Benjamin Wills Newton (12 December 1807 – 26 June 1899) was an English evangelist, author of Christian books, and leader of a Plymouth church.

Newton was a friend of John Nelson Darby, a well-known leader of the Plymouth Brethren, but the two men began to clash on matters of church doctrine and practice.

Newton and his friends in Oxford became increasingly critical of the Anglican Church especially in regard to its subjection to the sovereign state and the appointment of ordained clergy.

In December 1831 Wigram left the Anglican church and bought a nonconformist place of worship, Providence Chapel in Raleigh Street, Plymouth, Devon.

By March 1832 Newton had left the Anglican Church, committed himself to the new fellowship and married a local woman, Hannah Abbott.

In 1834, a dispute arose over their friend, Francis Newman, who had started to hold heretical beliefs in regards to the divinity of Christ.

[4] Newton was particularly critical of Darby's belief that future events in Matthew 24 relate primarily to the Jews, after the church had been secretly raptured and said that "the Secret Rapture was bad enough, but this [John Darby's equally novel idea that the book of Matthew is on "Jewish" ground instead of "Church" ground] was worse.

The doctrinal dispute over future events was intensified by the 1842 publication of Newton's Thoughts on the Apocalypse, which in 1843 received a hostile 490-page review from Darby.

[10] In March 1845, Darby fled from Switzerland due to a threat of revolution in Geneva and travelled to Plymouth to "battle for the soul of Brethrenism".

The dispute became personal, with Darby exiting from fellowship with the Plymouth assembly and publicly accusing Newton of deception and dishonesty.

In 1847 the Darby party discovered that Newton, first in an article printed in 1835,[12] had taught heretical doctrine on the Person of Christ.

[13] Newton believed that Christ, though perfect, experienced sufferings before the day of Crucifixion, not for the sake of others, but due to his association through his mother with Adam and his descendants, and more specifically with the apostate nation of Israel.

Although Newton apologised and retracted his "Adamic error", and withdrew for consideration his views on the sufferings of Christ, some of the elders at Ebrington Street began to lose confidence in him.

Although he was labelled as an evil-doer and a false teacher by the Darbyites,[16] other people view Newton as the John Calvin of the 19th century and believe the Brethren movement might have done better if it had followed his teaching rather than Darby's dispensationalism and the belief that at any moment, the pre-tribulation secret return of the Lord for the secret rapture of the saints to heaven to occur, and the Lord to return publicly with the church seven years later for the commencement of a thousand-year reign.

His friends and supporters during the years of relentless vilification by the Darbyites included Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, George Muller and Charles Spurgeon.

Historian Roy Coad notes, "He lived until 1899, retreating into a little circle of two or three churches of his own, and leaving a devoted following, mainly among Strict Baptists.

George Muller of Bristol wrote, "I consider Mr. Newton's writings to be most sound and scriptural, and my wife and I are in the habit of reading them, not only with the deepest interest, but great profit to our souls.