Isaac Newton, Daniel’s 70 Weeks & the Six Day War

By Cris D. Putnam
 If you have ever spent any time studying Daniel’s seventy-weeks prophecy you might have been somewhat annoyed by the first seven weeks.

“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”(Da 9:25)

Frankly, it seems to just be dangling there without a purpose.  Most prophecy teachers simply add the two together to make sixty-nine weeks without saying much about why it is “seven and threescore and two (62).” Well, this bothered Newton too. He explained the odd seven weeks as referring to the second coming, after a future restoration of Israel which had not yet occurred! He explained the verse in this way:

Know also and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to cause to return and to build Jerusalem, unto the Anointed the Prince, shall be seven weeks.

The former part of the Prophecy related to the first coming of Christ, being dated to his coming as a Prophet; this being dated to his coming to be Prince or King, seems to relate to his second coming. There, the Prophet was consummate, and the most holy anointed: here, he that was anointed comes to be Prince and to reign. For Daniel’s Prophecies reach to the end of the world; and there is scarce a Prophecy in the Old Testament concerning Christ, which doth not in something or other relate to his second coming. If divers of the antients, as Irenæus, Julius Africanus, Hippolytus the martyr, and Apollinaris Bishop of Laodicea, applied the half week to the times of Antichrist; why may not we, by the same liberty of interpretation, apply the seven weeks to the time when Antichrist shall be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming?[i]

He puts the first seven in the future after the second rebuilding of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was reclaimed by Israel during the Six Days War in June of 1967. Recall that in the seventy-weeks paradigm, the “seven” is seven weeks of years which is (7 x 7) forty-nine years. T. W. Tramm explains a remarkable concurrence:

June 7, 1967 falls in the Hebrew year 5727, adding forty-nine prophetic years to this date we arrive in the Hebrew year 5776, which is 2015 on the Gregorian calendar. Interestingly, if one counts exactly forty-nine (360 day) prophetic years (17,640 days) from the June 7, 1967 date of Jerusalem’s recapture, we arrive at September 23, 2015—the Day of Atonement! Coincidence?[ii]

We verified this remarkable match but we also noted that if one counts 49 x 365 days for solar years, one lands in 2016 which corresponds nicely with historical approach of AD 756 the acceding of temporal power to the pope plus 1260 derived from Revelation 11:3. Although no man knows the day or hour, it is hard to ignore the remarkable preponderance of prophecy pointing to the period we have entered.

View Newton’s notes and prophetic writings for yourself online here.

Next we will begin to examine the views of the reformers.


[i] Isaac Newton, Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (London: 1733); viewable here: Newton Project, last accessed February 2, 2012, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00204.

[ii] T. W. Tramm, 2012–2015: The Season of Return (self-published 2010), 265.

About Cris Putnam
Logos Apologia is the ministry of Cris D. Putnam. The mission of Logos Apologia is to show that logic, science, history and faith are complementary, not contradictory and to bring that life-changing truth to everybody who wants to know.

Comments

  1. Eunice says:

    Does your log have a conact page? I’m having a tough time locating it but,
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  2. mete says:

    In this book Newton says that “why don’t we use our right to interprete the Bible to set a date for coming of Messiah. On the next paragraph Newton sets forward the date as the seventh sabethical after return letter to Israel and on the other paragraph Newton says that this “Calculated Messiah” by himself will not be welcome in Isreal but in the land of new Prince which is the USA, now, and as if giving homework he is saying that you will establish details how this happens for the future… Detail is that Pope, the pontifex maximus (master of bridge masonry), is visiting Obama on 23rd September 2015 with some important declarations.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. […] 2015-16 is also apparently a Jubilee Year, to signify the 50th year, or Shmita, after the 49 years subsequent to 1967, a year which has significance for Israel. Again, me not being anything like a Biblical interpreter, wiser minds than mine must decide what importance this has. It might be significant that Isaac Newton interpreted the Book of Daniel’s prophecies to involve a 62 week period, a 7 week period, and a 1 week period, with a “week” consisting of 7 solar years: http://www.logosapologia.org/isaac-newton-daniels-70-weeks-the-six-day-war/ […]