Guest Editorial – My God And His Purpose By Sir Isaac Newton

Many of the religious writings of the renowned seventeenth century scientist Sir Isaac Newton are held and treasured by the Hebrew University of Jerusa¬lem and the National Library of Israel. This is because of his firmly held belief and voluminous written expression of that belief that the return of the Jewish people to their ancient land, in unbelief of Jesus as Messiah, is an essential step in the purpose of God and the fulfilment of the promises to Abraham. He constantly stressed that the establishment and prosperity of Is¬rael in their ancient land will be the prelude to the second advent of Jesus the Messiah, the resurrection, the Day of Judgement, and the Kingdom of God with Jerusalem as the capital of the world. If Sir Isaac were alive in this dramatic hour of world history, what would he say to us today? The following, abstracted from the Yahuda manuscript of the National Library of Israel collection, offers a clue. The italics are Newton's own.

  • My God is living, intelligent and powerful, and supreme or most perfect.
  • My God is a Creator, a Master. I have a personal relationship to a Lord, not to abstract attributes. The world is governed by His providence. It is the perfection of God’s works that they are all done with the greatest simplicity.
  • Science is to be pursued for what it can teach me about God, not for easement or comm odiousness.
  • Nothing is too hard for the omnipotent power of God. The Holy Spirit is that power and the spirit of prophecy.
  • I believe that there is one God to whom must be given honour and glory. I believe that He loves His people as His children who should return that love and obey Him as Father. I believe that He is Lord of all things with an irresistible and boundless power and dominion so that I may not hope to escape if I rebel, and that I may expect great rewards if I do His will.
  • I believe that my God is the God of the Jews who created the heaven and the earth and all things therein. I thank Him for my being and for all the blessings of this life.
  • Jesus Christ is Son of God, son of David, Lamb of God. He is neither God nor a mere man. It is not consubstantiation but God-given power and dominion which gives him the right to be worshipped. Sanitarian doctrine is as outlandish as the papist fancy of transubstantiation.
  • The devil is real but not a rival God. It is a symbol of the lusts of the flesh.
  • God’s covenant with Abraham was a promise that his seed should inherit the land of Canaan for ever, and on this promise was founded the Jewish religion, and on that is founded the Christian faith. This point is of so great moment that it ought to be considered and understood by all men who pretend to the name of Christians.
  • The restoration of the Jewish nation so much spoken of by the old Prophets concerns not the few Jews who were converted in the Apostles’ days but the long dispersed nation of unbelieving Jews who will be converted at the time of the end when the fullness of the Gentiles shall enter and the true Gospel of scripture shall begin to be preached to all nations. Boasting ourselves against the Jews and insulting them for not believing is reprehended by the apostles as high-mindedness and self-conceit.
  • The world is inexorably moving toward a cataclysmic end, not of water but of fire, when the works of men will be burned up with fervent heat, with the wicked probably punished thereby. This is to be followed by a renewal, a Millennium, an eternal Sabbath following the Judgement Day. The final return of the Jews’ captivity at the day of judgement will lead to a righteous and flourishing kingdom on earth, to be inhabited by mortals and ruled over by Jesus Christ and those to whom he has given eternal salvation.
  • Christ will judge the living and the dead at his coming and his Kingdom. At the same time that the Jews are delivered, many of those who sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. The saved will be admitted to the new Jerusalem.
  • It is a popular opinion that the judgement will be accompanied with a conflagration of the world. Such fancies have been occasioned by under standing in a vulgar and literal sense what the prophets wrote. For in their language, the conflagration of the world signifies the consumption of men’s kingdoms, the world politic, by war. In the Apocalypse it is said that the nations will bring their honour and glory into the new Jerusalem. There is an end of rebellious nations, but not of the beloved city.
  • As the linear dimensions of the temple under the kings [of Israel] were double those of the tabernacle under the Judges, so those of the city under the King of Kings will be double to those of the city under the kings.
  • When Christ has put all enemies under his feet, the last whereof is death, he will deliver up the kingdom to Almighty God.
  • During the Millennium, some will be mortal, and others children of the resurrection. Thus may the whole heavens or any part thereof be the habitation of the Blessed, and at the same time the earth be subject to their dominion as kings and priests on the earth. As a child of the resurrection, I will not be wholly cut off from mortal men, but rule over them, and yet remain in relationship even with the furthermost extremities of the Universe. The fullness of the truth and the manner of these things we shall not understand fully before the resurrection.
  • Not all that call themselves Christians will be saved, but a few scattered persons whom God has chosen, such as, without being blinded by interest, education, and human authorities, can set themselves sincerely and earnestly to search after truth.
  • It is not from any real uncertainty in Scripture that commentators have so distorted it, and reposing more in human authority, however great and persuasive, than in the word of God, has been the door through which all heresies have crept in and turned out the ancient faith.

Text provided through the courtesy of the Librarian of the Australian National University, Canberra.