Decoding the book of Revelation step by step

There are many reasons why Revelation should not be treated as an exclusively chronological timeline of events. There is some chronology, but there are also a lot of intertwined visions with overlaps. For instance the Beast from the Sea in chapter 13 is the Roman empire. But the Whore riding the Dragon in chapter 17 with it's seven kings is also a depiction of the same Roman empire. Next, the vision of the Woman with the 12 Stars (chapter 12) is about (true) Israel giving birth to Jesus and being persecuted by the dragon (devil/Roman Empire). It ENDS with the Woman being kept safe for 1260 days. The Vision of the  Two Witnesses  (chapter 11) STARTS with a period of 42 months or 1260 days. Whatever your interpretation is of the Vision of the Two Witnesses (chapter 11), it happens AFTER that of the Woman with the 12 Stars (chapter 12), but it is written BEFORE it. There are many repetitions. Another reason is that there are many repetitions of the same event. Babyl

According to tradition Mark gathered quotes and events from Jesus when Peter spoke. As such and because Mark was not a witness himself of these events, the result is not very chronological. Nevertheless Mark did a good job, because Matthew who was a witness follows him to a very large extent, but he did not change a lot regarding to the chronology either. But this was confusing at some points, therefor Luke says in the first four verses of his report, that he went through the previous written material (as well as adding new things from witnesses) to put it into a consistent and chronological order. One of the problems with Mark is his chapter 13 and Matthew's chapter 24. Quotes from Jesus about the destruction of Jerusalem and of the second coming of Christ were mixed together. Therefore Luke splits those into two. Chapter 17 is only about the coming of Christ and chapter 21 first is about the destruction of Jerusalem and then switches to Jesus' second coming.

Revelation 20 nowhere speaks about some millennial reign of Jesus. It speaks about the devil being not allowed to attack Israel. And after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison, 8 and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war ; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up over the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city . (Revelation 20:7) See  this blog . The key to understanding what the 1000 years mean, can be found in chapter 17:8 The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. (Rev.17:8) This is a SUMMARY of what chapter 20 is describing. Or to put it differently: chapter 20 SPECIFIES what 17:8 is saying. You can ask yourself this question: where in Revelation is a beast mentioned that comes out of the abyss? The only place is in chapter 20. Th