14 DAY TRIAL // Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher and alchemist, regarded by many as the greatest figure in the history of science. He is probably most famous for describing the laws of universal gravity, after seeing an apple fall from a tree.
He's not only famous for his three universal laws of motion that were not to be improved upon for more than two hundred years. He also predicted the end of the world in a 1704 letter that went on show in Jerusalem on Sunday.
In this letter, he claims that the world would end 1,260 years after the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe in 800 AD. This is the first time the letter has been put on public show since 1969, said the representatives of the Jerusalem's Hebrew University, where the letter is part of an exhibition entitled "Newton's Secrets."
Newton based its predictions on the Bible, specifically on verses in the Book of Daniel and they are part of an array of papers of the British scientist bequeathed to the institution by a wealthy collector of scientific manuscripts.
Actually Newton was not a religious fanatic. On the contrary, he secured a royal exemption from the ordination in the Church of England that was normally expected of academics of his day so he would not have to follow its teachings.
He seemed to have taken a particular interest in superstitions of his time, which have long since been taken lightly by modern science. Newton's study of the Bible and of the early Church Fathers was among his greatest passions. He devoted more time to the study of the Scriptures, the Fathers, and to Alchemy 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."
He also attempted, apparently unsuccessfully, to find hidden messages within the Bible, and believed that he Bible "is a cryptogram set by the Almighty - a riddle of the Godhead of past and future events divinely fore-ordained. This prophecy is called the Revelation, with respect to the Scripture of Truth, which Daniel was commanded to shut up and seal, till the time of the end. Until that time comes, the Lamb is opening the seals."