Newton employed the same exactness in finding the facts and applied the same strictly logical method of deduction that he used in the fields of mathematics and physics. For instance, on the second advent he tried to gather all available material, and we find in an auction catalog under several items: PFF2 659.2
“243 PROPHECIES. ‘PROPHESIES CONCERNING CHRIST’S 2D COMING,’ ... about 15,000 words, ... AUTOGRAPH.... PFF2 660.1
“245 PROPHECIES. OBSERVATIONS UPON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL AND THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN, A VAST COLLECTION OF DRAFTS OR VARIOUS CHAPTERS AND SECTIONS, ... ABOUT 300,000 WORDS, AUTOGRAPH.... PFF2 660.2
“247 PROPHECIES. A FAIR COPY, WITH CORRECTIONS, OF A WORK ON IN TERPRETATION OF THE PROPHECIES, (no title) ... about 40,000 words, ... HOLOGRAPH. 54 PFF2 660.3
The systematic method employed by Newton in reaching his general conclusions concerning the prophecies on the advent is illustrated in one of these manuscripts, Prophecies Concerning Christ’s 2nd Coming. In this 15,000-word, forty-page study are listed prophecies pertaining to the second advent. 55 Item 235, a miscellaneous group not considered suitable for publication, contained De Antichristo (1727). These manuscripts are in addition to 231 published works. Such is the amazing record of this busy teacher and reverent scientist. 56 PFF2 660.4
2. KEY TO ALL PROPHECY FOUND IN DANIEL
Part 1 of Newton’s Observations Upon the Prophecies, comprising 231 pages, pertains to the prophecy of Daniel. He begins with a remarkably keen and clear definition of prophetic terms and symbols. 57 He maintains that Daniel is the key to all other prophecy, and insists that “to reject his Prophecies is to reject the Christian religion”; as to its unity he says, “The prophecies of Daniel are all of them related to one another, as if they were but several parts of one general prophecy. 58 The first prophecy—of Daniel 2, where the foundation is laid—is the easiest to understand, yet each succeeding vision adds something to the former. The standard Historical School interpretation of the prophetic symbols is maintained—Babylon, Persia, Grecia, and Rome. 59 PFF2 660.5
3. LITTLE HORN MUST BE WEST OF GREECE
Daniel 7 introduces “several new additions”—the lion’s two wings, the three ribs in the mouth of the bear, the leopard’s four heads, the fourth beast’s eleven horns, and the Son of man coming to the Ancient of Days, sitting in judgment. 60 The identity of the same four kingdoms—Babylon, Persia, Grecia, and Rome—is stressed, together with the fact that the ten kingdoms arising out of Rome are to be sought in the Western Roman Empire—in the nations to the west of Greece. 61 PFF2 661.1
4. LITTLE HORN Is SEER, PROPHET, AND KING
The ten kingdoms are listed by Newton as follows: (1) Vandals and Alans, (2) Suevians, (3) Visigoths, (4) Alans in Gallia, (5) Burgundians, (6) Franks, (7) Britains, (8) Huns, (9) Lombards, (10) Ravenna. 62 The eleventh horn, as a horn in the Latin empire contemporaneous with the division of Western Rome, occupies chapter 7. Its unique characteristic is portrayed thus: PFF2 661.2
“But it was a kingdom of a different kind from the other ten kingdoms, having a life or soul peculiar to itself, with eyes and a mouth. By its eyes it was a Seer; and by its mouth speaking great things and changing times and laws, it was a Prophet as well as a King. And such a Seer, a Prophet and a King, is the Church of Rome. PFF2 661.3
“A Seer ... is a Bishop in the literal sense of the word; and this Church claims the universal Bishoprick. PFF2 661.4
“With his mouth he gives laws to kings and nations as an Oracle; and pretends to Infallibility, and that his dictates are binding to the whole world; which is to be a Prophet in the highest degree. 63 PFF2 661.5
5. CHARACTERISTICS AND CHRONOLOGY OF LITTLE HORN
The Papacy’s attempt to change times and laws is the burden of chapter 8, together with the plucking up of the three horns (Ravenna, the Lombards, and the principality of Rome) 64 the embracing of the Roman religion by the remaining kingdoms, and the achieving of temporal dominion. 65 The three and a half times are declared to be “1260 solar years” in fulfillment, on the basis of a prophetic year of 360 days. 66 PFF2 661.6
6. CLEANSING OF SANCTUARY Is STILL FUTURE
The Persian ram and the Grecian goat are treated in chapter 9, with the notable horn of the goat meaning the first kingdom, which was founded by Alexander. The great horn, being from the body of the goat, must be found in the goat’s original dominions. And such a little horn was the kingdom of Macedonia, from the time that it became subject to the Romans. This kingdom, because of the victory of the Romans over Perseus, king of Macedonia, ceased to be one of the four horns of the goat and became a dominion of a new sort, a horn which grew mighty but not by its own power, a horn which rose up and grew potent under a foreign power, the power of the Romans. 67 On Daniel 8:13 Newton demonstrates that the prophecy was fulfilled not in Antiochus but in the Antichrist. “Daniel’s days are years,” but no clear point from which to date the period is given. 68 Newton concludes: PFF2 662.1
“The Sanctuary and Host were trampled under foot 2300 days; and in Daniel’s Prophecies days are put for years: but the profanation of the Temple in the reign of Antiochus did not last so many natural days. These were to last till the time of the end, till the last end of the indignation against the Jews; and this indignation is not yet at an end. They were to last till the Sanctuary which had been cast down should be cleansed, and the Sanctuary is not yet cleansed. 69 PFF2 662.2
