NARRATOR: A temple of geometric
precision and symmetry built atop the holiest
place on earth. For many, this reconstruction
of an ancient monument is a prophecy fulfilled. The location, Israel. The year, 2060. The prophet is one of the
greatest scientists who ever lived, and he has forewarned
the completion of this temple heralds the arrival
of the Antichrist and the end of the world. For thousands of years,
prophets around the world have predicted the end of days. More than one suggests the
apocalypse is fast approaching. We call this theoretical
convergence between doomsday prophecies and today's events
the Nostradamus Effect. [inaudible] Sir Isaac Newton, one
of the world's greatest scientific geniuses
and father of physics, this intellectual master
helped create calculus and discovered the laws
that rule the universe. But Newton also possessed a dark
side, as an obsessive mystic who became convinced he had
uncovered a secret Bible prophecy identifying 2060
as the year of Armageddon. This is one of
several predictions by the famed British scientist
who lived from 1643 until 1727. Some believe he foretold a
series of events that would culminate in the return of
a messiah to the Holy Land, to engage in a final battle
with the supposed Antichrist. Newton really isn't interested
in science and mathematics. He's doing theology. He was a very secretive man. He would reveal
some of his findings only to a select
group of followers. NARRATOR: Interpreters
of his work suggests that Isaac Newton
was an obsessed student of the Bible, especially
the Book of Daniel and the contentious
Book of Revelation. Exactly what was he
attempting to discover? How did he use
mathematics to decipher these ancient biblical texts? What did he predict
correctly that may be a sign his prophecies are coming true? And are those events
unfolding now? We will neither refute nor
endorse these theories, merely present the evidence. In 1936, at Sotheby's in London,
a box of mysterious papers, unseen for more
than two centuries, surfaced for auction. They held a shocking secret. The papers in this box
contained coded messages and complex
mathematical formulas, that according to their
author reveal the exact year that the world will end, 2060. The information for this
prophecy comes from the Bible. And the code breaker,
Isaac Newton, a man most closely associated
with the rational world of science. I think one of the reasons why
people found the 2060 story so compelling is that, for most
people, it was unexpected. Who would have thought that
Isaac Newton, who is presented in popular culture as a kind
of cold, rational thinker, could have been working
on biblical prophecy? NARRATOR: These papers are
Newton's secret writings, writings based on his
detailed study of the Bible, that scholars suggest he
had been afraid to publish in his lifetime because of
their radical and sacrilegious content. So matters of belief were
still very, very, very risky. Newton, for example, had
beliefs about the nature of God, which he had to keep
secret his whole life. There were ever so many
executions and punishments of a religious kind in
England during the middle of the 17th century. NARRATOR: Newton was keenly
aware of these executions. He writes, "I have learned
what's to my convenience, which is to let what I write lie
by till I am out of the way." It would take over 200 years
for the seemingly terrible truth hidden within the
papers to surface. Newton was convinced
he had uncovered a secret biblical puzzle
that had been concealed in these sacred texts, and
that he alone understood when mankind would end. He was very interested in
trying to figure out the order and what the significance
of various Bible passages was on calculating the order
of the events of the end times. NARRATOR: What did Newton
actually say about 2060? How did he reconcile
this spiritual pursuit with his scientific work? Most importantly, why
was his ominous prophecy kept secret for so many years? A clue may be found in Newton's
understanding of Christianity. I think that Newton considered
himself the best Christian there was, because he
worked hard at understanding scripture. He saw in the Bible a
god speaking to mankind. NARRATOR: Some say the famed
scientist predicted events taking place before us today. An increase in wars, pandemics,
and ecological disaster in the 21st century that
would culminate in a doomsday scenario during our lifetime. He's also got the common
Christian conception that the world's going
to end at some point. It's just gonna stop, because
God's gonna intervene. That's what the word
"apocalypse" originally meant. So Newton has a big
interest in calculating the date of the apocalypse. And that's why he does
biblical chronology. NARRATOR: Interpreters
of his work believe Newton never shared
this discovery with anyone. If we accept this
notion as true, that Newton knew of such
a monumental prophecy, why did he not tell anyone
when he was still alive? He never published anything
about biblical chronology for good reason. Because if he had, he would
have got into big trouble. NARRATOR: Trouble, because
Newton's beliefs, based on his biblical analysis,
