Who will receive the mark of the beast?

Revelation 16:2 and 19:20 cite the "mark of the beast" as a sign that identifies those who worship the beast out of the sea ( Rev 13:1 ). This beast is usually identified as the antichrist. This mark is first mentioned in 13:16-17, where it is imposed on humanity by the beast out of the earth ( 13:11 ).

The 7-year tribulation will be beyond anything we can imagine. The trouble the earth sees will be unlike any other trouble that human history has ever known. John Lennox, a Christian apologist and theologian, said this about the passage in Daniel 12…

• "It is hard to get one's mind around this grim statement. The time of Antiochus was horrendous, as was the period around the later fall of Jerusalem. The Holocaust beggars description. But Daniel indicates that there is even worse to come at the time of the end."

Jesus said this in Matthew 24:21…

• "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be."

To put it mildly, it's going to get bad.