Apocalyptic literature's primary purpose is to reveal something spiritual that had previously been solely considered mystery or had been completely hidden from view. We see the apocalyptic style most prominently in the book of the Revelation of St. John. However, there are numerous other uses of the apocalypse within the scriptures such as in Daniel, Joel, and Jesus's teachings around the end times. The last couple of centuries BC into the first couple of centuries AD saw a significant increase in the style. Many writings came to be during this time, some of which the Church considers [[Apocrypha|"beneficial to the reader"]] still today. Others are found in the canon of some traditions, such as Enoch in the Ethiopian church. We have to be wise when reading apocalypse to remember its primary purpose. It is very easy to take a statement such as Revelation 1:1a to be saying many possible things or to view it as only saying one thing. Often if one takes the position of many things, they view the Revelation as more symbolic and covering more content. Those who take it to say one single thing find a foothold in reading the rest of Revelation as entirely within that reality (whether all future, all past, all symbolic, all literal, etc.) Take a look at it for yourself here: *"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must happen very soon."* My question to you, is this saying the contents of the following visions are revealing future events or are they revealing Christ enthroned? The "of Jesus Christ" is ambiguous as it could be that Jesus owns this revelation and is sharing it as the giver of the revelation, which the rest of the verse may point to depending on your reading, but it could also be that the revelation is about Jesus, the revealing of Jesus as the subject of the book. Perhaps it is all of these together. It is not an easy question to answer primarily because [[Translation|translation]] is an art, not a science. As such, there are divisions among individuals, local churches, and even full sections of Christianity. Within apocalypse there remain concepts that must be interpreted and are likely wrong. There's not much we can do otherwise this side of eternity.