were considered blasphemous by the established church,
and threatened the status quo of the institution's hierarchy. Newton knew he would be
killed if anyone learned of his research. But cracking the Bible code
became an insatiable obsession for the famed scientist,
and this passion came to dominate reason. Newton believed that it
was only a matter of time before these prophecies
would be fulfilled. NARRATOR: To evaluate
Newton's 2060 calculations, interpreters have re-examined
the Bible code evidence. But to better understand
Newton's process in deciphering the code, our
investigation must first examine Isaac Newton the man. Isaac Newton is usually
considered, along with Albert Einstein, one of the two
greatest scientists who ever lived. Strictly speaking,
practically everything we know and everything we do derives
from something that Newton did. Basically, everything that goes
on, on Earth, in terms of light and in the motions of
bodies, derive from something that Newton figured out. NARRATOR: This driven
genius was also responsible for breakthroughs in
optics, astronomy, mathematics, and physics. He helped define the rational,
observable world we all live in. By the time he died in 1727,
he was probably the single most famous person in Europe. NARRATOR: But the dark
and bizarre side to Newton is perhaps revealed in
thousands of his papers, long hidden from distinguished
academies and the public. These papers are said to reveal
his unorthodox interpretations of the Bible and the
nature of God, spelled out in his obsessive and
compulsive writings. Newton knew more about
Scripture than many theologians in his day. Newton also thought that
there was ancient wisdom about the natural
world that scientists or natural philosophers
should try to uncover as well. NARRATOR: Some believed Newton,
who never married and seems never to have had a close
relationship with anyone, hoped to use his abilities,
particularly in mathematics, to find this biblical wisdom. A central doctrine of
the established church is the belief in the Trinity,
that God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are
all equal, 1 in 3, 3 in 1. Newton, always
fiercely independent, rejected this idea, based
on his own interpretation of the Bible. Newton was an
anti-trinitarian, and that was in fact illegal
in England in the 17th century. Newton himself didn't
believe he was a heretic. He believed that he was a true
believer, that he represented in his own beliefs
authentic Christianity. NARRATOR: Despite the
danger to his own life, Newton continued to secretly
and obsessively explore biblical texts. His mathematical mind
intuitively detected patterns, figures, dates. He began to organize and
reorganize these numbers methodically, convinced they
were a coded message from God himself. Determined to connect the dots
and possessed by his mission, Newton pored through
biblical texts for many years to calculate the exact date
of the end of the world. He could lock onto a problem
and gnaw it through until he'd gotten right to the marrow
of the bone and in a way that I don't think almost
anybody else has ever been able to do. NARRATOR: But what exactly were
Newton's mathematical formulas? And how did he derive
them from the Bible? Three dates in particular stand
out, dates tied to key events that he believed would
trigger Armageddon. According to biblical
prophecy, these three events occur in the Holy Land,
culminating in the Antichrist returning to an historic temple,
ushering in the final days. A stunning discovery
of hidden papers points to cataclysm in our time. These documents say the
world will end in 2060. The prophet of this
ominous warning? Famed scientist Isaac Newton. Some suggest that Newton was
secretly a dark heretic, who calculated exactly when
the end of days would come, using clues he
found in the Bible. But is this possible? Did his computations allow him
to anticipate the Holy Land erupting in a
nuclear apocalypse? Newton writes, "a few scattered
persons which God hath chosen can set themselves
sincerely and honestly to search after truth." Researchers with extensive
knowledge of his life and work say Newton obsessively
studied the Bible for years. They believe the most closely
examined texts by the scientist were the books of
Daniel and Revelation. These books tell of God's
plans for the end of the world, of the final battles between
Christ and the Antichrist, and the ultimate triumph
of good over evil. And he began his search
for clues within them. He would go through these
texts, verse by verse, look at the symbols, and
try to piece together the overall interpretation. Newton believed that
the Book of Revelation was a more or less continuous
history from the time of Christ until his second coming. So from his point of
view, a roughly 2,000 year span of history. NARRATOR: Newton was certain
the apocalypse was inevitable, because he believed
God had promised it in key biblical passages
that Newton interpreted as prophecies. He believed that if he
could successfully connect concealed messages
in these texts, he would uncover the actual
date when the apocalypse would occur. Newton said that the authority
