When Jesus spoke to the crowds, He used images they knew to make His points.
Sheep and goats. Houses and storms. Bread and wine.
If He were addressing today's preschoolers, He may have referred to puppies and sippy cups.
People do that. We are
kinda constrained to use the metaphors of our time.
The book of Revelation has some weird images in it. i've heard of people who decided they couldn't believe it because it was written about the first century Roman Empire.
Of course John referenced what he knew. How could he not?
Even when describing dream (vision) images of things he'd never seen in life, he described them in terms of what he knew.
Locusts. Falling stars.
Does this mean he didn't write prophecy?
If you believe that "There is no such thing as prophecy because people can't know the future," i'm not going to try to persuade you. That's a job for a greater intellect than mine. Or better yet, the Holy Spirit.
But if you can accept that the God who made everything, who sees "the end from the beginning,"can give prophecy to His servants, there's no problem with this.
The exact meaning of the prophecies, we may not be able to interpret. Especially with Revelation, there are many interpretations, but they are not mutually incompatible.
We are promised a blessing for reading and hearing the book and obeying its instructions.
We needn't fear the metaphors.
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A relatively brief summary of the four major interpretive views of Revelation:
https://probe.org/four-views-of-revelation/
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