I recommend "The Apocalypse Code"

I am teaching through the book of Revelation on Tuesday nights at our church. I am not a big prophecy buff and I am quite sceptical of the definitive systems that appear to explain everything. I have found Revelation to be a very practical symbolic book of encouragement to the persecuted church. I read Revelation like I would read any other book of the Bible--it's a book about God that reveals a great deal about Him and His unique ways. I was strolling through a Christian bookstore a few weeks ago when I came upon Hank Hanegraaff's book, The Apocalypse Code. I picked it up because I was interested in what "The Bible Answer Man" might have to say about the subject of biblical prophecy. What I found was a primer on properly interpreting Biblical prophecy in light of proper hermeneutical principles. Hanegraaff takes aim at Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series of books and lands a crippling blow.

Paul Maier of Western Michigan University writes in the front flap, "Hank Hanegraaff argues that the book of Revelation is obscure to us because 'we have not sufficiently learned to read the Bible for all it's worth. When our interpretations are tethered to the hottest sensation rather than to the Holy Scripture, we are apt to grab at anything--and usually miss.' The Apocalypse Code is a guide to holding on to what is true in the book of Revelation as in the rest of Scripture. Throughout the history of the church, wrongheaded teachings have appeared that temporarily attracted a large following, only to become fading fads once the light of proper biblical interpretation illuminated their error. A current example is dispensational pretribulational rapture theology promoted by such prophecy pundits as Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, John Hagee and others. For years now, I've been wondering what might convince such prophecy specialists to recognize that the eschatology they are foisting on the world is simply embarrassing to the church, and so prompt them to back out of their dispensational cul-de-sac."

Check out Hank Hanegraaff's website at the Christian Research Institute here.