What happens to those people left behind after the rapture? Who are those who pay with their lives for rejecting the mark of the beast?
There will be two kinds of people left behind at the rapture. One kind is the people who in one way or another will have firmly rejected the truth of the gospel message before the rapture comes. According to my understanding of 2 Thes. 2:9-12 they will not get another chance to accept it and will perish.
The other kind consists of those who for various reasons will not have accepted the Lord in time for the rapture but will not have firmly rejected Him either. In other words they’ll be undecided. I believe the rapture will be the event that causes many of these people to finally come to the Lord. Through their evangelistic efforts, and those of others, untold numbers of people from every nation, tribe, people, and language will be saved after the Church has gone. Many of them will be martyred for their faith during the seal judgments of Rev. 6 and will arrive in Heaven in Rev. 7:9-17. Others will be executed for refusing to worship the anti-Christ and for rejecting his mark during the Great Tribulation, beginning in Rev. 13:15-17.