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INTRO of Isaac Newton's book

OBSERVATIONS UPON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL,


AND THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN


By Sir Isaac Newton


London 1733




Reprinted by:


The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine


2251 Dick George Road


Cave Junction, Oregon 97523


(c) September, 1991




INTRODUCTION


by


Arthur B. Robinson




Isaac Newton was the greatest scientist who has ever


lived. It is, in fact, generally accepted that he


is probably the greatest scientist who ever will live,


since no one, no matter how brilliant, will again be


in such a unique historical position.




Isaac Newton was born on Christmas day in 1642 and died


in 1727. His most famous work, Philosopiae Naturalis


Principia Mathematica, was published in 1687.




His discoveries span all aspects of the physical world


with special emphasis on experimental and theoretical


physics and chemistry and on applied mathematics. He


invented virtually the entire science of mechanics and


most of the science of optics. During this work, he


invented such mathematics as he needed or as interested


him including the discipline known as calculus.




Isaac Newton was both an experimental and theoretical


scientist. He personally constucted the models and


machinery with which he carried out extensive experiments


in chemistry and physics. For example, when he invented


the reflecting telescope, he first built a brick oven.


In that oven he carried out metallurgical experiments


to formulate the composition of the mirror. He then made


the mirror with which he constructed the telescope.




Of unequaled mental ability during his entire adult life


until his death at age 85, Newton's powers are legendary.


It is often told, for example, how later in his life a


problem in mathematical physics posed by the great mathe-


matician Bernoulli, was forwarded to Newton from the


Royal Society. The problem, to determine the curve of


minimum time for a heavy particle to move downward


between two given points, had baffled the famous 18th


Century mathematicians of Europe for over six months.


Receiving the problem in the afternoon, Newton solved it


before going to bed.




Although the solution was sent to Bernoulli anonymously,


he is said to have exclaimed upon reading it, "tanquam


ex ungue leonem - as the lion is known by its claw" in


reference to his recognizing Newton's method.




In addition to his scientific work (Newton would have


said as a part of his scientific work.), he devoted a


substantial portion of his enormous energy to the study


of the Bible and Biblical texts and history. He read the


Bible daily throughout his life and wrote over a million


words of notes regarding his study of it.




Isaac Newton believed that the Bible is literally true


in every respect. Throughout his life, he continually


tested Biblical truth against the physical truths of


experimental and theoretical science. He never observed


a contradiction. In fact, he viewed his own scientific


work as a method by which to reinforce belief in Bibli-


cal truth.




He was a formidable Biblical scholar, was fluent in the


ancient languages, and had extensive knowledge of


ancient history. He believed that each person should


read the Bible and, through that reading, establish for


himself an understanding of the universal truths it


contains.




Newton's strong belief in individual freedom to learn


about God without restraints from any other individual


or church or government, once almost cost him to give


up his position as Lucasian Professor at Cambridge. The


matter was resolved when King Charles II made the ex-


ceptional ruling that Isaac Newton would not be requir-


ed to become a member of the Church of England.




Regarding both science and Christianity, Isaac Newton


spent his life in intense scholarship, but he left the


publication of his work to Providence. Much that he


wrote has still never been published.




His (and the world's) greatest scientific work, the


Principia, was published only after his friend, Edmund


Halley, accidentally learned of the existence of Part


I which Isaac Newton had written 10 years earlier and


put in a drawer. Halley convinced him to finish Parts


II and III and allow Halley to publish the work.




Only one book of Newton's about the Bible was ever pub-


lished. In 1733, six years after his death, J. Darby


and T. Browne, published Observations Upon the Prophe-


cies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John.




In 1988, having learned of this book in the rare books


card catalogue of the Library of Congress, I asked to


read it. I was astonished when, a few minutes later, I


was handed Thomas Jefferson's personal copy. (The book


is in excellent condition and has Thomas Jefferson's


initials on pages 57 and 137. Two hundred and fifty


years ago it was common practice for printers to label


the page signatures with capital letters at the bottom


of the actual text. Jefferson would turn to the "J"


signature and add a "T" before the "J" and then turn to


the "T" signature and add a "J" after the "T." In this


way he identified his personal books.)




With his prodigious knowledge of ancient history and


languages and his unequaled mental powers, Isaac Newton


is the best qualified individual in this millenium to


have written about the prophecies. His study of the book


of Daniel began at the age of twelve and continued to


be a special interest throughout his life. Moreover, he


writes of the prophecies with a modesty that indicates


that he, himself, is in awe of the words he has been


given an opportunity to read.




Isaac Newton concluded that it is intended that Revel-


ation will be understood by very few until near the


end of history, the time of judgment, and the begin-


ning of the everlasting kingdom of the Saints of the


Most High.




Isaac Newton states his belief that these books of


prophecy were provided so that, as they are histori-


cally fulfilled, they provide a continuing testimony


to the fact that the world is governed by the Provi-


dence of God. He objected to the use of the prophe-


cies in attempts to predict the future.




