You can’t receive the Mark of the Beast unless you worship the Beast; at which time I believe the Beast worshipper will not only receive

the mark so they can “buy and sell” (Rev.13:17) but also they will receive a demon.

This article will flesh out this idea:

* There is some reason why people who receive “the Mark” are not able to repent as (Rev.13:8) implies by giving a distinction between:

“people who worship the beast” AND “those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” —ie. one excludes the other!

     Revelation 14:9-12 also gives the ‘determined’ condition of ‘Beast worshippers’ saying they will receive the “full measure of God’s fury and wrath” and “there will be no rest…for those who receive the Mark.” These conditions seem to apply both eternally and on earth during the Great Tribulation. The overall tenor of these judgements pronounced by the God of heaven upon mankind match the extreme sin, oppression and violence which occur during the worst period of Tribulation in human history. So much so, it is called the GREAT Tribulation. A time so terrible that it far exceeds all periods of human depravity in history. During the Rwanda Genocide, in which 1+ million were slaughtered in only 100 days (7 April — 15 July 1994), (mostly with machetes to save bullets), the Time Magazine cover stated, “There are no more demons in hell, they’re all in Rwanda.” This is what will occur on an exponential scale during the Great Tribulation. During the Great Tribulation we see spiritual forces allowed by God to be unleashed upon the world as never before in all of history. The seals, trumpets, and bowls bring deeper levels of God’s wrath upon the earth. The spiritually wicked character of this wrath is unmistakable. The evil demonic forces which have been held back by Yahweh’s limiting power are now allowed to be unleashed from their controls.

     One example of this is in Revelation 9:1-11 when the 5th Trumpet blast occurs. “The Abyss” is opened.  Demonic creatures described as locusts pour out from the abyss. The description of these creatures match other historical pictures of demons. There is no doubt they signify a supernatural, evil force. Their main purpose is to torment all who belong to the Beast. The torment is so horrible that it will cause the desire to commit suicide. “They (demon locust) had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).” This is the Biblical and pagan name for Satan himself.

     I believe the exponential terror which will occur during the Great Tribulation is because MOST people on the earth who willingly receive the Mark of the Beast are demon possessed by one of the demons who’ve been waiting a long time to control another being (made in the image of God — ie. mankind). In addition to the demons who currently roam the earth, there is also the added terror of the demons who are “held in chains of darkness” mentioned in Jude 1:6. Obviously these particular demons are in a different class than the demons who freely roam the earth—my guess is because they would not abide by the limits Yahweh placed on them when they were cast down to the earth (Rev.12:4), so He bound them up. I speculate they will be let out for a brief time to help the Antichrist wreak havoc on earth during the Great Tribulation. Jesus taught (Mat.24:22) it would become so unbearable that even the elect would fall away if God didn’t end the terror (obviously through the 2nd Coming Rev.19:11-21).  Now these extremely unruly demons can follow Lucifer in their host body of the Beast worshipper. Corollary to this is Lucifer will not merely send a chief demon to possess the Antichrist, but he will do it himself. So the real issue is not “the Mark” but the power behind the Mark.

     Furthermore, the power and influence of the Church will be greatly diminished because of two major reasons:

1. the removal of the current thriving genuine Christians in the Rapture (Rev.14:14-16) at the beginning of the Great Tribulation (2 Thes.2:6-8)

      AND

2. the freedom of speech will be suppressed — I believe in a much greater level than even in China today. World-wide there will be no tolerance of the Gospel message by the Antichrist and his minions. All forms of media will be utterly locked down. The only way people can be saved is if they hear the Gospel (Romans 10:14-15)? — How can they hear if there’s no preachers allowed to speak?

     To paint this ominous picture further, the number of people slaughtered in the Anti-christ death camps will far exceed the Nazi (15 million) or Stalinist (20 million) or Maoist (60 million) blood baths. It is likely 100 million to 1 billion people will be directly tortured and slaughtered; a large percentage of these will die by starvation. Many of those who died due to Communist (and Statist —Nazi) regimes perished because of starvation.

     Remember the 10+ million Chinese who starved due to Mao’s failed centralized killing of the birds (to ‘save’ grain)?

     Remember the 3+ million Ukrainians who starved because of Stalin’s centralized redistribution of the grain?

     Remember the 2.2+ million  Armenian Christians who were genocided by the Muslim Turks (1915-1920)—many perished because of starvation?

     Remember 2+ million South Sudanese Christians who were  genocided by the Muslim north Sudanese government during 30 years of civil war? Many of them died by starvation.

     1. removal of the current thriving genuine Christians in the Rapture (Rev.14:14-16) at the beginning of the Great Tribulation;

     2. the shut down of the Gospel message by Antichrist media control (Rev.13:7);

     3. the capture and slaughter of MOST people who refuse the Mark and choose to stand for Jesus (Rev.13:7,15);

     4. all “mark-bearers” receiving a demon when they worship the Beast as god (Rev.13:16-18).