The book of Revelation has always presented the interpreter with challenges. The book is steeped in vivid imagery and symbolism which people have interpreted differently depending on their preconceptions of the book as a whole. There are four main interpretive approaches to the book of Revelation:

1. preterist (which sees all or most of the events in Revelation as having already occurred by the end of the 1st century); 
2. historicist (which sees Revelation as a survey of church history from apostolic times to the present); 
3. idealist (which sees Revelation as a depiction of the struggle between good and evil); 
4. futurist (which sees Revelation as prophecy of events to come).