Symbolism in The Book of Revelation

The Purpose of Symbolism in the Book of Revelation I really enjoyed how the article started off with talking about how we as humans need something radical to get our attention. That to me, describes Revelation in a nutshell. A part of the Bible that is so “radical” in its wording that has brought with it a lot of questions through the years. The question being presented is if the book of Revelation is symbolic and why? The author makes it quite clear in the first few pages that Revelation 1:1 directly correlates with Daniel 2 when it talks about the four different metals representing the four different countries and the stone representing God and his power over all. They use the same Greek word here to describe symbolism referring to symbolic communication and not general understanding of information. It is like a really intense descriptive novel. It paints a vivid picture for you. I found that in the article John wrote it that way because he could not describe what he was seeing into words, so he described it in a picturesque type of fashion, I thought this was interesting to do because not only does it grab your attention and make you want to read it more and more but it also makes you dig deeper to find the meaning of what it is saying.
It is also said that symbols help with continuity from the OT. I am personally a fan of this, because as any great writer knows, a good book, or books, always coincides the beginning with the end. So not only do they have references from the OT, but now you get to go back and find those symbols to see what they mean to get the message the author intended. You end up going back and finding those references and than looking up what those references mean. So you are digging into the word even more. In the third section it talks about how John was prophet, so he wrote like a prophet would speak. In that day, and honestly still today, people can be so jaded by their sin and harden their hearts towards Christ that if you give