Isaac Newton #2 (His Teaching)

The main idea of this information is that the Protestant Reformers failed to develop a Biblical philosophy of science, allowing the Jesuits and animist materialist humanists to make scientific advancements based on the Bible's view of an orderly universe. Newton's Principia Mathematica revolutionized science and philosophy by systematizing laws of gravity, motion, and calculus. However, Newton's religious beliefs and interest in astrology and alchemy suggest that he was not strictly a Christian scientist. Newton's scientific outlook gradually pushed the Bible to the fringe and elevated science and logic above God, leading to skepticism and the dispensation of scripture. Newton's discoveries explained natural phenomena and provided a unified system, but also heightened confidence in human reason. The concept of gravitation unified Newton's laws of motion and emphasized the importance of forces and reactions. Welcome everybody to GreatBibleReset.com Where this week we are seeking to apply the Law of the Covenant in Exodus 20-24 To what happened to science in the Protestant Reformation In short, or in summary, the Protestant Reformers failed to develop a Biblical philosophy of science And this permitted the Jesuits, the Catholic Jesuits, and animist materialist humanists To forge ahead with scientific endeavor built, unwittingly, on the Bible's view of an orderly universe Now, Newton's Principia Mathematica, which was published in 1687 Systematized the laws of gravity, motion, and calculus It was a revolution in science and philosophy Newton never defined gravity, but he described its operation in laws that unified physics These reigned until Darwin overturned belief in fixed natural law Newton also defined light and color in his shorter, probably less well-known book called The Optics Now, Newton and other scientists are widely touted by Christians as one of our own But it's kind of a hard nut to crack Because while we know God's first command in Genesis, chapter 1, verse 28 Clearly provides the impetus for the development of science in an orderly, consistent universe Where he says, fill the earth and subdue it You know, just six words But they imply that creation may be studied in an orderly, consistent manner As a prelude to subduing it Likewise, we've got God's declarations throughout the Bible that he does not change And so the Bible thus, you know, clearly lays a foundation for modern science Yet it was the Jesuits of the Counter-Reformation Yet it was Jesuits of the Counter-Reformation Who provided many of the early scientific breakthroughs in the 1500s Apparently because of their emphasis on natural law Which had been promoted by Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica Way back in 1274, date of publication Even many of the leading lights that Protestants like to claim as their own Are seriously tainted, notably Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton Now, we won't be studying Bacon for about a year But he articulated the scientific method in its complete form The sequential form that we know today But he was a Rosicrucian The symbol of secrecy, the rose, superimposed on the cross, the Christian cross Rosicrucian And this influence is seen in many of the Shakespeare plays Which Bacon and his studio of writers almost certainly composed We have overwhelming evidence of that at the website sirbacon.org Sirbacon.org, a very interesting website Bacon claimed that he received scientific revelations from friendly angels Or familiar spirits, which he hid behind a Christian facade And I believe this would be similar to the Egyptian priests Who were able to imitate Moses turning his staff into a serpent At least, excuse me, at least for a while Now, Newton of course built on the scaffold of Bacon's scientific method In Principia Mathematica over 400 years later He apparently read and wrote much about Bible prophecy At the same time he read and wrote much about astrology Gary North has reported that volumes of notes on astrological experiments Were found among Newton's papers after his death But this is not widely reported He also possessed books on Jewish Kabbalah in his library So Newton's religious statements sounded like Orthodox Christianity But these notes reveal he was searching for the philosopher's stone According to Mircea Eliade in The Forge and the Crucible And this is a quote This mystical substance is alleged to give long life, enlightenment And turn base metals into gold The alchemist seeks a miracle change through endless repetition of pseudoscientific recipes These, it is believed, transform the elements And himself as the model man End of quote Thus Newton was an Aryan Unitarian Deist This did not exclude Bible study in a form of personal deity Or piety, I'm sorry, a form of personal piety His set of scientific natural laws had the long term effect, however Of subtly nudging God out of the universe The 17th century reasoned that mechanistic scientific laws govern the universe Thus God must have taken a back seat after first setting everything in motion But reaction against Newton's transcendent, aloof God Led to pantheistic romanticism in the 19th century And in this movement God was imminent and in everything As opposed to Newton Newton's transcendent God There was clearly a strain of esoteric and animistic thought Carried forward when men of the Renaissance Sought to recover the glories of ancient Greece As Magnus Verbrug, MD, puts it in his book Alive, an inquiry into the origin and meaning of life He said, and I'm quoting at length here, a full paragraph Because it's very informative regarding science and the Reformation He said, quote We have seen that the Reformation failed to reform the scientific endeavor of the Christian world While Luther and Calvin had to establish new institutions Or when they had to establish new institutions for learning When Luther and