Is Revelation trying to scare people into believing?
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Revelation’s judgment scenes get used, sometimes, exactly this way - as a scare tactic aimed at outsiders, a “believe or else” warning. If that’s how you’ve encountered this book before, it’s understandable that judgment might feel like the whole point.
Looking at who these scenes are actually addressed to, though, is revealing: Revelation is a letter written to seven churches - to people already inside the faith, not a tract handed to strangers on the street. The judgment scenes function less like a threat to the unconvinced and more like an unveiling for the convinced: exposing which loyalties are real, calling wavering believers back, and reassuring a persecuted church that injustice doesn’t get the final word. Worship, not fear, sits at the emotional center of the book (chapters 4-5, 7, 15, 19) - judgment is real, but it’s in service of that worship, not a replacement for it.