Thanks for your comments.
Remember, I did say. - "There may be some outward requirement that goes along with the state of our hearts, like in the early church days by Rome. But the central meaning of (
Revelation 13:16) must be a matter of the inner man."
I have been pretty sick so maybe I'm being lazy, but where is this point made in the Bible? "those who
take the mark are taking the mark."
EDIT: Oops! I found it. Rev 14:9
Edit 2:
While the Gk word is sometimes translated as 'take'. In Revelation I found the following:
I checked 60 Bible versions and take, take, taketh is only found in three, fairly obscure versions, e.g., The Message, Expanded Bible, New English Translation, and the Worldwide English version.
One of the translations, [Expanded Bible], has two options in brackets [receives; takes] The remaining 56 translations have 'receive, receives, receiveth.