Five Keys To Unlocking The Meaning of Revelation

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: