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October 3, 2021 |
| The Mark of the Beast | ||
Before we get to the meat of this study, I'm going to briefly explain that there is more than one view of how the book of Revelation should be understood. There are some people with one of these views who don't expect anything useful to come from reading Revelation.
The main point of the study is the actual Mark of the Beast. Most people try to use the 666 number as a way to determine who the anti-Christ will be. We're going to look at it from a different perspective, maybe one you've never thought of.
As we get closer to that time, it's possible for us to understand more about what the Mark and the times of the Mark would be like. It wasn't possible to understand that when we were children, but much has changed since then.
We're going to look at how it's actually going to make sense at the time when it comes. Even in our time, we can see how it begins to make sense. Of course the Mark and the times of the Mark are not something that we're looking forward to, but forewarned is forearmed.
Most of the views about how to understand Revelation are different in sequencing, in the order of events. Does the Rapture come at the beginning, middle, or end of the Tribulation period? Does Jesus come before or after the Millennium?
One of these views, however, says that Revelation doesn't have any present value. They see Revelation as an allegory, like Alice in Wonderland, that should be interpreted only to find hidden universal truths. They believe that only scholarly people can properly interpret Revelation and then explain it to other people. The problem with that, as you might expect, is that the scholarly people don't agree on what those universal truths are.
This view is rife with elitism and "all discovered truths are equally valuable" thinking, so it is beloved by liberals. If there's a liberal university that has a theology department, you're going to find this idea taught there.
This view says that those prophecies that are contained in Revelation have already been fulfilled. That fulfillment happened just after John's time. They see no prophecy remaining in Revelation that would be fulfilled in our time or in the future.
Therefore they don't see the Mark of the Beast as being a literal event.
This view is called Preterism. If you haven't heard it before, that's hardly a surprise. The church has largely been conservative, and conservatives mock this view.
It's really a form of Gnosticism - salvation comes from hidden knowledge that certain people have attained, a gnosticism of the educated elite. They completely reject the idea that God can reveal himself to whomever he chooses, though the Bible is full of examples.
The vast majority of Christians view Revelation as a parable, a 22-chapter-long parable. It describes realities using symbols, just as Jesus used fish to describe men in his parables. Built into this view is the idea that there is only one complete, correct interpretation. It also accepts that it is prophetic in the sense that it described future events, some of which are unfulfilled.
Because Revelation is much longer than any of Jesus' parables, it can do something that Jesus didn't. It can have different degrees of difficulty in places. Some of it can be read literally to provide an incomplete but valuable understanding. When symbolism is used, some degree of spiritual understanding is required. Some things can be understood by those who have a little spiritual understanding, but parts of it require a deep spiritual understanding. Some parts cannot be understood now by anyone because God has not yet authorized anyone to understand them.
In all cases, understanding requires authorization from God. God may not want a person to understand something for many reasons. It may be because that person is not ready to understand it, or maybe God wants that person to work on something else. If God doesn't want a person to understand something, there is nothing that can be done to rip it from God's hand.
If a person pushes ahead with interpreting prophecy that God has not authorized, he will find something other than the correct understanding. He will be like the people who "discovered" Preterism.
Like Preterism, this view has people who have created some wildly different interpretations of certain parts. This happens when people without the required spiritual depth try to interpret the symbolisms that require such depth.
The sections that speak about the Mark of the Beast are mostly very literal, and it isn't difficult to understand why. God wants the average person to be able to understand that part because it contains a warning to all of Christianity. No Christian will be able to say, "I did it because I didn't know." We'll get to that warning later.
This is maybe the most important thing you can take away from this study and from Revelation: there's going to be a Mark, here's how you can identify it, and you must not take that Mark.
Naturally Satan's minions in the church are already telling people it will be OK to ignore that warning if they need to avoid suffering. The all-loving God will forgive them … despite having told them not to.
Preterism is often described as having a 40,000-foot view of Revelation. So if you've been in a plane that was flying along at 40,000 feet, and you were looking down at the ground, you couldn't make out any details. Even houses were too small to be seen. You could see forests, lakes, oceans, big things like those, but you can't see any details.
I don't agree with that characterization. I think Preterism is like looking out the window of the plane onto a mixture of ground and clouds and seeing shapes in the clouds and ground. They throw away the details and pull out almost mystical understandings.
Here are a couple of quotes from a person who has a Preterist view.
Apocalyptic literature, of which Revelation is the prime early Christian example, was concerned more with past events and the immediate present sufferings of the author and his fellow Christians than with prophetic declarations about the future.
That statement is false because Revelation itself says the first four chapters are for John's time, and the remainder of it is for a time far in the future. They reject that idea, saying it isn't in the far future of John, it's just in like a decade or two in the future of John.
It is unlikely the Mark of the Beast should be interpreted as a literal, physical mark or inscription; instead, they seem to symbolize one’s belonging either to God or to the beast, the imperial system with its ruler cult.
He is saying that the Mark is a symbolic idea, meaning that you either belong to God or you belong to the beast. With that, he throws away everything that Revelation says about the consequences of having the Mark or not having the Mark, consequences we'll be looking at in this study. For now we'll only glance at this passage and look at it in more detail later.
And it was given to it […] to cause that all who would not worship the image of the Beast would be murdered. 16 And it will cause all, small and great, rich and poor, masters and servants, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 that no one may buy or sell again except one who has the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name. 18 Here is wisdom, and whoever has a mind in him, let him calculate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man - 666. (Revelation 13:15-18)
Reading this literally, we see consequences here, and we also see guidance on how to identify the Mark and the person behind it. The only symbolism here is “Beast,” and we can understand very clearly what these verses are saying without understanding what the Beast represents.
Preterism says:
The message for a modern audience is that “one can belong to God or one can belong to the beast – there is no middle ground.
The universal truth is that "there's no middle ground"? We already knew that. Jesus said the same thing. So they throw away pearl details to give you fake jewelry to wear.
They explain the 666 by saying, "Nero was the 666 because the gematria of his name adds up to 666" … (if you spell it Neron, as no one did … ever)
Preterism is a false view of Revelation. If you hear someone talking about really high-level concepts drawn from the book of Revelation, you're probably listening to a Preterist. When most people hear it, they don't recognize it because it's a very rare view. We're not going to spend any more time on that, but I wanted you to have that background.
We're going to look at various aspects of the Mark of the Beast, like how it kind of makes some sense in our time.
Through history, people have incorrectly claimed that the Mark of the Beast was many things. At the time of this writing, I've heard people claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine is the Mark of the Beast. So if you accept this vaccine, you're receiving the Mark of the Beast.
In previous times it was other things. There are still people around who claim that credit cards are actually the Mark of the Beast. Before that, there were people who claimed that barcodes were the Mark of the Beast, and social security numbers were the Mark of the Beast, and going back a long, long time ago, they thought that even Roman coins were the Mark of the Beast.
People who make claims like that are using very poor exegesis, which means they are doing a very poor job of looking at and understanding what the Bible says. For some, I think it's possible that they never even looked at the Bible, because the Bible is very clear. If you think you know what the Mark of the Beast is, then, just from the few verses in the previous section, you should be able to identify the Beast and also the image of the Beast that you are being compelled to worship. But no one thinks.
For some people, identifying the Mark of the Beast is a reaction to a new idea. That is, I don't like that new idea, and it makes me uncomfortable, therefore it must be the Mark of the Beast. But the Bible has very specific details that we can use to identify the Mark of the Beast.
In the past, because of these details, it was possible to say that what the Bible said was not possible at that time. I remember when I was a child, I read these verses and thought about them, and some of those things they described weren't imaginable. There wasn't a way for them to happen.
I couldn't imagine people accepting a Mark in their bodies just so they could buy food. How would that even work? Remember that credit cards didn't exist back then. They had charge cards, which were specific to a store, and were intended for big-ticket items, and were limited in availability.
In the short period of my life, many things have changed. But we weren't watching and noticing that those changes were putting a lot of things into place. These were not only technology items, but in response, our psychology was changing, so we would be prepared to accept what had been unacceptable before.
In our time, these pieces are in place, but the system is not in place. The person and the rational are missing. If our credit card company says that all users must have a chip installed in their hands, we are going to change credit card companies. We have the technology to do that, but there is no reason that justifies that action.
So, in our time, we can see that the technology pieces are all in place for this. Psychologically, we are more prepared than previously to give up the things that would have to be given up. These are two of the reasons why we think the time is close.
We have in place international instantaneous payment systems, so it's now possible for us to even pay with our cell phones. This interconnectedness that we now have in our lives makes it possible to do things that weren't possible before. We've seen this weaponized against people by governments, for example, Canada, with the result that the attacked persons can't buy anything electronically and can't get their money out of the bank to buy anything.
Years later, the courts determined that Canada's actions were not legal. But laws are the only things stopping it.
Because of this interconnectedness, it's possible to limit people like the Bible says, but in no other time was that possible.
Another thing that we're seeing right now that the Bible mentions is a lack of love, you can even call it a hate that calls itself love.
It was unthinkable that a person would be killed for not taking a mark. How does that make sense? How is that just? How does the punishment fit the crime?
We see this at the time this study is written. People are being forced to quit their jobs because they won't take the COVID-19 vaccine. One lady was saying their pensions should be taken away from them for not taking it. We see a psychology where people can be mistreated, perhaps even die, because they are rejecting a perceived social good.
Much later, many of the actions that were taken were judged to have been illegal, but people were trampled. It's not so hard in our time to see a time when people would be killed for not taking a mark.
So, we've seen that the technology exists and the psychology exists. It just needs the trigger, a reason.
And it was given to it […] to cause that all who would not worship the image of the Beast would be murdered. 16 And it will cause all, small and great, rich and poor, masters and servants, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 that no one may buy or sell again except one who has the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name. (Revelation 13:15-17)
The verses we've already seen tell us the purpose behind the Mark of the Beast. That is to kill all the people who will not worship the image of the Beast, whatever that is. Who would these people be? They would be Christians. So his purpose is to kill Christians.
But Satan knows something about some of the people who call themselves Christians - they are very weak. Those who fear death, he will kill spiritually. They will find some justification for taking the Mark. They may still call themselves Christians, but they have turned away.
Whether they are murdered or they turn away, either way works fine for him.
We know this won't be the stated purpose though. That isn't how taking the Mark will be sold to people. There will be some perceived greater good behind it. It will be said that those people who can't adjust must be left behind, or they will stop that greater good from coming.
We’re going to look at what this greater good could be in this study. What narrative is going to be used to sell this to people? What greater good will justify the pain, inconvenience, and expense of implementing such a system?
We can see part of this greater good from the verses above. One of its selling points will be that it is a solution to one of their greatest problems. What is the greatest problem of our time?
This "who are you" question is not the same question “The Who” asked in 1978. The great question of our time is:
Who are you:
This is about the need in our society to identify and know who a person is exactly. It's been a really big problem. Who in the last 12 months hasn't received a notice that there was a breach and their private information was released? The news is full of stories about people's identity being stolen, people breaking into businesses and stealing account numbers, credit card numbers, and other information.
These problems exist because we don't have a way of knowing exactly who a person is. That struggle has only increased with the advent of AI.
We used passwords, but poor passwords could be guessed. So we used longer, more complicated passwords, then passphrases, authenticator apps, fingerprint sensors, and now passkeys, all in the search to answer the question: who are you? The result in my case is a password app where I store more than 120 passwords, plus 2 authenticator apps that I must use. Some might say this isn't workable.
Even with that, things like my credit cards can be used by whoever has them. Until I figure out that I've lost the card and am able to tell my bank to lock the card, whoever has it can spend my money. But passwords for credit cards would be horrible.
So, you might think, wouldn't it be wonderful if there were a single foolproof identification for a person? As conservatives, of course, we shudder at that idea. The complete control of every aspect of our lives would be in the hands of someone. If that "someone" decides they don't like us or what we believe or how we live our lives, they could destroy our ability to live. We know we are an identifiable minority in a society where some people have dared to call us evil. From Canada again, they are now trying to limit what Christians can say about their beliefs.
The things that these verses are now possible. If that means the time is close, as I believe it is, then it is possible for us to make reasonable Bible-based extrapolations about what the Mark of the Beast, this identification, will be and how it would work.
If you were going to give every person on the planet a unique identifier and control economic, health, and voting systems by it, what would you need to have?
The "lost or stolen" criterion is a big one, and it haunts us even now. People have known for a long time that the identifier has to be attached to the person so it can represent the person. TV shows have already addressed soft-tissue injected identifiers and shown that a person with a knife can get them out.
The only way to prevent loss or theft is to embed the identifier into a bone in the body. But what bone in the body is the "me" bone, the bone without which there is no "me." That would have to be the skull. But people are going to be especially skittish about something being forced into their skulls. That's why research has focused on using hands and wrists.
That procedure is going to hurt at the time it is done, and also ache for a while afterward. Very special circumstances will be needed to convince people to accept identifiers in the bone.
Assuming we can convince people to accept an identifier in a bone, can that meet the criteria we've set out?
The Bible doesn't say the Mark will be in the bone. It only says in / on the hand. We've chosen the bone out of necessity. For the people who would have their foreheads marked, there would have to be one particular spot for it. The most direct translation of what the Bible says is "between the eyes," which is also the phrase they used to refer to the forehead. The doctors will determine the best place.
Who would get this identifier? It must be everyone - worldwide. Otherwise the system could not work.
How will governments do this? We've already discussed what governments have done with COVID and the truckers in Canada. If they are motivated, they will do it.
Why will people accept this? People are being prepared for government intrusion into their lives and their bodies. Also, starving to death is a good motivation.
What else will change? Continuing the old systems would continue all the old problems. Credit cards must go, as must paying by check, and using paper money and coins.
By using obvious criteria, we've designed the Beast system for economic control. Everything the Bible describes is possible in our time. What was unthinkable in my childhood is obvious now.
no one may buy or sell again except one who has the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name. (Revelation 13:15-17)
The "or" in this sentence seems to be saying that there are two systems in use. We said earlier that the old system cannot be allowed to continue, so this seems odd. There is a scenario where it makes sense, though. Giving the Mark to everyone on the planet is a major enterprise that would take a lot of time. We saw that it took time to get the COVID vaccination to everyone. Many countries wouldn't have the resources to do that quickly. A card-based system may be the starting point for everyone until they can get their Mark, at which time they give up their card. I'll touch on this again right away.
And it will seduce those living on Earth by the signs that were given to it to perform before the Beast, to tell the dwellers on Earth to make an image to the Beast, which had the wound by the sword and lived. 15 And it was given to it to give spirit to the image of the Beast […] (Revelation 13:14-15)
This image of the beast plays a big part here. We don't know exactly what it is.
There are two individuals involved in these verses, the anti-Christ and his second-in-command, the False Prophet. The anti-Christ is more focused on deceiving Jews, while the False Prophet is more focused on Christians.
The "it" in these verses is the False Prophet and his organization. They tell everyone to make some kind of image "to" the anti-Christ's organization. It isn't necessarily a statue of the anti-Christ, but we don't know.
When this is done, the False Prophet uses the power of the anti-Christ to "give spirit" to the image. The obvious meaning of that is that the image is given the spirit of life, and comes alive. This is what must be worshipped in order to receive the Mark of the Beast. Without that, you'd better be prepared to "live off the grid", as they say.
And it was given to it […] to cause that all who would not worship the image of the Beast would be murdered. 16 And it will cause all, small and great, rich and poor, masters and servants, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 that no one may buy or sell again except one who has the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name. (Revelation 13:15-17)
Satan's goal is not to get people to worship the image. He wants everyone to stop worshipping God, which is achieved by worshipping something else.
Why is the Mark such a bad thing? It would be nothing different than having your driver's license and all your credit cards, bank cards, health cards, air miles cards, and ZOO membership card, all in one. You wouldn't have to carry anything, and would have nothing to lose. Yeah, there's that painful installation, but that is short-term. It sounds really convenient, right?
[An] Angel, followed them saying with a great voice, “Whoever worshiped the Beast and its image and received its mark on his forehead 10 shall also drink from the wine of the passion of the lord Yahweh, which is mixed without dilution in the cup of his rage, and he will be tormented by fire and brimstone before the holy Angels and before the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment ascends for the eternity of eternities, and there is no rest, day or night, for those who worship the Beast and its image and for him who takes the mark of its name.” (Revelation 14:9-11)
When Jews would drink wine, they would almost always dilute it with water. Undiluted wine was seen as unacceptably strong. So when the verse says without dilution, they're talking full force, full strength, not watered down.
Revelation is making it very clear. If you worship the beast and take the Mark, you're going to suffer for it. It doesn't leave any room for repentance. There are other verses that talk about this, too. Nowhere do we see any mention of repenting from it. So do not take the Mark. You will not be forgiven for it. You will suffer for it.
In all of the Bible, is there ever a place where a person couldn't repent of idolatry, worshipping a false god, or being involved in the worship practices of that god, which were sometimes pretty bad, like burning your own children alive? Other religions put marks on the body, but their former adherents can be forgiven when they convert to Christianity. Why is this different? Can't we be forgiven for everything?
The answer comes with a little thought. If there is a thing to worship, that thing must have a location on Earth. How can it be known that a distant person is worshipping that thing so that the Mark and its rights can be given? We solve that kind of problem with an oath that the swearer must sign.
