Northrop Frye was quoted as saying, "Revelation is a book that either finds a man mad or leaves him so." What a revealing statement! This is the first time I have ever whole heartedly agreed with something this crazy mad said! Revelation is a book that most well read Christians have no idea what the cast majority of it is about. I am afraid to say that I am probably one of them. (However, I do have intentions of learning the details eventually.) Every time I have attempted to read the book I end up getting frustrated, not because it angers me but because it is so complex understanding it in its entirity would take years. The glory is found in actually understanding it! From what has been explained to me, this book is the culmination of everything since Genesis has been pointing towards. The long awaited Messiah is finally here to set up his kingdom...."The Kingdom of God" if you will :-) Job suffering under the weight of lost family members and physical burdens, Simon the Cyrene carrying the cross for no reason, Abraham being asked by God to sacrifice his son...all of these suddenly make sense! The answerer has come. Yes, to the Christian there is great joy in this book. On the flip side, to the person who reads the book as nothing more than a crazy man's imagination running wild, it is nearly impossible to not go mad. All the talk about dragons and babies and judgement. Who would want to read that? Actually, I think it was Eric the other day in class who made the comment that he did not like Revelation because it portrayed God as narcicistic. To this all I can do is point you to God's response to Job. He basically says who are you to question me? And really, if God is who He says He is, who are we to accuse him of being narcicistic. He is holy, righteous, and infinately good. Who are we to criticize? Revelation in essence sums up the hope of believers: the idea of someday getting to know this God even better and understanding Him in his complexity.