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Can A True Christian Willfully Reject God and Take the Mark?

According to Tim LaHaye, a Christian can not exercise his will to save his own life in this world and accept the mark of the beast. His book, Are We Living in the End Times?, contains this statement concerning a Christian obtaining the mark of the beast:

Second, the aforementioned verses [Rev. 13:13-18] show that the mark is obtained only by those who sell their soul to the Beast and the devil who gives him power. This involves a willful rejection of God--something a true Christian could never do." pg 197

Tim LaHaye asserted that a true Christian could never willfully reject God.  This is his nonfiction teaching!

Tim LaHaye's nonfiction book, The Mark, contains the same teaching in the form of a sermon written by the leader of the 144,00 Jewish witnesses, Tsion Ben Judah.  Judah wrote that a Christian cannot change his mind and depart from God: 

"The Bible tells us that once one is either sealed by God as a believer or accepts the mark of loyalty to Antichrist, this is a once-and-for all choice.  In other words, if you have decided for Christ and the seal of God is evident on your forehead, you cannot change your mind!' (The Mark page 339)

Tim LaHaye portrayed the fictional character, Tsion Ben Judah, teaching the same doctrine that Tim is teaching in his nonfiction book!  A Christian cannot change his mind and take the mark of the beast!

But that's not all...the authors want to hammer this point home either farther: 

"That tells me that somehow, when we face the ultimate test, God miraculously overcomes our evil, selfish flesh and gives us the grace and courage to make the right decision in spite of ourselves.  My interpretation of this is that we will be unable to deny Jesus, unable to even choose the mark that would temporarily save our lives." (The Mark, page 339; emphasis theirs!)

It is so revealing that Tsion Ben Judah's interpretation that a Christian will be unable to deny Jesus and take the mark is Tim LaHaye's nonfiction teaching! It makes sense in light of the fact that Jerry B. Jenkins has declared that the novels are teaching truth.

Tsion's sermon is a mixture of truth and falsehood.  The truth is that God will give the Christian grace and courage to confess Christ and take the consequences for not taking the mark of the beast.  This grace and courage comes from the Christian's daily abiding in Christ, his daily walking in the Spirit lifestyle of obedience to God. The true Christian is dying to self and crucifying the flesh daily, and when the time comes for miraculous grace to be martyred, God will graciously grant it to him. 

It is false that God overcomes the Christian's will (God does not violate the will of any person) and renders him unable to commit the sin of taking the mark of the beast.  To give a Christian this kind of false assurance is clearly wrong and actually sets him up to become overcome.

According to the Holy Bible, a true Christian can most definitely depart from the living God through unbelief, and even take the mark if he lacks patience, which is God's command to him during tribulation.  I will write another article about this, but I just wanted to mention the counsel God has for the Christian who has to undergo the trial of faith when the mark of the beast is ordered as the law of the land: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."  The saints of God must exercise their will to believe God and have patience which is keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.  This patience comes not by God overcoming the will of the Christian, but by God strengthening the Christian as he wills to believe God and be patient.

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