I am also a little confused on what exactly we are talking about in general here. "the tribulation" is in reference to what? the end of the world? Or are we talking about the end of the age that Jesus was describing in Mathew 24? Because tribulation is one of the very few things Jesus says we WILL have. This mark in the hand and head is symbolic language found throughout scripture, like this for example
Deuteronomy 11:18
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
The mark on the hands just means to honor God with all you do, and the head is to honor Him with your thoughts. This is only one of MANY examples of God using this exact language used to describe this meaning. To believe that in this one case it means a literal mark is not a very strong argument in my opinion.
I just think it's important to really understand the terms and how they were used when these things were written. We can't jump in at the very end of the story with our 21st century understanding of these terms and think we understand what John was talking about then, in a Jewish mindset and worldview, and think we are getting it right.
This also applies to my very first question because it's always been my understanding that Christians are talking about the end of the world when talking about these things and that's just not what Jesus is talking about in Mat. 24 or what John is writing about in Rev. They are talking about the end of the AGE and the coming judgement on the covenant breaking Jews of that time that were screaming "crucify Him" and "His blood be on our heads and the heads of our children". The language used in Revaluation to describe Gods judgement including the term "day of the Lord", sound the exact same as they do in Rev, like this in Isaiah 13
"Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light. "
This judgement happen already and uses the same kind of exaggerated wording to describe the coming judgement on them.
I don't know how I wrote this much to your comment, but I guess I wanted to make sure I backed up my point, looking for a literal mark actually makes no sense at all in light of the rest the Bible. In my opinion.