as Kevin said, there are many Christians who do not believe in a rapture at all... in fact, no one believed in a dual coming of Christ until the late 1800's... so if the church got along with out any "rapture" doctrine for nearly 2000 years, I can get along without it very well today..... in fact, I find it hard to believe that all Christianity missed this rapture doctrine until Darby, Scofield and others came up with this doctrine, which eventually came to be known as Dispensational Pre-Millennialism. Anyways, today, to deny the rapture is so shocking to most Christians that if someone denies it, they almost immediately think that person is a heretic or something!!! LOL!!! But its not a matter of disbelieving Christ's return, all Christians believe in this, but not all Christians believe Christ will return,partially..... then leave, then return again... only to have Satan released again after a thousand years, and then have Jesus reinstate His reign yet again!!! Dispensational Pre-Millennialism (which is the theology behind the Left Behind series, has never made sense to me. But this fictional series has come across as if Dispensational Premil is the only eschatology there is within the church, and has popularized the belief more so than Dallas Theological Seminary, and all the other bible schools that teach this eschatological theory combined.
So this to say that the idea that the number of the beast is going to be a microchip or bar code or something like that might not be true at all. Some believe that the number represented Caesar's name and that the majority of the prophecies spoken of in Revelation took place in 70 AD when Rome sacked Jerusalem and erected a pagan symbol in the temple.
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5. What's the "Mark of the Beast"? Isn't it at all curious to you that for the first time in human history -- with microchips, retinal scanners, a growing one-world economy -- that the technology exists to make the "Mark of the Beast" a reality?
(1) It is no more a literal mark than the mark of the Lamb in the next few verses (14:1).
(2) Such a mark is a metaphor for dominion and control. In Rev 13 no one may buy or sell without the mark.
(3) The beast who imposes it has divine pretensions, forcing his worship on the world (13:4, 8). This speaks of emperor worship by Nero Caesar.
(4) This very OT oriented book is using the mark on the right hand and forehead as a negative reflection on God's requiring his Law on his people (Dt 6:8).
(5) Any present day mark goes against John's time-frame (near), relevance (persecuted churches), and theme (judgment of Israel)."
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BEAST FAQ)
see also
Free Online Books @ PreteristArchive.com, The Internet's Only Balanced Look at Preterism and Preterist Eschatology
The Forerunner Forum for more
lastly I am not advocating any particular eschatology simply because my own mind is not made up yet. I just think it is important that Christians realize that Dispensational Premil is not the only option on the block, and further, maybe we ought to be very careful in making one's eschatology a test for orthodoxy, eg to immediately think that anyone's Christianity that denies the rapture is automatically suspect. A person can indeed still be a saved Christian and not believe in a literal thousand year reign, a literal number/code being implanted in the forehead or right hand, in denying a pretrib, midtrib pr posttrib rapture etc etc. As far as I know, salvation is by grace through faith, and is not based on one's eschatology.
blessings,
Ken