Een BBC documantaire ontdekt, voor de eerste keer, het origineel manuscript waarin Newton voorspelt wanneer de datum van het einde van de wereld is. Newton, de vader van de moderne wiskunde, heeft een groot deel van zijn leven geweid om de bijbel te decoderen, wat hij als het woord van God beschouwde. 

Meer dan 50 jaar bestudeerde Newton de bijbel en probeerde hij de geheime wetten van God over het universum te doorgronden.

He was fanatical in his quest to discover the date for the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world.

Scholars have spent years trying to unravel Newton's writings on the Book of Revelation to establish when he thought the apocalypse was coming.

For the first time, Newton: The Dark Heretic reveals the date he forecast is within many people's lifetimes - 2060.

The BBC was given rare access to Newton's original manuscripts in the Hebrew National Library in Jerusalem.

Buried in his papers, Dr Stephen Snobelen, from the University of King's College in Nova Scotia, found the original document where Newton had written down his prediction.

In 2060, Newton believed the dramatic events forecast in the apocalyptic Book of Revelation would occur: massive plagues and fires; the terrible battle of Armageddon between good and evil and the destruction and eternal damnation of the wicked.

Producer Malcolm Neaum says: "Newton prayed daily for the end of the world which he believed would herald the Second Coming of Christ. This would usher in the 1000 year rule of the Saints and Newton believed he would then take his place as Chief Saint."