The author of a new biography of Sir Isaac Newton says the scientific genius predicted the world would "reset" within our lifetimes.

Sir Isaac, whose important role in the scientific revolution didn't dent his strong religious views, is known to have spent much of his time looking for hidden messages in the Bible.

One conclusion he came to, according to Austrian astronomer and author Florian Freestetter, is that the apocalypse and the Second Coming would come in 2060.

"He was convinced that future events were already ordained by God," Freestetter said earlier this month to promote his new book, Isaac Newton: The A**hole Who Reinvented The Universe.

"For him, 2060 [would be] a new beginning; maybe accompanied by war and catastrophes but ultimately the start of a new divine era."

According to documents which were first made public in 2007, Sir Isaac wrote: "It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner."

But he also sought to dampen expectations, and - with perhaps a lack of self-awareness - took aim at failed prophets.

"This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail."