Anyone Have a Wall Street Journal Subscription?

it's only a brief brief blurb in a series of news snippets.

THE GOOD BOOK holds key to bin Laden whereabouts, author tells U.S.

Michael Drosnin, author of bestselling "The Bible Code," gets meetings with Pentagon's top intelligence officer and CIA's No. 3, on his theory that bin Laden's hideaway is revealed in the Old Testament's ancient Hebrew.

The Pentagon says it didn't know beforehand what specific evidence he had, but years ago he gave information about Soviet mind-control weapons. The CIA says he had "pestered" them with faxes and calls. Drosnin says bin Laden is in the Mideast, but revealing where would compromise national security.

"We've been criticized for not connecting the dots before, which is what Mr. Drosnin does," says one spook.

 

Good thing Bin Laden doesn't get the Wall Street Journal ... now we can just walk right on in and catch him.

 

You think that's Prophetic...

http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id={4B8FD725-D2C2-452D-BD2B-1496078DB065}

Newton suspected world was going to end in 2060
Tom Arnold
National Post


Monday, February 24, 2003

Newton's discoveries laid the foundation for modern science.

A Canadian researcher has unearthed a handwritten manuscript revealing Sir Isaac Newton predicted the world will end in the year 2060.

After more than 55 years of trying to decode the Bible, Newton concluded that Armageddon -- a last great battle of global repercussions with plagues, war, return of Christ, end of time -- would occur more than 300 years after his death, in 1727. He said it would be followed by a 1,000-year reign by the saints on Earth.

The manuscript was found by Stephen Snobelen, assistant professor in the history of science and technology programme at University of King's College in Halifax.

The discovery will be featured in a BBC documentary airing in Britain and Israel on Saturday. Newton: The Dark Heretic is not scheduled to be broadcast in North America until next year.

Newton won immortality for formulating the law of gravity, but he was also a theologian who wrote well over a million words on biblical subjects and was influenced by Hebrew scripture, according to academic articles on his work.

Newton's selection of a date is considered significant because he rarely pinpointed important time frames. "Newton argued that this brought discredit to Christianity and the Bible and so he said you shouldn't set dates," Mr. Snobelen said yesterday. "So the fact that he actually seems to have caved into the temptation of setting dates itself is spectacular and rather stunning.

"He was a scholar who in many respects was very cautious.... He was not running around the streets telling people the sky is falling or anything like that," he added.

In Newton's own words, likely written near the end of his life, he stated: "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."

Many consider Newton the most influential scientist who ever lived. His accomplishments in mathematics, physics and optics laid the foundation for modern science and, in turn, revolutionized the world.

Newton (1642-1727) studied the Bible for most of his life, trying to unravel what he believed were God's secret laws of the universe. He was trying to determine the code to unlock secrets of the New Testament's Book of Revelation: when Armageddon will occur, along with the second coming of Christ, Jews returning to Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple.

He noted a number of time periods are listed in the Book of Daniel from the Old Testament. One of these is 1,260 days, which Newton interpreted as 1,260 years, based on a day-per-year principle. The time frame is one in which Newton interpreted to stand for a period when the church (Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican) would be mired in deep corruption.

In his attempt to decode the mind of God, Newton determined that 1260 date actually began in 800 AD, a time when the Roman Catholic church was given political power over countries. He then added 1260 to 800 to arrive at the date of 2060 for the Apocalypse. It is mentioned twice in his manuscripts.

"I think a lot of people are going to read the 2060 date with some interest because Newton is very respected," Mr. Snobelen said. "There may be a sense that he got the science right, maybe he got the prophesy right, too.

"It represents a lifetime, something like 55 to 60 years, of scouring the Book of Revelation and trying to determine what God was telling mankind about the future."

Thousands of Newton's theological papers, which remained in a trunk in the house of the Earl of Portsmouth for 250 years, were sold by Sotheby's in the late 1930s.

John Maynard Keynes, the economist, bought many and when he died he donated the manuscripts to his alma mater, King's College, Cambridge.

Much of the remaining material went to Abraham Yahuda. Stored at the Jewish National Library in Jerusalem, it is the largest collection of Newton's works, some 4,500 pages with very small handwriting and some scribbling. It is among these documents that the date was found. Mr. Snobelen made the discovery several years ago but the issue never became public.

tarnold@nationalpost.com

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