From Fear and Fascination to Faith and Facts My first encounter with the book of Revelation was fear. Who didn’t get a few chills running down their spine about the number 666, the “mark of the beast,” the seven plagues and this dramatic portrayal of the endtime? That fear kept me from wanting to know more about this book, though I was drawn to it. Then I stumbled across a study that made an intelligent versus fanciful media-hyped approach to the book. It addressed Revelation  as a codedmessage, but written to the first century church who were part of its history and time. That ...