Having prophetic vision and a seer’s insight, Joseph Smith said: “The book of Revelation is one of the plainest books God ever caused to be written” (Teachings, p. 290).
Such, however, is seldom the consensus today of those of the household of fault who seek to extract meaning from the book. Not only is John’s apocalyptic style (with numbers, beasts, plagues, demons, angels, and astral phenomena) difficult for us to comprehend, but, as Nephi’s guide explains, the book of Revelation has been subject to the same scriptural conspiracy as the rest of the canon; the corruption of the text through planned and intended removal of precious parts has rendered John’s work “a sealed book” at best to the religious world.
If indeed the book was “easy to the understanding of all men” before the removal of certain parts, one can but imagine how vital and significant those things removed must have been!