Sir Isaac Newton’s Simplicity of the Christian Gospel

Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was the famous physicist and mathematician who discovered gravity and the laws of motion. He once made a statement that seems so foreign to his brilliance and expertise in unravelling complex issues. He said, “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” I think Newton had in mind not only science but also theology when he said that. It’s the formula KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid!

Newton Kept His Theology Private

Newton was world famous for his science, but not for his theology. In fact, Newton kept his theology very private. Those who knew about it were mostly his friends in what was called “the Newton inner circle.” When they got together, they often discussed theology. This group included famous people such as Samuel Clark who was Chaplain to Queen Anne, William Whiston who was known mostly for translating the works of Josephus, and John Locke, an authority on government whose writings impacted Thomas Jefferson and the U.S. Constitution.

Newton Wrote More on Theology than Science

Why didn’t Sir Isaac Newton talk publicly much about his theology even though he was a devout Christian? His writings, both published and unpublished, included more about theology and biblical studies than about mathematics, science, and alchemy combined. It was because England, like most of Europe, was a church-state that persecuted departure from the Church of England’s “Thirty-Nine Articles.” Two of its articles were on the doctrine of the Trinity. Newton was an anti-Trinitarian.

Newton advocated the simplicity of the Christian gospel. His go-to verse about this was what the apostle Paul wrote that became part of the Bible’s New Testament. It reads, “There is … one Lord,” referring to Jesus, “one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4.4-6 NRSV). Thus, Newton believed what Jews had always said, that there is really only one God. Jesus called him “the Father,” and that’s what he taught his disciples and all of us Christians to called God, which we see in the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” that begins, “Our Father, who is in heaven” (Matthew 6.9).

Trinitarians Nonsensically Say “Three Is One”

Now, Trinitarians claim to worship one God. I should know, since I was a thorough-going Trinitarian Christian for 22 years before I began to question it in the Bible. Yet Trinitarians says there are three Persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, who is Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. But to most any unbiased person, that adds up to three Gods since all three Persons are each God. Trinitarians often respond by arguing that humans do not have the capacity to understand their doctrine of the Trinity, that three is one. Folks, that is a big copout! You could say that about your pet rock!

Newton’s simplicity of the gospel also emerges in another of his favorite biblical texts written by the apostle Paul, which was 1 Corinthians 15.3-4. It reads, “I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.”

Newton Rightly Said that Only the Father Is God

I have two pages about Newton and his theology in my book, The Restitution: Biblical Proof Jesus Is Not God (pp. 89-91). It includes the following:

“Much has come to light in the 20th century regarding the secret theological beliefs of Sir Isaac Newton. What was his theology? He regarded the Bible as divine revelation and thus the sole source for determining answers to questions about God that go beyond natural revelation. The primary precept of his faith was that ‘whenever it is said in the Scriptures that there is one God, it means the Father’ [Yahuda MS at, p. 25]. Newton’s foremost christological text that he use to support this maxim was 1 Cor 8.6. Thus he writes, ‘We are forbidden to worship two Gods, but we are not forbidden to worship one God and one Lord.’

“Newton faults the Arians, Athanasius, and most ante-Nicene and Nicene church fathers for allowing Greek and Gnostic teachings, as well as unscriptural language, to infiltrate the Church. He contends that the primary way to understand God is as the moral and good Sovereign of the universe. Newton thus dismisses metaphysical concepts—described by using such words as ‘substance,’ essence,’ ‘eternal generation,’ and ‘consubstantiality’—as being beyond both the realm of scientific observation and, more importantly, the revelation of Scripture.”