Not all Christians are fatalistic, for example the biggest sub division the Catholics believe that Revelation already happened and that it was talking about events of the time, in a codex form.
In fact if you look at the inherent references of St Johns work, many of the references are although symbolical actually concur with symbology of the Jews and agree with the events of the time which he writes about. For example The whore of Babylon is Rome, the seven headed dragon are the Seven Palatine hills of Rome, which the beast Nero rides, and the part where the beast is seemingly struck dead only to survive refers to a failed suicide attempt by Nero, where one of his servants cut his head. Of course Nero's number is 666 as well.
In fact if you dissect it properly, pretty much all of the generally accepted codex references of the times are found in other literature or can be insinuated from real world events. Considering St John was present at the sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans and was banished he had a pretty strong motivation, it was perhaps the only way he could attack the Roman state without being obvious. Looking at it in that context and from a scholarly point of view it's kind of hard to conclude anything else. Which is why the Catholics advocate this theory now.
EDIT: Oh and the real place Armageddon was a scene of many battles of the past, a traditional battle ground amongst the Jews, it also happened to hold a substantial Roman garrison at the time.
It is suggested John envisioned Rome being overcome by Christianity, and he wasn't far wrong either. After all it is Roman Catholicism