7. SEVENTY WEEKS DATED FROM 457 B.C.
Newton reasons that the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 are from J.P. 4257, or 457 B.C., as follows: PFF2 662.3
“Seventy weeks are cut out upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, &c. Here, by putting a week for seven years, are reckoned 490 years from the time that the dispersed Jews should be reincorporated into a people and a holy city, until the death and resurrection of Christ. 70 PFF2 662.4
“Now the dispersed Jews became a people and city when they first re turned into a polity or body politick; and this was in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when Ezra returned with a body of Jews from captivity, and revived the Jewish worship; and by the King’s commission created Magistrates in all the land, to judge and govern the people according to the laws of God and the King, Ezra 7:25. There were but two returns from captivity, Zerubbabel’s and Ezra’s; in Zerubbabel’s they had only com mission to build the Temple, in Ezra’s they first became a polity or city by a government of their own. Now the years of this Artaxerxes began about two or three months after the summer solstice, and his seventh year fell in with the third year of the eightieth Olympiad; and the latter part thereof, wherein Ezra went up to Jerusalem, was in the year of the Julian Period 4257. 71 PFF2 662.5
Ptolemy’s canon was cited by Newton for his chronology, which he based on three of the eclipses recorded by Ptolemy—in the seventh year of Cambyses, and in the twentieth and thirty-first years of Darius I. 72 (tm) In determining when Artaxerxes’ regnal years began, Newton did not follow the common practice of reckoning them from December, according to the canon (Egyptian) years, for he knew that Ptolemy had adjusted them to the Egyptian calendar; neither did he reckon them as Persian lunar years, from the spring, for such a regnal method, derived from archaeology, was unknown in Newton’s day; rather he counted them as beginning with the date of accession. Newton assumed Artaxerxes’ accession to have been delayed seven months after his father’s death, until his actual exercise of kingly authority upon the ending of Artabanus’ control of the government. Thus he arrived at a starting point some months later than the canon would indicate: PFF2 663.1
“Now he [Xerxes] reigned almost twenty one years, by the consent of all writers. Add the 7 months of Artabanus, and the sum will be 21 years and about four or five months, which end between midsummer and autumn An. J. P. 4250 [B.C. 464]. At this time therefore began the reign of his successor Artaxerxes.... PFF2 663.2
“His 7th year therefore began after midsummer An. J.P. 4256 [458 B.C.]; and the Journey of Ezra to Jerusalem in the spring following fell on the beginning of An. J.P. 4257 [457 B.C.]. 73 PFF2 663.3
Picture 5: UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS CONSPICUOUS EXPOSITORS OF PROPHECY
Joseph Mede, Brilliant Cambridge Professor, Writes Remarkable Key to the Revelation, Marking Real Exposition Advance (Left); Sir Isaac Newton (Oval), Genius of His Age in Scientific Research, Likewise an Expositor, Whose Observations on the Prophecies Set a New High in Interpretation (Right)
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8. SEVENTY SABBATIC YEAR-WEEKS to A.D. 34
Newton reckons the seventy weeks to the year of the crucifixion, which he puts in A.D. 34 (in the 490th year of the period), by assuming five Passovers in the period of Christ’s public ministry. 74 He counts the seventy weeks by Jewish years, beginning in the fall—those of the Sabbatic year and Jubilee-year series, which began on the tenth day of the seventh Jewish month, the Day of Atonement. 75 PFF2 664.1
“If you count in Judaic years commencing in autumn, and date the reckoning from the first autumn after Ezra’s coming to Jerusalem, when he put the King’s decree in execution; the death of Christ will fall on the year of the Julian Period 4747, Anno Domini 34; and the weeks will be Judaic weeks, ending with sabbatical years; and this I take to be the truth: but if you had rather place the death of Christ in the year before, as is com monly done, you may take the year of Ezra’s journey into the reckoning. 76 PFF2 664.2
