What's the Symbolic Nature of Apocalyptic Literature?

There are roots that john is drawing from, from biblical material, both in the old and the new testament. And there is a whole genre of jewish material in the time, in the first century before christ,. In the first century after christ, that are what we call apocalyptic material. But as the church is strayed away because of such unusual literature, the popular culture moves and novels have taken that material over. I want to argue that the church needs to reclaim that material for its own sake.