of prophecies is divine. That's a quote. NARRATOR: Newton called these
Bible prophecies "histories of things to come." What might Newton
have meant by that? Well, what he's saying is
that biblical prophecy, amongst its other purposes,
shows history in advance. So it's as if history
was written centuries before it happened. NARRATOR: According
to interpreters, Newton's papers show
that his first step into biblical decoding
involved passages describing the Temple of Solomon. The temple prophecies
are a critical clue to all of Newton's
doomsday calculations and how he arrived at 2060
as the date for Armageddon. Newton studies
in great detail, and he combines that study with
biblical chronology in order to try to figure out when
the big day is going to come, so that his study of Solomon's
temple was in that context. The better your understanding
of the temple, the better or the closer you
get to understanding God and his creation. The temple is a
blueprint of God's mind. NARRATOR: This was the
original Temple of Solomon, built in Jerusalem
around 1000 BC and destroyed by the Babylonian
invasion 400 years later. A second temple was rebuilt
on the ruins of the first, 70 years later, and according
to the New Testament, was visited by Jesus. But it, too, was destroyed, this
time by the Romans in 70 AD. This marked a time
when the Jewish people were driven by the Romans
out of Israel and into exile. Another reason why Newton
was interested in the temple was because he believed
it was going to be rebuilt near the end of time. NARRATOR: The Bible states that
when the end of days is near, the Jews will return
to ancient Israel and rebuild their
temple for a final time. So he believed that if
you understood the structure of the temple, you
could make better sense of the interpretation of
the Book of Revelation. NARRATOR: The Book of
Revelation states, "blessed is the one who reads aloud
the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear
and who keep what is written therein, for the time is near." Newton sees Revelation as
the story of Christianity, of the initial dissemination
of the truths of Christ, and then the gradual corruption
of it by, as he sees it, Catholics, who believe
in the Trinity. NARRATOR: According
to biblical scholars, what God promises in Revelation
is that this new temple will trigger a series of
horrific tribulations, leading to Armageddon, the
final battle that will seemingly destroy our world. Revelation further states,
"and in those days, men will seek death
but will not find it. They will long to die, and
death will fly from them." There is the assumption
that before the day of coming, the temple of Jerusalem
will be rebuilt. And it has to be
done, again, exactly under the same specifications. So for all those reasons, it's
important to get the essence of it correctly. NARRATOR: Newton spent years
converting Bible passages into elaborate drawings
and mathematical formulas, convinced that God had directly
designed Solomon's temple. He was haunted by
its architecture, calculating that it would reveal
insight into the creation, return of the Jewish
people to Israel, and finally the apocalypse. We now look at the
apocalypse as referring to the end of the world,
but actually the apocalypse literally means the entire
unfolding, the revelation of prophecy to John on
the island of Patmos in the last book in
the New Testament. And Newton sees revelation
as the story of Christianity. NARRATOR: Interpreters
say Newton was convinced that the solution to the riddle
of Armageddon lay in the Bible. In the Book of
Daniel, the first step toward a decisive cataclysm
involves the return of the Jewish
people to Jerusalem. There are certain standard
tools that people used, where Daniel will say that
the return of the Jews is going to be at a
certain time in the future. And he describes it
in terms of days. The standard interpretation
is that Daniel's days really refer to years, and
there is a period of 1,290 years in one place. NARRATOR: 1,290 years, this
is when Newton calculated that the Jewish
people would resettle in their former homeland. But 1,290 years from when? He has to decide when
that period begins. So throughout his
life, he speculates with various commencement dates. One idea that he thought about
was that it could have started in the year 609 AD. NARRATOR: 609 AD is when
the Roman Empire ceded part of its authority to the church. Adding 1,290 years to
609 results in the year 1899, a time when Zionism was
attracting more followers. Zionism is a movement
that supports the return of the Jewish
people to the Holy Land. And we also see around
that time in the 1890s the first Zionist Congress. So these are events that
signal the beginning of Jewish Zionism. So some people point
to the significance that his prediction about
the 1,290 year period was actually fulfilled. NARRATOR: The final
chapter of Daniel contains another figure, 1,335. Adding this to the 609 AD
starting point comes to 1944. Clearly 1944 is roughly the
end of the Second World War. It was the end of
the Jewish Holocaust. And both those events
precipitated the birth of Israel in 1948. So it's possible to look at
