Making sense of Revelation, and end-time prophecy in general, is like putting together a complicated jig-saw puzzle. You have to find the right piece and put it in just the right place such that it fits perfectly with all the other pieces. Forcing a piece to fit does not work well in getting a picture that makes any sense, or matches the intended picture (usually depicted on the box). Furthermore, trying to assemble the puzzle by only selecting some of the pieces and ignoring others, won’t work too well (we can call this “cherry-picking” – picking the pieces we like or think we need to make the picture we have in mind). To get the intended (right) picture, one must include all the pieces, and they must all be in exactly the right place, fitting exactly with all the other pieces connecting pieces, without forcing them to fit, or maybe trimming them up just a bit to make them fit. God has given us all the pieces we need, and they don’t need any trimming, or forcing, to make them fit together perfectly to give us an amazing picture, which makes perfect sense. But admittedly, if one has a preconceived picture in their minds, it will take a lot of cherry-picking (ignoring may pieces), trimming (forced interpretations), and forcing to get those preconceived picture. It can be done, and often is, but the picture will not be what the designer of the puzzle intended, and probably won’t make much sense in terms of any kind of reality – which is exactly the case with many end-times scenarios both historically, and in our present day.

A critical (discerning) examination of almost all of the various interpretations of Revelation (and scripture in general), and associated end-time scenarios, involve the following logic fallacies and violations of rule of interpretation (Hermeneutics) and exegesis:

• adopting the wrong method of interpretation – confusing/misidentifying genre, as in literal, versus allegorical, pure symbolism, parabolic, hyperbolic, etc.. Usually this involves failing to take what is written literally enough;
• forcing unnatural meaning on words or expressions (especially key words) – not letting scripture define/interpret scripture;
• cherry-picking passages to support one’s preferred or presupposed interpretation/doctrine;
• various forms of circular reasoning – using unproven conclusions as initial assumptions (presumptions) in deriving interpretations;
• adding to or taking away from the actual text (eisegesis);
• taking words or passages out of context;
• failing to recognize the intended pattern/order of the revelations;
• resorting to human wisdom/authorities, speculation, imaginative creativity, presuppositions, instead of letting scripture interpret scripture.

This is not meant to be an all-inclusive list, but just some of the most common errors which give rise to the abundance and wide variety of interpretations of Revelation and end-time prophecy, and the associated scenarios.

The most important key to accurately interpreting scripture is to actually let scripture interpret scripture. Of course this requires that one lets the Word of God Speak, avoiding the many violations of good exegesis and hermeneutics, such as identified above. However, there needs to be a true reliance upon the Holy Spirit (rather than men and human authority), to be the teacher and guide, in accordance with God’s instruction (John 14:26, 1 John 2:27). Most people, including Bible scholars and even preachers and teachers, go directly to commentaries, or the writings of other men (usually only those with whom they already agree), before they take much time or invest much effort to actually just studying prayerfully a passage or a topic. Then they approach a topic or passage which preconceived ideas or beliefs about what the scripture must be saying, or should be saying. At that point it often becomes impossible for them to actually see what the passage is saying, or to interpret it objectively. Often this involves a whole system of theological presuppositions and interpretations, which inform and drive their interpretations of everything the see in scripture. Such systems of error tend to become cult-like in nature, which explains why certain subjects become so controversial.