I changed accounts.
Yup. It's allegory for the persecution of Christians around the time it was written by the Romans.
Although it makes for great story material, I must say... 
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
My quite the band of experts we have here.
Historicist, which sees in Revelation a broad view of history; Preterist, in which Revelation mostly refers to the events of the apostolic era (1st century); Futurist, which believes that Revelation describes future events; and Idealist, or Symbolic, which holds that Revelation does not refer to actual people or events, but is an allegory of the spiritual path and the ongoing struggle between good and evil.
That is the top sampler from the Wikipedia page which is more thorough then anyone around here has been.
Here is the rest
Quite a read and quite a few different interpretations.
I changed accounts.
~shrug~
No interpretation of the Bible is the be-all, end-all one, unless it happens to come from the person who actually wrote the thing. Since that's a large group of people who've been dead for a really long time, we've got to figure it out on our own.
I'm not saying I'm objectively right, I'm saying that's the interpretation I choose to accept as most logical...
I am now known as Flyboy.
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Now that sounds like a better arguement then the above. I take it as another batch of symbolic writings which the bible is chock full of in the first place.
Who watches the watchmen?
I changed accounts.
If I were feeling cheeky I would say that Revelation is what happens when you give a Bible-writer drugs and some alone-time... 
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Lol. I have heard that arguement before. Compared to the rest of the bible it certainly seems that way.
Who watches the watchmen?
A lot of people take Revelations allegorically because of its descriptive nature. But some take it too far and just call the whole thing allegory. It needs to be given a chance for a more literal interpretation.
Now using Trivialis handle.
I changed accounts.
Well... it's rather difficult and incoherent to do a literal interpretation. Then again, the literal interpretation gives really cool plots (the Four Horsemen as public domain characters for the win! ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
)...
When I was much younger and still a Christian, I found an interpretation of Revelation that I liked. It came from a group of people who ran a magazine/TV show called Tomorrow's World: the main part of it I didn't agree with at the time was their perspective of Anglo-Israelism (the idea that the people of Western Europe are descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel), but other than that, if you're a Christian, I recommend giving them a look.
edited 10th Sep '11 9:21:22 PM by tropetown
Lead.
An interpretation that I liked went like this:
- The Book of Revelations is a symbolic double entendre. It refers to both the Romans and the far future. Numbers in the book are all symbolic - none are actually meant to be exact.
- Multiples of 12, such as 24 angels or 144,000 survivors reference the 12 tribes of israel. The meaning of 12 is "whole, entire". Similarly for 7. "200 million" is shorthand for "incomprehensible", and so on.
- The really wierd things, like a beast with seven crowned heads, refer symbolically to Real Life political entities. For example, seven heads means an alliance of seven smaller entities. Rome was said to have been built on seven hills, though given the inexact numbering thing, it might just represent any alliance that might play that role.
- The author's guess as to the identities was that the "Whore of Babylon" is Israel, the "King of the North" is the northwestern Roman empire / modern EU, and the "King of the South" is Persia / modern Iran.
Edit: spelling.
edited 10th Sep '11 9:40:56 PM by FrodoGoofballCoTV
Violence Is Necessary!
What I take away fro mthi is that God won't be the end-all/be-all of Earth's inevitable ruining point and people who do obsess like that are idiots not willing to fix thier own shit and contemplate suicide...
Sorry to come off like an ass if I did. But, that's what I've got from Revelations.
This is where I, the Vampire Mistress, proudly reside: http://liberal.nationstates.net/nation=nova_nacio
Honestly, I don't think it means anything anymore. I think it's one of these things that has been through so many dodgy copies and translations and tweaked to suit various past interpretations that all that's left is a weird mess of weird stuff that doesn't really mean anything now beyond what people want to read into it.
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)
Azor Ahai
It's Revelation, not Revelations, right (not directed at the OP, but seems like when it's called the latter, it tends to be by conspiracy theorist types).
I think it's about how the Emperor Nero was an asshole.
Hodor
You complete me.
It's a Morrisonian Hyper-Story; its very existence is based on a universal malleability constant, allowing it to exist in both Macro and Micro-cosm while retaining self-similarity. Imagine a fifth dimensional spiral orbiting around a central core "nexus" this allows the ability for the single narrative to encompass several equally valid explanations between a series of fourth dimensional branes. Most notably the idea that it's multi-dimensional has aspects on both the political and spiritual axis of social constructions.
Let's make a TCG!
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Jordan: It is called both and is known by other names for the record. Calling it Revelations has nothing to do with conspiracy theories.
Who watches the watchmen?
thread hop
As I said in this topic linked above relvations is just one giant stab a Rome. The 7 headed beast=the 7 hills around Rome, the number of the beast= a numerology puzzle equaling to the name "Nero" who was snorting of rome when John wrote revelations
Untitled Power Rangers Story