A Very Confusing Book

I'd like to do a post on the book of Revelation, particularly on some of the hermeneutical guidelines that can help us avoid the interpretive pits into which we as contemporary readers easily slip. I thought it might be interesting to see what different people (if there are any of you out there!) have experienced in the way of troublesome and even dangerous readings of Revelation. I hope this won't encourage ridicule of different teachers (even if their last name is LaHaye!) but will serve as a bit of a runway for more positive reflection.

So what interpretive decisions have crossed your path and left you feeling exegetically exasperated?

I'll go first, first confessing my own sins and then mentioning a second interpretation not of my own making. First, picking up on Joel 2:31, several New Testament texts (for example, Acts 2:20; Rev. 6:12) mention something about the moon becoming like blood. For some reason I used to speculate that this might entail humanity colonizing the moon in the future and having a great war there, thus staining it with blood! The key word here is "speculated" (in the worst sense of the word). Lord, have mercy.

Yet that interpretive blunder at least didn't have all the negative ramifications of the popular one that I'll mention next. Many Christians have been led to believe that the "mark of the beast" (Rev. 13:16-18) consists of some technological device (a super duper microchip, etc.). "They" (whoever that may be) will be able to "track" those who receive the mark. Put gently, this is not a strong reading of the text....but more on why later. For now, what other things come to mind?