Newton outdoes Mede in separating, not only the 62 weeks, but also the 7 weeks, one week, and even the half (midst) of the week-numbers which have been almost universally regarded as component parts of the seventy. Newton’s 7 weeks are a period of 49 years immediately preceding the second ad vent, in which the literal Jews restore Jerusalem; he runs the 62 weeks from the 28th year of Artaxerxes to the birth of Christ, J.P. 4278-4712 (or 436-43, 2 B.C.); the one week, from the cross to the seventh year thereafter, until the calling of the Gentiles; the half week, A.D. 67-70, ending with the taking of Jerusalem by Titus. 77 This odd view was not shared by others. PFF2 664.3
9. TIME FOR INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE HAS COME
In Part 2 (pp. 235 323), dealing with the Apocalypse, Newton reverts to Daniel 12:4, and remarks how prophetic knowledge will be on the increase, for “in the very end, the prophecy should be so far interpreted as to convince many.” An angel must fly through the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel to preach to all nations before Babylon falls, and before the great tribulation and end of the world. He then concludes, “If the general preaching of the Gospel be approaching, it is to us and our posterity that those words [Daniel 12:4] mainly belong. 78 PFF2 665.1
10. PRE-ADVENT RECOVERY OF LONG-LOST TRUTH
New ton then makes this impressive declaration: “The many and clear Prophecies concerning the things to be done at Christ’s second coming, are not only for predicting but also for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and set ting up a kingdom wherein dwells righteousness. 79 And this will be in the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin to sound. PFF2 665.2
11. CALLED TO INTERPRET, NOT TO PROPHESY
In this connection Newton enunciates the sound principle, Let Time Be the Interpreter, thus: PFF2 665.3
“The folly of Interpreters has been, to foretel 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. The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify men’s curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world. 80 PFF2 665.4
Many interpreters in recent times, Newton states, have made helpful discoveries in prophetic exposition. He therefore gathers that “God is about opening these mysteries.” It was this thought that stirred him to study, and he states that if he should contribute anything useful, he would have achieved his “design. 81 PFF2 666.1
12. 150- AND 391-YEAR WOE PERIODS DATED
Newton agrees in general with Mede on the seals and the first six trumpets, but takes him to task for not making the vials “synchronal to” the trumpets; he gives the first four trumpets—the barbarian tribes falling upon the Eastern Empire under the first, and upon Western Rome under the second, third, and fourth—in detail. 82 The fifth trumpet, or first woe, is the Saracenic locusts, whose 150 years he doubles five months and five months—from 637 to 936 inclusive. 83 The sixth trumpet, or second woe, sounds to the wars of the king of the north, or the Turks, led by Alp-Arslan. The four kingdoms of the Turks, seated upon the Euphrates, began to erect their empire in 1063, and in 1453 they took Constantinople and extinguished the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Rome. For this period Newton takes 391 years inclusive (360 + 30 + 1), not 396 (365 + 30 + 1), as does Mede, and remarks: “The interval is called an hour and a day, and a month, and a year, or 391 prophetic days, which are years. 84 PFF2 666.2
13. THE WOMAN AND THE Two BEASTS
Newton has an unusual interpretation of Revelation 12, 13, and 17. The woman is the church—originally pure, but degenerating until she be comes the impure woman of Revelation 17, sitting on the seven hills. After the pains of Diocletian’s persecution the church is delivered of a man child (the Christian Roman Empire, beginning with Constantine), who is caught up to the throne. The woman flees to mystical Babylon, or the “spiritually barren Empire of the Latins.” When the dragon (Satan, personified in the pagan Roman Empire) sees that he is dethroned in favor of the man child, he persecutes the woman in the reign of Julian the Apostate. The earth (the Greek, or Byzantine, Empire) helps the woman by giving the Beast (the Western Roman Empire) a deadly wound; but the dragon goes to the Eastern Empire to make war with the faithful remnant of her seed, whom she has left in the East. Thus the western Beast is revived and given the seat and power of the pagan dragon; and the ten horns, or kingdoms, receive power “the same hour with the Beast.” The woman, having “fled” from her former pure state, reigns spiritually over the Beast and the ten kings, and temporally as the eleventh horn of the Beast (the same as the Little Horn of Daniel’s fourth beast). Nourished in this spiritual wilderness for 1260 years by the merchants of the earth, she becomes drunken with the blood of saints. The second beast, from the earth, is the church of the Greek Empire, which meanwhile makes an image to the western Beast, whose name is Lateinos, and whose number is 666. PFF2 666.3
