Several years ago there was a great deal of hype over newly discovered papers written by the great scientist and astronomer, Sir Isaac Newton. The hype ignored any other dates he had mentioned in his notes and suggested that Newton claimed the world would end in the year 2060. “On 22 February 2003, the Daily Telegraph (London, England) published a front-page story announcing Isaac Newton’s prediction that the world would end in 2060.” The New York Post said as recently as late 2018: “Based on extensive studies of biblical texts, he estimated that the world would “reset” in 2060.” Although this does sound like a POLE SHIFT, I have to note that this was a bad interpretation of his writings on the subject, but in defense of the interpreters – Newton did have 4500 pages of handwritten notes on the subject. The same genius who gave invented Calculus and Physics and gave us the Laws of Planetary Motion devoted many decades to decoding Bible prophecy, and focused on events in the early 21st century. (I wrote about this in detail in End Times and 2019.)
Another article commenting on Newton’s largely unknown book: Daniel and the Apocalypse – noted: “Best known for his advancements in scientific thought Sir Isaac Newton was also big into his apocalyptic prophecy. Largely unknown and unpublished documents, evidently written by Isaac Newton, indicate that he believed the world could end in 2060 AD. (He also had many other possible dates e.g. 2034). Despite the dramatic nature of a prediction of the end of the world, Newton may not have been referring to the 2060 date as a destructive act resulting in the annihilation of the earth and its inhabitants, but rather one in which he believed the world was to be replaced with a new one.” That definitely sounds like Newton expected a POLE SHIFT.
Newton wrote in Principia Mathematica in 1687: “let there be added anywhere between the pole and the equator a heap of new matter like a mountain, and by its perpetual endeavour to recede from the centre of its motion will disturb the motion of the globe, and cause its poles to wander about its surface.” Sounds to me like Newton understood that when ice caps are not perfectly centered around the rotational axis, their off-center mass contributes centripetal tangential force to push the crust into a new position – eventually causing a pole shift.
A Wikipedia article on this topic clarifies that 2060 was a date he saw as a outlying limit, but was not his final calculation. After mentioning 2060 in his notes, he continued refining his calculations for many years.
“However, between the time he wrote his 2060 prediction (about 1704) until his death in 1727 Newton conversed, both first hand and by correspondence, with other famous theologians of his time. Those contemporaries who knew him during the remaining 23 years of his life appear to be in agreement that Newton, and the “best interpreters” including Jonathan Edwards, Robert Fleming, Moses Lowman, Phillip Doddridge, and Bishop Thomas Newton, were eventually “pretty well agreed” that the 1,260-year timeline should be calculated from the year 756 AD.”
[This would bring us to the year 2016, another date I think Bible prophecy led us to watch for, as I explained at length in Antichrist: 2016-2019.]
“F.A. Cox also confirmed that this was the view of Newton and others, including himself:
“The author adopts the hypothesis of Fleming, Sir Isaac Newton, and Lowman, that the 1260 years commenced in A.d. 756; and consequently that the millennium will not begin till the year 2016.”
Thomas Williams stated that this timeline had become the predominant view among the leading Protestant theologians of his time:
“Mr. Lowman, though an earlier commentator, is (we believe) far more generally followed ; and he commences the 1260 days from about 756, when, by aid of Pepin, King of France, the Pope obtained considerable temporalities. This carries on the reign of Popery to 2016, or sixteen years into the commencement of the Millennium, as it is generally reckoned.”
“…The end of the timeline is based on Daniel 8:25 which reads “…but he shall be broken without hand” and is understood to mean that the end of the Papacy with not be caused by any human action. Volcanic activity is described as the means by which Rome will be overthrown.
“Antichrist will retain some part of his dominion over the nations till about the year 2016.” “And when the 1260 years are expired, Rome itself, with all its magnificence, will be absorbed in a lake of fire, sink into the sea, and rise no more at all for ever.”
I wrote a whole book about the many sources pointing to Antichrist activity potentially occurring in 2016 – I can’t blame Newton for spending some attention on that while investigating end times Bible prophecy. But in the end, Newton never narrowed down his timeline. There are reasons to look at 2016, 2019, 2028, 2034, 2046, and 2060 for a possible end of the world – new heavens and a new earth – pole shift. And probably many other years. I think it’s great to keep thinking and trying to figure out such fascinating mysteries – but so far no one, myself included, has given a date and an explanation that settles the timing conclusively. Not even 4500 pages of effort from Sir Isaac Newton.
About Author
