We like to think that we are so smart, so advanced, so enlightened. Yet, before the time of Jesus, the ancients had determined the diameter and circumference of the Earth, the diameter and circumference of the Moon, and the average distance between the Earth and the Moon. Erasthones (275 B.C. - 195 B.C.) is credited to be the first to fix Earth=s diameter. The ancients used a combination of the number 7, the number 360, and the value of pi (about 3.1416). They determined that the diameter of the Earth was 7916.813 miles. NASA says the average diameter is 7917.479 miles.

There is the story that we have all heard, about the apple that fell on Sir Isaac Newton as he sat under the tree. By this, it was said that he discovered gravity. The reality is that Brother Newton reasoned that the Moon was held in its orbit by the gravitational pull of the Earth. He had searched for the knowledge of the ancients that had been lost and made some astounding discoveries.

You notice I called him Brother Newton. Another reality is that Sir Isaac Newton was a Christian who believed that all his discoveries and all science was in harmony with the Lord and the principles He established. If you read a biography of Sir Isaac Newton, his Christian beliefs are not mentioned beyond the fact that he was a Protestant.

Isaac Newton was a brilliant man and wrote many books (in Latin) on mathematics, geometry, light and physics. Included in mathematics and geometry was his discovery and development of calculus. Newton called it “fluxion”, and did not publish his work so he was not initially credited with its development. But if you read his papers, I am told, you can see the calculus.

Again, not mentioned in biographies about Isaac Newton is his thorough study of the Bible. Newton was a prophecy student. He wrote books on the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation. Newton deeply felt that there was an underlying code to the Bible, but he could not discover it. Today, we call that for which Newton was looking the “Bible Code.”

Isaac Newton intensely studied the description of the future Temple in Ezekiel chapters 40 through 45. Because of the Lord=s statements, Newton felt that the Temple was the very center of this world. David Flynn has written a book about the studies of Sir Isaac Newton, entitled Temple at the Center of Time. Using the work of Newton and modern geography, Flynn made some interesting discoveries.

For example, in 1948 Great Britain controlled what was then called Palestine. This land became Israel in 1948. There are 1948 miles between the location of the Temple in Jerusalem and the ancient Roman milestone in the center of London, England.

Another example; in 587 B.C. Jerusalem was captured by Babylon and the Jews deported to Nippur in Babylon. Ezekiel, one of the captives, wrote about the exiles living by the River Chebar. Coincidentally(!?!), there are 587 miles between Nippur and the Temple in Jerusalem. And: in 539 B.C. the Babylonian Empire fell. There are 539 miles between the location of the Temple in Jerusalem and the center of Babylon.

Jerusalem and Mount Zion is the most precious piece of real estate in the world according to the Lord. He has called it “the apple of his eye” (Zechariah 2:8). David Flynn has confirmed the importance of this old city by showing that Mount Zion is at the center of history.

Sir Isaac Newton lived at a time when the medieval theory was that the Church was the spiritual replacement for Israel, and the Scriptures were not to be interpreted literally. We live in similar times. On my desk is a quote from Brother Isaac Newton:

“About the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the Prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamor and opposition.”

May the One who gave us this wonderful prophecy, which confirms the validity of His Word, be praised forever.