We know how John MacArthur interprets prophecy in relation to love. He says, despite such warnings as Rev. 14:9-11, Christians can take the mark of the beast and still be saved.
His problem is he is a pre-trib dispensationalist. He himself it going to get taken out in a pretrib rapture, those “left behind” are going to have to deal with the antichrist, his image, and his mark. Not him. And to show you how much love he has, he says believers in Christ during those times, since they love Christ, can take the mark of the beast and be saved.
It has come to me as possible that some of these figures in the Revelation prophecies could stand for more than one literal historical thing. That we might be seeing a pattern, not just a one-off occurrence. So there could be one way to “take the mark of the beast” that is temporal, and another way that is eternal. Making both MacArthur and the theologians who disagree with him both “right” in a sense.
MacArthur seems to be keen for the “mono-meaning” which means he’d not agree with me at all about patterns sometimes being intended. And if that theology can be made to fly, fine. But sometimes it has seemed gratuitous to me.
Maybe my viewpoint is colored by the fact that I have seen Christ being quite loyal to many people who have sinned so vividly that “proper religious people” wouldn’t want anything to do with them. And I’ve been in those shoes too. There is a sin that is not unto death, then there is a sin that is. And to know which, you’d have to see the soul, not just the outward act.