I’m not blaming Russell for writing a book or having a theory. But I believe he is misinterpreting the prophetic theories of Sir Isaac Newton (and potentially misleading many Christians) when he writes:
“Newton, who lived some 300 years ago (1642-1727), was one of the greatest geniuses in all history, with perhaps the highest I.Q of anyone in history, except Jesus, who was God in human form. Newton is called “the father of modern science” and “the father of the industrial revolution.” He discovered many scientific laws.
God chose Isaac Newton to impart many of His deepest secrets and riddles. There is strong evidence that God gave Newton the most mysterious secret and riddle of all — the timing and the events of the end of the age! You must read all of this e-mail!
Newton was a devout believer in Christ and Bible scholar, fluent in ancient languages, and who translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek. He was unusually drawn to the prophet Daniel, which he began studying at age 12 and continued until he died at age 85. In fact, The Columbia History of the World, a secular history book, remarks, “At the end of his days he spent more time studying and writing about the prophecies in the Book of Daniel than he did in charting the heavens.”
Apparently, God Himself put in Newton’s heart this burning desire to study Daniel, then gave him the key to the timing of Christ’s return. Could this be the final profound secret the Lord revealed to this godly genius near the end of his life — a secret “accidentally” discovered in the Library of Congress and republished just in the last few years — a secret so simple that most have missed it? If Newton was correct in his interpretation of Daniel, the prophet to whom God gave specific timing, then the return of the Lord Jesus Christ will be very, very soon, indeed!
Newton’s understanding of one key passage in Daniel chapter 9 is fundamentally different from that of most common interpretations. In about 550 B.C., God gave the prophet Daniel a view of history to the end. From Daniel 9:25, scholars usually add the “seven weeks (of years, or 49 years) and 62 weeks (434 years)” to get 483 years and calculate the time of Messiah’s First Coming. However, Newton says there is no linguistic basis for adding those two numbers (49 and 434), and to do so is “doing violence to the language of Daniel.” Newton says the two numbers separately speak of both the First and Second Coming, both being counted from the “going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.”
Newton says the “62 weeks,” or 434-year part was fulfilled at the First Coming, and the “seven weeks,” or 49-year part will apply to the Second Coming. And three centuries ago he saw in the Scriptures and wrote about the rebirth of Israel at a time when such a thought was preposterous.
Amazingly, by faith and understanding of the Scriptures, he foresaw a “friendly kingdom” someday again issuing the “commandment to restore and build Jerusalem.” Now, centuries later, that “friendly kingdom” was the United Nations, which decreed Israel’s rebirth in November, 1947, causing Israel to be reborn in May, 1948.
The above is taken from my [Neill Russell’s] essay on Newton written in the mid-1990s shortly after obtaining a copy of Newton’s commentary on Daniel from the doctor who discovered Thomas Jefferson’s personal and initialed copy of it in the Library of Congress, and who then got permission to reprint it in the original, difficult-to-read olde English script.
However, my [Russell’s] speculations back then wrongly assumed the final 49-year count began when Israel was born in 1948. At the time, it did not occur to me that the count should probably begin on June 7, 1967, when Israel captured Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.”
quote from https://twelvebooks.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/jan-28-2015-sir-isaac-newtons-work-leads-to-the-timing-of-the-apocalypse/
So having been wrong about the Messiah’s Second Coming being due in 1997, Russell now says the Second Coming will be around June 7, 2016.
My own conclusions are that the Antichrist will claim to be the Messiah on June 6, 2016 – and I give a great deal of evidence for that date in my recent book, Antichrist 2016-2019: Mystery Babylon, Barack Obama & the Islamic Caliphate. In my book, I also pointed out that some people are promoting the idea that the true Messiah will come on that day. Many will be fooled. As Matthew 24:24 warns: “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”
If one takes Bible prophecy seriously, the Antichrist has to take power 42 months before Jesus Christ comes to destroy him. We simply don’t have 42 months left before June 2016. As 2 Thessalonians 2:3 says: “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” Read Alan Kurschner’s “Antichrist: Before the Day of the Lord” for further clarification. The Second Coming cannot come anytime, like tomorrow – or in 2016. The reign of the Antichrist comes first.
I would argue that the order to rebuild Jerusalem (to which the 49 years should be added – which in theory tells us when the Second Coming will be) has been given many times AFTER the Israeli victory and expansion into East Jerusalem in June 1967 – perhaps most significantly – in December 1970. Long time Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek formed a plan to deal with the territorial gains (of 1967) in 1968 which “included massive construction projects in the eastern part of the city, ‘to ensure Jerusalem’s unification, in a manner that would prevent the possibility of its being repartitioned’.”
“In 1969 [Prime Minister] Golda Meir, the Israeli ‘Iron Lady’, succeeded Eshkol and took control of the ‘unified Jerusalem’ project. A new master plan now proposed the development of Shekhunot ha-Taba’at, or ‘Ring Neighbourhoods’, a bizarre new turn in the dialectic of military, political and urban-development considerations. Rather than building outward from the older neighbourhoods at the heart of Jerusalem, this plan advocated the construction of Jewish residential quarters on its remote periphery, strung around the new city limits.” (quotes from http://newleftreview.org/II/81/yonatan-mendel-new-jerusalem)
Distant new suburbs would be built and they would be incorporated as part of a greatly expanded city. The emphasis shifted from plans to reduce the Arab presence and build new Jewish facilities in East Jerusalem for a united Jewish capital city – to enlarging the city by several hundred per cent. Many politicians felt that a distinction would someday be made between Jerusalem and other newly occupied territory. Land outside Jerusalem, either by international pressure, or a willing land-for-peace deal – might someday be given back to Jordan (or a new Arab nation called Palestine) while Jerusalem, as the capital, would be non-negotiable.
As the Israeli government and military interfered with the original plans – in order to enlarge Jerusalem for maximum territory, minimum Arab/Muslim population, and maximum military defendability – public debate and disagreement on the expansion plans grew. Kollek organized an international committee of 70 world renowned architects and city planners, hoping to legitimize and sanction the expansion and Israelification of Greater Jerusalem. The meeting of the Jerusalem Committee was scheduled for December 1970 (49 years before my prophetic timeline ends with Judgment Day, as detailed in End Times and 2019) but there was so much disagreement that a secret session was hastily convened at a slightly earlier date, closed to the public. (p. 165 of Modernism and the Middle East: Architecture and Politics in the Twentieth Century) The international members of the Jerusalem Committee condemned the updated plans (which had less to do with modern architecture or good urban planning and more to do with geopolitical and military defense concerns.)
Professional opinions from the committee were ignored, and “new-built houses, clad in the mandatory white ‘Jerusalem stone’, were positioned like turrets on the mountain ridges overlooking the city and along the arteries leading into it. The first of these [new Jewish neighborhoods] were Neve Ya’akov” which was started by the end of 1970. (http://newleftreview.org/II/81/yonatan-mendel-new-jerusalem)
In summary, I argue that 49 years from June 6, 1967 is an important date – but unlike Neill Russell, I argue that it will mark the revealing of the identity of the Antichrist, not the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I think that Bible prophecy, and Sir Isaac Newton – are being misinterpreted by those who assume that the Second Coming will be around June 6-7, 2016 – and that any beliefs in such a theory will help mislead many into following the Antichrist. I believe that December 1970 is a more important starting point for Daniel 9:25’s 49 years/7 weeks of years: “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks.” I believe the Second Coming will be in late 2019.
If interested in more details, read End Times and 2019 and Antichrist 2016-2019.
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