Renowned scientist Sir Isaac Newton once predicted the world would end in 2060, and some people fear he might be right. Numerous people have projected the world’s end, from random “time travelers” on TikTok to St. John the Divine in the first century A.D.

While some might not take these prophecies and predictions seriously, it’s likely worth paying attention to when the father of modern science predicts the end of everything. Newton, who made several pioneering discoveries in mathematics and physics, believed the world as we know it would end in 2060. That might have seemed a long way off when he wrote down his detailed calculations in 1704. However, it’s just 37 years away today, and many of us will still be alive when that date rolls around.

Recent surveys indicate that roughly one in seven people think the world will end in their lifetime. Newton used his knowledge of the Bible and other religious writings to estimate a specific date when the world we know would end and be replaced with a “Kingdom of Heaven” on Earth. He assumed that in the middle of the 21st Century, Christ would return and reign for a millennium, and the Jewish people would build “a flourishing and everlasting Kingdom” in Israel.

Newton wrote, “So then the time times & half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years and an half, reckoning twelve months to a year and 30 days to a month as was done in the Calendar of the primitive year.”

He continued, “And the days of short-lived Beasts being put for the years of lived [sic] kingdoms, the period of 1260 days if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060. It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner.” Newton expert Stephen D. Snobelen said that scholars have known about Newton’s predictions for years, but it’s only become known to the general public reasonably recently.

He wrote, “For many, the revelation that Newton was a passionate believer who took biblical prophecy seriously came as something of a shock.” Snobelen added that scientists are still making apocalyptic predictions, saying, “Currently, a couple of months after the 2060 story broke, Sir Martin Reese, one of today’s leading scientists, published a book entitled ‘Our Final Hour’ in which he argues that the human race has only a 50-50 chance of surviving the 21st century.”