Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was one of the greatest scientist of all time. Despite his fame as one of the greatest scientists ever to have lived, the Bible was Sir Isaac Newton's greatest passion. He devoted more time to the study of Scripture than to science, and said, "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily." Newton wrote works on textual criticism, most notably An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture. He also placed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ at 3 April, AD 33, which agrees with one traditionally accepted date. He also attempted, unsuccessfully, to find hidden messages within the Bible. Newton was a one God man. He clearly rejected the Trinity and read the Bible in a literal manner not accepting the Greek and Platonic doctrinal additions, which are at the center Catholic beliefs. Isaac Newton wrote a number of religious tracts (1690s) dealing with the literal interpretation of the Bible. A manuscript he sent to John Looke in which he disputed the existence of the Trinity was never published. Later works such as The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728) and Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733) were published after his death. Though he never wrote a cohesive body of work on Prophecy, Newton's beliefs would lead him to write on the subject. Newton relied upon existing Scripture to prophesy for him. Over the years, a large amount of media attention and public interest has circulated regarding largely unknown and unpublished documents, written by Newton that indicate he believed the world could end in 2060 A.D. (Newton also had many other possible dates, one of 2034). Historian Stephen D. Snobelen says of Newton, "Isaac Newton was a heretic. (By the Catholic standards as they incorporated a God of three seperate yet equal parts or a trinity in the year 325 A.D. Though the idea came from Tertullian a Greek, who took this concept from pagan Plato's work of Timaeus in 200 A.D. and twisted it to his means. Anybody unlike the Catholics are declared heretics for that matter.) But like Nicodemus, the secret disciple of Jesus, he never made a public declaration of his private faith. Newton was secretly a Unitarian; he did not believe in the church's doctrine of divine trinity. Had this become known while he lived, the law would have required his removal from his position as a professor in Cambridge University. He hid his faith so well that scholars are still unravelling his personal beliefs." Snobelen thinks that Newton was at least a Socinian sympathiser (he owned and had thoroughly read at least eight Socinian books), possibly an Arian and certainly an antitrinitarian. (In The Trinitarian Theology of Dr. Samuel Clarke (1675-1729), T.C. Pfizenmaier argued Newton was neither "orthodox" nor an Arian. He believed that both of these groups had wandered into metaphysical speculation. According to most scholars, Newton was Arian and not holding to the trinity). Note that the Socinians were certainly Unitarian Christians. It was a age of religious intolerance and there are but a few openly public expressions of Newton's views, most notably his refusal to take holy orders and his refusal, on his death bed, to take the sacrament when it was offered to him. Here presented are some of the views he read or held for the most part. Nothing can be fully explained forth with 100% certainty, as Newton has passed on. The concepts of Deism go far back to ancient Greece, though classical Deism (and Unitarians as well) probably began with Faustus Socinus and his followers (16th century Unitarians) who held these following ideas: 1) All religious authority depends on applying reason to Scripture 2) The doctrine of the Trinity is false because there is no Scriptural evidence for it 3) The ethical teachings of Jesus, particularly the Sermon on the Mount, are the main guide, not the words of Paul. 4) Jesus was human, though an exceptional human; though not God, he was endowed with divine attributes of wisdom and virtue. See Acts 2:22 5) The resurrection was significant because it demonstrated the possibility of immortality 6) Jesus' death was not an atonement for our sins nor did God demand that someone suffer for our sins. 7) The following doctrines are false: original sin, predestination of the elect, the inherent depravity of human beings, and eternal damnation. 8)We can have faith in the good and loving nature of God 9)Though well aware of how sinful human beings can be and often are, we can

have faith in the human capacity for reason and goodness. 10)Religious thought should be free, and all creeds should be tolerated.