that particular apocalyptic interpretation, that
particular chronology, and conclude that, well, maybe
Newton was onto something. NARRATOR: But what of
the supposed apocalypse? Newton struggled with
identifying this date longer than any of his
other prophecies. He cross-referenced the
various apocalyptic books, the various prophetic books
to develop an overall picture. He also developed a
very interesting series of apocalyptic time charts. He lays out all of
the symbols that he sees in the Book of Revelation
in a chronological progression. NARRATOR: Newton's charts
show time starting at the top and progressing
toward apocalypse, with a cluster of events
toward the bottom that are most associated with the end times. A Resurrection, a great
battle, the return of the Jews to Israel, and finally
rebuilding Solomon's temple. To predict the date when
the world would end, Newton ultimately returned
to the final chapter of the Old Testament
and the Book of Daniel. "How long shall it be until
the end of these wonders? And I heard him swear by the one
who lives forever that it would be for a time, two
times, and half a time." This same phrasing of quote,
"time, times, and half a time" is also written in the
Book of Revelation. "But the woman was given the
two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly to the
serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is
to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time." Interpreters say that these
prophecies were the key to Newton's obsession. What does Newton think the
time, times, and half a time represent? Well, he believes
that a time is a year. Times is two years. And then half a time
represents half a year. Newton believed that
the Book of Daniel was using a 360 day year. So you end up with 1,260 days. Newton also believed,
according to the day for a year principle, that those
days represent years. NARRATOR: Armed with the
critical figure of 1,260 years until Armageddon,
he could finally calculate when Revelation
intended the timeframe for the apocalypse to begin. Later in life, he seems to
have settled on the year 800 AD. Now, it turns out that in
the history of the Church, in the history of Europe, 800 AD
is a very, very important year. This is the year that the
pope crowns Charlemagne the king or the emperor of what
becomes the Holy Roman Empire. And he's crowned on
Christmas day, 800 AD. So we see the beginning of
this political system, which lasts for just over 1,000
years, the Holy Roman Empire. NARRATOR: Add the number 1,260,
the timeline to Armageddon that Newton calculated,
to the year 800, when Charlemagne is
crowned Holy Roman Emperor, and you arrive at the year
2060 AD, Newton's year of the apocalypse. Newton writes, "the
time, time, and half time do not end before
2060 nor after." A date that for him was
more of an abstract date, because he knew that he
wouldn't live to see it. But of course, history has
caught up with that date. NARRATOR: If Newton
truly believed he knew the year of the end of
times prophesied in the Bible and where it would occur
in the Middle East, he certainly knew he would
not live to see them. He arranged to conceal
these secret papers and keep them hidden
until after his death. Newton would never learn whether
they would resurface in time to do what he had
perhaps intended, warn mankind of its destruction. One of the world's greatest
scientists, Isaac Newton, predicted the world
would end in 2060. Using numbers scattered
throughout the Bible's books of Revelation and Daniel, Newton
believed he had calculated the timing of events
leading to the apocalypse, events that some believe
may have already occurred, like dominoes setting off a
chain reaction that ultimately leads to Armageddon
in our lifetime. But scholars say he
mysteriously hid his discovery from humanity. Why? Newton was one of many
making prophetic statements in the late 17th and
early 18th century. He would hardly have been alone. The 17th century,
in my opinion, was an age of prophecy
par excellence. Not just about the end
times, but in general. The end of the
world was considered to be imminent by many people. NARRATOR: But experts say Newton
did not write his doomsday warning for his contemporaries,
but rather for us, those likely to be living in 2060,
when he believed Armageddon would come. He really is writing
for people who are going to come in the future. And those people
who are around him are not really fit to
receive what he's writing. NARRATOR: And there
was the danger that Newton's calculations
would be dismissed as the work of a
lunatic, a charge that much of Newton's
behavior seems to support. Much like his search for clues
to a biblical apocalypse, he also scoured
the Bible, looking for supposedly hidden
formulas to explain alchemy, the mythical process that
turns base metals such as lead into gold. By the 18th century, alchemy
had been mostly discredited as mystical folly practiced
by would-be sorcerers. Yet Newton, one of the
pillars of rational science, irrationally obsessed over it. He pursued the field for
about 30 years or possibly more. We have experimental
notebooks of his that have survived that are
