Why are the people who rejected the gospel so eager to take the mark of the beast?
People who plainly heard, understood, and rejected the gospel are condemned and become the first to embrace the Antichrist. They eagerly take the mark because God has sovereignly deluded them into believing the Antichrist is the man the world is looking for.
Les explains that those who have heard the gospel, plainly understood it, were convicted by it, and then rejected it will be completely condemned. They are not second-chance candidates; instead, they will be the first to embrace the Antichrist and the first ones to take the mark of the beast. They accept that mark at the drop of a hat because they have already been completely deluded by a sovereign act of God into thinking the Antichrist is the man the world is looking for. By contrast, multitudes—even church people—who never heard the gospel may still be reached by the preaching of the 144,000. Believers, however, need not fear the mark, since it is only for the tribulation people.