The Bible is history past, present and future. The bible begins with the history of creation as far as one can go back in time.

Gen 1:1
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

That heaven and earth ended with the earth in total darkness and void of life as Gods judgments fell upon Lucifer's kingdom here on earth. The result was Gen 1:2

Gen 1:2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

From Gen 1:3 to Gen 1:31 God took the judged creation and made a new heaven and earth for man and woman whom He created in His image and likeness to live in and have dominion. Because the sins of man reached such conditions as described in Gen 6

Gen 6:5-8
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

  God destroyed that heaven and earth with a worldwide flood in those days of Noah.  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and he and his family were saved in the ark. God again started with a new heaven and earth which is the current heaven and earth we now live in. God told Noah and his family to replenish the earth. Once again the bible talks of a future time called the 'Day of the Lord ' (see chart below ) when God will judge the nations for their sin and create a new heaven and earth this time with everlasting righteousness. Revelations tells the story of the 'Day of the Lord'. Revelations being the last book of the Bible picks up where the book of Acts leaves off.  While the book of Acts covers the recorded history of the first 40 years of the church age after Jesus gave the great commission (Mk 16:15-20), Revelations begins with the resurrected Jesus telling John using 7 churches in Asia the prophetic history of the remaining years of the church age to the rapture. John is then told of the future events that follow the rapture that will include the great 3 1/2 year Christian tribulation; the terrible 7 year 'Day of the Lord' and the victorius return of Christ with His saints from heaven to defeat the beast and his armies on earth. Christ and the saints will then rule a 1000 years to perfect the Kingdom of God and then the eternal state of an ever increasing Kingdom of God ruling in peace, joy, and righteousness forever (see chart below).

                              

Key Things to keep in mind when studying Revelations.

In Rev 4 when John hears a voice as of a trumpet and is caught up to God's throne, John is a type or a picture of what happens to the saved in Christ toward the end of the church age (after the 7 churches Rev 1-3 see rapture). John is also an eyewitness to activity in heaven where the Father, Christ, the raptured saints are and operate from till Christ returns . During this time there is tremendous activity in heaven such as the 6 seals being opened during the 3 1/2 Christian tribulation period and the 7th seal with its 7 trumpets and vial judgments being executed during the 7 year Day of the Lord.   During these same timeframes their is tremendous activity on earth. John provided the student of Revelations with complete details of what's happening in both heaven and earth, this is how he does this.  Look at the chart above and notice the chapters of Revelations divided into those which record activity from heaven's point of view and those chapters that record the same timeframes from earth's point of view.

You can see then the consistency of Revelations. While the saints after the rapture are in heaven (Rev 4 - 11)  John records the rapture and events following, the 3 1/2 years tribulation period, and the Day of the Lord. Rev 12-19 records the exact same timeframes in the exact same order except the focus is events as seen from earth's viewpoint. Keeping this in mind will clear up much confusion in the church concerning the Book of Revelations. Rev 20 Christ and the saints have returned to earth to establish and set up the visible eternal Kingdom of God.

Wisdom - the key to understanding many of the events John saw

When John was shown the scarlet woman riding upon the 7 headed beast with 10 horns the angel said to John in Rev 17:9 'And here is the mind which hath wisdom' and the angel proceeded to explain what John saw. Wisdom is understanding the ways of God in how He reveals knowledge to us. God is the same yesterday, today and forever.The wisdom given to us through God's Word in recording events past can be applied to events future. Many of the events John saw happening both in heaven and earth are explained in types, or symbols or numbers. Sometimes the language is figurative and sometimes literal. Those who have spent time with God can apply learned wisdom to what John is saying and their interpretation when it is true will have the witness of both the Holy Spirit and the Word. Jesus spoke in parables to teach certain truths about the Kingdom of God and often said 'Let him that has an ear hear what the Spirit has to say' . Once a person grasped the true understanding of the parable as revealed to their spirit by the Holy Spirit the meaning gripped that person with a reality that seems more real than the reality they visibly see and hear.

Zec 1:18-19
18 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.
19 And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

Zec 1:20-21
20 And the Lord showed me four carpenters.
21 Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.

It is clear from these passages that the number 4 is referring to gentile powers Israel has had to face but of great interest here is Zech 1:8-10 in helping to understand who the 4 horsemen of Rev 6.

Zec 1:8-10
8 I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white.
9 Then said I, "O' my lord, what are these?" And the angel that talked with me said unto me,"I will show thee what these be".
10 And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, "These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth".


Zechariah 1:8-10 tells of God's angels carrying out a particular work for him among the gentile nations and they are divided into groups symbolized by red, white and speckled horses.The Lord of Hosts stands before them and the different colored horses stand behind Him. It is not the color of the rider of the horse that denotes the type of work but the color of the horse. Red would be war and bloodshed; white - a work of righteousness; and speckled - a work of grace and wrath mixed together. So likewise in Rev 6 we see Christ the captain of our salvation and the leader of God's mighty army of raptured saints in heaven opening the seals. The first 4 seals are 4 horses - white, red, black, and pale - symbolize the work they raptured saints (the 4 horsemen that ride them) are connected with.


The 4 horsemen like the 4 living ones symbolize an innumerable amount of raptured saints  

In Rev 9:13-16 we read of the 4 angels loosed upon the earth from beneath the Euphrates river and then we are told their number was 200,000,000. Scripture gives another clear example of how to interpret the four horsemen as an innumerable amount of saints that will go into action immediately after the rapture as Christ opens the 7 sealed book.

Rev 9:13-16
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, "Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates".
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

Finally, other examples of the number 4 used to show the world view are; the 4 Gospels - life of Christ on earth; the 4 metals of the image of Daniel 2 and the 4 beasts of Daniel 7 - both showing the history of world empires from Daniel 's day till Christ returns. A very clear example of the number 4 connected with the earth is in Rev 7:1 (4 angels; 4 corners of the earth; 4 winds).

Rev 7:1
And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.