literally filled with hundreds of experiments that he did. NARRATOR: Newton's
obsession with alchemy suggests that his belief
in a prophecy code hidden in the Bible might
be a manifestation of an unstable
mind, undercutting his hypothesis of a doomsday
calendar in Revelation. Ironically, Newton was
appointed later in his life as head of England's mint and
given charge of all coinage and precious metals in
the entire British realm. The job's function also
included regularly sending counterfeiters to the gallows,
a gruesome task that may have contributed to Newton's
tormented interest in the final judgment
of mankind by God. He writes, "gravity explains
the motions of planets, but it cannot explain who
set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows
all that is or can be done." Based on his doomsday
calculations, some scholars have even
taken to calling Newton the dark heretic. Well, Newton certainly
believed, like virtually everybody else, that
the prophecies of Daniel and of the Revelation
should be taken literally, and the world indeed will
come to an end at some point. NARRATOR: The Book of
Revelation states, "behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is he who keeps
the words of the prophecy of this book." He believed in interpreting
biblical prophecies, which he regarded as a science just as
much as astronomy or mechanics. NARRATOR: What might
have been driving Newton? God, science, an undiagnosed
obsessive compulsive disorder? Were all these
endeavors linked? Or were they all separate? Well, recent work on Newton's
papers and studies of Newton's biography suggests that
there were common links, and it's fair to say the
chief goal of all his work was to discover God. NARRATOR: Experts say that
Newton likely considered his prophecies the greatest
and possibly most dangerous among all of his work. This is perhaps the reason
why he went to such trouble to keep it secure
after his death. 1727, London, England, Isaac
Newton dies, most likely of mercury poisoning. Soon after, his secret
papers containing apocalyptic predictions
mysteriously disappear. For more than two
centuries, virtually no one is aware of their existence. Was this a calculated
move by Newton? Part of his plan? After his death,
they're put into a trunk, and they are stored at an
aristocratic home in Hampshire for the better
part of 200 years. Virtually no one
had access to them. NARRATOR: Then, just as
they had mysteriously disappeared in 1727,
they mysteriously reappeared in London. In 1936, they were auctioned
at Sotheby's of London. One of the buyers was the 20th
century's most influential economist, John Maynard Keynes. I think Keynes felt there
couldn't be anything that would be the product of a mind
like Newton's that wasn't worth saving and studying. And he was afraid that when
those manuscripts were sold, they'd be spread out
all over the world. NARRATOR: Another large
portion of the papers was purchased by businessman
and scholar Abraham Yehuda. Yehuda is a very
interesting character. He was a Palestinian Jew. He had a lifelong
fascination with the Bible, with biblical prophecy. So for him, this was a
bonanza, an opportunity to see Sir Isaac Newton, one of
the greatest minds in history, wrestling with some
of the same issues that I think Yehuda
was interested in. NARRATOR: But both of
the manuscripts' owners mysteriously withheld
them from the public until after their
respective deaths. More than a half century would
pass before the papers finally became public. Yehuda kept these manuscripts
of Newton's until he died in 1947. And when he died, he left them
to the newly established state of Israel, and
that's why they're in Jerusalem at this time. Strictly accidental. Just accidental, but
it's fascinating. NARRATOR: The very existence
of the location of Newton's doomsday calculations, the newly
established state of Israel, is one of his Bible prophecies,
a possible domino that, according to believers
of end times, will perhaps trigger doomsday. These papers only became
known in the early 1970s, and they weren't really
looked at in any great detail until the late 1980s and 1990s. NARRATOR: Now that Newton's
biblical prophecies have finally been revealed
to the modern world, how precise might they be? Could he actually have
calculated the return of the Jewish people to Israel? And did he accurately
reveal other signs that biblical Armageddon
may be coming true today? The answer may lie
in three key dates. A calendar for Armageddon, based
on numbers found in the Bible three centuries ago. This is the work of Isaac
Newton, made in secret at the high point of his career. The original documents
containing his doomsday calculations now reside
in a country considered by many the holiest land on
Earth, the state of Israel. Some suggest that Newton's
harrowing prediction for the end of the world may
actually be unfolding there today. He believed that the date for
all the great events of the end time, the battle of Armageddon,
the return of Christ, the return of the Jews
to Israel, all of this would happen in the 20th
or the 21st century. NARRATOR: Consumed
by a powerful drive to identify the final
date for Armageddon, Newton worked day and
