Did it ever occur to those morons that they might read the bible?

You are missing a vital point. Those folks are mindless herd animals looking for a leader. They can’t leave the herd for fear of being lost and they are too dumb or lazy to figure things out themselves.

Doesn’t the persecution of the innocent bring about the rapture?

What they seem to be missing is that the beast, and crew, precipitate the rapture and do the persecution while the righteous are the persecuted.

Yeah, that’s the ticket, yeah.