What if the oath says things that blaspheme the Holy Spirit, which is the unforgivable sin that Jesus talked about? Then taking the Mark would be unforgivable, as Revelation says.
But the Pharisees, when they heard, they were saying, “This one does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub the prince of demons.” […] 31 “Therefore I [Jesus] say to you, all sins and blasphemies will be forgiven to the children of men, but the blasphemy that is against the Spirit will not be forgiven to the children of men. 32 Everyone who will say a word against the son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever will speak against the Spirit of Holiness, it will not be forgiven to him, not in this world, neither in the world that is being prepared”. (Matthew 12:24,31-32)
Jesus said that if you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you're done. There will be no forgiveness in this world or the next world.
The reason Jesus said that is because the Pharisees had come very close to doing that. Jesus had been doing these works by the Holy Spirit. They're saying he's been doing these works by this false God - Ba'al Zebub. So they are stealing the credit from the Holy Spirit and giving it to a false god. That's very close to blasphemy.
If you were to say that the Holy Spirit has done something evil, that would be blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It's almost an impossible sin. A Christian, who has the Holy Spirit, would never have a reason to say it. Unbelievers, who don't know about the Holy Spirit, have no reason to say anything bad about him. What would they say: the Holy Spirit tricked you into a car crash? They do know about Jesus, and they badmouth him.
This sin may have never happened in all of history. Which makes us wonder why Jesus bothered to mention it. Now we know why. He mentioned it because Satan knew about it and has planned to use it.
There are already pastors who are saying it will be OK to take the Mark if you are a mother with children. God is a very loving and understanding God, and he will accept that reason.
And I heard a great voice from the Temple that said to the seven Angels: "Go and pour out the seven vessels of the passion of God on the Earth.” 2 And the first went and poured his vessel on Earth, and there were severe and painful abscesses over the people who have the Mark of the Beast upon them and over those who worship its image. (Revelation 16:1-2)
Jesus has arrived and is now in the air with those who trusted in him, as these "seven vessels" are poured out.
And the Beast was captured and the False Prophet with it, who did signs before it by which he seduced those who received the Mark of the Beast, and those who worshiped its image; and both went down and were cast into the Lake of Fire that burns also with brimstone. (Revelation 19:20)
Jesus has settled on Earth now, and he is putting an end to sin for the Millennial (1000-year) Kingdom and forever after.
[…] because they did not worship the Beast, neither its image, nor received a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, they lived and reigned with the Messiah for 1000 years. (Revelation 20:4)
The people who have authority to rule in the Millennial Kingdom are the people who didn't take the Mark of the Beast.
And I saw another Beast that ascended from Earth, and it had two horns and was like the Lamb and was speaking like the Dragon. 12 And it will exercise all the authority of the former Beast before it and will make the Earth and those living in it also to worship the first Beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 And it will perform great signs so as to make fire descend from Heaven on Earth before the people. 14 And it will seduce those living on Earth by the signs that were given to it to perform before the Beast, to tell the dwellers on Earth to make an image to the Beast, which had the wound by the sword and lived. 15 And it was given to it to give spirit to the image of the Beast and to cause that all who would not worship the image of the Beast would be murdered. 16 And it will cause all, small and great, rich and poor, masters and servants, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 That no one may buy or sell again except one who has the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name. 18 Here is wisdom, and whoever has a mind in him, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man - 666. (Revelation 13:11-18)
I said before that there were people who were claiming that the COVID vaccination was the Mark of the Beast. And I said that there were other people at other times who made all kinds of claims about what the Mark of the Beast was. Our question now is: how do we fight against these false ideas? I touched on this earlier in the study. The Bible tells us what to look for.
We're going to look at an even larger set of the verses that we've been using. From that we'll identify all of the things that the Bible says are signs to look for that will be present when the Mark of the Beast comes out.
Beasts like these represent organizations. There will be two organizations. They won't likely call themselves beasts, but at the time of the Mark, you will be able to recognize them in the same way we're identifying the Mark now, from what the Bible, especially Revelation, says. That identification is out of scope for this study.
The first Beast organization survived what should have been a fatal injury. The use of the word "sword" usually refers to a military attack, but it can also refer to cutting words. At the time of the Mark, a person should be able to identify that, normally fatal, wound that was healed.
The one beast, also called the False Prophet, will have the power of the first beast, which is the anti-Christ's organization. This power will be used to perform amazing miracles. Things modern people have never seen done will be done.
