The scientist based his prediction on dates from biblical history.
Isaac Newton, the English mathematician, physicist, and astronomer—one of the most influential scientists of all time, known for formulating the laws of motion and universal gravitation—also predicted the date of the end of the world. According to his calculations, it will occur in 2060.
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Subscribe to the NewsletterThis date was discovered on a piece of paper alongside a series of mathematical calculations written approximately 300 years ago.
Newton grounded his prediction in the Protestant interpretation of the Bible. He believed in the story of the Apocalypse, as described in the final book of the New Testament.
The Holy Scriptures state that the battle between the forces of good and evil will signify the end of the world and the dawn of a new era.
To arrive at his conclusion, Newton performed mathematical calculations based on dates from biblical history.
He determined that the Apocalypse would take place 1,260 years after the founding of the Holy Roman Empire. Using 800 AD, the year Charlemagne was crowned, as his starting point, he added 1,260 years to reach the year 2060:
Prop. 1. The 2300 prophetick days did not commence before the rise of the little horn of the He Goat.2 Those day [sic] did not commence a[f]ter the destruction of Jerusalem & ye Temple by the Romans A.[D.] 70.3 The time times & half a time did not commence before the year 800 in wch the Popes supremacy commenced4 They did not commence after the re[ig]ne of Gregory the 7th. 10845 The 1290 days did not commence b[e]fore the year 842.6 They did not commence after the reigne of Pope Greg. 7th. 10847 The diffence [sic] between the 1290 & 1335 days are a parts of the seven weeks.
Therefore the 2300 years do not end before ye year 2132 nor after 2370. The time times & half time do n[o]t end before 2060 nor after [2344] The 1290 days do not [end] before 2090 nor after [2374].
He used the days numbered 1260, 1290 and 2300 in the Book of Daniel and Revelations, which mark the end and beginning of certain important moments in the apocalypse. However, he interpreted these days as years.
Studying history, he settled on 800AD as the date the abandonment of the church formally began – the year the Holy Roman Empire was founded. He then calculated the world would reset 1,260 years after its founding.
He predicted the end would be marked by plagues and war, as he wrote in the 1704 letter: “And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived [sic] kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings AC 800, will end AC 2060.”
Sir Isaac caveated his prophecy: “It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner.
“This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful 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.”
Experts have also pointed out that, for Newton, “there was no insurmountable barrier between religion and what we now call science.” He was not a scientist in the contemporary sense but rather a “natural philosopher.”
