Newton’s quest to decipher the 1260 day prophecy

 
     To Sir Isaac Newton the time period of 1260 days represented 1260 years and encompassed the duration of the apostate Church. To determine the start he looked in history for the likely date when the apostasy formally began. The sign he was looking for was the date when the Catholic Church came into the possession of an earthly kingdom. At this point the Catholic Church departed from spiritual authority in the quest of worldly temporal power. It is no secret that Newton believed the Catholic Church had come under the power and dominion of Satan. It would be hard to disagree because the Catholic Church was busy torturing and murdering anyone who didn’t believe the Pope possessed divine infallibility and ruled as Christ on earth. In Newton’s day the Catholic Church had been killing Christians for hundreds of years, and would continue to do so until the mid 1800’s.

     In Newton’s quest for a starting point, we are told he considered 609 AD at one point, and then settled on the year 800 AD as the actual date.  From this date he added 1260 years to arrive at 2060 AD as the end of the age and start of the millennium. To most historians there is a glaring omission in Newton’s conclusion; almost to the point one would think it intentional. The official year when the Catholic Church became a temporal kingdom is 756 AD, the year the church came into the possession of the Papal States of Rome. The following is a description of this event:

 

     In 756 Pepin again set out with an army against Aistulf and a second time hemmed him in at Pavia. Aistulf was again compelled to promise to deliver to the pope the cities granted him after the first war and, in addition, Commachio at the mouth of the Po. But this time the mere promise was not considered sufficient. Messengers of Pepin visited the various cities of the exarchate and of the Pentapolis, demanded and received the keys to them, and brought the highest magistrates and most distinguished magnates of these cities to Rome. Pepin executed a new deed of gift for the cities thus surrendered to the pope, which together with the keys of the cities were deposited on the grave of St. Peter (Second Donation of 756).

 

     The following is Newton’s interpretation of the 1260 day/years amounting to the year 2060 AD: The date 2060 in Yahuda MS 7.3 (Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem):

     So then the time times & half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years & an half, recconing twelve months to a yeare & 30 days to a month as was done in the Calendar of the primitive year. 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 A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060. 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 fancifull men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, & by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail. Christ comes as a thief in the night, & it is not for us to know the times & seasons wch God hath put into his own breast.

     It looks like Newton wanted to use the latest date possible for his interpretation. At this time in England, and elsewhere, there were many irrational and uneducated prognosticators predicting the end of the world. He abandon the 609 date and bypassed the obvious date 756 and used the date 800 AD when three lesser kingdoms were subjugated to the Papacy. But what if his reasoning was correct and the year was wrong! What if the year 756 was the correct date and 1260 solar years were to be added to that? If this were the case them the end of the age would be (756 + 1260 = 2016) 2016. 2016 would be the end of the age and the start of the millennium.

                                                                                                                                   YBIC … Oliver Thomas