Well, since most people today do not understand the book, there is a problem. I think that John saw the same vision Daniel and others saw. He did not choose which things the Lord would show him but the Lord did show him the same things. Do you see what I mean?
does it make sense that God would show visions of things that would be familiar to the people?
the people know about lions, those appear in visions in the Bible.
but the people would have had no experience of polar bears,
and those don't appear in visions.
I assure you that was no literary devise.
does the bible not contain any literary devices?
When he said he "saw" he means he observed with his eyes.
This is not fiction.
If that message had not started with "I saw a vision..." it had nothing of significance to communicate because it was not a teaching.
When a man or woman tells the members that they had a vision from God and it concerned all of them, there are special rules that apply. One, the others need to evaluate it in light of what they know God has said. Two, it needs to register in their own spirit as the Lord. Three, it has to be fulfilled in real life if it is a statment about the future. To tell the church you have a vision from God is to require them to judge it and you, to some degree. Those people knew what it meant to make that claim.
1 Corinthians 14:29 Let the prophets speak, two or three, and let the others judge.
He did not claim to have a vision from God of a city on a hill. Prophesy and teaching are not the same thing to the speaker and to the recepients.
it is not literally, physically true that a city on a hill cannot be hidden.
but that figurative language does communicate an important spiritual truth!