Number One: Use the internal evidence of the book to determine the approximate date of authorship. It's important to know when the book was written because it is prophetic. When the wrong date is assigned, it completely obscures the message. Most want to assign a late date (95 or 96 A.D.) to the book of Revelation. The external evidence suggests it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Number Two: Pay careful attention to the time statements. Revelation has time parameters in the beginning, middle and end of the book which serve as chronological guidelines for the events of the message. These time statements are:

* Things which must shortly take place. (Rev. 1:1; 22:6)

* The time is near (Rev. 1:3)

* Do not seal the words of this prophecy (Rev. 22:10)

* The time is at hand (22:10)

* I am coming quickly (22:12)

Each of these statements indicates that the time of fulfillment was near and would be completed in a short time.

Number Three: Allow the symbols in the book to be guided by the time statements. For example, the millennium (thousand years reign) cannot be literal. It falls within the shortly to come to pass time frame. The message of Revelation is fulfilled within forty years of Jesus' death. That does not allow for a literal one thousand years. Therefore the 1000 years is symbolical.

Number Four: The book is a tale of two cities. One is old Jerusalem, identified as the great city where also our Lord was crucified." (Revelation 11:8) No point in the New Testament is clearer than that of Jesus' death in Jerusalem. He stated emphatically that "It cannot be that a prophet perishes outside of Jerusalem." (Luke 13:33) Jesus was not crucified in Rome, nor was he ever in the city of Rome. The other city is New Jerusalem. See Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 22:1. As in Galatians chapter 4:21-31, the two cities contrasted are earthly Old Covenant Jerusalem and the heavenly or New Jerusalem.

Number Five: The message of Revelation is the expanded prophecy of Daniel 2, 7, and 12. This being the case, Revelation is a reiteration of Old Testament prophecy. Compare the features of the beast of Daniel chapter 7:1-8, with that of Revelation 13:1, 2. This is Rome, --ancient Rome and not a new Rome composed of a confederacy of the European Union. That again sets the message and fulfillment of the book within the first century. The beast is Rome, the city is Old Jerusalem.