The Revelation of St. John, the last book of the canonical Bible, has been a mystery since it first appeared. No other part of the Bible has caused more controversy. Traditional interpretations of the book fall into one of three categories: the major prophecies that are supposed to have been fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.; the historical view that Revelation predicts the course of human events from the founding of Christianity to the end of the world; or the futurist view that Revelation predicts events that will occur at the end of the world. It's actually none of the above, writes Zachary F. Lansdowne, a leading expert in the field of spiritual initiation. In the introduction to this rich and complex interpretation, he writes, "According to its own verses, the Revelation is concerned with the present time, which is whatever time we happen to be reading it, and contains information that we can apply immediately to become blessed." Lansdowne's line-by-line and verse-by-verse interpretation--"presented here in an easy-to-read side-by-side format--"is a manual for the true seeker who would follow the teachings of Jesus as they were and are laid out, rather than as they have been interpreted by theologians and biblical historians.
