Wasn't it Isaac Newton that calculated the date that the end would be? It was like 2062 I think. Anyways why doesnt the GB adopt Isaac Newton say the end is coming in 2062 and then if it fails to come blame it on him?
Sir Isaac Newton
by I Faded Twice 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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waton
The Newton story too, has an apple and a fall, but he did not figure in 1914. He could be one of the 144 000 or Rev. 14, though," innocent of women" 2062 ? overlap will get wt further.
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waton
If Sir Isaac would be have been privy to what scientists have discovered since, he would not have written hidden thesis about bible chronology, the trinity, Genesis 1: 1, being false would have stopped him. Trying to wring secrets from that story is futile. Yet his science is alive and well, his belief in a creator served him well.
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smiddy3
Wasn't it Isaac Newton that calculated the date that the end would be?
They would never do that as it would be giving a non G.B. member the credit for receiving Holy Spirit and direction when it can only apply to Jehovah`s Witnesses as true Christians with Jehovah`s favor.
And Isaac Newton was way before the second coming of Jesus Christ and his sitting on the throne ruling as King.
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waton
And Isaac Newton was way before the second coming of Jesus Christ S3
yes, there was no Faithful and Discreet Slave before 1914, 1919; so, if the Apostels Paul and John Peter did not make it into the wt F&DS, why would a man who was brilliant in Science, a branch of human endeavour so estranged from wt writing?
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RubaDub
Interesting comment.
Perhaps GB 3.0 in 45 years can just blame it on the fact that Sir Issac Newton was just a "worldly" man and not directed by the holy spirit.
Rub a Dub
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Phizzy
I think with the present problems that face them, mainly a diminishing Cash Flow, they are shit scared of losing any more members in the rich West, the ones who actually donate.
So 2062, or whatever year old Izzie calculated, is too far away to keep the Fear Factor of Imminent Armageddon to the forefront of JW's minds.
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Earnest
Newton wrote a great deal on biblical prophecies and the Day of Judgement. One of the papers he wrote, now classified as Yahuda MS 7.3g, f. 13, concluded that it could not come before 2060 and that it might be later!
Richard Westfall quotes this paper by Newton in his biography - Never At Rest, C.U.P., 1996 reprint, p.816 :
I mention this period [he continued] not to assert it, but only to shew that there is little reason to expect it earlier, & thereby to put a stop to the rash conjectures of Interpreters who are frequently assigning the time of the end, & thereby bringing the sacred Prophecies into discredit as often as their conjectures do not come to pass. It is not for us to know the times & seasons which God has put in his own breast.
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Earnest
How did Newton determine the year 2060 as being significant? He believed that the prophecy in Daniel 7:24-26 referred to a period of Papal supremacy. Daniel 7: 25, 26 reads :
And he [the king that will rise up who is different from the others] will speak even words against the Most High, and he will harass continually the holy ones themselves of the Supreme One. And he will intend to change times and law, and they will be given into his hand for a time, and times and half a time. And the Court itself proceeded to sit, and his own rulership they finally took away, in order to annihilate him and to destroy him totally.
Newton calculates the time, times and half a time to be 1260 years. He wrote
So then the time times & half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years & an half, recconing twelve months to a yeare & 30 days to a month as was done in the Calendar of the primitive year.
So, if he could establish when this started he would know when it finished. He considered several commencement dates but In this ms (Yahuda MS 7) he gave 800 A.D. as the beginning of the Pope's supremacy. That was the year Charlemagne was crowned emperor of Rome in the west by Pope Leo III at St. Peter’s in Rome. He wrote:
And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060. It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner.
Newton's expectations for 2060 (or thereabouts) was the destruction of apostate Christianity and the beginning of the millenial reign on earth.
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TerryWalstrom
A long time ago Atlantis posted an interesting snippet on a previous Newton thread:
In the book published in 1993 by the Watchtower Society called, "Jehovah's Witnesses Proclaimers of God's Kingdom," states in the footnote on page 46 the following: "Neither Barbour nor Russell was first to explain the Lord's return as an invisible presence. Much earlier, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) had written that Christ would return and reign "invisible to mortals." In 1856, Joseph Seiss, a Lutheran minister in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had written about a two-stage second advent----an invisible "parousia", or presence, followed by a visible manifestation. Then, in 1864, Benjamin Wilson had published his "Emphatic Diaglott with the interlinear reading "presence." not "coming," for parousia, and B. W. Keith, an associate of Barbour, had drawn it to the attention of Barbour and his associates.
Apocalypse soon?
Newton predicts end of world for 2060
Sir Isaac Newton attained scientific immortality for formulating the law of gravity, but he was also a theologian who wrote more than one million words on biblical subjects and was influenced by Hebrew scripture, according to academic articles on his work. He studied the Bible for more than 50 years, trying to unravel what he believed were God's secret laws of the universe.Six years after his death, a book by the scientist abouteschatology (the end of the world, in this case as revealed by the Bible) was published, On the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of Saint John.
However, most of his notes on the theme remained unknown, but in recent years a document has been found in a Newton collection in the Jewish National Library in Jerusalem that shows he set 2060 as the year the world would expire. The Newton Project, and in particular the academic, Stephen Snobelen, have been working on Newton’s documents and have revealed that Newton concluded that Armageddon – a last great battle, would occur in 2060, with plagues, the return of Christ, and the end of time. Newtone wrote that this apocalypsewould be followed by a 1,000-year reign by the saints on Earth.
Newton stated:
This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fancifull men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.
"(It) is very counter-intuitive for people to think of Newton in terms of date setting and working in prophecy," Stephen Snobelen told Bible Network News. "Because there's this conception that science doesn't have anything to do with religion, and that's a very unfortunate conception," he added. "You can find all sorts of examples to disprove that. Historically and also today, most scientists have some sort of religious background or sentiment."
Snobelen explained to Bible Network News how Newton devised his calculation. "In the book of Daniel you will find the time period 1260 days. And it appears there as 'a time, times, and a half', and that means a year, two years, and a half a year. In other words, 1260 days or 42 months. Newton interpreted the days as years, so that gave him 1260 years. The 1260 date (also) does appear in the Book of Revelation." These Biblical references can be found in Daniel 12:7, Revelation 11:3, 12:6 and 13:5.
The Newton Project is working towards the publication, for the first time, of all Newton’s theological and alchemical works, stating “There are excellent editions of his mathematical and scientific papers, as well as of his correspondence, but very few of his non-scientific writings have ever appeared in print. The Newton Project will place these writings in their relevant contexts, which will be made accessible by means of hyperlinks.”