On page 251, for example, he writes:




"The folly of Interpreters has been, to fortel


times and things by this Prophecy, as if God


designed to make them Prophets. By this rashness


they have not only exposed themselves, but


brought the Prophecy also into centempt."




Through these 323 pages, he traces human history


since the writing of the prophecies. He shows that,


according to his scholarship and at his time in the


early 18th Century, part of the prophecies had been


fulfilled and part remained to be fulfilled. In


accordance with his evaluation, this is still true


in 1991.




Decorated (as are his scientific works) with inter-


esting asides such as derivations of the exact


dates of Christmas and Easter and of the number of


years during which Jesus taught, and permeated with


a depth of scholarship that no longer exists among


modern scholars, this book by Isaac Newton may be


the most important work of its kind ever written.




The central message of this book for modern readers


may not be so much in what it says but in what it


is. During his entire life, Isaac Newton continual-


ly compared his experimental and theoretical under-


standing of science with his reading of the Bible.


He found the content of these two sources of truth


to be so completely compatible that he regarded


every word in the Bible to be as correct as the


equations of mathematics and physics.




Therefore, throughout this book, Isaac Newton takes


each word of the Prophecies to be exactly correct.


He never doubts the content. He only seeks to


understand it.




He never strays from his determination not to


present predictions of the future based upon the


Biblical Prophecies. On pages 113 and 114, he does


give an identification of the last horn of the


Beast and a numerical evaluation of his reign. He


also gives the approximate time of the beginning of


this reign, but does not add the numbers or make


a prediction.




Addition of these numbers, however, places the time


of judgment and the beginning of the everlasting


reign of the Saints of the Most High approximately in


the time period between the years 2000 and 2050.




Are there errors in Isaac Newton's evaluation of the


Prophecies? He would reply that he would not have


written this evaluation unless he beieved it to be


without error, but that it is the obligation of


Christians to study the Bible and to reach their own


conclusions.




In recent years it has become fashionable to say that


Newton's laws of motion contained an error (the error


of assumption that mass is a constant), and that this


was corrected by Einstein's Theory of Special Relativ-


ity. As Petr Beckmann has pointed out in his book, A


History of Pi, this error never existed.




In the Principia Newton writes,




"Lex I. Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo


quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum,


nisi quatenus illud a viribus impressis cogitur


statum suum mutare."




"Lex II. Mutationem motus proportionalem esse vi


motrici impressae, & fieri secundum lineam rectam


qua vis illa imprimatur."




"Lex III. Actioni contrariam semper & aequalem esse


reactionem: sive corporum duorum actiones in se mutuo


semper esse aequales & in partes contrarias dirigi."




These are the famous three laws of motion.


In translation, the second law reads "The change of


momentum is proportional to the motive force impressed;


and is made in the direction of the right line in which


that force is impressed." Newton defines momentum as


follows: "The quantity of momentum is the measure of


the same, arising from the velocity and quantity of


matter conjointly."




Or, in the symbolic terms of Newton's calculus,


F = d(mv)/dt


Newton did not know whether or not mass was constant,


and he was too careful a scientist to assume so by plac-


ing it outside the differential. During the next 200


years, physicists assumed, for convenience, that mass


was constant and began to write F=ma or F=m dv/dt. It is


this later day shortcut which proved to be incorrect,


not Isaac Newton's original law.




Isaac Newton said of himself near the end of his life,


"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to


myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on


the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then


finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than


ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all un-


discovered before me."




To Dr. Bentley, he had written, "When I had written my


Treatise about our system, I had an Eye upon such


Principles as might work with considering Men, for the


Belief of a Deity, and nothing can rejoice me more


than to find it useful for that purpose."




Isaac Newton's pebbles and shells formed the basis for


the scientific revolution and the industrial revolution


which created our current civilization. This demonstra-


tion of the incredible power of his discoveries is, how-


ever, itself minor in comparison with their role in 17th


and 18th century miracles that serve as a continuing


testimony of the literal truth of the Bible and of the


remarkable creations of the Lord.




In my own scientific work, I also have continually


compared the Bible with the findings of modern experi-


mental science. Like Isaac Newton, I do not know of any


verified scientific facts that are inconsistent with


the literal truth of every aspect of the Bible.




I am grateful to have had an opportunity to read Isaac


Newton's book about the Prophecies and am publishing


this reprint so that others may have this experience.




Thanks are due to the Manley Foundation and Dr. Richard


Pooley who helped finance this reprint; to Bruce Tippery


who gave essential help with its production; and also to


Andy Hopkins whose similar and independent desire to


reprint this book is hereby fulfilled.




This reprint has been made as an exact photographic dup-


licate of Thomas Jefferson's personal copy. This reprint


is dedicated to my wife, Laurelee, whose death in Novem-


ber 1988 delayed it for these past two years, but whose


life caused me to undertake it.




As Isaac Newton wrote in the second edition of the


Principia:




"The true God is a living, intelligent, and powerful


Being. His duration reaches from eternity to eternity;


His presence from infinity to infinity. He governs all


things."




Arthur B. Robinson


Cave Junction


July, 1991