Apocalypse does not mean simply fear. Rather, it means fear that turns to joy. It is joy when the old world of sorrow and death is overthrown. For Christianity, this way of escape lies on the horizon of the present transient world. Other religions imagine an endlessly repeating cycle (and endlessly repeating misery). But Christianity waits in confidence for history to culminate in a mighty goal. In earlier times, for the first Christians, this waiting was like a torch in the night.

Parts of Revelation are about judgment and destruction. But then its vision changes.