Revelation is the most avoided book in the New Testament — and the only book that promises a specific blessing to everyone who reads it: 'Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy' Revelation 1:3. Most people stay away from it because it seems impossibly strange: dragons, bowls of wrath, a beast with seven heads. But Revelation is not meant to confuse — it's meant to prepare. And once you have the framework, the strangeness resolves into one of the most coherent books in the Bible.

Last time we walked through Daniel's seventieth week — the seven-year Tribulation period. Now we survey the book that describes that period and everything surrounding it in the most detail: Revelation. This lesson is the map. The following lessons are the territory.

The book of Revelation contains both literal and figurative language. Here's a helpful guideline: take statements literally wherever possible.

In other words, when you read something in Revelation, understand it to mean exactly what it says — unless doing so would be highly improbable, violate basic principles of language, contradict spiritually sound reasoning, or conflict with other Scriptures on the same topic. Only when a passage truly won't work as a literal statement should you look for a symbolic interpretation.

This approach is the only sound way to read Revelation. Why? Because the book calls itself a revelation — something meant to be understood, not a mystery wrapped in confusion. To spiritualize everything is to deny what the book claims to be.

Every scene and truth in Revelation is explained within the book itself. Before you go hunting through other parts of the Bible for answers, first discover what Revelation itself says about its own truths. Earlier prophecies from other books will certainly shed light on many passages and help you dig deeper, but Revelation stands in perfect harmony with all preceding prophecies — it's the logical and beautiful completion of them all.