Thursday, March 20, 2025

It is the 20th of March 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A quick note- 1517.org/chacelebrate is the site where you can see what is coming up for the 2,000-episode anniversary. We want to hear from you! You can get the awesome tote bag there, and the video is coming- a good reason to keep checking back- I don’t know what I’m doing with a video camera, so I made a silly little behind the scenes of the plush CHA studios and a making of the show. It’s on its way, as is the live Ask Me Anything. Sweet? Awesome. You all are the best.

Last week, on the show on Pi Day, which is also Albert Einstein’s birthday, I talked about his view of the world and how it squares with faith. I made an offhanded comment on Isaac Newton and some of his “unhinged writings” to then see that today, the 20th of March, is the anniversary of Newton’s death in 1727. Unlike Einstein, whose views help to validate a Christian view of the cosmos but wasn’t a Christian himself- I feel quite confident that Isaac Newton was himself a Christian; we just have to ask the question: what kind and why would any of that matter? So… Isaac Newton. Mr “Apple Falls- gravity exists,” Mr. “3 Laws of Nature”… what are the basic beats of his life?

He was born on Christmas in 1642 in Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire—that’s central England, South of Nottingham. His dad dies before he is born, his mother marries a man Isaac does not get along with, and he’s raised by a relative. Sent to a local school, he stands out enough to enter Cambridge in 1661.

A few things about his timeline- he is growing up amidst the English Civil Wars- these are a time when the Christian faith was central to many- and certainly those in power, and it was also dangerous in that tests of orthodoxy were rampant amongst the splintering sects. At Cambridge, he is not a whiz kid or a wunderkind- in fact, he has to take remediation for his subpar math skills. And then the great Plague of London hits- everyone goes home. 1666 saw the Great Fire of London and more catastrophe- but that year, 1666, is also called Newton’s “Annus Mirabilis,” the same thing that they called 1905 for Einstein. A year of prodigious production for Newton- he invented/discovered calculus, proposed the theory of gravity, and something-something binomial theorem (I couldn’t pass Algebra II, so I relied on the work of people like Richard Westfall and his The Life of Isaac Newton). From this, we can trace his life through being appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, doing the Royal Society, etc.. etc.… but as is sometimes noted, he wrote about what he and others called God’s “two books”: his book of nature and his book of revelation, that is, the Bible. And he wrote more words about the Bible than about nature.

Much attention has been paid to his writings about the person of Jesus and his work on the prophecies of Daniel and John in the book of Revelation. He was not a systematic theologian. He lived in an age of numerous sects- trying to wrestle with the place of tradition and Scripture. His work on Jesus seems to be of two minds- Jesus is to be worshipped, was “one with the Father,” and at other times makes distinctions that fall outside of historic trinitarian thought. He is not orthodox in this sense, but as an original thinker in an age of revolution sometimes we see people play with ideas later discarded. His work on prophecy needs to be read with a tension towards his warnings NOT to try and predict and then… well, predictions. He was a mathematician, he saw patterns and couldn’t help it, I’m sure….

With over 1 million words written in the fields of theology commentary and textual criticism authors have marshaled various quotes to “establish” his “true” thought- and while this is fine, it is worth noting that the school that calls him a Deist is too far afield- Newton believed in an orderly and understandable universe but not one simply “set up” by an engineer God who wound up the world and let it go- rather, he was a benevolent father- the Yahweh of Scripture, revealed in Jesus who took active care in ruling the world- usually according to “laws” but not bound by them in the Diest’s sense. He is synonymous with “science” and the scientific revolution but believed that without a revealed creator and savior, none of it ultimately makes sense. Isaac Newton- was born on Christmas 1642. He died on the 20th of March in 1727. He was 84 years old.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary- ironically, readings from Daniel and Revelation- this is from Revelation 2. 

8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9 I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 20th of March 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man surely shocked that while the Fig newton was invented in the 1890s it took to the 1980s to make the very obvious apple flavor….he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who remember’s the Apple Newton and tried taking notes on one in college… it was lousy… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.