Should I take Revelation literally or symbolically?
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This is one of the most natural questions to ask, and honest readers land in different places on it - some wanting to protect the reality of what’s promised, others wary of over-literalizing poetic imagery.
Revelation itself gives us a clue in its own opening line: the Greek word behind “made it known” (semaino) is related to the word for “sign” - the same verb used when Daniel’s symbolic visions are explained to him. John seems to be telling us up front how to read what follows: not as a literal newsreel of future events, but as a book of signs pointing to real, spiritual realities - the way a road sign is not a photograph of your destination, but still tells you something true and important about it. That doesn’t make the promises any less real or the warnings any less serious. It just means the beast, the numbers, and the colors of the horses are carrying meaning the way symbols do, not the way security-camera footage does.