Personally, I believe a lot of the Bible is not meant to be taken literally. Not necessarily the histories, but stuff like the parables, prophecies, Revelation, etc. For example, Jesus said that you should forgive your brother seventy-times-seven times. But did he mean that you shouldn't forgive him on the seventy-first time he does something? No, he meant that to be an infinite number. And the number 1000 was also used to express infinity or something very close to it. I honestly believe that most of the subject of the book of Revelation has already occurred, and we are currently living out the rest of it.
Hmmm, this topic should get rather interesting... Anyone else up for some good religious debate and theory?
---Skorpion