Apocalyptic literature seems to be very often taken out of context. By apocalyptic literature, I mean books of the bible like the last half of Daniel, parts of Ezekiel, and of course, Revelation (which we will be looking at in a couple of days). These books and prophecies were written for the people who were contemporary to the authors' times. That means that the prophecies would have meant something to those people, and that they did not speak about the fall of the USSR, or the US-Iraq wars, or anything else that has happened in the past few hundred years. We can try and read anything we want into these prophecies, but let's face it - Daniel, Ezekiel, and John (author of Revelation) didn't know anything about the United States or Russia. Granted, the Holy Spirit could have inspired them so much that they wrote about things they had no idea about, but I doubt that's the case, because it would have no meaning for anyone, even themselves, and God's word makes sense to whoever reads it, not just us.
Apocalyptic literature was a genre of writing that was used to comfort people in times of persecution, uncertainty, or other trials. No matter how tough times get, we can always rely on God to save us in the end. So one thing we can take away from these passages is that when we're experiencing our own troubles today (as we hear about major wars going on all over the globe), God will be with us and he will overcome.
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