[ArkyBeagle]

The brand of Christianity in which I was trained does not take any of Revelation as a prophecy but rather analogous to what Mark Twain did in "Letters from Earth." Considering John of Patmos' circumstances at the time ( he was living in exile ) and the subsequent scholarship, this is largely the most reasonable interpretation.

The Fundamentalists evolved differently from the main European Christianities - think of a small village of practitioners separated from any strong institutional backing. You'll get "telephone game" distortions.