Guideline #1: Learn the lingo. Apocalyptic literature was a genre that was familiar to John's readers, but is strange to us. Imagine that you had never seen or heard of science fiction novels, and then were confronted with a book that included space aliens or humans with super powers. It would be rather disconcerting, to say the least! In the same way, we are disturbed by the extreme imagery (women with seven heads or ten arms?) and the hyperbolic language of Revelation. John's readers would have been familiar with that type of literature and knew what not to take literally.
Guideline #2: Think Oriental, not Occidental. The symbolism of Revelation is Oriental in nature. If the writer wants to communicate a being that is omniscient, that being might have ten heads. If the being is involved in many activities, that being might have many arms. Think of the Hindu or the Buddhist symbols for deities and you will get more of a feel for Oriental symbolism. One commentator wrote that Western writers use words like building blocks and Eastern writers use words as ornamentation. Try to get in an Eastern frame of mind.
Guideline #3: Know the history. Many of the symbols and events in Revelation can be traced to actual events happening in John's day. Though they may also foreshadow events in the future, we may have a harder time figuring out those connections. A famous example is the number of the beast, 666 (or 616 in some manuscripts) which has been tied to evil leaders in every generation. Caesar Nero, however, the despot that initiated the first wave of persecution of the Christians, really did have a name whose letters added up to the number 666. (Gematria, the system of attaching a number to each letter of the alphabet, meant that every name in Hebrew or Greek had a numerical equivalent.) So without trying to stretch the interpretation too far, we can find many meanings in the events surrounding the composition of the book.
Guideline #4: Use modern revelation. Joseph Smith, who famously called Revelation "one of the plainest books ever written," asked and received answers to fifteen questions about Revelation in Doctrine and Covenants Section 77. It is a fascinating commentary and a great place to start in your study. Add the comments of modern day prophets and apostles, and there is a wealth of information on Revelation to help us.
My personal take-home from the book was this: John sees history as a great scroll with seven seals, and no one can open the seals except the Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world. The seven great ages of history are opened, one by one, by Him, and John sees their meaning. For me, now in my sixth decade, there is a lesson here. No one can open the seals of our own lives except Jesus, and with Him we can go back through each decade and understand the meaning of the events that have occurred. With Him we can also go forward, decade by decade, and can find purpose in all of it.
Finally, Revelation shows us that when Christ comes in his glory and ushers in the millennium, all we have suffered, all of the unfairness and injustice of life, what Hamlet calls "the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to," will be understood and healed and dissolved in His matchless love. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Rev 21:4)
That is such a comforting vision of the future that we are moved say with John, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