night to crack the Bible's so-called code. His prophesied year
for the end of days? 2060. But what, if any, are signs that
Newton's predictions are coming true? And does actual proof lie in
the volatile Middle East region as the famed scientist believed? If Newton were alive today and
could see the state of Israel, I think in some ways, he
would be very pleased. Because he would see this as a
very clear, very precise, very accurate fulfillment
of biblical prophecy. NARRATOR: Newton believed that
the role of the Jewish people in God's plan was frighteningly
clear, that the final chapter of the biblical Book of
Daniel prophesied their return to Israel as the
beginning of the end. Newton also foretold that
another sympathetic country would help bring this about. He writes, "the commandment to
return and to build Jerusalem may perhaps come forth not
from the Jews themselves, but from some other
kingdom friendly to them, and precede their
return from captivity and give occasion to it." But we don't know, because
Newton did not himself specify which country he had in mind. But it is quite possible that
Newton was thinking of Britain. NARRATOR: After World
War II, the British aided in the creation
of modern Israel. And the United States
was the first country to officially recognize
the new nation. I tend to think that if
Newton were alive today, and he saw actually the
return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, that
he would have been excited. NARRATOR: Experts say the
return of the Jewish people to their holy land can be
traced to the Zionist movement initiated in the 1890s. This is the first of three
key dates used by Newton to identify the
date for Armageddon. Israel was created in the
wake of World War II, which ended in 1945. That year follows the second
key date culled by Newton from the Book of Daniel, 1944. And Newton believed other
biblical prophecies also identified Jerusalem as
the center of the universe. It's probably
not an exaggeration to say that Newton saw
the city of Jerusalem as the most important
city on earth. For him, it would be
the site of the capital of the future Kingdom of God. just as it was the capital
of the Kingdom of Israel at the time of
David and Solomon. NARRATOR: 1967, Israel. In just six days,
the Israeli military emerges victorious from its
decisive battle against three Arab countries. It gained significant
new territory. The most critical of
all is East Jerusalem. For centuries, this 27
square mile plot of land had been under Muslim control. Some firmly believe that this
fulfills the biblical prophecy that the Jewish people would
retake Jerusalem as their own. When Islam came there in the
600s, it was a barren location, and the Muslims located
what they believed to be the spot of Muhammad's
ascension to heaven. NARRATOR: On that
very site in Jerusalem today sits the Dome of the Rock. It is one of the most important
shrines in all of Islam. And it is central to
Newton's prophecy. Here lies the Temple
Mount, foundation for the Dome of the Rock. The Temple Mount is the location
where the Temple of Solomon stood. This is precisely where Newton
believed the end of days would occur. Another reason why Newton
was interested in the temple was because he believed
it was going to be rebuilt near the end of time. NARRATOR: According
to the Bible, as the end of days
approaches, the Jewish people will return to Israel
and rebuild their temple for a final time. Newton saw Jerusalem as
the city that was chosen for the Jewish people to
have as their final capital, and he saw a rebuilt temple
taking center stage within that as a place where the world
would come for worship. NARRATOR: Here, three
major religions converge, Christianity,
Islam, and Judaism. For over 50 years, this site
has ignited religious passion and unrest on an
unprecedented level. Some believe that
rebuilding Solomon's temple may very well trigger a war that
would devastate the Middle East region and possibly the world. It's very dear to Muslims. And so the discussion
about the tearing down of the Dome of the
Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque and building a
temple in its place would for certain arouse the
anger of the Muslim world. I think it would be Armageddon. NARRATOR: Newton believed
that just as God had created the world, so would
He destroy it, exactly as described in
the Book of Revelation, and in keeping with
Newton's timeline. According to believers,
many signs of the supposed apocalypse seemed to have
happened just as Newton predicted. But does this support the idea
that the sacred Temple Mount is actually the nerve center
for Armageddon in 2060? Some contend that the final
resolution will perhaps be at hand with the return
of the Bible's darkest foe, the Antichrist. 2003, London, England. The secret papers of famed
scientist Isaac Newton are re-examined after
a mysterious absence of more than 200 years. In them, a prediction
that the world will end in the year 2060. Newton felt that he had been
given a gift of understanding, first of all through
his amazing discoveries in mathematics and the sciences. But he also felt that he had
