Prophecies of the Book of Revelation Are Not for Amateurs

Port Saint Lucie, the town in which I live, was rocked by a tragedy the other day. A girl was murdered by a man who was stalking her, despite her family having a restraining order against him. This and other world events have triggered an interest in the end time prophecies of the Book of Revelation at the Congregational Church where my aunt is head of the youth group. Many of the teenagers, who feel confused by this dangerous new world, have turned to my aunt to have her interpret the prophecies of the Book of Revelation. I've also been reading on how the trend of others turning to others to interpret ancient prophecies is increasing.

The problem with this trend is that many of the people who are asked to interpret the prophecies have no background to do so. My aunt is an office manager at a doctor's office and doesn't know the Book of Revelation from, excuse the Biblical pun, Adam. Yet she, and other people like her, will willingly accept the task afforded to them. They realize, of course, that they have no knowledge of these prophecies and immediately go and buy some ridiculous "explanation" book thinking all of the answers can be found there. They skim, not read, through the book and show up at the next meeting spouting off half of what they remembered and half of what they deduce.

I don't claim to be a Biblical scholar myself, but I know not to tread on their turf. The prophecies of the Book of Revelation, to me, are chilling and frightening. I am interested in learning about the prophecies, but I want to learn from someone who is trained in the field of understanding the prophecies. Like I said, my aunt is the volunteer head of her church's youth group and she'll confidently stroll into the next meeting and spout off what she thinks she knows. She'll speak of blood flooding the earth, comets falling from the sky, the Antichrist and a double-edged sword coming from the mouth of Christ and she'll scare the heck out of the children that attend that youth group.

These children, and anyone else who may be listening, will go home and probably have nightmares of what is "supposed" to be waiting for mankind when the end of days come. My aunt will not think twice of what she did and when confronted with the fact that she scared so many, she'll reply that she was told to interpret these prophecies for people. This scenario will be repeated throughout the world, time and time again, as more and more terrible tragedies come upon humanity. I don't know whether or not we are living in the end times, but if we are, I want to know how to handle it the right way. Think about it being like in an action movie when someone is supposed to clip the wire to diffuse the bomb, clip the wrong wire and it blows up; interpreting the Book of Revelation the wrong way can make the situation humanity is facing worse than it already is.