The miracles are the dead giveaway. If someone says something is the Mark of the Beast, ask them which organization is using the power of which other organization to perform the miracles that have been seen.
The verse says, "so as to make fire descend from Heaven on Earth before the people." The words "so as" mean "just like" or "in the same manner," so the miracles will include something like "fire from Heaven." I think those words are there to indicate that it is intended to look like the way God has sent fire down from Heaven in the past, but will be done differently. At the time of the Mark, a person should be able to identify that fire from Heaven.
Those miraculous signs aren't just for showing off; they have a purpose. They are to convince the people to make an image to honor the beast. When that image has been created, the second beast will give it "spirit," probably meaning life. Those who refuse to worship that image will be murdered. At the time of the Mark, a person should be able to easily identify that image.
The Mark will only be given in one of two places, the right hand or the forehead. Of all the things that people have claimed to be the Mark, none have met this criterion, let alone the others.
Those who do not have the Mark will not be able to buy or sell. People claiming the COVID vaccination was the mark said that people were losing their jobs and therefore couldn't buy anything, therefore that criterion was met. That is a shameful misuse of scripture. Not everyone who refused the vaccine lost their jobs, and those who lost their jobs were not prevented from buying, plus the verse says "buy or sell." They could sell things and use the proceeds to buy things.
We saw above that there appear to be two marks. One of them is the number of the beast. These verses tell us how to calculate the number of the beast. At the time of the Mark, a person should be able to do some calculation that will result in the number 666. Translated directly, that's “six hundred and sixty and six”, not three sixes.
The Bible has given us many ways to identify the Mark of the Beast, more than we need. Yet when Christians think something is the Mark, they do not test that idea against even the easiest of those.
You can answer this from the verses we've studied, so I thought I would stick it in here. It happens very near the end of everything, during the very last three and a half years before Jesus returns. That puts it during a period of time that the Bible calls the Great Tribulation.
From my understanding of Prophecy, this is still at least 50 years away, at the time of this writing.
That doesn't leave much time for the Mark of the Beast to be fully implemented. Remember what was said above about Satan's goal in this; he wants to separate people from God unforgivably. He doesn't need to have the Mark in your bone. He only needs your signature on an oath committing an unforgivable sin.
There are going to be a lot of people who call themselves Christians who are going to find excuses to take the Mark, or at least sign the oath, with fingers crossed, while having a plan to reject the Mark when the time comes.
There are some who won't do that. They will recognize the mark and oath for what they are and not go along with it.
Probably most will try to live off-the-grid - that's really not an easy life. If you've watched any of those off-the-grid shows or videos, that's a tough life. If you make the smallest mistake living that life, you're done. Most city residents don't have the knowledge or the physical or mental ability to succeed at that. I imagine a lot of people are going to try that at first because they're city people and they don't know any better than that.
Help from the sympathetic - just as there were people who helped the Jews in World War II, there are going to be non-Christians who are going to try to help Christians. It's in the nature of people to care about other people. Perhaps they'll give them some of their food, or maybe just hide them as was done in World War II.
Safe regions or countries - It is impossible to believe that the whole world will be unified in implementing this Mark of the Beast. There will be countries or regions of countries where Christians can live, if they can get there.
Many will realize they can’t make it - they can't live that off-the-grid life, they have no other way of feeding themselves, and they haven't found a benefactor who's going to take care of them. They will decide to turn themselves in for execution. The Bible speaks exactly on this topic.
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. 2 Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. (Isaiah 57:1-2 NIV)
God will shepherd some people through to the end - we know that there are definitely going to be Christians who are going to live all the way through to the end. We also know that there won't be very many of them.
And they were victorious by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of his testimony and they did not love their lives unto death.” (Revelation 12:11)
They were victorious even though they died. That's not a human concept. Our nature is "cling to life at all costs." We don't think of someone who has died as being victorious. They didn't give up. They didn't compromise. They stayed true to God even though they knew it would mean death.
And I saw seats, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them, and these souls who were cut off for the testimony of Yeshua and for the word of God, and because they did not worship the Beast, neither its image, nor received a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, they lived and reigned with the Messiah for 1000 years; (Revelation 20:4)
English doesn't have a word like "cut off," and the translation doesn't serve it well. It can be a range of actions from ostracism to execution. Though their reward will be great, they were cut off for being true Christians who would not take the Mark of the Beast.