Ah yes, I see. Sure, some people believe in astrology, palm readers, the fortune cookies placed in their Chinese take out bags, etc. The facts are:
we have two versions of Revelation offering two different numbers,
both of these numbers are the sum of Nero’s title (in the Greek and Latin respectively),
and given what we know about Nero’s reign, namely his hostility to Christians after the fires…
So no, there is no defensible reason to apply Revelation to any other period of time. There’s much that is debatable in biblical studies, but not this. Now in communities of faith, of course there are self-reinforcing mechanisms to “keep the faith,” or from a pastor’s perspective, to “keep the flock.” To this end, denominations keep reinterpreting Scripture in whatever way that best keeps people in the community. Community preservation is the only concern, not truth. This has been going on century after century, millennium after millennium, by projecting current events into the text. The convenient part is the theme of imperial ascent, corruption and collapse is attractive since it’s always occurring in every century and in every millennium.
