Revelation is really just an expansion of Matthew 14 and the Prophecies in the Book of Daniel. It all has to do with the complete destruction of Jerusalem and God's judgement on Israel for the rejection and murder of the prophets, satanism (which had become the religion of Judaism by that time and ultimately the rejection and murder of God himself in the person of Jesus Christ! God ended "The Old Covenant" in a most violent and complete way imaginable. Nothing has ever been so grotesque, so brutal, so complete and harsh as when God used the Roman Empire to annihilate the Hebrew nation once and for all. The greatest testament to the finality of this act was the dismantling of the Temple stone by stone.

To get a better idea of exactly what occurred in 70AD, read Josephus. He was an eyewitness to the entire event. Most Christians are not taught about this event in history because it doesn't play well with the NWO agenda of course, but needless to say...as Jesus said in Matthew 24:21, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor EVER SHALL BE." Things on earth will never be as horrific as what occurred with God's judgement of Israel for the rejection of their Messiah.

Back to Revelation...when read without the distraction of Dispensational colored glassed, one can see just based on the first verse that John was writing to the first century church things that would occur before that generation passed. Revelation 1:1..."The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must SHORTLY (2,000 years hence is anything but shortly) come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John."

The first century church audience that John was primarily writing to were the Hebrews who had grown up in the traditions of the Old Testament worship and imagery. They completely understood the imagery that John was using. For us, who don't know the Old Testament beyond a laymen's education, it can be interpreted in so very many ways (as has and is being done by every prophecy kook in creation). However, to those who were of John's immediate audience, the imagery was very clear and could only be taken one way. This is why John was comfortable stating, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is AT HAND." How could they keep the things that were written if they couldn't understand and he made a point to say that the things that were written were very close to happening...AT HAND.

Read a book called Days of Vengeance by David Chilton...total eye opener!