From an Evangelical source:
What is really going on in the world? The simple answer: The dragon (with many aliases), having sensed his imminent demise, is now on an all-out war against God and God’s people, having incarnated himself in a terrifying and destructive beast (for John’s first readers, a transparent symbol for the Roman imperial regime and military structure), which in turn is propping up the arrogant, lavish, idolatrous, and oppressive city Babylon (a transparent reference to Rome),1 which has seduced all nations into its orbit of greed, whose consumptive lifestyle is the engine of the global economy, and whose wealth is based on inequitable trade relationships (chaps. 12-13, 17-18).
http://www.directionjournal.org/article/?1288
does not get the basics correct.
Rev 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show
to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and
He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John,