Calvin had to establish new institutions for learning They failed to exercise the animism of ancient Greece from their curriculum And afterwards, through the efforts of Melanchthon and Biza The metaphysics and logic of Aristotle were restored to their old position in the Protestant universities And thus the perpetuation of animism in Reformed thinking was guaranteed That sealed the fate of any attempt by Reformed Christians To establish a uniquely Christian manner of practicing science For centuries Meanwhile, the men of the Renaissance set out to explore the laws that govern everything they could lay their hands on So they were getting a big head start Newton greatly impressed the New England Puritans According to Thomas Jefferson Wurtenbacher in the Puritan Oligarchy Quote They accepted knowledge as an ally The ministers and other educated men sent to England For the latest works of Newton, Haley, Kepler, Boyle They sought to use this new light which they shed on the wonders of God's world To buttress Christian faith End of quote So Newton was not a political philosopher But he redirected political thinking Political philosophy in America He built a natural law, natural rights bridge Between Calvinists and Unitarians And that's why the U.S. Constitution neglected God's law At first, this seemed harmless For example, William Blackstone equates natural law and Bible law in his legal commentaries But it was only a brief time after that Before biblical law was shoved to the margin And he equated those two things right in their introduction Natural law and Bible are God's two great pillars But when you do that Bible law inevitably gets shuffled aside So Newton's scientific outlook Was first used in New England to illustrate the Bible Soon it was used to validate it And thus, very subtly, science and logic are elevated in judgment of God And over time, this produced skepticism As the Bible is pushed to the fringe The inductive analysis of facts Replaced scripture as a source of truth Blackstone said in his book on the common law Quote, upon these two foundations The law of nature and the law of revelation Depend all human laws End of quote So natural law is assigned a place it does not deserve And the next stage is almost always to dispense with scripture Natural law theory places the ability of fallen man To interpret fallen nature above the Bible And as we have often noted In the last several weeks or months Calvin Press, I'm sorry, Cannon Press Has joined the litany of Christian publishers Who have succumbed to this temptation In their book on Christian nationalism by Richard Wolff It's this age-old temptation of Eve That you will be as God, determining good and evil And this is its fatal attraction So philosophy means literally love of wisdom According to the 1828 edition of Webster's Dictionary Quote, philosophy is a general term Denoting an explanation of the reasons of things Or an investigation of the causes of all phenomena Both of mind and of matter When applied to any particular department of knowledge When applied to any particular department of knowledge It denotes the collection of general laws or principles Under which all the subordinate phenomena or facts Relating to that subject are comprehended Thus that branch of philosophy Which treats of God is called theology That which treats of nature is called physics Or natural philosophy End of quote And it is in this latter sense that Newton uses the term So Newton's discoveries You know, brilliantly explained a host of natural phenomena By means of a unified system He articulated laws of motion, of gravity, of optics And the reflecting telescope His theories are predictive And pragmatic by their very nature In addition, his discovery of calculus Gave science a versatile tool for a host of problems Related to the slope of a curve at a particular point The area subscribed by a curve and rates of change So Newton provided the inspiration For subsequent generations of scientists Who applied his mathematical techniques To the analysis of other aspects of nature On the negative side of the balance sheet His accomplishment triggered a surge of confidence In the capability of the human mind And of reason to unlock all the treasures of knowledge This was the enlightenment phase of the 18th century And science was its unerring prophet So how does the concept of gravitation Provide the unifying idea of the Principia? Well, Newton proposed a universal law of gravitation To explain and unify all the laws of motion Which he summarized as follows Number one, every body perseveres in a state of being at rest Or moving uniformly straightforward Except insofar as it is compelled to change its state By forces impressed Okay, number two A change in motion is proportional to the motive force impressed And takes place along the straight line In which that force is impressed And number three, probably most familiar To any action there is always an opposite and equal reaction In other words, the actions of two bodies upon each other Are always equal and always opposite in direction And then by further postulation Newton applied these laws to the motion of the planets Including the size, shape, and time of their orbits By an attracting force gravitation Operating as the inverse square of the distances Ironically, Newton never defined gravity He only quantified its operation And he wrestled with the question Of whether gravity was a material or a spiritual force Well, thank you for your attention today I really appreciate you being here Please like, comment, and subscribe And please also visit our website at greatbiblereset.com Patronize our sponsors in the bookstore The Christian School for grades 7 through 12 And the Longevity Store Where 15% of your purchases help fund scholarships For low-income families And we look forward to seeing you tomorrow For a biblical analysis of Isaac Newton Thank you for watching