After the killing of those religious bodies which will not worship the western Beast and his eastern image, a new temple is built for them, into the inner court of which retire the 144,000 saints, or the Two Witnesses-not new churches but descend ants of the primitive church, represented by Smyrna and Philadelphia, the two faultless but persecuted, witnessing churches, which alone of the original seven were worthy of having their candlesticks placed in this new temple. But the outer court, or outward form of the church, is trodden underfoot for 1260 years by the Gentiles, who worship the Beast and his image. 85 PFF2 667.1
14. PASSOVER AND ATONEMENT TYPES OF Two ADVENTS
Tremendously impressive are Newton’s declarations concerning the relationship between the visions of the Apocalypse, the temple service, the dressing of the candlesticks, and the Day of Atonement, carried out through the seven seals. PFF2 667.2
“The Temple is the scene of the visions, and the visions in the Temple relate to the feast of the seventh month: for the feasts of the Jews were typical of things to come. The Passover related to the first coming of Christ, and the feasts of the seventh month to his second coming: his first coming being therefore over before this Prophecy was given, the feasts of the seventh month are here only alluded unto. 86 PFF2 668.1
15. SEALS IN SETTING OF PRIESTLY MINISTRY
In the first vision John sees Christ, our High Priest, in the midst of the golden candlesticks, “dressing the lamps,” this dressing being the sending of the seven epistles to the seven churches of Asia. The first four visions of the seals relate only to the civil affairs of the heathen Roman Empire, and under the fifth, the per versions and persecutions of the Man of Sin are revealed. 87 hen, after the lamps were dressed, the door of the temple was opened, and John saw the throne and the ark of the testament in the most holy, and the attendant scene. 88 Newthen remarks on how for seven days before the Day of Atonement, the high priest was constantly in the temple studying the book of the law. 89 PFF2 668.2
16. SEALING WORK TIED TO DAY OF EXPIATION
Then the seventh seal was opened on the “Day of Expiation.” And there was silence in heaven as the High Priest entered the most holy place and carried the smoking incense before the ark, and the solemnity of the Day of Expiation consummated. 90 with is the sealing was connected. PFF2 668.3
17. EITHER SEAL OF GOD OR MARK OF BEAST
Newton then describes how certain features of the Day of Atonement are reflected on the final day of judgment. According to the Jews, three books were opened in judgment: (1) the book of life, in which are written the names of the perfectly just, (2) the book of death, in which are the names of the very wicked, and (3) a book of those whose judgment is suspended till the Day of Expiation. In those first ten days of penitence the Jews pray and fast, that on the tenth day their sins may be remitted and their names be written in the book of life. 91 Then, on the tenth day, returning home from the temple- PFF2 668.4
“they say to one another, God the creator seal you to a good year. For they conceive that the books arc now sealed up, and that the sentence of God remains unchanged henceforward to the end of the year. The same thing is signified by the two Goats, upon whose foreheads the High-Priest yearly, on the day of expiation, lays the two lots inscribed, For God and For Azazel; God’s lot signifying the people who are sealed with the name of God in their foreheads; and the lot Azazel, which was sent into the wilderness, representing those who receive the mark and name of the Beast, and go into the wilderness with the great Whore. PFF2 669.1
“The servants of God being therefore sealed in the day of expiation, we may conceive that this sealing is synchronal to the visions which appear upon opening the seventh seal. 92 PFF2 669.2
18. INFIDELITY TO PUT STOP TO PAPAL DOMINANCE
Whiston, Newton’s successor in the chair of mathematics at Cambridge University, tells how Newton maintained significantly that before primitive Christianity could be restored the power of infidelity in a “main revolution” would be used to put a stop to or block the popedom that had so long corrupted the church. 93 PFF2 669.3