The Book of Revelation gives information that made sense to the audience it was originally written to.  All the imagery was clearly understood by those people - no one had to guess what John was attempting to communicate.  We don't have that advantage today.   Apocalyptic writing isn't as common for us as it was at the time Revelation was written, and therefore we don't understand its nuances. Attempting to ascribe various aspects of this book to specific present day events goes against the nature of the apocalyptic genre and simply will not work.

Despite this, though, we are still able to draw out the lesson to be learned. That lesson is that even though Satan, his cohorts, and the political and religious systems he uses among men increase in size and seemingly look like they are about to win the war, God will conquer.  God's will, will come to pass, and the enemies will be defeated. 

Regardless of any other interpretations, the main intent of the Book of Revelation is to comfort the Christian with the knowledge that God will ultimately reign and His Kingdom will come in its fullness.  Its message is meant to encourage the Christian and let him know that regardless of how bad things get on this earth, Jesus ultimately wins and brings the Christian with Him into His victory.  Even in death the Christian is victorious, for it is in death that we obtain the fullness of our salvation in the body as well as the soul. 

With the instability of the world's systems and the evident rise of evil in every area of society, we Christians find our sense of refuge, safety, and confident expectation of good in Jesus Christ.  The peace of God surely can, and must, rule in every Christian's heart, because we know that God's purposes will ultimately prevail.


The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever. ~ Revelation 11:15