Newton set 2060 for end of world

The Daily Telegraph ^ | February 22, 2003 | Jonathan Petre

[MadIvan]

Sir Isaac Newton, Britain's greatest scientist, predicted the date of the end of the world - and it is only 57 years away.

His theories about Armageddon have been unearthed by academics from little-known handwritten manuscripts in a library in Jerusalem.

The thousands of pages show Newton's attempts to decode the Bible, which he believed contained God's secret laws for the universe.

Newton, who was also a theologian and alchemist, predicted that the Second Coming of Christ would follow plagues and war and would precede a 1,000-year reign by the saints on earth - of which he would be one.

The most definitive date he set for the apocalypse, which he scribbled on a scrap of paper, was 2060.

Newton's fascination with the end of the world, which has been researched by a Canadian academic, Stephen Snobelen, is to be explored in a documentary, Newton: The Dark Heretic, on BBC2 next Saturday.

"What has been coming out over the past 10 years is what an apocalyptic thinker Newton was," Malcolm Neaum, the producer, said.

"He spent something like 50 years and wrote 4,500 pages trying to predict when the end of the world was coming. But until now it was not known that he ever wrote down a final figure. He was very reluctant to do so."

Thousands of Newton's papers, which had lain in a trunk in the house of the Earl of Portsmouth for 250 years, were sold by Sotheby's in the late 1930s.

John Maynard Keynes, the economist, bought many of the texts on alchemy and theology. But much of the material went to an eccentric collector, Abraham Yahuda, and was stored in the Hebrew National Library. It was among these documents that the date was found.

[rintense]

2060? Bummer for Gen Z. And how ironic that they will be called Generation Z.

[RLJVet]

Oh, Oh, Oh, include me on your no pings list. It would be appreciated.

[Admin Moderator]

Please stop spamming this thread with huge replies.
Thanks.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Quix]

SURE.

Sorry to have bothered you.

DONE.

[Quix]

Guess I didn't construe it that way.

Guess I'll have to overhaul my definitions about such things. Perhaps you could elaborate your criteria. It appears many such are quite OK. AND those that turn out to not be OK seem to be overly often overly arbitrary. It makes a consistent definition hard to construct.

Sorry to have offended.

[Quix]

Given that the long chapters talking about such from the book THE FINAL WARNING have been pulled, if anyone wants to read them, please FREEPMAIL me and I'll send them in reply. Chapters I've available to send that way with my annotations are on the topics of:

THE FINAL WARNING; THE 'AC;' THE MARK; and THE CAMPS. Your source is mentioned I think in at least a couple of the chapters.

[ET(end tyranny)]

Whew! I lucked out. I copied and pasted them into composer and printed them out after you posted them.

I just hadn't replied to them yet because I only read the first two before deciding to print them, and it will take time to put together a reply.

Since your posts were pulled does that mean that I can't reply to them so that we can DISCUSS the posts?? Or does the reply have to be broken down into 25 line posts??

I thought the posts interesting and thought that they fit appropriately into a thread about 'the end of the world', to which Newton gives a date of 2060.

I would have liked to have seen if we couldn't have gotten some people to rationally discuss the topic. But, it seems that option has been taken away.

I hope this post isn't too long.

[FenianOfEire]

I wonder if he read the part in The Bible Where Jesus said no one knows the day nor the hour.

However, Jesus did say what the "season" would be, and Revelation is "sealed" until the time of the end "when knowledge is increased."... The day and hour won't be known, but a year is neither of those, and I think Newton's a little late, personally...

[ovrtaxt]

Just emerged from reading that huge post. Is it time for the end of the world yet? Or does it just feel like it? What year is it now?

Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeez that was long! ; )
I think I would like to not be on the ping list, but thanks for asking first.

[Quix]

You are NOT now & have not been on a ping list. That was just a one time thing of those I THOUGHT MIGHT be interested from the thread.

IF you want on my DEFINITELY EXCLUDE FROM ANY FUTURE PINGS ping list, please let me know.

Which one did you read? Any impressions?

[Quix]

The Queen of the realm has suggested the religion forum.

Am willing. Not overly eager to have similar treatment there.

Have thought of taking a 1-3 paragraph excerpt from each of the big chapters and posting that as a new thread--a modified following of a suggestion by the Super Distinguished One.

But whether it's my horrid chest congestion or what, I sort of feel a lot of the steam has been taken out of my posting about such. But if there's interest, I'm willing.

This there's the question--is God trying to tell me it's too risky in a list of respects and to let it go?

[Quix]

The too long thing is a bit puzzling to me. I've seen posts actually much longer--hard to imagine, I know--much longer--AND much more askew from the thread in which they were posted. And they sailed along fine.

I don't know how to construe the criteria to follow it. I don't know how to conceptually remove the arbitrariness sufficiently from the criteria to follow it faithfully. That's frustrating, discouraging.

[Al Simmons]

Hmmmmmmmmmm....according to one of those science-channel shows on the Maya I saw about 6 years ago, the Mathematical Mayans predicted that "this cycle of creation" will end in (if I can remember) around December 12 2009 or 2012......just set the date far enogh in the future and your reputation is safe....until, of course, the date rolls around.

How about that evangelist in NoCal who is still on TV (ancient as Methuselah)....who predicted the Second Coming about 10 years ago, then had to fall back on the passage about no one knowing the day or the hour. Since the Bible is so clear on this point, wy do people keep trying to figure God out? I could never quite figure that one out. Every generation has thinkers who believe that it is the "last" generation.

Rather than worrying, trust in God, obey His Commandments and treat each day as if it was the last. (Hard enough to do this, isn't it?)

Al

[ET(end tyranny)]

Check your mail

[metesky]

Do ya mean I'm only gonna make it to 116? Aw, shucks!

[Capitalism2003]

Actually, the average lifespan will probably be a little over 120 by the year 2060...Eat your veggies and you may live to see the next century...as long as the dems don't try another socialist takeover of medicine ;)

[GraniteStateConservative]

He doesn't claim to know it. He's predicting a date-- that's not knowledge.

With that reasoning, everyone could participate in an end-of-the-world pool and everyone would guess a different date-- thus keeping God from choosing one of those dates because they have been chosen. We could then repeat when we ran out of the period and thus keep the end of the world from ever coming.

[Junior]

I'll be 95. A change would be nice ...

[Pablo64]

"Ooops, I meant 48 years."

Would that be plus or minus from the 2060 date? I just want to know so I can make plans either way. (And where/how did you come up with that figure?)