terms. Consider this statement: “My world has come to an end because my girlfriend has broken up with me.” The world is obviously not literally coming to an end. Rather, the heightened language communicates the significance of a personal event. If John used the same methodology in Revelation, then statements such as half of the world’s population being destroyed (Revelation 6:8; 9:15) and the greatest earthquake in human history (Revelation 16:18) cannot be construed literally. Rather, they similarly