In Daniel 9, there is a famous biblical prophecy about the coming of
the Messiah.   Sir Isaac Newton's interpretation of the prophecy is
fundamentally different from the standard interpretation.  He doesn't
add the 62 and 7 years.  He keeps them separate: The first number is
about the first coming, the second number is about the second coming.

What I'm interested in knowing is, of these two dates:

November, 1947 UN Resolution regarding the partitioning of an
independent Israeli state

and

May, 1948 - Declaration of Israel becoming a nation

Which is most relevant to the "going forth to command" the restoration
of Israel and why?  This is not as simple as "the word declaration is in the
second date" :)  The question arises from this text:

http://www.ldolphin.org/angels299.html
Therefore, if alive today, here is what Newton would tell us: Count 49
years from that 1947 "commandment," which takes us to 1996 as the time
when "the Messiah the Prince" shall come. Or, Newton might agree with
the argument that Israel's Proclamation of Independence on May 14,
1948 was the decree to rebuild Jerusalem as prophesied by Daniel. If
so, the 49-year count would start in 1948 and end in 1997. (I have
discovered that a few prophecy students have arrived at this same
interpretation of Daniel 9:25 before they discovered it was also
Newton's idea.)

This is interesting reading on the topic: 

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/israel/oral.history/

---

Clarification of Question by p1212-ga on 22 Nov 2003 19:42 PST

Incidentally, I realize the years 1996 and 1997 have passed.  Please
disregard that fact.

I will not post an answer, because it is my belief that Daniel 9 does
not refer at all to the modern 1948 institution of Israel. To me, it
refers rather to the restoration under Nehemiah, and then years after
that came the birth of Christ, the Anointed One. Of course, the part
after the Anointed One getting cut off does refer to the end time, but
I don't see how it refers to the modern state of Israel as well. It's
also troublesome to decipher any kind of length of time into Biblical
numbers because the latter are really symbolic. Christian Scripture
like any text is just right there and open for interpretation by just
anyone, and even geniuses like Newton could have wrong interpretations
about them.

Techtor -

Newton said that at some point in the future, a "friendly kingdom"
would declare Israel to be reborn.  The UN made that declaration in
1947/48.  So that definitely gives some credence to his
interpretations.  He says that there is scarcely a scripture in Daniel
that doesn't relate to both comings.  Granted, Newton is not inerrant,
but given his vast intellect on other subjects, his interpretations
should be given special attention.