Anyone who pays hommage to the Beast, accept its mark or denies Christ will be cast out in the fiery pit. Why is it that these warnings do not apply to the earlier generations ?

The Beast is supposed to appear in a specific time frame, so why just a specific generation has to endure the punishment ? Personnaly, I think that the Beast is growing alongside christianity and everybody has been confronted with it troughout history.

What do you think ?