Sir Isaac Newton — best known for his exploits in science and math — was also a Christian who put his analytical mind to work to calculate when he thought the current age would end with the return to earth of Jesus Christ.
For guidance, Newton looked to the Bible’s books of Daniel and Revelation, which both use the language “time, times, and half a time” when speaking of the events that will take place during the Great Tribulation which will proceed Christ’s return.
For Newton, 1,260 days, or “time, times and half a time” is important in calculating not just events during the seven-year Tribulation period, but the end of the current age.
“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,” Newton wrote in a 1704 letter concerning the Tribulation, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported.
He was pulling his numbers from Daniel and Revelation regarding the Tribulation, according to the Bible answer site Got Questions.
In fact, Revelation 11:3 specifically references 1,260 days or three and a half years through the seven-year Tribulation period will be the moment the Antichrist will enter the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and commit the abomination of desolation, of which both Daniel and Jesus spoke.
The Antichrist will stop allowing sacrifices in the temple and desecrate it in some way with a sacrilegious object.
There is not currently a temple in Jerusalem, but there is a strong interest in rebuilding one among some rabbinic movements, including the Temple Institute. It would be the Third Temple. The first was built by King Solomon and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., and the second one was razed by the Romans in 70 A.D.
So Newton’s reference to the events regarding the temple and the Antichrist is pretty mainline Christian theology.
However, he also put his mind to calculating when the end of the age may be, and concluded it to be the year 2060.
“Newton used math and dates in biblical history to land on the apocalypse, employing days mentioned in scripture as years to interpret the prophecy,” the Daily Mail said.
He determined a day represents a year and 800 A.D. marked a turning point in the current Christian church age. It was the year the Holy Roman Empire was founded. The scientist saw this as the beginning of the corruption of the Christian church and then tacked on 1,260 years to get 2060 A.D.