To rightly handle the writings of a dead prophet such as John, you have to begin by taking seriously the time, place, and circumstances in which the biblical author produced the document under study. This is a bottom line for the understanding of any biblical prophecy. But we must also deal with some related questions: How does the Bible text become relevant for today? How can we apply a biblical prophecy to our day, when it was written to somebody else in a different time and place and reflecting a difference of culture, ideas, and language?