been given a key of wisdom to interpret Scripture. That Scripture is
sort of one big code. It's full of secrets. It's full of things that
mean nothing unless you hold the key to its interpretation. He did believe that prophetic
interpretation would pick up speed toward the
time of the end, that people would come
to an increasingly accurate understanding of
the biblical prophecies. And it's possible that
he would be pleased if people were aware of his
prophetic works in this age. NARRATOR: Are today's political
violence and instability, especially in the Middle
East, random acts of hostility or a sign of something
more ominous? The divine plan
envisioned by Newton? He writes, "the ruin
of the wicked nations, the end of weeping
and of all troubles, the return of the
Jews captivity, and their setting up a
flourishing and everlasting kingdom." These events prophesied
by Newton, Nostradamus, and others are also
contained in the end times of the Book of Revelation. "Woe, woe, woe to those
who dwell on the earth." According to believers, the past
has converged with our present to set the conditions for
the end of everything. Now, one of the important
things about Newton's belief in the return of the Jews is
that he believed that when it happened, and he was
absolutely convinced that it would happen, that this
would be one of the great signs that prophecy was valid, that
the Bible was the word of God. NARRATOR: Throughout many
prophecies, from those in the Bible to the
quatrains of Nostradamus and works of Isaac
Newton, the greatest sign of imminent danger may
lie in the presence of one central figure. For thousands of years,
he has been prophesied to emerge after the return
of the Jewish people. He is the Antichrist. And according to the
Bible, he will rally people first into a false
religion and ultimately to their final demise. Newton writes,
"this identification of the Antichrist is no
idle speculation but a duty of the greatest moment." According to the Bible,
this will be followed by other seminal events,
the return of Jesus, resurrection of the
dead, and finally the climactic battle between
good and evil, Armageddon. The promises that would see
Antichrist's reign eventually being challenged, a great battle
in which Christ and the forces of good would intervene,
vanquishing Antichrist on the plain of Armageddon,
and the final conflagration, which will destroy the
earth as we know it, and perhaps turn
it, Newton argued, into a wandering star, a comet
shooting across the heavens. NARRATOR: Some
Christians today embrace Newton's apocalyptic vision. To them, the conclusions
he drew from the Bible are irrefutable proof that
the second coming of Christ is not only imminent,
but that many of us today may live to see it. Christian fundamentalists
see three definite signs before Jesus will return. The first was the gathering
of all the Jews in Israel. And that of course
has happened in 1948, when the state was declared. The second was the taking
by the Jews of Jerusalem. And that of course, happened
during the war of 1967. The third is the
rebuilding of the temple. NARRATOR: Those who believe in
the imminent return of Jesus agree with Isaac
Newton's hypothesis that God deliberately
chose the Jewish people to help trigger the end times. For this reason, he is
regarded by many today as among the first
Christian Zionists. Christian Zionism is a
movement to try and usher in the end of time. The true gospel is
going to be preached. There's going to
be a resurrection. There's going to be a
great battle of Armageddon, and the temple is
going to be rebuilt. Those apocalyptic events, those
events associated with the time of the end, from Newton's
point of VIEW come to pass around 2060 AD. NARRATOR: Though we cannot
be certain that 2060 will be the end of everything,
the date is approaching. Religious conflict and
wars do not seem to abate. In many instances,
they have increased. Revelation states, "and there
were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder,
and a great earthquake. And every island fled away, and
no mountains were to be found, and great hailstones
dropped on men from heaven." Although the vision for
Armageddon in biblical passages portends a fiery
destruction, scholars say Isaac Newton ultimately
looked beyond its horrors. They suggest he was most anxious
about God's ultimate purpose. Newton appeared to focus more on
the aftermath, which Revelation says will eventually lead to
1,000 years of a paradise, and of God on earth. Once more, the scientist turned
to the Book of Revelation. "God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every
tears from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning,
nor crying, nor pain anymore." In the mind of Isaac
Newton, science and religion would emerge as
one and the same. Believers look to
his 2060 prophecy as a critical signpost
of what may inevitably occur in a few short decades. For Newton, it's
absolutely science, because the proof is going to
be in the historical event. It's the events that will
prove the apocalypse. NARRATOR: We watch and wait
to determine whether 2060 will come like any other year, or
serve as the end of everything.
